Even in the days of the tightest credit in 2008, HELOCs [ home equity line of credit ] and home equity loans were being made.

You won't be caught off guard and you won't feel guilty, because you'll be spending money that you've allocated for the occasion.

You must be sure - and I mean absolutely positive - that you have the willpower to pay off those credit cards and not use them again.

You settled a debt instead of paying in full will stay on your credit report for as long as the individual accounts are reported, which is typically seven years from the date that the account was settled. Unlike with bankruptcy, there isn't a separate line on your credit report dedicated to debt settlement, so each account settled will be listed as a charge-off.

You can have a do-over starting today. But you have to get over the feeling that it's too late

You really don't need to hire a debt settlement company to negotiate with your creditors.

Unless you have multiple accounts that you need to negotiate and you think the project is just too big to tackle on your own, you're better off just calling your creditors directly.