Bill Losey, retirement strategist, Wilton, N.Y.:

If you haven’t already, it’s time to automate your savings. If you’re not good at stashing money away, having a certain amount automatically taken from your checking account and placed in your savings account can help you regularly set money aside.

Losey recommends saving at least 1 percent of each pay period’s earnings. When you get a raise, add an extra percent to your savings, and spend the rest.

“This way you’ll continually increase your savings rate while enjoying a higher standard of living,” he says.

Candace Bahr, co-founder of the nonprofit Women’s Institute for Financial Education, WIFE.org:

“Start the new year right by increasing your regular investment in your tax-deferred retirement plan at work, such as a 401(k) plan,” Bahr says.

You won’t have to pay taxes on your investment or earnings in a 401(k) until you withdraw them at retirement, so your savings have a chance to grow faster than an after-tax plan would. Plus, because the money you contribute comes out of your paycheck before you get your hands on it, you don’t have to make a conscious decision to add to the account each pay period — which comes in handy if you’re short on will power. If your employer matches your contributions, it’s even more important to steer your money in this direction.

The new maximum 401(k) contribution for 2012 is $17,000 for those under 50, and $22,500 for those over 50.

Carol Roth, business strategist and author of “The Entrepreneur Equation”:

Roth suggests going through your household each quarter, looking for electronics to recycle for cash. Gazelle.com is one outlet that will offer you cash for items such as old cellphones, video gaming systems, e-readers, GPS devices, digital cameras and computers.

“Plus, you have the added benefits of the items being recycled and not sent to landfills and reclaiming some space in your home or office,” Roth says.

Andrew Schrage, editor of the personal finance blog Money Crashers:

Take a good, hard look at whether you really need that landline this year, Schrage says.

“I got rid of my home telephone service, which was costing me $30 per month, and never looked back,” Schrage says.

His family now functions just fine with cellphones.

There’s an added bonus to going landline-free: “I have also virtually eliminated annoying telemarketer phone calls from my daily life,” Schrage says.

Mike Sullivan, director of education for credit counseling agency Take Charge America in Phoenix:

“Review your insurance,” Sullivan says. “Almost everyone is paying too much for life, auto or homeowners. Many are paying too much for all of them.”

Review your debt, too. For example, Sullivan says, you may be paying 19 percent annual percentage rate (APR) on a credit card when you could get a 12 percent APR signature loan.

Finally, use cash. That way you’ll never have an overdraft charge or card fee, or pay interest on the expense. You’ll also know when you’ve used it up, Sullivan points out.

Lita Epstein, author of books including “Streetwise Retirement Planning” and “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Improving your Credit Score”:

Every January, review your investments and be sure your allocation still meets your risk tolerance.

Epstein advises listing all your investments in a spreadsheet, whether they are holdings inside a 401(k), an education IRA or a non–tax advantaged investment account. Then you can assess your entire portfolio in one place.

Once you’ve built that portfolio, calculate what percentage of your holdings is in stocks, what percentage is in bonds and what percentage is in cash or cash equivalents. Do they still match your goals?

“For example, in a volatile stock market, you may find that you hold a larger percentage in growth stocks than you intend,” Epstein says.

Howard Dvorkin, founder of Consolidated Credit Counseling Services Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.:

It’s never too late to change your bad financial habits, even if you’ve racked up a nasty load of credit card debt.

“If you have made money mistakes (in 2011), pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start your plan now,” Dvorkin says.

Give yourself a crash course in personal finance 101. Check out FICO’s website to learn how to improve your credit score. Read over your credit card terms to make sure you know how much debt you need to pay off this year.

“You can’t become financially fit if you don’t know what areas of your finances need to be improved,” Dvorkin says. “You’ll suddenly feel more in control than you did before.”

“You have to recognize that if your budget is out of whack, if you are spending more than you are earning, you will crash,” says Mike Sullivan, director of education for Take Charge America. “It’s just a matter of when.”

The first step, according to Sullivan, is to track your spending habits. For example, check out Take Charge America’s How Much Am I Spending? calculator.

Once you have an idea of how serious the issue is, you can determine how drastic you need to be in dealing with it. If it’s a minor problem, check out the following relatively painless ways to free up money to pay down that credit card debt. If that doesn’t do the trick, you may want to swallow hard and tackle some of the more painful ways to get that credit card debt under control.

5 painless ways to zap credit card debt

1. Reconsider monthly subscriptions. Many people are being robbed by recurring credit card charges for services they don’t really need, but which they have forgotten to cancel.

Do you have magazines lying around the house that you never find the time to read? Book club subscriptions you don’t need? Online subscriptions you signed up for months ago and rarely use? Cancelling monthly subscriptions can easily free up $50 to $100 a month, or more.

2. Cancel health club memberships. Consider canceling that health club or gym membership until you’re back on track financially. To keep yourself fit while you’re fighting debt, buy a couple of exercise DVDs to keep you going.

3. Eat what you have. Americans waste as much as 40 percent of their food, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Vegetables go bad, dairy products expire, and that loaf of bread stuck in the back of the fridge turns a rather unappetizing green.

Make a habit of going through your kitchen cabinets regularly to make a list of the items you have, and then plan your meals around them. Buy perishables as needed, but cut back all other grocery shopping to once a month to force yourself to use what you have. The less you shop, the less you spend.

4. Take advantage of internet deals. There are a lot of ways to waste money on the Internet, but many sites offer unique ways to save money.

• Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program lets you save 20 percent or more on grocery items you purchase regularly.

• Sites like 39DollarGlasses.com, EyeBuyDirect.com or Optical4Less.com will let you purchase prescription glasses starting at $7.

• Buy prescription medication or vitamin supplements through sites like Bidformedicine.com or BidRx.com. These sites use a reverse bidding process — you post your requirements and pharmacies bid for your business.

5. Cut your utility bills. Saving on utilities can free up a surprising amount of money to help pay down your debt. The simple act of turning off lights and other electrical devices when they’re not in use can add up to significant savings. Many electronic devices, like TVs, DVD players, printers and modems, burn up electricity even when they are in stand-by mode. Instead of simply turning them off, unplug them from the outlet when they’re not in use.
Other ways to cut your utility bills include turning the temperature of your hot water heater down, taking shorter showers and installing a programmable thermostat to regulate the heating in your house.
“Once you get started, you will find more and more ideas,” Sullivan says. “By simply changing habits and behaviors, you can take care of smaller shortfalls of $50 to $150 a month.”

See also: 5 Really Painful (But Effective) Ways to Cut Debt

Most people look forward to retirement as ‘the golden years’ — a time to finally relax and enjoy life.

But for many seniors, retirement becomes anything but relaxing. Stock market doldrums, inflation, unexpected medical expenses and even the cost of living longer than expected can create financial pressures that are tough for most seniors to bear.

“Many people expect their expenses to go down when they reach retirement,” says Sandy Shore, a spokeswoman with the credit counseling association Novadebt. “However, for many, expenses go up. Medical expenses are higher and many people have to hire people to do things they used to do for themselves, which they may not be able to do when they’re 70 and 80.”

These higher costs have caused a growing number of seniors to have trouble keeping up with their expenses, say experts. For example, credit card debt held by low and mid-income older consumers increased by 26 percent from 2005 to 2008, according to a 2009 study released by the public policy group Demos. And bankruptcy filings by older Americans more than tripled between 1991 and 2007, according to a study by Professor John Pottow at University of Michigan.

“The research clearly suggests that a growing number of older people are facing funding problems,” says Pottow. “The financial crisis will likely only have exacerbated that situation. Older people have fewer people they can ask for help, even as living expenses are going up.”

Credit card debt problems were the most frequently cited reason that elder debtors gave for filing for bankruptcy, according to the study, and older debtors had 50 percent more in credit card debt than younger filers. Many seniors also cited higher credit card interest rates and fees as a major factor contributing to their debt.

Of course, filing for bankruptcy because of credit card debt is at the extreme end of credit problems. However, many seniors make smaller credit mistakes that can taint their golden years.

Here are four common credit mistakes that seniors often make — and how to avoid them:

1. Using credit to fund a lifestyle you can’t afford.
One of the most common mistakes people make when they retire, is that they don’t reevaluate their lifestyle and recalibrate their expenses accordingly, says Sandy Shore.

“Many people realize too late that they have to make adjustments for the lower income,” says Shore. “They want to do things like playing golf more often, go out to eat with their friends and enjoy other simple pleasures. But they don’t put down the numbers on paper to see how it all adds up.”

When expenses aren’t adjusted according to the new, lower income, most people turn to credit cards to supplement their income. Unfortunately, cards can easily mask the underlying problem and cause people to overlook that they are living beyond their means.

How to avoid this mistake: Try to pay your credit card bills in full each month. If you don’t have enough money in your monthly income to pay off the credit card balances, you are spending more than you can afford. Reevaluate your spending patterns and look for ways to cut back.

“Start tracking your expenses and look at your budget and at what can be cut,” recommends Shore. “Really, everything can be cut. It’s just a matter of coming to the realization that your expenses cannot exceed your income. You have to cut, it’s not a choice.”

2. Not planning for the unexpected.
As you get older, you have to expect the unexpected. Medical expenses have been the bane of many a well-planned retirement portfolio. According to a survey by CESI Debt Solutions in Raleigh, N.C., more than 75 percent of seniors going into credit card debt cited medical or funeral expenses as a reason.

How to avoid this mistake: Set aside an amount in your monthly budget for unexpected expenses and allow this to grow in a savings account over time. That way, when something happens, you don’t have to tap into your living expenses to meet the extra expenses.

3. Tapping your home equity.
Taking out a reverse mortgage or home equity line of credit can be an appealing option for seniors having trouble making ends meet. For example, many retirees turn to reverse mortgages to cover a shortfall in their monthly income, says Shore. However, this strategy can easily backfire, say experts.

“You are using a lot of equity for the reverse mortgage, and it may not be something that works for you in the long run,” says Shore. “Most people fail to plan for the extra expenses that will come up and they don’t realize that the monthly reverse mortgage amount is not adjusted for inflation, and it will not cover them ten, twenty years from now.”

How to avoid this mistake: If you’re considering a reverse mortgage or a home equity line of credit, meet with a credit counselor or financial planner to get an overview of how this will impact your long-term financial situation over the next 10 to 20 years. Then, plan accordingly.

4. Letting your credit score slip.
Accumulating too much credit card debt or falling behind on bills will hurt your credit score. However, if you’re in the fortunate situation that you don’t need to use credit cards, remember that using credit too little can also damage credit scores.

Jeanne Kelly, a.k.a. the Credit Owl, a nationally recognized credit expert and author of “The 90-Day Credit Challenge,” tells the story of a client whose 82-year-old Dad lived in a 2.5 million dollar home and had millions of dollars in the bank. Yet, his FICO score was 602!

“You would never think he was financially stable by looking at that score,” said Kelly in an email. “And it was all because he rarely used credit.”

How to avoid this mistake: Kelly recommends using your credit cards regularly to keep your credit score alive and high. If you don’t want to be bothered keeping track of credit card bills, consider using a credit card to pay for monthly bills you normally pay anyway, such as a cable TV bill. Then have the credit card bill paid automatically from your checking account so you don’t have to spend time paying bills each month.

A book released this year, “Transformative Consumer Research for Personal and Collective Well-Being,” looks at ways consumers can tap into their potential to make better decisions and boost both wisdom and happiness.

Chapters by international researchers take a look at what’s empowering consumers — the Internet, pro-environmental consumption, leisure pursuits, etc. — as well as barriers to happiness, such as credit card mismanagement; childhood obesity; alcohol, tobacco, pornography and gambling abuse; and ecological deterioration.

The book, edited by University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce Professor David Mick, along with Simone Pettigrew, Cornelia Pechmann and Julie Ozanne, focuses on behaviors connected with marketing, buying and consuming.

Amar Cheema, associate professor of commerce at the McIntire School, is co-author of the chapter on credit card mismanagement. He talks here with CreditCardGuide.com correspondent Marcia Frellick about his research on consumer spending and his personal experience with credit card debt. Answers are edited for brevity and clarity.

CreditCardGuide.com: How should a consumer think of credit card spending to avoid misuse?

Amar Cheema: When you think of using a credit card as taking out a loan, you are more prudent about it or you are less likely to spend. If you are not able to pay it off in 20 days or three weeks, then you are essentially taking out a really high-interest loan. [The other thing you should ask yourself is,] “Could I justify this to my wife [or someone else]?” It’s actually surprising; it stops you from buying a lot of things. So the underlying principle there is if you consciously think about having to justify the expense to someone else, then that might lead you to make better decisions than otherwise. If you think it’s your money, you’ll feel richer and you’ll say, “Hey, I have it, so I can spend it.”

CreditCardGuide.com: Why was credit card overspending chosen for a chapter in this book?

Cheema: One of the reasons was because previously my co-author Dilip Soman and I studied this in the context of people who were not very well-versed with using credit cards. What we found was populations of lower-income consumers who have fewer credit cards or college students who haven’t had a long history of experience with credit cards seemed more susceptible to overspend and basically run up credit card debt. I think for that population such a chapter would be useful. Recently [the Credit CARD Act of 2009] was passed, which prevented credit card companies from [using incentives] on campuses to get students to sign up for credit cards. So, that would be another indicator that, look, this is a problem that is in the sights of policymakers.

CreditCardGuide.com: You came here to study from India, correct?

Cheema: Yes, in 1998.

CreditCardGuide.com: What inspired your original interest in studying credit cards?

Cheema: For me, credit cards were a loan of last resort, because not having a credit history, or a well-developed credit history, I would not be able take out a loan from a bank. And so I went in knowing that I was taking out a 21 percent loan and this was one of the resources that was available to me to do that. In graduate school, my interest in studying credit cards also stemmed from being one of those consumers who did have credit card debt.

CreditCardGuide.com: How does the physical act of paying with credit cards encourage overspending more than writing a check or paying with cash?

Cheema: Paying with cash is usually perceived to be the most painful, followed by writing a check, then using a debit card and then using a credit card … In writing a check or paying with cash, it forces you to be cognizant of the exact amount. That is something that doesn’t always happen when you’re swiping a card. Because, let’s say you walk away from a transaction, usually when researchers ask people how much did you just spend, those who have paid with cash or check can give a better answer. Paying attention to [the amount] forces you to make the calculus in cash of, hey, do I have that amount in my wallet? Or when writing out a check, do I have that amount in my bank? So, forcing people to pay attention to the price is painful and decreases people’s likelihood of buying something. That’s one reason why when you swipe a credit card and say it’s something I have to deal with three or four weeks later, it makes it more likely you will buy than one of the other mechanisms.

CreditCardGuide.com: What about paying with mobile phones? Will this make consumers think even less about what they’re spending?

Cheema: The convenience argument is appealing to consumers, but there is a risk. Starbucks has a mobile app, where when you walk in and there’s a bar code that shows up on your cell phone and you can hold it next to the scanner on the register and pay that way. That convenience makes it less likely people will pay attention to the amount. And just like with a credit card, it increases the likelihood of buying something compared to writing out a check or paying with cash. Now, within mobile wallets …  the ones that link directly to your bank account [like a debit card] still might keep you relatively more prudent because you have to do the math on …  do I have the money in my bank account?

CreditCardGuide.com: How does credit limit play a part in overspending?

Cheema: People who are not very well educated or very experienced with credit cards may often use that credit limit as an indicator of their future earnings. So, let’s say I get this offer in the mail that says “because of your great credit history and responsible spending, we want to give you a $5,000 credit limit card.” If I get one of those offers, I might believe, hey, this person wants to lend me $5,000 and they believe I have the capability to pay that off in the future. And so it makes me more susceptible to spend the money. Or, suddenly, my credit limit goes from $4,000 to $7,000. It might make me feel richer because I might take it as a signal that I will earn this money in the future. That’s why they’re giving me the loan. Essentially what just happened is that by increasing the credit limit, companies may influence people’s belief about their ability to earn that money in the future and … make it more likely that they spend the money right now.

CreditCardGuide.com: What’s the reality with credit limits?

Cheema: Generally, people believe that banks are very careful and scientific in coming up with that credit limit number … [We found] it wasn’t a signal of your ability to earn in the future, it was more a tool companies could use to make you spend more. At that point in time, the few bank managers we talked with about the process that is used to set the card limit revealed that it was not very scientific. If banks are not being very scientific or prudent in setting these credit limits, then letting consumers know about it might shield them from this inference process that makes them think, hey, I will earn that in the future.

CreditCardGuide.com: But that’s not in banks’ best interest.

Cheema: Yes. No lender would want to tell the recipient we’re just doing this to make you spend more. One of the hopes is that maybe they will develop a more prudent way of developing credit limits. We haven’t seen any movement in that direction. When we looked at it 10 years ago, it was not a very scientific process. Events in the last three years may have changed that, but I don’t know.

CreditCardGuide.com: Why don’t consumers consider Annual Percentage Rate (APR) as much as they should when choosing a credit card?

Cheema: One of the primary beliefs that most card subscribers have is that they will pay off the entire balance in three weeks. They think that the APR should not matter so they are being drawn by whatever other benefits the card offers. In reality, that isn’t always the case.

CreditCardGuide.com: What’s your best tip for using your credit card during the holidays?

Cheema: The ideal would be a layaway plan … or a prepaid card or gift card. Ideally, you want to be able to set aside some money. Often banks will let you create a separate sub-account in your bank account. Another way that people could do this is to use different types of credit cards as long as the cards don’t have an annual fee. When you are buying groceries, you use the credit card that is for necessities … When I am going and splurging, then there is this other credit card on which I’ll never carry a balance. I know that if I’m not able to pay that balance off, then it will cost me, not just financially but also emotionally, because I realize I’ve spent money on something I shouldn’t have. That would be another way to clearly demarcate expenses that you can say no to and those that you cannot say no to. [If you have one credit card, expenses can get lost] in the morass of your monthly statement. [With] a splurging credit card you have to pay more attention to it and think more carefully about it because that in itself is a cue that this is not a necessary expense for you.

All royalties from “Transformative Consumer Research for Personal and Collective Well-Being,” are donated to the Association for Consumer Research to support Transformative Consumer Research grants. The book, published by Routledge Academic, is available at ConsumerPsychologyArena.com.

Put a marshmallow on a plate in front of your child and promise him (or her) one more, if he can wait until you come back into the room. Then stay away for eons in child time, say, ten minutes.

Whether or not that lonely marshmallow is left on the plate when you return says a surprising amount about the trajectory of your child’s future, according to researchers. The marshmallow experiment is an exercise in self-control, and self-control predicts more about how well your child will fare in life than both intelligence and socioeconomic status.

The original marshmallow test was part of a study of 600 preschoolers at Stanford University in 1972, which found that the one-third of preschoolers who resisted the marshmallow temptation had higher SAT scores as teens. However, according to a recent international study headed up by Duke researchers Avshalom Caspi and Terrie Moffitt, a child’s degree of self-control forecasts a lot more than future academic performance.

Following 1,000 children in New Zealand from birth to age 32, researchers found that children with low levels of self-control at the age of 10 had poor savings habits as adults, and they were less likely to own a home. They were also far more likely to run into problems with late or missed credit card payments and have bad credit scores. As adults, this group was also more likely to live from paycheck to paycheck, have no retirement plan and had greater rates of bankruptcy.

Also, the kids with lower self-control were also more likely to have health problems, be dependent on alcohol or drugs, be single parents and more likely to have a criminal record. Self-control was a stronger predictor of adult success than the typical indicators: intelligence and socioeconomic class.

“Self-control is clearly more important than the socioeconomic status of one’s family, the amount of money that one had growing up,” said researcher Terrie Moffitt in an interview with NPR. “It’s more important than school grades, academic achievement, and it’s more important than scores on intelligence tests.”

Self control = financial success?
It’s obvious why intelligence and academic achievement would be linked to financial success, but why self-control? Well, if you think about it, most all the things that are good for us require some degree of self-control. Saving money is good for the future, but it really sucks when you’re looking to upgrade to that sexy-looking iPad 2. Eating healthy foods and exercising is great for your health down the road, but it sure doesn’t hold a candle to camping out in the couch with a triple-scoop cherry-topped hot-fudge sundae.

Which brings us to the question: Can self-control be taught? Yes, say the researchers, and it’s a critical skill to develop in children. In the study, those children whose self-control improved during the three decades the researchers followed them fared better as adults than their initial childhood scores would have predicted.

Developing greater self-control as an adult
There are lots of techniques for teaching self-control to children. But what about adults? Strangely, there is surprisingly little about how to cultivate more self-control as an adult, presumably because we’re supposed to be there already.

But don’t despair. The act of managing your finances presents plenty of opportunities for developing greater self-control.

“To effectively manage your money, you need to be diligent about a great number of things including spending, saving and the use of credit,” says Kim McGrigg, community and media relations manager at Money Management International, in an email. “It takes a level of self control just to have a credit card. In theory, everyone could run out on the first day their account opens and charge up to the limit. But most of us acknowledge that this short-term action would have undesirable long-term consequences.”

Sandra Hanna, co-author of “The Smart Cookies’ Guide to Making More Money and Getting Out of Debt,” notes that just saving money to buy something you can’t readily afford is an exercise in self-control. If you find that challenging (and who doesn’t?), Hanna recommends using little tricks to help you develop better savings and money management skills.

“We often suggest creating a vision board — that is, a visual representation of the things you are saving for and that are important to you in your life,” says Hanna. “Otherwise it’s too easy to get tempted and make those impulse purchases.”

Tools can help boost self-control
Hanna also recommends making use of the many great tools provided by modern technology to help track finances, be it bookkeeping software or online personal finance sites like Mint.com, which automate the process of keeping track of expenses and savings.

“We all check Facebook every day, so why not add a personal finance site?” asks Hanna. Once you get past the hurdle of getting it all set up, you’ll see your savings start to grow. And then it becomes a game to see how much you can save.”

The earlier you start building the right habits, the better, says Hanna. It’s about setting little goals, and then let them grow into a habit, and then finally, something you want to do. Expect it to take about three months before your new routine becomes a habit, so initially, you may have to force yourself to follow through. In the process, however, you might just find that you’re not just avoiding silly credit mistakes and improving your finances, you’re empowering yourself with greater self-control and life skills as well.

Unfortunately, customer service voicemails are as ubiquitous as ever. However, clever consumers are finding new ways to contact credit card issuers and other companies to get the answers they need.

According to a recent Consumer Reports study, Americans’ satisfaction with customer service is as low as ever, and voicemail appears to play a big role in that frustration.

A full 71 percent of those surveyed described themselves as “tremendously annoyed” when they were unable to reach a live person over the phone, while more than half (56 percent) were equally upset by having to make numerous calls to find the right person, or just any person, to talk with.

The good news for cardholders is that credit card issuers tend to rank above average in customer service. On the internal rating system of GetHuman.com, a website offering tips for reaching customer service departments faster, card issuers rank from 3.8 (Chase) to 4.5 (Discover) on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest. Visa and MasterCard come in somewhat lower, both scoring 3.2 out of 5.

“Credit card issuers in our database have scored very well in terms of providing quick, effective customer service,” said Adam Goldkamp, COO of GetHuman.com in an email. “While these ratings aren’t an exact science, in general, the company scores are much better than some of the worst offenders in our database, such as the cellphone and phone companies, cable companies and some of the Internet service providers.”

Luckily, the Internet has brought more options than ever to contact card issuers’ customer service departments. So, if you’re looking for ways to bypass your card issuer’s voicemail system or are simply looking for other alternatives to communicate, here is an overview of some of the new options available.

1. Twitter
Credit card issuers are increasingly establishing a presence on social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook. For several issuers, this includes establishing actual customer service teams to deal directly with customer service issues via Twitter. Cardholders who tweet gripes about their card issuer may well find that they get a tweet back from the bank’s Twitter help team.

Pros: It’s quick. A recent tweet with a question about how to pay with a credit card while traveling overseas got a satisfactory response within two hours — and this was in the wee hours of the morning in the United States.

It’s also responsive. If the customer service issue can’t get resolved via Twitter, the bank’s Twitter team will often send a direct message via Twitter asking for your contact information. This can be a good way to reach the right person to speak to without having to go through a voicemail gauntlet.

Cons: It’s not always easy to find the Twitter handle of the card issuer’s customer service department. A simple search for Bank of America, for example, gave results for BofA News, BofA Community and a girl named Angela, who had managed to grab the @BofA Twitter handle. Other teams were quite easy to find, including American Express, Citi and Discover.

For your convenience, here are the Twitter handles for the customer service teams of most of the major card issuers:
American Express: @AskAmex
Bank of America: @BofA_Help
Capital One: @AskCapitalOne
Citi: @AskCiti
Discover: @Discover
Wells Fargo: @Ask_WellsFargo

2. Email or Online Chat
Most credit card issuer websites also feature online chat options for people applying for credit cards. In addition, email is a universal venue for submitting customer service questions, and a few card issuers have started to add chat options for customer service as well.

Pros: Most issuers enable cardholders to send secure email messages within their online account center. Apart from the comfort of the added security features, this also creates an automatic record of all correspondence with the issuer. Furthermore, when you do get a response, the inquiry has been routed to the correct department, potentially saving a lot of time on the phone.

Online chat can also serve as a quick and easy way to clarify credit card terms or get other questions answered when applying for credit cards.

Cons: Email inquiries generally take quite a long time to get a response – in most cases at least 24 hours and as much as two days. If it’s a matter that has to be resolved fairly quickly, this is not your best bet.

3. GetHuman.com or DialaHuman.com
Websites like GetHuman.com or DialaHuman.com were created to help frustrated consumers looking for easier ways to reach a company’s customer support department. Both websites feature an extensive list of tips for reaching a human being directly, including phone numbers and shortcut tips for the voicemail systems of most major U.S. companies.

GetHuman.com is the most extensive of the two sites. It offers additional useful resources, such as a list of companies’ email addresses, Live Chat listings (when available) and Twitter listings. GetHuman.com also allows users to rate each business’s customer service and discuss experiences with other users.

Pros: While online chat and Twitter undeniably seem like more sexy Customer Service 2.0 options, nothing beats talking to a real person on the phone—if you can reach someone. These websites show users how to cut to the chase and get to a human as quickly as possible. Another benefit is the extensive listing of other options on GetHuman.com, including Twitter and email — plus the ability to learn from other users’ experience with the company in question.

Cons: Not all companies are featured, so if you can’t find your card issuer, you’re out of luck. But you  can always try the old tried and true trick: Press 0 at every prompt, or alternately, just keeping saying “Operator.”

In 2006, she broke ground at the ripe age of 25 with her first book “Generation Debt: How Our Future Was Sold Out for Student Loans, Bad Jobs, No Benefits, and Tax Cuts for Rich Geezers – And How to Fight Back.” Kamenetz was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her contribution to a series on the same topic for the Village Voice and quickly became a leading speaker on the personal finance issues that today’s young adults face.

Kamenetz is also the author of “DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education.” In this interview, she sat down with CreditCardGuide.com to share some advice for young adults.

CreditCardGuide.com: When you wrote “Generation Debt,” you first subtitled it, “Why Now is a Terrible Time to be Young.” Why did you choose that subtitle, and do you still feel it’s a terrible time to be young?

Anya Kamenetz: Well, it’s increasingly recognized that we are the first American generation that won’t do as well materially as our parents did. I think that’s a very important turning point to make note of because America’s identity has always been based on being the land of opportunity.

CreditCardGuide.com: In your book, you point out that young people are not only less likely to reach the same standard of living as their parents, but they may even end up with excessive debt loads. Why is that?

Kamenetz: Well, the financial crisis showed us that the American economy is extremely dependent on very high levels of consumer debt. Although our economy continues to make gains in terms of corporate profits and the wealth of the very rich, we’re not spreading those gains equally. As a consequence, the median income has remained pretty much flat. In order for Americans to keep up with the rising costs of necessities like housing, health care and education, many people have to go into debt.

So, for young people, that means student loans, and it often means credit card debt as well. At the same time, young adults are struggling with a greater amount of uncertainty. It takes longer to find your first job, and there is a much greater proliferation of part-time jobs and short-term jobs. So all of this adds up to a life that doesn’t have the same kind of security that has been presented as the American Dream, at least in the post-war era.

CreditCardGuide.com: It seems like the formula that used to work, you go to college, graduate and get a well-paying job, doesn’t quite cut it anymore. Is an undergraduate college degree just getting to “square one” these days?

Kamenetz: That’s a good way of putting it. There is still a strong economic advantage to a college degree. However, that advantage comes from the fact that those graduating only from high school have a dismal outlook in the job market. Their wages have really come down since the 70s. So it’s not that the return on the college degree has increased. It’s that the penalty for not getting a college degree has gotten more severe.

CreditCardGuide.com: Last August, the total amount of student loans surpassed the total amount of credit card debt for the first time ever. You have called the mounting student loan burden that young people carry a betrayal of trust. Why is that?

Kamenetz: A lot of young people go to college on the assumption that education is a universal good that will pay off for them in the future and give them equal opportunity in the workplace. In other words, if you work hard and you study hard, you’re going to have a chance to be part of the American Dream, no matter where you come from.

But, in reality, college is the least affordable for the students from the lowest socioeconomic classes. We’re promising a meritocracy, but we’re not delivering it. Ultimately, money is what determines whether or not people are going to enroll in college, or even whether they are going to stay in college.

CreditCardGuide.com: Another issue that has been widely debated is student credit card debt levels. A recent study showed that only 55 percent of college seniors graduating this year had a credit card, compared to 78 percent in 2008 to 2010. Do you feel the provisions of the Credit CARD Act of 2009 regarding student credit cards are starting to have an effect? Or is there just more awareness among students about the downsides of credit card debt?

Kamenetz: Probably both. The tightened rules have decreased students’ access to credit, which I think overall is a good thing. But the awareness has grown as well. I frequently give talks on college campuses about money, and the conventional wisdom has changed. A few years ago, the whole country was credit mad or debt mad. Everybody was talking about flipping houses and debt almost seemed like a fun thing to take on. Now, conventional wisdom is changing, and students are definitely picking up on that.

CreditCardGuide.com: What would you recommend for young people today to avoid getting into a debt trap and still stack the cards in their favor, education-wise and credit-wise?

Kamenetz: It’s still important to build a good credit history. However, you need to balance it, and you need to make sure that credit isn’t your only involvement with the financial world.

In other words, yes, have a credit card and use it for emergencies or for recurring expenses that you can pay off every month. But, at the same time, have a savings account, make a monthly budget and track your expenses. Don’t let the credit card bill be the only interaction that you have with your money.

Your use of credit and credit cards should be part of a broader relationship where you look very carefully at what’s going in and what’s going out. You have to be smart about your use of credit. There’s just too much at stake otherwise.

Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly in credit card debt assistance. Buyer beware.

The good: Credit counseling
As the name implies, credit counseling involves working with a professional coach who will look at your unique financial situation and help you pare back your debt strategically.

Millions of consumers enroll in nonprofit credit counseling programs every year and a significant number find that budget counseling and financial literacy education is enough to get them back on the right financial track, according to the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.

The impact to your credit score: Nil. One advantage of credit counseling is that it doesn’t damage your credit score, unlike some other credit card debt programs. Plus, it’s cheap. Monthly fees for nonprofit credit counseling services typically run less than $25 a month.

Tip: Be careful. Scam artists often pose as nonprofit credit counseling agencies. To find a legitimate nonprofit credit counseling agency, look for nonprofits associated with the National Foundation for Credit Counseling or the Association of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies.

Also, good: Debt management plans
A debt management plan (DMP) is a comprehensive repayment plan for all of your debt, which typically includes loan modifications, such as lower interest rates and lower monthly payments. It is often negotiated by credit counselors for clients whose credit problems can’t be dealt with by simple budgeting changes or loan consolidation.

“Creditors will do what they can to make sure the person is able to pay back, and in most cases, we know in advance what each creditor is willing to do,” says Sandy Shore, a manager at Novadebt, a New Jersey-based credit counseling agency. “If we don’t know of a program that will fit, we may refer people to other organizations that can help.”

A key benefit of a debt management plan negotiated through a credit counseling agency is that it takes your whole financial picture into account. You make one monthly payment to the agency based on what you can afford, and the agency forwards the agreed payment amounts to the creditors.

The impact to your credit score: It depends. FICO scores don’t punish consumers enrolled in a debt management program, according to John Ulzheimer, President of Consumer Education at SmartCredit.com. But it could hurt your score indirectly. For example, the credit cards affected by the program will be closed and that could hurt your credit utilization ratio.

In addition, Ulzheimer notes, lenders won’t extend credit to you while you’re enrolled. That said, once you’ve paid off your debt through the debt management plan, your credit will improve.

“Most people exit these plans with very solid credit,” says Ulzheimer. “This will give you all sorts of advantages, even if you’re not looking to take out a loan. It will benefit you when applying for insurance, a job or even a place to rent.”

Tip: It is possible to negotiate a debt management plan with card issuers yourself. However, a credit counselor may get better terms and develop a more comprehensive plan.

The bad: Credit card hardship programs
Also known as forbearance programs, hardship programs are sometimes extended by card issuers to cardholders who have suffered financial misfortune, such as a medical emergency, long-term unemployment or other factors beyond their control. Although the programs are not advertised publicly, most card issuers have them.

For those who qualify for a credit card hardship program, the main advantage is that the card issuer may agree to lower the monthly payment and reduce the card interest rate to as low as 2 to 9.99 percent. Your card will be closed and, depending on the balance, you will get six months to five years to pay off the debt.

However, if you have a complex debt situation, negotiating hardship programs with multiple card issuers may not result in an overall debt repayment plan that accommodates all your creditors.

The impact to your credit score: Considerable — depending on your issuer. Hardship programs may damage your credit if the issuer chooses to report the account as being on a partial payment plan, says Ulzheimer.

“I’d love to say that there are generally accepted guidelines for how they report hardship plans, but there isn’t,” notes Ulzheimer. “As long as it’s accurate, how they choose to report is up to the issuer. Lenders can really control whether they take it easy on the consumer or penalize him or her.”

Tip: If negotiating a hardship plan with your issuer, ask if the program will be reported as a regular payment or as a partial payment plan. If the latter, consider whether the damage to your score is worth it.

The ugly: Debt settlement programs
For consumers who are seriously behind on their credit card payments, it is sometimes possible to negotiate a debt settlement under which the card issuer agrees to a let you pay off only a percentage of the debt. How much of the debt the issuer is willing to forgive, however, depends on each person’s situation and the individual card issuer.

There are many debt settlement companies out there promising to settle your debt for pennies on the dollar, but they have earned a bad reputation for being big on promises and short on results. Such programs are typically expensive and use aggressive sales tactics to sign up consumers.

The impact to your credit score: Ugly.  Entering into any program in which part of your debt is forgiven will pull down your credit score for years.

Tip: The IRS views forgiven debt as taxable income, so if you’re considering debt settlement, don’t forget to take the tax consequences into account.

Now, a growing number of consumers are looking for outside assistance to help get a handle on their debt and put their financial lives back on track. Last year, the two largest networks of nonprofit credit counseling agencies helped a combined total of 7.3 million people with their finances.

“A lot of self-worth is tied to your credit score, so most people feel really bad when they call us for advice” says Melinda Oppenheimer, a spokeswoman for Springboard Nonprofit Consumer Counseling, a nonprofit credit counseling agency. “But we’ve just lived through one of the worst economic downturns in our lifetime, and it’s not financially irresponsible to have a hard time. Millions of people are in the same boat.”

Getting help is commendable, but it’s important not to get sucked into a scam. If you’re considering getting help with your credit card debt, you need to distinguish between so-called debt settlement companies and legitimate credit counseling agencies. Debt settlement companies typically lure in customers by offering to settle their debt for pennies on the dollar; but most companies promise much more than they deliver. Credit counseling, on the other hand, can be a valuable service when offered by a legitimate nonprofit counseling agency.

If you’re looking for a financial coach to help you work your way out of excessive credit card debt or other debt-related issues, here are four steps to help you get the best results.

1. Make sure you choose a legitimate agency.
In the past, the shortcut to finding a legitimate credit counseling organization to work with was to simply look for a nonprofit credit counseling agency. Unfortunately, scam and high-fee companies figured that out, and many now operate under nonprofit status.

To find a legitimate credit counseling agency, look for an organization affiliated with one of the two major umbrella groups for nonprofit credit counselors:

• The National Foundation for Credit Counseling.
• The Association of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies.

Additionally, check to see if the agency is approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to offer counseling on housing issues. Even if you don’t need help with housing, a HUD-approval means that the agency has undergone investigation by an outside party to ensure it is legitimate.

2. Look for an agency that can help you with your unique issues.
When choosing a credit counseling agency, look for one that offers the services you need. The best credit counseling agencies have a variety of options, from free education to one-on-one assistance in making a budget or interpreting your credit report. Good agencies will also be willing to communicate with you over the phone, email or in person. Be wary of agencies that don’t offer educational materials or that only take on consumers with large amounts of debt.

“If the only tool is the Debt Management Plan, keep shopping,” says Gail Cunningham, a spokeswoman for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. “A DMP is a useful tool, and is often the appropriate resolution. However, each consumer’s situation is different; thus the solution should be customized to fit your specific needs. A one-size-fits-all approach is a sign you should continue your search.”

In addition, before signing up, check out the fees. Legitimate nonprofits almost never charge money for education. And if other services do come with a fee, it should be a small one, only around $15. Avoid any agency that won’t give you full disclosure of fees before you sign on the dotted line.

3. Pick the best counselor.
Even at legitimate agencies, the quality of the individual counselors can vary. Inquire about a counselor’s education, training and credentials before you enter into a working relationship with him or her. If the counselor is a Certified Consumer Credit Counselor, it means they’ve passed inspection by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling and thus have had their financial knowledge vetted by an outside party.

Additionally, look for someone who has experience working with consumers facing issues similar to your own. It’s OK to ask for someone with seniority or for counselors who are experts in the areas in which you need help. In addition to expertise, you also want to find someone who understands your specific situation. Getting out of debt isn’t one-size-fits-all, and you need someone who understands what will and will not work for you.

Also, don’t be afraid to ask for a second opinion. If you don’t feel good about the credit counselor you met with, or if you just need more advice, seek help from someone else. Some financial experts recommend seeing at least three experts before committing to a working relationship with a credit counselor or to a specific course of action.

4. Recognize that the end is only the beginning.
Finding a credit counselor that you feel you can trust and are inspired to work with is well worth your time. Having a trained coach on your side will ensure that you make the fastest progress toward clearing up your debt and restoring your credit rating.

Keep in mind, though, that finding a trustworthy credit counselor is just the beginning. The best credit counselor in the world won’t be able to help you if you’re not willing to be honest with them and follow their advice. But if you can swallow your pride and lay everything on the line, you’ll be that much closer to living a debt-free life.