So you are broke and looking for debt relief. All relief. If there’s help with your mortgage, you’ll take it. If someone offered you advice on how to reduce your car loan, you would take it. And you really regret everything credit card debt you have accumulated.

Of course, you can still file for bankruptcy. It won’t be good, and your credit score and your credit report will be in tatters for years to come. It exists for a reason: to erase the slate and give a fresh start to those who need it. But it is often a last solution.

If you are in arrears, here are some debt relief strategies you can try, depending on different financial situation. Ask your lender if any of these might work for you, or if they have any other suggestions.

This is probably the scariest type of debt because no one wants to lose their home. If you are behind on this type of secured debt, you want to get your problem resolved as quickly as possible.

Some common debt relief strategies that mortgage lenders often offer to borrowers include:

Abstention. It is a payment plan that allows you to reduce or eliminate mortgage payments over a period of time, such as several months and sometimes up to a year. It certainly sounds good, but the interest will continue to accrue on your loans and eventually you will need to make the payments. Some lenders will allow you to put the missing payments at the end of the loan, but as you can imagine, how you make the payments has to be determined before you go through the paperwork for a forbearance. You don’t want to make matters worse.

A loan modification. This is similar to refinancing your mortgage. If your lender agrees, you will get a new loan, where the payments are smaller, and you might have a lower interest rate. It sounds good, and it is, but the loan will likely extend for many more years. So, unless things are dire right now, one day you might regret doing this.

Main reduction. If you have a government funded loan through Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, you may be able to get the reduced loan capital, which would mean that you owed less on your loan and therefore your monthly payments would be reduced. If your loan is not granted by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, you may be able to get a principal reduction through the Affordable Home Modification Program, also known as HAMP.

This is another form of secured debt that you don’t want to be late with. As with your home, call your lender when you know things aren’t going well, rather than waiting, say, for your car to be picked up and towed from your driveway. You may be able to save a lot of stress (and money, like late fees) if you fix things before your finances implode.

Deferment of loan. This is what most auto finance companies will offer you if you are late. Typically, you’ll be allowed to miss a payment or two, or you may be asked to pay interest rather than principal – and payments are simply extended until the loan is over.

However, the deferral details work, you will pay more interest.

Refinancing. If your credit is still good enough, you may want to consider refinancing the car loan for a lower interest rate and a better monthly payment. But read the fine print for the refinancing fees and the additional interest you will pay over the life of the loan.

Being behind on your payments and racking up revolving debt is the last thing you want. Some strategies that you may want to consider are as follows.

Contact a credit counseling agency. These are non-profit organizations that offer debt management programs. You always pay off your credit cards – and you can include other loans, like student loans – with a credit counseling agency, and you’ll likely pay the full amount you owe as well. But your interest rate will likely be lowered, and because your lenders are working with the agency, phone calls for missed payments will stop.

Obviously, you now have to make payments to the credit counseling agency, but it’s usually much easier to work with a non-profit organization that is looking to help you rather than struggling with multiple creditors. But there are shady outfits out there, which will promise to help you with credit card payments and really want your money back, so make sure your agency is accredited by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.

Debt Settlement Program. Look at debt settlement companies with a good dose of skepticism. Some companies, for example, will recommend that you stop making payments. You then go into default, and then they negotiate a new payment plan for you. But this will crush your credit score.

Plus, some debt settlement programs charge an upfront fee, what if they can’t negotiate a better payment for you? In most cases, it’s probably best to try negotiating a payment plan yourself or using a credit counseling agency.

Ask for a hardship program. As in, call your credit card company and apply.

Sullivan advises sharing with the credit card company that you can’t make full payments and offering reassurance that you will be able to make regular payments again. You should be able to work out a payment plan, he says.

But Sullivan cautions, “Be prepared for the creditor to freeze the account. They may not want balances to increase when there is no money coming in. This can put some consumers in a bind as many people have no savings and live on credit when there is an income disruption.

Try to transfer your debt to another credit card. This only works if you still have excellent credit. You might consider applying for a balance transfer credit card that offers an introductory annual percentage rate of 0%. If you get one that lets you transfer your debt for 12 months or more, you won’t have any interest charged during that time – and it can give you plenty of time to pay off the debt without it spiraling out of control. .

That said, look at the fine print. There will likely be a balance transfer fee, maybe 3-5% of the money you are going to transfer.

A debt consolidation loan. Online lenders, banks, and credit unions are sources that could offer a debt consolidation loan. Ideally, you will find a loan that offers direct payments, that is, the lender will pay off your old debts and you will pay the new lender a lower interest rate than you pay to your other creditors. If you can’t find a debt consolidation loan with a lower interest rate, obviously don’t apply for it.

Less ideal is a loan that does not make direct payments. What you don’t want to do is use the money for something else – and then find out that you have your old debt plus that new lender’s debt.

Remember, you have to ask, says Karen Ford, a financial coach in Morgantown, West Virginia.

“I know it sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t ask. The worst case is they tell you no,” Ford said.

She quotes a client she coached who wrote to a lender asking for debt relief on $ 85,000 in student loans.

“She received a letter in the mail several weeks later announcing that they had written off $ 35,000,” Ford said. “Don’t ask, don’t get.”