Important advice before you start digging out of debt

Credit card debt in America has reached record levels, causing stress and, for many people, a sense of shame.

The average credit card debt is more than $7,300, with an average interest rate of 21.4%. If you make only the minimum payment, it would take about 10 years to pay it off.

Johnika Nixon tells us she accumulated a mountain of debt after impulse shopping on social media, and buying and furnishing a new, larger home.

"You realize the mortgage, you don't realize the utilities, and the other things that come with it," she says.

Nixon says window treatments alone cost her $17,000. She ended up using as many as 9 credit cards, and racking up $100,000 in debt.

She says it became a huge weight on her shoulders, so she finally signed up with a nonprofit debt counseling agency, Money Management International (MMI), which negotiated a lower payoff amount with each of her creditors, getting $30,000 of debt forgiven. She tells Action News, "As we paid off each individual bill, I would get a notification that this is now paid off. And on my dashboard, I could see monthly what is going to principal, what's going to interest, how things are being paid, what my fee is."

Nixon was required to cancel all of her credit cards, and the service cost her $45 a month.

Kevin Brasler of Consumers' Checkbook says, "It's worth consulting with a nonprofit debt counselor. They're ones that are certified by NFCC, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. Nonprofit MMI, which Johniks used, is accredited by the NFCC.

Brasler advises against using for-profit debt settlement companies, saying, "A lot of for-profit companies, the credit card company won't even deal with them, and often we find that their clients end up in more debt than when they started."

As for Nixon? After four years, she finally achieved financial freedom. All of her credit card debt is now paid off. She says, "Pay yourself first, and really love yourself. You have everything that you need. Don't necessarily feel like you have to go out and get a thousand things to accompany you or supplement you. You are wonderfully perfect as you are."

You can read the full Consumers' Checkbook article here.