Clark's Consumer Action Center answers calls off the air 45 hours a week. There's been a shift over the years from calls about cars and houses to…(drum roll, please)…questions about credit and debt. We as Americans are carrying much more household debt than we were in 2000, for example. So it's no surprise that the CAC is getting these kinds of calls. You're taking away your security blanket for the future when you take on tons of debt. The first step is to face up to your debts. Take all your debts, write them down and total them up. After you throw up, you can begin coming up with a plan to deal with the situation. Stop using your credit cards in the interim. You didn't get into debt overnight, so don't expect that you'll be out of it overnight. If you can conquer your debts in 30 months, that's a cycle most people can live with. It's when you go longer than 30 months that things get more difficult. Under those circumstances, you should sit down with the folks at NFCC.org (The National Foundation for Credit Counseling) for free or low-cost advice.