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With credit card debt mounting and bills piling up, many Americas may wonder what they can do to help their financial situations.

According to an article in U.S. News and World Report, one thing that consumers may now consider is trying to lower the interest rates they pay. There are several ways to attempt to do so, but the report says the easiest is to simply call the credit card company and ask for a lower rate. If a consumer mentions that they saw a low rate on a card from another company, their current lender may be inclined to offer a lower rate in an attempt to keep the business.

However, this does not always work, and consumers should be prepared to transfer their balance to a card with a low introductory rate. Often these new rates last for a year, and allow consumers to pay off nothing but the principal for up to a year. There is, however, often a fee associated with balance transfers.

Consumers should be aware that lenders have tightened requirements for borrowers thanks to the new credit card laws, which can complicate matters for consumers because new rates may simply be impossible to find.

Despite the fact that there have been a number of signs that the economy is slowly improving, daily consumer spending dropped between May and June.

According to a new poll from Gallup, Americans spent $67 per day during June, in stores, at restaurants and gas stations, and online. That number marked a decline of $5 from the previous month, but is up $6 from the same month in 2009. The $67 a day is more or less in line with recent months, which are near the highs for 2009. But it is well below the standard set in 2008 before the recession hit, when consumers spent between $81 and $114 a day.

Gallup said that Americans in the East spent less per day in June than either the previous month or June of 2009. Those consumers spent $62 a day, down $13 from the previous month and $3 from last year. Spending in the Midwest, meanwhile, increased dramatically from last year.

A report from financial news website 24/7 Wall Street said that the data suggests the job market is improving. Because Gallup polls are self-reported by consumers, this may signal that confidence is on the rise.

Yet another sign that the American economy is starting to recover came recently and showed that more Americans are paying off their credit card debt on-time.

The most recent report from the American Bankers Association said that the number of consumers with delinquencies on their bank-issued credit cards dropped to 3.88 percent in the first quarter of this year. The ABA defines a delinquency as a payment that is 30 days or more overdue.

The report said that this is the first time the national delinquency rate on such cards has dropped below 4 percent since the second quarter of 2002, and is also slightly below the average delinquency rate over the last 15 years, which is 3.93 percent.

"It’s clear that consumer balance sheets are improving. People are borrowing less, saving more and building wealth. These are all positive signs," ABA chief economist James Chessen said.

Unfortunately, unemployment remained high at 9.5 percent in June, so this trend may not necessarily continue into the second quarter of the year.

Many out-of-work Americans who are actively looking for jobs may find it hard to get a callback or an interview despite meeting many of the requirements set forth in the job listing.

One reason could be that about 60 percent of employers examine the credit reports of their applicants, and if one has a spotty or bad credit history, they can be disregarded very easily, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. This practice is unfair because many out-of-work people have bad credit reports because they don’t have a job, which creates an unfortunate Catch-22: They can’t get a job because not having a job ruined their credit.

Because more than 6.5 million Americans have been unemployed for six months or more, the paper says, those people may pay more bills late. Doing so can seriously damage a credit score and make a credit report look awful.

Lawmakers in Oregon felt the practice was unfair as well, and passed a law prohibiting it as of July 1. According to Oregon Business, several other states across the country have either passed or introduced similar legislation.

As any consumer who has tried to pay their own or someone else’s way through higher education can attest, getting a degree is expensive.

But there is a way for consumers to pay for college without taking on large amounts of credit card debt and massive private student loans, according to television station KNDO in Yakima, Washington. The first and most important step, the report said, is understanding the "true cost" of a college degree. Tuition is expensive everywhere – though public universities are more than $11,000 cheaper than private schools per year, on average – and those costs don’t include things like housing, meals, textbooks and supplies.

The station also recommends consumers look into getting help from the federal government to pay for tuition. Filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid can open the door for nine federal student aid programs and more than 600 others administered by states and various institutions. Students can also seek scholarships, and not just those for academics. The report says that there are scholarships for everything from left-handed people to those whose parents work in certain professions. Anyone interested in getting a scholarship should seek them out online.

The report says that there are long-term savings accounts called 529 education savings plans that can help those who want to plan for the future education of young family members. The earnings of these accounts are tax-free in every state but Alabama. Further, there is grant money available for some students, though these are often not big enough to cover the entire cost of an education. A recent law was passed that limited federal Pell Grants to $5,500. The upside of these grants, though, is that they do not have to be paid back.

And for those currently in college looking to save some money, the report says that reining in credit card spending, or cutting it out entirely, is the best way to do it. Credit card debt is not easy to pay off thanks to high interest rates, and, because of the soaring cost of education, bills can pile up in a hurry even if students try to live within their means.

A 2009 poll from Sally Mae said that 92 percent of undergraduate students with credit cards use them to pay for things like books, supplies, and other school-related expenses. Thirty percent use them to pay their tuition as well.

It’s not easy to pay for college these days, and more consumers are finding that they have to put some of their student loan debt on their credit cards.

A recent survey conducted by credit card news website CardRatings.com found that 36 percent of those polled carried some amount of their student loan debt on their credit card. Of the respondents, 12 percent said student loans accounted for $5,000 or less of their total credit card debt, 7 percent said they had $5,000-$10,000, the same number said they had $10,000-$20,000. A full 10 percent reported that they had more than $20,000 in student loan debt on their credit card.

The site’s report on its findings said the downsides to carrying such significant debt on a credit card is obvious. Students end up shelling out considerably more for their education when they pay for it with their credit card thanks to the associated interest rates.

A 2009 poll by Sally Mae said that 92 percent of undergrads with credit cards use them to pay for books, supplies and other school-related expenses. Another 30 percent use credit cards to pay their tuition.