It's still difficult to find the help you need if you're struggling to pay your mortgage.

In fall 2008, lenders such as Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo announced programs that were supposed to keep borrowers with deceptive adjustable-rate mortgages from losing their homes.

The programs promised to reduce monthly payments by lowering interest rates and extending the length of the loans.

Although the banks talked a good game, they didn't help enough families to keep the foreclosure rate from soaring ever higher.

Now most lenders are trying to modify or refinance mortgages through the Making Home Affordable program, which is President Barack Obama's big effort to stop foreclosures.

Why?

The president's program has a goal of reducing monthly payments to 31% of the borrower's gross monthly income.

Many of the lenders' programs were designed to help homeowners cut their payments to 38% of their monthly income, which for many borrowers was still unaffordable.

"The thing we encountered a lot was that most people were, by the time they went to modify, behind on other bills like credit cards," says Erin Rearden, mortgage counselor for Solid Ground, a Seattle-based organization that advises homeowners facing foreclosure.

"To just look at getting payments to 38% of their income would have technically made the loan affordable; however, they had all these other things to catch up on."

Another one of the Obama plan's biggest benefits: You don't have to wait until you're delinquent on your mortgage and have damaged your credit rating to be eligible.

"Even though [with the other plans] someone could call and say, 'I see this coming down the pipe,' it wouldn't make any difference," Rearden says. "If you have to get behind to qualify for a modification, it can be really difficult for people."

The Obama program also offers lenders an incentive for participating, unlike Hope for Homeowners and FHASecure, the Bush administration's anti-foreclosure plans that were big failures.

Mortgage-servicing companies still must agree to participate in the program and are allowed to run a "net present value test" on each loan to decide whether they'll lose less money by modifying a mortgage or foreclosing.

The Obama plan tries to tip the scales in favor of modification by reimbursing lenders for at least some of the losses they incur when modifying at-risk mortgages.

Hope for Homeowners and FHASecure relied on lenders agreeing to absorb all of the losses of modifying mortgages.

The Obama administration has acknowledged that the process under the new program had not been smooth.

Mortgage servicers are still trying to figure out how Making Home Affordable works and haven't hired enough workers to cope with the extraordinary number of loans that are in default.

As of June, the Treasury Department said about 100,000 borrowers had been offered modifications under the president's plan. But the government began pushing mortgage servicers to go faster.

By midsummer, more than 400,000 loan modification offers had been made and about 230,000 trial modifications had begun, the treasury department said.

If homeowners are unable to refinance using Obama's plan, lenders say they'll turn to the internal modification plans they announced in 2008.

If you're currently defaulting on your mortgage or are close to defaulting, your first move should be to call your lender and see if it can help you modify your loan, using the Obama plan or its own program.

Our step-by-step advice on how to negotiate with your mortgage company can tell you what to ask for and what to expect.

However, the process is always long and complicated. Even if your bank seems willing to work with you, having a professional assist you with the negotiations can really help.

You can get the assistance you need from these sources:

THE NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR CREDIT COUNSELING is the nation's biggest and oldest credit-counseling organization.

A credit counselor will evaluate your finances, devise a plan to restructure your mortgage to include more affordable payments. The counselor will then take that plan to your lender.

Here's where to locate an NFCC member in your area.

BANKRUPTCY ATTORNEYS can negotiate with your bank or mortgage company and advise you about any legal action that might save your home.

For example, you might be able to sue and cancel your mortgage if there was a mistake on your paperwork that violated the Truth-in-Lending Act, a federal law that requires lenders to accurately disclose important aspects of your loan.

Those errors are fairly common -- especially on loans written during the real estate boom when mortgage brokers were pushing documents through the system at a frantic pace. But you might not know to look for them.

You may also be able to file for bankruptcy. While judges can't force lenders to refinance or modify your loan, a Chapter 13 filing will temporarily halt foreclosure proceedings while your case is in court, give you time to catch up on payments and reduce some of your other debts to free up money to spend on your mortgage.

Here are five questions that will help you decide whether bankruptcy is a way to save your home.

If you think you might qualify for free legal aid, visit www.findlaw.com to locate help in your area.

If you don't qualify for free legal help, a bankruptcy lawyer will cost anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000, depending on the complexity of your case and where you live. However, many will accept a modest down payment and let you pay the balance over time.

To find an attorney who's an expert in this field, use the locator created by the American Board of Certification, a nonprofit group that tests and accredits bankruptcy lawyers.

STATE FORECLOSURE PREVENTION PROGRAMS are the next best places to look. Ten states are helping homeowners with unaffordable adjustable-rate loans save their homes.

Most will assign you a credit counselor to help refinance your loan into a fixed-rate mortgage with lower payments. Two states actually provide the money homeowners need to catch up with missed payments and keep their existing loans.

Not everyone can qualify for these programs. But if you can, they can save your home.

Check our complete list of state foreclosure prevention programs, including how they work and where to apply.

It isn't easy to find a solution if you're trying to pay off a mortgage that you just can't afford -- but the worst thing you can do is to do nothing.

Call your lender, contact a professional service like the National Foundation for Credit Counseling and ask for help until you find a solution. Don't just give up. If your home is at risk, it's worth the effort.

By Erin Brereton

Interest.com Contributing Editor