Does anyone know how i can go about consolidating my debt?

Question

i have bills i owe and some that went to collections.. i want to clean my credit and so i want to consolidate my debt (where they put all your debt together and combine them in one payment) and i can finish paying faster as well. Does anyone know of a company that will help me do that? I am located in San Diego california by the way... thanks! Any info is well, like a number and a name.. or a location or a website i know that not all are trustworthy maybe you have experiences... ? please help!

No mortgage.. Do not own. Single me :)

How do i find out if they are trustworthy or if its a scam?

Answer 1

STOP buying things you dont need.

Answer 2

I am a mortgage consultant and do NOT recommend to anyone to go to a consumer credit counseling service (CCCS) or any kind of service company like this. Lenders look at these as Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, and could damage your credit even more. If you own a home and have the equity I would refinance you home and include these debts in the loan. you will get a better interest rate then these debts are at right now and get spread the payments over a longer period of time, also you will only have one payment. This will give you instant savings.
Good luck, need anymore advice feel free to contact me.

Answer 3

THE BEST CREDIT COUNSELOR IS YOURSELF!

List all of your debts in largest to smallest amount owed. Then write down the minimum due nest to each. Add up all your minuimum payments to get your minimum due each month. Let's assume you make about the same salary each month. Take the amount you normally pay to your bills each month and subtract all your minimum payments. ALL the extra left over, throw that at your SMALLEST debt. If you take that money and throw it at your largest debt, you're still paying the minimum payment on the smallest debt plus interest. Let's say that your smallest debt carries a minimum payment of $20. Unless the money you're throwing at your largest debt reduces next month's payment by more than $20 plus interest, you're not going to make any progress.

Let's say that your extra money thrown at the smallest debt (with the $20 min. payment) will allow you to pay that bill off in tow months. The next month, you take your extra money, PLUS the $20 you no longer have to pay the old debt, and put it towards the NEW smallest debt.

You're paying interest regardless, so throwing extra money at the 20% interest rate or the 13% interest rate isn't going to make a huge difference at this point looking at your situation. But paying off the smallest debt, and maintaining the minimums is doing this:
1) Your credit score increases because your overall debt is dropping,
2) Your credit score increases because you've reduced the amount of creidtors you owe money to.

Don't settle with the collection agencies, having accounts listed as "settled" on your report doesn't do your score any favors. It raises some red flags in future applications because it tells the company that not only were you a problem account in the past, but the company didn't get paid in full when they did get you to pay. Also, dont' let them push you around. Agree to a minimum and stick to it. They will come up as the "lowest" debt sooner or later. Paid-in-full looks better on your report and has a more positive effect in the long run.

Lastly, if any of these debts are settled for less than the entire amount, they may possibly qualify you for a 1099-C. This will require you to pay taxes on the amount of unpaid debt. The IRS will count the unpaid debt technically as "income" since you received something but didn't exchange any money for the service.

Answer 4

My BIL the morgate banker says that debt consilidation is not always the best answer. I solution is to take a debt you can pay off and call and offer a settlement if paid by the next week. (time to mail payment in or to do it by debit card.) Most companies will settle for about /2 price. This willl be on your ceredi report as a sel=ttlement but it is paid off. Another way to settle debt is to take a notebook with each bill on a seperate page. Start by putting the lowest amount 1st. Pay that off and add the payment to the next debt, pay that off and add both payments to the next debt. You get to see progress and also pay off debt at the same time. Say you owe 500 in credit card debt each month. Bill #1 is a min payment of $35. The highest bill is a $95 payment. Pay off that $35 payment by add ing all you can to the ayment. When done take the next $ amount and add the $35 to it. Still paying the same money ech month but now 1 debt is gone. Keep going and soon all will be paid off. If your debt is to great to do this, contact Consumer Credit in you phone book. Go to a not for profit plae where they can help you. A FOR PROFIt is a big no. Good luck, I paid my debt by setleing andthe inceasepayment method and raised my credit score tremendously, it does raise as well with debt considilation. But remeber is debt consilidation is the choice NON PROFIT is the only way to go.

Answer 5

Consolidating debt is an ideal way to reduce your amount and tenure of debt. You make a single payment to one lender on a certain date and this will help you clear off the debts faster. But the fact remains that debt consolidation is not easy all the times. If you owe a lot of money, obtaining a consolidation loan at the lower rate of interest can be difficult. Choosing a high interest loan can increase your debt.

The primary aim to consolidate debt should be to reduce your total costs. To achieve this, you have to consider the following two points:

-Shop around for the loan with the lowest interest rate.

-Chalk out a strategy to clear off the debts in 3-5 years.

Answer 6

stay remote from those so observed as consolidation company's. We consolidated all our loans and alter into paying back £270 in keeping with month. After 5 years of paying this we asked the corporate how lots might we could continually pay back to end the mortgage early. The stability substitute into greater advantageous than we initially took out! i substitute into gutted we had paid all that money for not something. The make each little thing look incredibly undemanding yet stay away it incredibly is an entire farce.

Answer 7

well I had alot of creidt card bills and such.

You might want to look into
www.incharge.org
They are a really great company that basicly does what you said above and you just pay a certain amount each month and they divided it up into smaller payments that go out to all your bills.

They also are really great about reducing the interest on your bills like credit cards and loans. To nothing or almost nothing. Anyway I hope this has helped you.

Good luck, I know bills can be such a pain...More so when they go into collections ugh =\

All I can say is that yea, It might give you bad credit but you will get worse credit if you don't do nothing to try and at least pay them off because if you don't get them payed off they will take you to court and force you to pay them with in a certain amount of days and usually it's only about 30days. At least with a credit counceling you pay the lowest mouthly payment your buget will allow and you won't have to worry about getting sent to court.

Because if you can't pay off the debt in 30days then they will come to your house and auction off some things, or put you in jail ....neither of those are good alternatives to a bad credit report for about 2 years.
Besides it might be good for you to have bad credit for a while so you can't get anything that will harm you that way you won't have the craving to be there.

I understand what you are going through right now My hubby is trying to file bankruptcy on a 15k loan and we have alot of other bills that are piling up. Just do what you can and don't worry about your credit report. Because like I said above I would rather have a bad credit report for 2 years than to have my stuff sold off or be in jail. =\

Answer 8

The unfortunate reality is people that need a no-collateral loan like this generally do not qualify, if you own a home that is the best way to consolidate otherwise you will need to look up a credit counseling service which absolutely destroys your credit for 24 months or so (reports similar to a bk)

Answer 9

I wouldnt do that if I were you. Most consolidating companies settle with the credit card companies to do a pay off..Then its reported to the credit bureaus that you did this and it affects your credit. If you could afford the programs i would suggest you get Setting your financial foundation. from Coming Back Strong Financially. You can find them on their website with the same name I have used them and they are great books and have helped me improve my credit score from 500 something to 700in just over a year.

Answer 10

One of my friends used Consumer Credit Bureau. She is now debt free. I think they are free. They contact all your bill collectors for you and work out easy payment plans and I think they stop them from adding anymore interest. They do have a web site for you to check. Search Consumer Credit Bureau on Yahoo.

Answer 11

Hi, I used CareOne.com to help me pay off a substantial debt to two different creditors. Nice, friendly and helpful. I felt so much better when I got on the road to being debt free.

Good Luck!