your credit is awful, you don't own your home, but you can't make your payments at the awful intrest rates that you have right now? Your budget is tight, and not getting any better, and you have your second child on the way?
2007-02-22 11:45:28 · 3 answers · asked by leafrogger 2 in Business & Finance ➔ Personal Finance
That is a difficult situation to be in. What I did w/my situation was, I panicked, turned off all my cards - DO NOT DO THAT, it shows you are not responsible - and signed on with a credit consolidation company. At the time, I had 7 credit cards open, I was constantly making trips to the cash advance place and even taking out advances from another place just to pay off the other one! But altogether, my debt, including my car was around 30,000. Talking to the credit consolidation place got creditors to stop calling and had me on at least a semi-normal payment plan. It's been working for me, but slooooooowly. I pay around 380 a month and they make payments to the creditors. But remember, there is nothing that they do that you can't do yourself. Have you tried calling those companies and telling them that you're considering going bankrupt? And also, remember that they cannot call your place of work and let them know of your debt, there's a law against it. But do give them a call just to atleast lower the payments. And they can't send your bills to collections if you're atleast making some kind of a payment on them - $20, whatever. Go to https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp to see exactly where you're at and also, review it, because they make errors also. I don't know if it's the best thing, but here's the place that I'm going through right now: www.debtfree.org, I know they're legit, because I do check on my bills here and there and I get emails from them, etc. So far, I've been with them for 2 yrs, and I still have a way to go, but I'm getting there. I know how consuming this can be, and it must even be more stressful w/children in the picture. But you need to find the time to sit down, write down all your account #s, how much interest is in each right now, how much you still owe and make the decision to either with with a consolidated credit service like I've listed or if there's any way (hopefully) tackle it yourself. But call up all the creditors, they should try to work with you, because if you claim bankruptcy, they don't get any money back and it would be a negative situation not just for you, but both of you.
2007-02-26 08:56:18 · answer #1 · answered by HappilyEverAfter 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you have bad credit and no home or other asset to borrow against, then you have two main choices to avoid default.
1. Work extra to make higher than minimum payments on one of your cards to pay it down faster.
2. Try meeting with a reputable credit counselor. Their programs are geared for situations just like this one, where you can consolidate your payments into one lower payment with lower interest rates.
2007-02-22 12:37:58 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Home ownership is not always required for a debt consolidation loan, and lenders will work with you even if you have less-than-perfect credit. You can try the below company to comparison shop:
2007-02-22 18:17:00 · answer #3 · answered by Alex K 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋