I owe money to a credit card company and do you think they would take a monthly amount over a period of years?

Question

We are way behind on a vcredit card company(about $17000) due to medical bills and to living expenses while I was ill. After ignoring them for awhile And thinking of going bankrupt, I have a chance to do part time work while I am disabled. I could give them probably $225 a month for 7 years I figure without hurting our budget. Do you think they would go for it?

Answer 1

I definetly admire your sense of responsiblity in trying to pay the debt back. It's very admirable. However, i wonder what good it would do you to pay that amount over 7 years versus declaring bankruptcy and starting over.

OPTION #1:
Talk to the company. You may be able to strike a deal and not have to pay back the entire amount. Alot of times, if the CC company feels that they might not get the $$$ back they may settle with you for a lesser amount. At this point, if you haven't paid for a while, your credit score is not too good anyway, so repaying the debt is not jumpstart your credit history immediately. Of course it will over time.

OPTION 2:
Save $150/month and give them $75 so that you have a little bit of a cushion, if things go bad again. This might force the CC company to settle with you on a lesser amount too.

OPTION 3:
Talk to someone about the pros and cons of declaring backruptcy. Of course bankruptcy would stay on your credit report for a long time. It wouldn't be my first choice.

We also have a debt consolidation service, that you can get free information from, if you are interested.

Good luck.

Answer 2

The moment you get into debt you struggle with you must tell the company. Some will reschedule debt, some will even suspend payments and let you pay the interest but that is not a good solution.

Credit card interest is generally higher than some credit so look around.

The penalty for not talking soon enough can be seizure of assets etc.

Think long and hard before going bankrupt. All your assets are reviewed and any classed as not essential to your living sensibly will be seized. Restrictions are imposed for a number of years on what you can own and do financially etc. But far worse than that is the effect of having to declare you were once bankrupt for years afterwards. It limits your ability not just to get credit but makes it more expensive and it can also influence employers not to take you on!!

You seem to be thinking along the right lines though so contact the company and tell them honestly about your circumstances, your income and what you think you can afford. They may well ask a little more than you are comfortable with but the longer you have the debt the more money it is going to cost you in the long run.

Answer 3

Call them and ask. They probably would agree to monthly payments - credit cards are in that business....to make money on interest (I'm not familiar with vcredit)
The worse thing to do is ignore them. If you can't pay one month, call and tell them. As long as you continue to talk to them, you'll find they are fairly decent to deal with.
So call and set up a plan with them. There's nothing worse than having credit card debt hanging over your head.

Answer 4

Maybe, but you have to remember that your interest rate will probably go up and each month they will charge you a late fee. You wll not be able to catch up. Next they will probably lable the acct as a charge-off and report it to the credit bureau's and send your acct to an outside collection agency.

Answer 5

it wont hurt to try.call and work something out they would rather you try and get some money than nothing.good luck i hope things improve for you,been there before its tough.

Answer 6

it depends.
you have to go and talk to them about it.
they may have another plan you can follow,
that also wouldn't hurt your budget.