Past Due Credit Card?

Question

Hi. I have a credit card in which the minimum payment is now $800. It started out with an overdraft and a late fee, and the minimum was $150 which I could not afford, then it has just went up since then. How can I talk to the credit card company and explain them my problem (I am going to use my income taxes to pay them back when I get them next year), can they maybe stop the late payment fees or something? I really need help as they are starting to call my house and cell phone now. :(

I know some people who "work" with there credit card company, but I am wondering how or what they say or do to get this help. and I am NOT talking bankruptcy at all.

The minimum went from $150 to $800 throughout a couple months. I KNOW I should have asked for help with the $150 but didnt. Friends and family have already helped me with other things and no one I know has $800 to loan to me. I will try talking to them but just answering there call. Thanks

Answer 1

Most card companies have Hardship Plans/options. Some dont. Dont ruin your credit by letting it charge off and doing a settlement. A settlement could make you pay taxes. If say you owe $5,000 and you pay back $2,000 then you will owe taxes on $3,000 like its income. I am a collector for a credit card company. I work with people in your situation all the time. Its better to call the company and talk to them rather than hang up. Some times there are options like no more fees and no interest for a period of time and no they dont charge them back to you when you are done with the program. Talk to your credit card company and see what you can do. By the way the minimum payment structure you can thank our wonderful government for. They made the credit card minimum payments in most cases go up. I have helped many out of this situation as well and put them on programs to help them. Its better to be put on a program then to ruin your credit. If there isnt anything that you can do then if you have any other cards with available credit then do a balance transfer of as much as you can, have the other card company pay your card that you are struggling with. This does count as a payment as well to the company you are struggling with. There are options out there. Talk with a few collection agents to get alot of options. Every collector has differnt avenues and ideas of how to help situations. My favorites are yard sale, if you have a car loan try to ask for a deferment (same with mortgage payment), if you have investments see if you can pull from them, borrow from life insurance if you have any, and last but not lease iof you smoke or drink or have some other habit cut back on those. Energy drinks, coffee and other beverages from stores add up fast as do smokes and alcohol. Not saying you do any of the stuff but I have those habbits and well you can easily burn off alot of your income with those. I use to spend 50% of my income on those things so i know how the "its just a couple of bucks here and there" can add up fast. Well I hope this info helped you out. Sorry its so long.

Answer 2

Call the company and explain the situation to them. Ask them if they can arrange a payment plan, reduced interest rate, or any other option they have. Understand, however that they won't care about your promise to pay it off when your taxes come. You owe them the money now, and that's when they want it - now. See what options they are able to offer you for repayment, but if they still are not willing to help you, contact your local Consumer Credit Counseling Service. They have counselors available who can work with your creditors to get you back to where you need to be. Don't fall for any of the scams out there, CCCS is a well known and legit organization that most of the creditors work with. Do everything you can not to charge this account off or go through bankruptcy. Negative credit will follow you for 7-10 years and once that bankruptcy or charge off appears, there's no getting out of it for that required timeframe. A little inside info here : some creditors only keep the last 24 months pay history on their systems, so if you get this back up to date, then 2 years later dispute the late months showing on your file, they will delete them. It's in your best interest to pay this back, if only for this reason alone.

Answer 3

The credit card company or their lender doesn't care about next year...they care about NOW! You'll ruin your entire credit rating by handling this debt in this manner and you'll lose the ability to use the card. They won't stop the late fees. You need to talk with a credit counsellor and get them involved in your pay back problems, but get set to lose a lot of credit cards and/or a credit drop on some. Sometimes the best thing to do is claim bankruptcy if you cannot pay back your debts but a counsellor can help you get things in order.

Answer 4

Pay it now, ask friends and family for help, dont you see how it went from 150 to 800, next year your looking well into the thousands. Its better to pay relatives back withoput interest, you wont get anywhere with the credit card compaines, they are rat bastarrds. And your credit rating will go down and then it is hard to get a loan, or get money for a house, or car.

Answer 5

What I would do is call and have them explain to me why the monthly payment went from $150.00 to $800.00, have them send you paper work on how this happen. Tell them to work with you on the payment and to stop charging anymore fees because if they are not getting the $150.00 or $800.00 what makes them think they will get more, you have to be firm with this credit card companies because they take advantage of customers, they have plans and ways to eliminate all those fees and only charge you for what you use and the interest rate, you need to scalate the call to a supervisor and let them know I want to work with you if you work with me other wise you could charge me a $1,000,000 and you will not get anything from me because quite frankly I really don't care for my credit since is already mess up, (I know you care for your credit but you just tell them that) this will make them think well I better work with her because other wise we are not going to get anything from her. Good luck

Answer 6

Go to Consumer Credit Counseling offered thru Catholic Charities...this is a free service and you do NOT have to be Catholic to get assistance. THEY will contact your creditor and arrange to have the interest stopped, and late fees dropped...then they will have you agree to make affordable monthly payments thru CCC...THEY send the payment you give them to the creditor, and you will no longer get phone calls about the debt. It will be paid off much faster and for less money if you do this.

Answer 7

call your credit card company and set up some kind of payment plan that you can afford and explain about when you receive your taxes you Will pay the balance

Answer 8

Just answer there call. It makes it worst like your avoiding them. It can't go on for ever. Talk to them and explain to them what happened and when/how your going to pay it off. If they want there money like I'm sure they do they will with you on it Good luck.

Answer 9

since they are already damaging your credit report by giving you multiple derogs, consider letting it charge-off in four or five months and then negotiate after charge-off and offer 20 to 30 cents on the dollar for a complete payoff

Answer 10

You should have called right away when you realized that you couldn't pay the min. payment.
My suggestion would be to call them right away and explain to them your delema and maybe they will work with you.