America Credit Card Debt Consolidation

Hi. I have owed my creditors money for 6 months. I owe about 13000 and my monthly rent is 600. I have a total of 9 creditors. Two of them, CHASE and Bank of America, have offered to forgive about 3000 of the debt. They are willing to do this if I pay them 4000 right now. I dont have that kind of money now. I just recently became employed again. Should I declare bakruptcy or seek a consolidation agency to help me negotiate further. My family says I should declare bankruptcy but my friends say I should seek credit advisors for help. Is there anyone who has ever been bankrupt or in a similar situation.

I have been where you are. It shows that you care about your credit and such if you are even asking here. I commend you for that.

No, you should not declare bankruptcy, your credit will be screwed and in case you were not aware, the government recently rewrote the bankruptcy laws so that credit card dept is not affected. The credit card companies can and will still be after you and you will still owe them money.

So that leaves you with consolidating the debt, this is not a bad idea, just look at the different companies and then do a search to find out which may be the best. Check out the Better Business Bureau (sp?) website and search about the company in question. You may want to consider a second part-time job just long enough to get the debt paid off.

Dont declare bankruptcy, stick with it and do all you can to get it paid off as quickly as possible. Keep your chin up about it all and just work at it. It may take a couple of years, but when it is done you will be free from it.

2007-07-05 16:08:13 by koki c

For more information about credit card debt consolidation - creditcarddebtsolver.com Find other information about 1. What will actually happen if ...

I am 25 years old and have racked up a $30,000 credit card debt to 3 different credtors over the years. I was making the minimum payments until my extravagant spending caught up with me. I have been making the bare minimum monthly payments on my Visa credit card. On my Bank of America and AMEX credit cards, I have been delinquent in payments for over 8 months. The creditors are constantly calling me at home and work harrassing me.

I do intend on paying back my debts in full. I just wanted to know from any experts or anyone with experience what would be my available options to cut my interest rates and pay off my debts faster.

I know there are a lot of scams out there and Ive read about "non-profit" credit consolidation agencies that are actually more damaging to your debt management plans.

Bankruptcy is not an option for me. I intend on paying back my debt no matter how long it takes. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Also: Can they freeze my checking accounts?

Talk to your creditors. Be honest about your financial situation. I found myself in a similar situation after working for too long in a low paying job and having to put college tuition on my credit cards.
1. Talk to them about working with you to bring down these balances. Are they willing to lower your interest rate, even temporarily to let you start to catch up? The late fees and penalties will eat you alive so find a way to make the minimum every month.
2. Go over your budget. Cut everything you possibly can or reduce other things. Can you live with a cheaper cell phone plan or no cell phone? I was paying for a cell phone and a home phone for just myself. Bye bye home phone---$45/month extra for the credit card payment. Can you cut your cable/internet/electric bills at all?
3. Sell things you don't need. Wherehouse.com will buy cds and dvds. Half Price Books will buy books. Have a yard sale.
4. Clip coupons, shop sales, don't buy a single thing you absolutely don't NEED.

Once you have squeezed every dime from your budget: line up your three credit card bills. Pay the minimum plus $1 to the ones with the lowest interest rates. Pay every possible penny you can towards the third. Credit card interest is compounded daily. You can break your payment into multiple payments and pay weekly instead of one big payment on the due date. This will reduce your daily balance a little and save you some interest.
Make a spreadsheet showing each credit card statement and fill it out each month. Know how much your balances went down each month. Know how much you spent in interest. HATE that number. Whenever you are tempted to buy something, think of that interest payment.

I paid off 31K in about two years on a 40K salary. I didn't use a credit consolidation or any outside help. I just had a long talk with myself about my income vs expenses and made a budget I could stick to. Was it fun? No. I didn't buy new clothes for most of that time. I went to the grocery store each week with a list and coupons. I didn't go out to the movies or out to restaurants. I used the library. I walked where I could instead of driving. I forced myself to put $25/week into savings so that if a doctor bill or unexpected expense came up, I wouldn't have to use my credit card for anything. I took my cards out of my wallet and left them at home. You can't cut every last thing or you will never stick to the plan. I kept Netflix and basic cable. I cut satellite tv and movie channels. I stayed in my cheap apartment instead of moving to a bigger place. When my car died, I didn't buy a new one, I took an inexpensive lease so that I would be able to have a low monthly payment and continue to focus on paying off my debt. I started buying store brands of basics like dish soap and socks. Was it worth it? Yes.

They can freeze your checking accounts if they take you to court and get a judgment against you. In many states, they can also get an order to garnish your wages. Once things get to that point, you're stuck. If you can negotiate something with them in advance, you will come out better.

If you want to email me, I can help you put together a budget. Also, www.bankrate.com has great calculators for figuring out how long it will take to pay off a credit card/debt. It's a nice reality check.

2008-06-14 01:28:05 by James L

My husband and I are literally drowning in debt. There's no way we can file bankruptcy or do any of that consolidation stuff. He has a federal job and would pretty much lose his job immediately. We have found relief from his student loans by filling out a form and getting his payments cut in half for a year. Are there any sort of programs in existence that will help out with credit card debt? We have Discover, Chase, Citi, and Bank of America accounts. We have already cut up the cards and do not plan on using them ever again. We tried to get a loan to consolidate the debt into one payment and our credit isn't good enough to do that either. Any suggestions?
Yes, my husband has to maintain a very high security clearance. This is why he can't let his credit go bad.

in my opinion you can contact the company or the bank you two borrow the money and freeze the accounts in that way they will give you chance to pay small amount of loan every month for example: ( you pay £150.00 per month they will reduced too £60.00 per month.) and your interest will not arise this is before or the last step of bankruptcy. try it is worth it . there is nothing who willing to help without their own interest. the best is to talk to one of financial adviser from were you got the loan.
good luck to you two.

2008-04-28 13:31:56 by Justus Will be Delivered Jan. 28

2 years ago I decided to take a loan (wanted to combine credit cards take a loan to pay off the debt)offer that I received in the mail from Bank of America. I assumed with my excellent credit I would get a great interest rate however as careful as I was the rate turned out to be 22% which is extremely high with my excellent credit. I took a $25,000 loan which I pay 592.00 a month (I always pay more) that I now learned I have to pay for 96 months which totals to be $56,832, I am so upset and not sure what I can do to get rid of this huge debt, any advise for this debt that is worse now than had I simply paid the credit cards off?? Thank you

WOW
that sucks.
TIme to start looking around for another place to assist.
Also if you pay more each month, then your figure is not quite accurate assuming that there is no prepayment penalty.
Did you default on this (or another loan) that would make the interest that high?
I think you should take a look at your credit report to see if there is something else on there that would cause your interest rate to be that high.
Also go to www.ripoffreport.com and file a complaint about them there. (the site is free and you can read the horror stories about others that have debt with BOA)
GOOD LUCK TO YA
with excellent credit you should be able to get out of this inside of a month's time.

2008-02-05 12:37:22 by Anna

Bank of America say's they will give me a loan to pay off all my bills. I net about 2k a month that could go to paying off the bills however my interest rates on the 2 cards are ridiculous. One is %29.99 and the other is 24.99. I have called both companies and tried to negotiate a lower interest rate but to no avail. I wanna keep my credit score intact and pay off debt asap do you think this personal loan from BOA is a good idea or bad?

I agree with Jeff.

Consolidation loans are a great way to fix past credit problems. But you need to understand the dangers.

Over the past several years, consolidation loans and/or home equity lines of credit were being used to pay off credit card debts. The problem was these people would turn around and run up their now-empty credit cards all over again. Now they are in twice the debt, and their only escape is bankruptcy.

Over the past few years there has been a record number of BK's filed, and the majority of them were the result of bad credit management.

So if you have the self control to quit using credit until this loan is paid off, go for it. Otherwise start doing your research on filing bankruptcy.

2008-03-19 08:45:48 by Don