Resolving Credit Card Debt

My husband and I are struggling to pay our mortgage, two car loans, consolidation loans, two credit cards, student loans as well as medical bills for new baby. Should I see someone in a CCCS organization, or just try to stick it out for as long as I can? Our debt to income ratio is now 74%, by the way.

first off stop using any credit cards.secondly call them all and ask to get the interest rate dropped insist on an even lower rate, tell them a competitor has offered you a large credit line at an almost unbelievable rate, but you wish to stay loyal to them. next stop using all the cards you have . do not get more cards.do you really need 2 cars or can you make due with one. can you get cheaper cars, it's just a car. do not buy anything unless you absolutely need it . make a list of things you want to purchase. separate this list into things you want and things you need ( be brutally realistic ), you need food but you can live on bread and baloney instead of bacon and tomato, stop ordering out. do you have cable ? if yes cancel it. eliminate all the things on the want list , not forever just for now .when you are about to purchase anything ask yourself do i need this if the answer is no do not buy it. get a second job, deliver papers. remember you are the grown ups in your life so you must be the hero's as well . your kids will be the better for this ..
did i mention stop using credit cards for anything.
good luck and stick to it. :)

2007-03-15 07:24:28 by luvlandon2006

www.credexchoice.com - Offers assistance to all individuals who are overwhelmed by debt and restores their financial freedom in a timely fashion ...

An unexpected payment of $2,499.06 was posted to my Citi account on May 27th, 2005. The payment posted in error was corrected on the statement of 12/10/2005. . I was unaware of this matter until I was notified by Citi reporting my default on payment. At that time, I was in a debt consolidation program (American Debt Consolidation Inc.) which they consolidate my credit card debt and make automatic payments to my creditors. The debt consolidating program stopped making payment to Citi because they found that my balance was already paid in full since May 2005. That causes extra late fee and over-credit limit fee were billed to my account after my balance was adjusted on 12/10/2005. As of May 2005, my balance was $2,023.76 according to the statement of 06/06/2005.During that period, I was trying to contact my creditor to discuss the matter. I have already explained the issue to several representatives of my creditor. Unfortunately, no further progress was made till now.
I was trying to work with my debt consolidation program to resolve this issue. But it seems they are not very being active on this matter. I started to lose interested to working with them since it is very time consuming (they said it takes at least 3 month to send out the proposal and let the creditor to review it before making decisions). So I rather directly negotiated with my creditor instead. But I feel that it is useless to talk to customer reps because they are not authorized to lower my interest rate and elimate my over credit limit fee, pulse it hard to put the manger or related department head on the line. On the collection agency side, they are trying to help me with paying only 80% of the total debt. But I still don't think it is fair to me because it is my creditor's fault on the mis-posted payment at the beginning. My debt raises up to around $3000 with interest rate of 29% from May 2005 till now. My beginning banlance was around $2000.

Cant the American Debt Consolidation business help you with this since you were enrolled with them at the time and this creditor was on your list?

Plus, the credit card company should of informed the Debt Consolidation people of this mistake. They should of informed you that the debt was paid off since they considered it paid in full and quit paying on the debt on your behalf.

If not call the Consumer Protection Agency in your area, they will help you and will be a third party witness on your behalf. They are like mediators when there are desputes.

Just some suggestions

Good Luck

Dee

2006-12-08 19:56:48 by jianlu724

I am considering he use of one of these firms, and wanted to know if anyone has used this type of service and what kind of experiences you might have encountered.

You will pay for it in the long run, but those firms should be able to help you out. Nothing is free though.

2007-06-25 16:38:26 by don m

I've racked up some credit card debt in school and now am out and want to pay the debt off in a lump sum settlement. It's been about 2 years sense I've been able to make any payments and there have been a few different creditors that have tried to contact me. How do I know which one to contact to get this debt resolved? Any advice for getting these settled fast? I know you should send them a money order to hide your bank info and that you want them to write "paid as agreed" on your credit report... anything else? Thanks

Start by pulling your credit reports. Annualcreditreport.com is the real free site....NOT freecreditreport.com

This will list all the firms/debt collectors you owe money to.


When credit cards are charged-off, the damage to your credit is basically done and there is no undoing it. Don’t make the mistake of simply cutting a check to whatever collection agency has the debt for the charge-off and assume that your credit rating will be magically restored...Doing so will not remove it from your credit reports. It will simply be updated to a "Paid Charge-Off," which, while slightly better, is still a seriously derogatory item. Per the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a charge-off, whether paid or not, can remain on a consumer's credit reports for up to seven years.

Renewing contact with debt collectors who have not been in touch with you for a while can be tricky...so be careful. You might trigger really aggressive collection activity against yourself if they find out you have money to pay. Making recent payments on old charged-off debt resets the statute of limitations on the debt in many states...which would enable the debt collector to immediately sue you for the debt. In my opinion, this potential risk is the not worth a slight increase in your credit score from paying off old charged-off debt.

If you're going to pay off old-charged-off debt anyway, then you might as well negotiate the lowest, rock bottom settlement you can possibly get, being that the negative charge-off notation is going to stay for 7 years on your credit report anyway. You have to be VERY careful in this effort...Mail them a vaguely worded statement like:

I am willing to settle this matter for 25% of the original amount. This is in no way an admission of this debt, but rather an attempt to settle this matter. Your firm must send me a written agreement on your company's letterhead that you will accept this amount as "payment in full" and that is issue will be settled. Upon receipt of this agreement, I will mail you a money order for this amount.
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* Get all terms of any settlement deal you reach with debt collectors IN WRITING BEFORE you give them your money. Never accept settlement deals over the phone...The debt collectors will deny that any settlement was ever made once they get your “settlement” money and will come back demanding more money.
* NEVER, EVER give out your checking account numbers to debt collectors for making electronic debit payments.
* DO NOT sign your signature on any document that you mail to a debt collector. It could end up on a forged document that can be used against you. Simply type your full name.

2008-12-26 10:20:51 by italia044

I have about $40,000 debt from 3 different credit cards and would like to know my options on getting rid of this debt, considering my credit scord is already down the drain. At this moment, I'm not concern about saving my credit score anymore. I can deal with the bad credit for 7yrs. Should I work with a debt consolidation company or stop payments and deal with the creditors directly? Hoping that they will reduce my balance. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Catdad is correct.

Also, any reduction in debt would likely result in some sort of charge off anyway, and will hurt your credit shore for years.

You may want to consult with an attorney who practices or specializes specifically in your situation.

Chapter 7
http://www.uscourts.gov/bankruptcycourts /bankruptcybasics/chapter7.html

Disclaimer: I am not an attorney. This is not legal advice.

FYI:
In case another poster is not deleted:
Beware of fraud or phishing posts:
Another poster uses a UK Yahoo account making people believe it is Barclays PLC (Bank). He requests contact stating Barclays has great rates, then posts a yahoo email address.

Barclays PLC may be a decent bank, but it does not use "@yahoo.co.uk" as their domain email address.
http://group.barclays.com/About-us

2009-04-13 21:34:37 by Phatkid