Well, I won't go into a long drawn out history, but I've manged to find myself $43k in CC debt. A move, some reckless spending (over time it built up)...hell, no excuses, I got myself here. A lot of "reasons" I suppose, but none that legitimize my being in my current situation. It is what it is. I screwed up.

I want to pay this off. Not looking to BK, stop paying, or otherwise harm my credit that I worked so hard at one time to build up.

My score was 805 about 3.5 years ago when I bought my house. Today it sits at about 690 to 700. I've not had a single late pay (other than one 2 day late...more on that later, but nothing on CR) in the last 15 years or so. Never a day late on any other payment.

No longer upside down on the house...about even now. Bought at $430k, dropped to about $370k, and now about even again.

I was 2 days late with Citi about 5 months ago. Rate got jacked up to 29.9%. Have a $9k balance. No card to do a BT to.

Other cards range from $5k to $12k range, 12% to 18%.

Tried to get another CC for a balance transfer a few weeks ago. Denied. Afraid to apply again for fear of dragging my score down further.

Have the following cards:
Citi platinum ($8k bal on $11k avail)
Amex Blue ($6k on $8k...they dropped my limit from $18k because of parking collection, since removed)
Chase platinum ($4k on $5400)
USAA ($12k on $12k)
MBNA Platinum ($8k on $9k, also dropped CL from $16k due to parking collection)
Best Buy ($5k on $10k)
Cap 1 ($0 on $2500)


I had room on the cards for BT on the citi, but received a parking ticket that I never got notice about in the mail. Went to collections. I saw it on report. Paid immediately, and called the city. They, after I provided them proof of my address change, removed it from report because I had not received notice of it. BUT, Amex and Citi saw the neg for the 3 weeks or so it was on there, and dropped my limits to the balance.

Anyway, some very poor choices, a little bad luck, and just life, and here I am.

I'm making payments, but I'm living paycheck to paycheck, and it is really tight. And I'm not gaining ground.

I want to salvage this. So, I have a few questions...

Has anyone had luck with negotiating interest rates down on cards with high balances? If I had a card I could BT to, I'd just do that, but because my limits got dropped, I'm at about 90% usage. I fear nobody is going to drop the rate because they know they've got me by the ballz. Afraid to even ask, for fear they'll "closed by credit grantor" the account.

Is credit counseling really a viable option?

Any tactics for calling the CC companies myself and getting lower rates (when I've got high balances to limit ratios)?

Should I "closed by consumer" any cards before I make calls to get a lower rate? I hear that some companies will want to close it to give the lower rate, and I'd rather not have the "closed by credit grantor" on there.

If I start closing cards myself, will it hurt my score via the "balance to limit" ratio? In other words, I have $43k balance now on about $48k available. If I close a card, will it show as $43k balance on say $36k available, thereby putting me over 100% usage?

Any chance of a debt consolidation loan with my score (which isn't terrible) and with such high unsecured balance to limit ratios?

I make good money at $95k year, but have rented out house due to work relocation at a loss of $700 a month, have a car payment (2 years remaining).

I know that if I could get these interest rates within reason, I could begin to make some reasonable headway on these.

I don't have a lot to sell. A paid for truck, but can't get rid of that. I have a small boat, a couple firearms I could sell, and come up with about $6k. That's going to really hurt, but I am contemplating that. But, it won't gain me a lot "payoff wise" on these CC's. If I could just figure a way to lower my payments by a few hundred to get some breathing room, AND get them paid off in 5 or 6 years, I'd be doing pretty good.

Hello all!

After doing a fair bit of searching throughout the forum, I can't seem to find the answer to a question that's been nagging at me for a few months now.

A few months back, I managed to miss a payment on a line of credit at First Niagara bank. This was completely by accident - the bank has never consistently sent me statements, and I managed to completely forget. As soon as I realized my error, I brought the account current, but unfortunately it was already past 30 days. As a result, First Niagara has hit my credit now with a "30 days late" back in October. I've tried disputing the information through the credit bureaus, but that got me absolutely nowhere.

I've talked to First Niagara's customer service, I've talked to branch managers, no one knows who at the bank is actually responsible for reporting this information. Additionally, no one knows who I would contact to have it removed.

Has anyone here had this experience, and did you have any success in having this information removed from your credit report? If so, how did you do it, and who did you talk to?