This has been the worst year for us!! We are just a working class couple, I drive a propane truck and she is an LPN. We were doing real well, had all credit cards paid off, paying auto and mobile home loans ahead then my wife found out that she has a pitutitary tumor. The good news is that she had sucessful surgury at MD Anderson Medical Center and has no complications from the tumor. The bad news is that two trips to Houston for a total of three weeks, medical expenses, lodging, etc. maxed out our credit cards and the time we both lost from work really put us in a financial hole. We both got back to work and managed to make ends meet, then she ruptured disk in her back and caused her to miss more time from work. Now due to her problems, she is working about half as many hours as she did work. Then in July, I broke my ankle at work. I was able to continue working light duty enough to draw my salary but could not make my commission. We have fallen behind on our mobile home payment, car and truck payment to the point where we are about to lose everything. We owe about $11,000 on credit cards and medical bills, owe the IRS $1900 for last years taxes (paying $100 month) Balance on Mobile Home is $32000, Truck balance is $11,000 and Car balance is $13,000. None would bring what is owed. Bottom line is that our payments come to $1700 per month, Utilities, Medicine, Insurance etc is approx $1100 per month. We have about $100 more per month going out than is coming in, not counting food or gasoline. We both went thru bankruptcies several years ago after our first marriages and do not want to go that route if it can be helped. I have figured up that $70,000 would pay off all of our debts including mobile home, vehicles, credit cards and medical bills. Payments on $70,000 at 10% interest for 20 years should be around $625 per month which would free up over $1000 per month and allow us to breath and keep stress from killing us. The problem is, with bad credit from falling behind and not enough collateral, where can we borrow $70,000? Does anyone know a wealth individual that would have enough trust to take a chance on us? Yeah Right, like that is going to happen. Realistically, does anyone have any advise or comments? Anything will be appreciated.
I forgot to mention one thing, earlier this week I stepped out of my work truck and re-injured my ankle so bye-bye commissions for the next month or two. Just call me lucky.
Have you tried re-negotiating the debt owed? If not on your own, with a skilled NACA attorney who does it as part of their legal practice?
Depending on the skill of the lawyer, you could do quite well in debt re-negotiation and medical debts *can* be re-negotiated, too. Go to the NACA website, see the membership list for your state and you can make some calls if they do debt negotiation. Some have #800 numbers and work with people around the country, too. You would need to have your credit reports in order, the billings, interest rate you're currently paying, and an idea of what would/would not be reasonable re-negotiated terms for your circumstances.
