May I introduce MomtoQ

Well here's wishing her a warm welcome to the board. I hope someone can be of assistance to her. It will be a pleasure to have someone from your family joining us

 

Hi everyone!

I'm really in a bind, I've done got myself into way too much debt and now am struggling to pull myself out of it. I have nine credit cards each at LEAST 30 days late, most are more. I did just sell my house, whew, not something that I have to worry about anymore. We have a car, but it is only on my hubby's credit, and we are probably going to lose it around the first week of July. We did enter into a debt consolidation plan that include all but one credit card three months ago. I want to do the right thing, but I'm feeling like there is no hope and considering BK. Mom (NanaC) advised against it, I have mixed feelings. Where does someone start when they're in this position? Now I know I just laid quite a bit on ya'll for a newbie, but any and all thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

By the way, Mom talks so much about you guys that I thought ya'll were friends that had actually been at her house for dinner...pretty impressive!

Again, thank you!

 

Congrats on your house! It's nice to meet you, I hear about you often!! You're the one who gave Mom the courage to apply for her house mortgage!

 

Hi MomtoQ,


You mentioned you just sold your house, are you then going to be renting?? I don't want to sound too personal, but are you making an money off the sale of your home, or is that just going to be enough to pay your mortgage off??

Are you able to make the payments that you arranged with the debt consolidation program?? I think BK should be your last resort, but at times it is the only choice for some but as I am sure your mom has told you this will damage your credit for sometime. I am just curious if you are able to make your payments with the consolidation or are you having trouble just doing that??

 

Hi

Thank you for the quick response! We are planning on renting, but prices are considerably less in El Paso, which is good. I'm making just enough to cover my move from my house sale. Unfortunatly, I only lived there for one year.

Yes, we are able to make our payments on the consolidation. I understand what you're saying and she has told me what BK would do to my credit, but I have this question: If I continue with my consolidation and therefore continue to have 30 day late, 60, 90, etc., show on my credit report, is that still better than going BK credit wise? This is what confuses me because it feels like I'm already damaged and so there's no point in fighting a losing battle. On the other hand, I really want to do the right thing and pay these bills.

Thank you!

 

Are you referring to your prior lates?? I thought that once you went into a consolidation program that they made your payments montly so these accounts wouldn't continue to report lates aside from the ones the accounts had previously??

Yes lates can hurt your score, but over time the lates will have less of an affect on your credit, unlike BK that hurts for quite sometime. You mentioned you still had one card not included in the consildation?? Are you able to make timely payments on that one and which bank is it with?? I am so sorry you have to go through this, medical bills can completely ruin your finances. I applaud you for wanting to do the proper thing and pay your debts, but I understand how difficult it can be. Since your monthly housing should drop a bit, you may want to sit down and see how much you now have for your bills and make sure you can do this.

 

Hi--

Okay, now on the consolidation the reason why the payments are showing late is (for example Cap One) they pay all my creditors at one specific time of the month, and if they happen to be late with certain companies, those particular companies are still posting me as late. Also, the consolidation company mentioned the creditors could post that I was in a debt program on my credit for three years, but as of two weeks ago it was still not posted on my credit. Unfortunatly, in a sense, having it actually posted on my credit report might be beneficial because anyone viewing it would realize I was not the one making the late payments.

Also, the one credit card I have out is First Premier Bank, and no, those payments are not current. We have had previous trouble trying to get them on the consolidation because they were unwilling to work with the reduced payments.

I can't tell you how much your responses are helping me out.

 

Now I am not too familiar with how consolidations programs work, however I realize they make one payment each month to all your creditors, but isn't there a way you can have CAp 1 for instance change their due date to accomodate your monthly payments?? This sounds horrible to still be reporting current lates when you are making monthly payments through this program. I would call and ask them about this, or call the creditors yourself, this doesn't seem very fair.

 

Hi MomofQ....welcome to the board.

A few years ago (98), I was considering BK also but I decided to do the consolidation instead. I went through a debt consolidation program and this is what they did for me. First, they arranged for smaller monthly payments to my creditors. All creditors but two (Household Bank credit cards) reduced my interest or stopped charging interest all together. After 3 months of on-time payments, they aged my account to show I wasn't past due anymore. Most posted on my credit report that I was using a Debt counseling service.

Last month, I got a Discover Plat. There's hope! Now, I had 13 accounts, the largest being a $5000 furniture bill...totalling $13,000. I was supposed to be in the program for 4 years. But my income kept increasing and I kept sending them more money. May payments went from $218 to $560 and I was still living very well.

Each creditor cut off the card. I left ONE card OUT of the consolidation. After I paid each creditor off, I wrote them a letter, stating that I was done with the program and I wanted them to remove the notation from my CR...they did, each and every time. In fact, most even deleted any other negatives that were associated with the account from before.

BK should be the last resort. Sure, that notation on your CR will hurt you while it's there...BIG TIME! But I was able to get a CapOne (unsecured) and a Providian with the notations on my CR.

Stay in touch with your creditors. Stay on top of when the payments are mailed. Your creditors should be taking into account your situation and stop reporting you as late, especially when they've AGREED to let you consolidate them. So contact the consolidators and tell them what's happening and STAY ON TOP OF THEM. Make them work for you and NOT just send out payments. I would get a monthly statement showing how much was mailed and to whom. I hope you get one of those also.

The credit card that you don't consolidate...make nice with them and become a MODEL customer.

 

MomtoQ I am new here to...I am praying for you..believe me I know exactly how you feel but with the help of some very nice people here I will soon be out of the deep end..I may be mistaken but if you pay at least $1 for you bills won't you be considered on time...you may be over the limit...Can anyone validate this. I went to a siminar on finances and they said at least send them a $1 and that will keep you from being reported as late...

There is hope...keep your head up!

 

Nia,I think that"s kind of a mute point.IF YOU Don"t make your minium payment you will still be charged 29.00 or whatever is in the contract for failing to make the required payment?You would be no better off.

 

Thanks to everyone who has responded with suggestions on my situation. I appreciate it! I'm going to be calling the consolidation company tomorrow to find out the who's and when's of the whole program. (Since I didn't at the beginning seeing as how I was so anxious to enter it, I really didn't care about the technicalities!) I'll be sure to post here as soon as I find out! Hopefully it'll be good news.

 

MomtoQ,
Welcome to the board, I found it in May and have gained a world of good advice and experiences here! ...

If your current CC situation is not stopping you from obtaining your basic living necessities (a place to rent, food, etc) then this is a good time to take a break and work this situation out. Send the consolidation people as much money as you can to put toward your debt, but make sure you know what they are doing for you in return! Get those monthly statements, ask them to verify why you are still getting hit with late charges and 30/60/90 lates on your CR. You could have called each one of your creditors yourself and set this type of arrangement up yourself -- so what "value add" is the consolidation company doing for you??

I didn't go the consol. route but I eventually paid all of my bills off, but my CR still showed me as a very BAD credit risk (even though I made almost $130K last year). My goal this year is to get my CR as clean as possible -- I use Junum, but I'm also making some "strategic" calls on my own (and being very successful).

I wouldn't have known any of this without the folks on this board (I was under the mindset that I just had to suffer for the seven years -- WRONG) So after you pay these debts off, then we (this board -- and your mom) can start working on getting the negative info off of your credit report!!

So keep your head up, forget that BK talk, and let's go to work!

And again, welcome

Of course, this is....