My husband and I have spent the last 5 years cleaning up our credit. Once we began to get cards in the mail 6 months ago, we started accumulating debt all over again. We are now about $12,000 in debt and are having trouble keeping up with all the minimum payments. We are considering a debt consolidation or personal loan to consolidate, but can only afford about $200 per month to pay off this debt? What kind of interest rates would we have? Would anyone give us a 4 or 5 year loan to pay this, we hate to see our credit go bad again. The cards WILL get cut up too! We live on one income so we couldn't afford more than that per month. Anyone been where I am now? Thanks for your help!--Jme
RE: suggestions on how to pay Hello: Here's some free information that may be of help to you: "Getting Out Of Debt" http://www.creditinsiders.com/article04.html Good luck to you! A.F. ------------------------- Bad Credit? No Credit? Let Us Help! http://www.Creditinsiders.com
Some Important Points Sorry about your recent troubles. Credit is both a blessing and a curse. Without any ideas about debt consolidation loans, I can still suggest a few points about credit cards. (1) It doesn't have to be all or nothing. You can pay off part of your debt and then feel quite comfortable with the rest. If you put your cards in a drawer for a while and manage to pay them down a little, the world will start looking a lot better. In your case, the minimum payments on $9,000 may be manageable, even if those on $12,000 are not. Look at this as a $3,000 problem, not a $12,000 problem. (2) In your situation, it is more important than ever to avoid annual fees and excessive interest rates. Try to transfer your balances to cards without either. If your payment record is still good, you may get good balance transfer offers in the mail. You should use them to pay off your most expensive cards. By lowering your credit expenses, you ensure that more of your payments go to reduce your debts. (3) What we all need to remember is that we really need income, not credit. Credit can accelerate your income, but it can never replace it. If you could increase your income somehow, even temporarily, then maybe you could pay off your most expensive cards. I know that these aren't very dramatic solutions, but a little common sense could still make a big diiference. It would have helped a lot six months ago.
RE: Some Important Points Good points. When in debt, ther are 2 things that can be done, reduce your expenses and/or increase your income. If you are able to increase your income, apply all the extra income to your debt. If you have any savings at 2 or even 5%, use it to reduce your high interest debt. Have a garage sale an use the proceeds to lower your debt. http://www.creditsense.com
RE: Some Important Points Try www.quicken.com under the banking section it has a great program that allows you to enter the card name, balance and interesst rate, the minimum payment and what you normally pay each month. It takes all this information and tells you exactly how much to pay and where to pay it. It will tell you your ecact out of debt day by using its suggestions and your exact day if you don't, I shaved over 3 years off of my repayment and will save about 800$ in interest.
RE: suggestions on how to pay consumer credit councling can help you and its free, they have in the little computers how much minimum the credit card holders and many other lenders will take and you pay them one monthly payment and they pay all of your payments for you. My husband and I were gonna do that and it cut out bills over in half. Hope that helps...
RE: suggestions on how to pay "consumer credit counseling" may be helpful to pay down your debts, and any way to get the CC's to reduce their % rates works for me. There are two problems associated with "consumer credit counseling" and I just wanted you to know what some of the disadvantages may be, especially if you intend to buy a home in the next 5 to 10 years. 1) Underwriters look at "consumer credit counseling" exactly as if you are in Chap 13 BK. All rules relating to Chap 13 apply. In order to approve a few home loans, Borrowers have had to quit CCC so chap 13 rules didn't apply and they could, consequently, get "approved" 2) You may make your payments on time to CCC but they frequently make the payments to the CC are late and it is reflected as late pays on your Credit Bureau. The late pays will continue to show for 7 years after you've finished "consumer credit counseling" DWacaser@landmarkmtg.com
