Okay, here’s the deal- i have major credit debt- including school loans, old credit cards, charged off bank accounts, doctor bills, etc. My debt maybe totals $7,500. I made a deal with my cc to pay $100 a month, but sometimes i’m not even able to do that. My student loans will start being required to be paid in January- but i don’t have any kind of degree. I’m stuck in a dead-end job making $10.50 an hour.
Anyone know if the credit consolidations go against your credit or is it really just help with no consequences? I need some serious help- i’m horrible with money…..
thanks, but i owe the Library $50 for overdue books and they won’t let me take any books out til i pay them… i told you i’m in a mess….

Sounds like you have an income problem. You need a second job or a better job.

DON’T do debt consolidation. It just moves your debt around. It rolls high interest items AND LOW interest items into the same loan at a mid-range interest rate. It might lower your monthly payments, but that means it will take even LONGER to get out of debt. It also frees up all your lines of credit so you can simply run them up again! Finally, you often have to pay a loan origination fee.

You don’t need anyone to do it for you. All they do is negotiate your debts for you and collect a fee. You can do it yourself!

Call all of them and work out a payment plan and try to get your interest lowered or stopped.

Then, make the minimum payments on every one of them. On the lowest dollar value, put all your extra effort toward paying it off. Once it is paid off, then roll that extra money to the next largest balance. Continue this snowball until all your debts are paid off.

You probably need to cut your expenses back to the bare minimum. Get rid of cable, cell phones, internet, etc. Lower your electric bill, gas bill, water bill, etc. Don’t eat at a restaurant until your debts are under control. Take a sandwich for lunch. Cancel the gym membership.

Try to increase your income by getting a second job. If you have a car with payments, get rid of it, and buy a good dependable used car for CASH.

Go to the library and get "The Total Money Makeover". Read it and follow it carefully.

Go check out Dave’s website as well.
www.daveramsey.com

I’m currently using Credit Solutions (www.creditsolutions.com) for debt settlement. Seems to be working fine. I haven’t yet collected enough money to pay off any of the 4 accounts I have in settlement. One of the accounts (with FIA Card Services/MBNA in the amount of $2000) has been forwarded to a 3rd party collector (Creditors Interchange). This 3rd party collector has begun sending notices (that I have forwarded to Credit Solutions) and calling me talking about "arbitration". Can someone tell me exactly what this means? I’m assuming this is part of the settlement process, but is this something legal that could potentially put me at risk for being sued?? What are my options at this point? Is this just a scare tactic….will they really come after me legally for my measely $2k? I fully intend on going through with the settlement, so technically the account is being "taken care of".

Arbitration is there fancy word for "Settlement". The key here is if you do receive a notice that they are seeking a judgment in court MAKE SURE you appear to challenge the validity of the debt. I have at your request a validation letter that you can arm yourself with the will most likely get you off the hook. This collection companies in many cases are not legally able to collect all that they are trying to collect plus fees (since they paid literally pennies on the dollar for the debt) do to state statutes as well as licensing. I hope that you are not attempting to pay off debt that you are not libel for?

So, I got some credit cards last year, and I really do not owe much. I have 4, and the highest of them all is about 600.00 right now. I dont know what to do though because we are behind on payments for about 2 months. They just got out of control. I have paid about 300.00 just on one of them, and its already more money than what we originally charged. My hubby is getting deployed in September for 4 months, and while he is gone we will be able to pay them off in FULL.
What can I do in the meantime? I cant afford to pay the minimum payments on them right now because Im leaving and he’s leaving so we need a little money in the bank?

I suggest you read "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey.

The first half deals with debunking some myths about money and credit cards, and the second half details a plan to pay off your debts and get rich (slowly, not get-rich-quick).

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I’m currently behind on my cards, and here’s what I did:
I called each of the three to work out a payment plan.
They asked me how I got into this mess (I was unemployed), and how long it would be before I got an income again (the choices they gave me were 0-6 months, 6-12 months or 12+ months, which gives you an idea of the perspective they’re looking at.)

If you can pay the whole thing off in 4 months, no problem; don’t panic.

For August’s money, you need to sit down tonight, and write out a budget for where that money will be spent.

Nobody gets a dime until the essentials are paid for:
Food
Shelter
Clothing
Transportation
Utilities.

If you can cover all of that, you’re ok.
If you can keep one or two current, that’s better.

I owe 10 grands including all of my credit cards, I don’t make a lot of money at this moment and think about appealing to credit card debt problem solution, should I do that or no???
I’m stressing out and agitated by it.

What is the difficulty in resorting to both the options? If you do not make any payment, the credit will go up with the penalties mounting up. The credit card is a menacing hound that will not leave you in peace even in your grave. I wonder who invented credit card. I wish all responsible governments abolish credit card system, for it is a drain on the economy of the individuals,.

I have heard about this guy, but i wanted to know if anyone has had any actually experience using his expensive get out of debt products?

Also a secondary question. why do so many people come on here and offer bad advice on how to take peoples money with get rich quick schemes? whats wrong with world????

YES DAVE RAMSEY works.

Just like diet and exercise it only works if you do it. My wife and I have paid off 60K in two years and we will have the remaing 160K done in the next 4-6 years.

We dont go out to eat (much), we dont vacation, we drive 10-20 year old cars even though we make over 100K, we dont have cable TV, I pack my lunch almost every day to my controller job, we dont spend alot on clothes. but in 4-6 years we will have a paid for house and no debt!!!

If you want stuff don’t go on the plan you will be unhappy. If you want money then do go on the plan. You have to get crazy on this stuff but it works.

PS how do you keep an Elephant from charging? Let him listen to Dave.

I owe money for things like medical bills or unpaid phone bills from years ago. How can I find out what I owe so I can start paying it off. Most debt solution places only settle credit card debt. Also one one debt my social security number was not right. Will i still be connected to that debt? I have no credit card debt and Id like to pay off these small debts to get my credit score up

Get your credit report from www.AnnualCreditReport.com.