Sheila_H

I looked into one time and they didn't have answer's to a lot of my questions, I ended up taking a free consultation with a Bankruptcy attorney and they will tell you want the best options are for you. The ended up arranging all of the creditors to come to an agreement a decent one I could survive on and not being afraid to answer my phone. Once an attorney is involved all I did was tell them here's the lawyers number you talk to him. It does still affect your credit score but it's better than bankruptcy and I was able to keep my vehicle and my home. I hope you find something that works for you.

burchquilts

When I was working at a local Woman's Shelter, we used to refer the women to a place here in town that was free. It was funded thru the United Way, so you might try checking with them. NEVER pay a fee... NEVER.

quilterj

We don't own our home. I called our bank and they said that they don't do consold. loans any longer. With us being a little behind and a lot of credit do you think a bank or credit union give a loan to pay them off? And also do you to bank with a credit union? We don't bank with one.

NanaBass

We actually just finished paying off about $12,000 in medical debt and credit debt. We sort of did it Ramsey's way, but my husband and I weren't on the same page until the end of the process, lol. We called all of the creditors and asked for reduced rates. In my case they were really great about things and in two cases the creditors went from around 20% down to 9% interest as long as we scheduled automatic payments. This helped reduce payments considerably. With the medical bills, I just took them one by one and talked to them. Keeping them in the loop will help keep them out of collections. One doctor took 4,000 off of the bill so it wouldn't be a hardship to us. (I have to see him every month and he is really a good guy! If anyone needs a pain doc...) Anyways, after talking to everyone we found that we no longer needed a loan. From there we paid a certain amount to each one and when one got paid off the amount that was paid to them got moved to the next bill.

Good luck. And Keep the Faith, things will work out!

quilterj

Because we are from one to two months behind they told me that we need to be current to talk about lowering the interest rates. So now we are current with 2 of them. One have them has lowered it and the other one said that nothing can be done at this time and I have to keep calling back to check with them.

cmg625

Check out www.daveramsey.com and you will get a lot of useful information there.

Latrinka

Have used consumer credit counselling before, was about 25 yrs ago tho. It works, but you have to want it to work and work with them.

romanojg

I just checked all of my options trying to figure out how to get things back on the right track and stop robbing Peter to pay Paul. My ex walked out last fall and going from a multiple income down to 1 is hard, especially when you are the only responsible one paying the bills.
First, I went to my credit union, most offer a free program to help you out. This is how the program would have worked for me. They already know what creditors they can get to lower interest rates and who wont'. We figured out my monthly expenses and all and then how much I'd have to have in my bank at a certain time each month and then the bank would pay the creditors. You have to have the money in the bank when the payments are due. They make sure they are paid on time so that does help. The deal is that you close all of your accounts and agree to not opening up any new accounts until the debt was paid off.
The good part of this is that everyone would get paid; but I'm already up to date with bills it just was a balancing act each month to keep them all paid on time. The program is free and unlike some of those programs out there, the bills would be paid on time and I wouldn' have to worry about it.
The bad part is that I still wouldn't have enough money left over at the end of the month to build a small savings incase an emergency came up or I needed something fixed on my house. Plus it can have an effect on your credit ratings to all of a sudden close all of your accounts but if your credit already isn't that great then it would effect it less. Mine isn't that great due to the amount of creditors I have; this also effects your rating even if you pay them all on time. Due to this reason even though I have over 100,00 in equity in my house I don't qualify for a consolidation loan at the time. They suggested me to sell the house but it will be paid off in 5yrs and if I sell it to pay my bills then I have to find a way to rent for the rest of my life. Not a good trade off as far as I'm concerned. I had to think of the future along with my issues now.
Then I went to talk to a lawyer and basically I could file Chapt 13, but due to the equity in the house I'd still have to pay all the creditord in full (which I have no problem with) of course that is without interest. I'd still only have a couple of hundren left each month not enough to save for an emergency.
Both of these two ways would have left me in the same boat. First one I would eventually get my credit score built back up but for at least 5yrs I couldn't open up any credit so I'd be in trouble if something came up and I needed too. The second one is the same except it would be on my credit for 7 to 10 yrs and really hard to build up credit in both ways.
I decided for me since I'm on time with my bills and I can do it; it's just really hard, that I'm doing it on my own. Suze Orman once said everyone wants to pay their highest finance rates off first. She said to pay the ones off that are the smallest and then each month take the money that you would have had to pay in a payment and add that to the next bill that you plan to pay off. I'm hoping that soon I'll be able to go back to my old system. I'd write all of my bills down, the payment due and then add the monthly finance charge to that payment and that is what I'd pay each month. I never paid the minimum. I tried once before getting creditors to lower my finance rate and had no success but I will try again; they can just tell me no. I know that I kept saying my bank but I actually belong to a credit union and have for yrs and would never do banking with a regular bank again.
Since I started this process last month, I got Ford to refinance my car that had no finance charge for the past two yrs, they did it at %5 which I think is really good. They lowered my payment by $200 each month by stretching it out over a few more yrs. This month I don't have to make a payment so I'm taking that money and my money that I got back from my escrow account and pay off a bill. I couldn't believe that I got that money back. We have owned our house for 20yrs and this is the first time that I've ever gotten an check. God must be looking out for me and letting me know that I'm on the right track; for me anyways.
Check with your bank or join a credit union to see if they have a program that can help you like mine does; most of the ones around here do. I know it's so much stress and I wish you the best of luck.

karate lady

I just did a small consolidation....I have 3 credit cards and I paid off one with the other ( the third is my quilting supply card--no bodies business smile). put it on the smaller int rate one and it is easier to get it all paid off that way. At least it is for me. The other card is put away.

vickig626

I've used Care One Credit and it's been a Godsend for us. They are able to reduce your interest rates quite a bit depending on the company and get a reduced payment amount. Overall you can get a manageable payment and pay off these debts much faster.

We used one years ago and it was a nightmare so definitely find someone reputable.

Some people complain about CareOne because they don't listen to what they need to do upfront. The first month can be hard because you need to make a payment on your bills as well as the "new" overall payment to CareOne. After that, you're good to go. The reason for this - it's take about a month to get all the processing done. If you time it right, though, you might not have to do this step. You also need to call our creditors and have the due date changed a few days passed the CareOne payment that goes out. This also gets people in trouble causing late fees.

If you want to contact me off list, feel free. I've been working with CareOne for about 3 years and they've been great.