How do you find out who...

How do you find out who your creditors are and how much you owe? I have been out of contact for sometime. Due to health and finacial issues I lost my home phone and even was moving from address to address for a while untill I stabalized a bit.

I lost alot of mail that was sent to my old address when I had no forwarding address and at this time I don't even know who owns my debts or who to contact to try and re-establish relations to resolve debt issues.

What would be the best route for me to go to start trying to pay off past debts? I have some outstanding credit card debt and student loans but as I said have no idea who to contact to find out who I need to pay and how much. Also what is the best way to get back into a payment schedule that is not going to destroy me again?

I do not have a high paying job and live very much pay check to pay check. I understand some will say okay you owe $4,000 but if you pay us $2500 by next tuesday we can clear this from your record. How do I pay $2500 when I dont even have that much in a bank account? What is the best way to establish contact to get out of debt without getting wiped out by the first few creditors that get their claws on me?

Thanks for any help.

Hi there

The best start would be to obtain a credit report from each of the three credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Transunion, and Experian. This will give you some idea of how much you owe to whom, and contact information for those creditors. You can go to annualcreditreport.com to receive a free copy of your credit reports, if you haven't done so in the last year. Once you get that, come back and ask some more questions so that we can help you more specifically!

~Mary

Start by contacting the ones you do know and inquiring as to the status, balance, etc. Next go to www.annualcreditreport.com and request your free credit reports from the three major credit bureaus. Those will list any accounts which have reported, whether its current, past due, in collections, charge off, whatever, and the name and address of the creditor reporting the information as well as the last reported balance.
You maybe in for a lot hard, and sometimes frustrating work.

Please register for this site, and come back. Post your questions, experiences so that others may benefit from your experiences. WE have a great community that is willing to help in any way they can, and sometime just provide some much needed moral support.

After you have checked the latest copy of your credit report, you will get the list of all the credit card companies used so far. All the unpaid accounts will be reflected in your file with their latest status. You can start contacting the companies one by one and offer a payment plan. You might have to negotiate with them and get a sound deal. Offer a realistic payment plan and stick to it. Once you have started paying off the accounts, the creditors will offer you some discounts in the process. If you are thinking about some professional help, sign up in this website and a consultant will get back to you with a free quote.

And make sure you get a report from ALL THREE BUREAUS, not just one or two. Some credit card companies/lenders only report to one or two bureaus, so you will have incomplete information.

~Mary