How we got to where we are . . .

Welcome to the Community :D Congrats on trying to get your life back! It takes a while, and some work, but it can be done!

Have you tried speaking with your creditors about lowering or dropping you interest so you can get caught up, and get them padi off? Sometimes they will do this if you are current, others want you to be behind for their hardship program.

What I did was, I started with my lowest balance, say for example your lowest balance is $600.00 a month with $40. payments. I put all the extra money I could to pay this off first. Then I took that $40. payment and added it to my next lowest balance and it's payment-paying it off sooner--and so on.

We did the second job thing for a long time and it worked for us!!

Good luck--feel free to ask questions! KAren

Hi Diehard,
going to send you a pm cause my response is kinda long. but essentially I have been there and consolidation did a world of good for me! Bossy is very right as far as speaking to your creditors if you haven't done so already. you may be surprised at the outcome you get and the cooperation, some are more cooperative than others ;)
consolidation allowed me to take my 10k accumulated from a few years of bad choices and 10 credit accouts and literally lump most of it together to create one monthly payment and pay my agencies. this lowered my interest rates, over the limit fees, and stopped all collection activity on the accounts that were accepted. have you used the free consultation tool on this site?
good luck to you, hopefully my pm will get to you :) hang in there, we've (hubby and me) been there!

Hello Detroitfan (sorry to hear that by the way!)

I'm not an expert by no means. You'll find lots of good help on this site. Believe me when I tell you this, I really thought it was the end of the world for me. I'm talking literally. I got a call one night from a concerned family member, which changed my life. I decided not to be afraid anymore and do something about my problems before it was the end of me. I found this site, which has been a great help.
You say you are married? I don't know your whole story, but the first thing I will tell you, is you have to get your wife involved. You HAVE too!! If you have, thats great, if not, she needs to know whats going on. You can't do this alone. That was a lesson I learned the hard way. The second thing I would do is create a budget. I'm telling you man, I was scared to death to do this. I know that sounds funny, but I was too scared to see all my mess written down in one spot. I guess I thought if I didn't see it all in writing, it didn't exist. Does that make sense?
It sounds like you may have done that already. You already know that your bills are more than you make. If you already know that, you might as well have it all in writing. I'm sure you've heard this before, but a budget really helps.
I've got to ask you a question. You said that your bills total more than your income, you're thinking about consolidation, but you don't want to hurt your credit like that? Do you see where I'm going with this? If you don't want to ruin your credit, that means your credit must be good. But if your bills are more than your income, then you're taking a hit somewhere else. Are you behind on utilities, insurance, rent, etc? I think I'd be more concerned about fixing this problem than my credit score. You'll probably find other people who will tell you that your credit score is the most important thing in the world, but if you don't make enough money as it is, then not fixing this problem is eventually gonna catch up with your credit score. Besides, your great credit score didn't keep you out of this mess, did it? Maybe if your credit score wasn't so great to begin with, you wouldn't have been able to charge so many things. Once again, it's just a thought, others may disagree.
Not knowing anything else about your situation, I would seriously consider credit counseling. I would at least talk to someone about this. I'm telling you man, it will make you feel so much better.
Believe me, it's not the end of the world. If you sit down, think this out, get some help, make a plan, stick to it, it will work out. It will be tough but it will work out. It will probably take a while, but it probably took a while to get into the mess your in.
I really wish you all the best in the world with this. Know you're not alone with this. There are so many people on here who are just chomping at the bit to help you with this.
Take care of yourself, good luck, God Bless and keep us posted!

I think I will contact the people here for a free consultation. My wife and I are in this together for sure.

I know that it will take some time to work back out of this, but it really is the only option from what I can tell. I guess I just need to go through how this works and understand what I am getting into. We learned our lesson and are paying the hard way now for the vacations and lifestyle that we were living for the past 5 years.

I'm a pretty easy going person and luckily so is my wife, so I know we can manage this together.

What are the hardest things to deal with when going through a consolidation? I can see the benefits (lower payment, one place to send your payment, and lower intrest - let me know if I am making the wrong assumption on any of those). But what is the bad side of this, if any? I do appreciate the encouragement and the experience that you all have. thanks.

Sorry - just realized that I'm not logged in, but this is dieharddetroitfan. Thanks.