Help please, feel like I am drowning.

How is your overall credit score at present! Have you written the CC company and tried to explain your situation and why it is impossible to go with their plan? Was this counselling service a settlement company or a consoloidation plan. I know that is a lot of questions but I am trying to get a better picture of the situation!

That ok, thanks


Credit score up until was pretty good. I think Dh was 730 and I was 715.


I have called citibank and they couldnt care less about anything we do. They have bene horrible to work with.

it was a credit counseling service. They made a management plan for us to repay at full. Citicard wont even give us much of a break on our apr :(

You did the right thing by trying to make right on your debts. Unfortunately to these CC companies-you are only good to them if you are making your payment.They don't want to hear about hardships.

Our story is a little different but same fallout from the creditors-especially Citibank. Not only do they not work with you-they hound you till you can't take it anymore. I went the DS route but due to our poor economy right now, our incomes have decreased leaving only enough to cover the basics. I have no extra to put away to settle. The job market is not so hot but I am still applying for a 2nd income. It is hard. I worked for years to keep our credit good but in these rough times you need to pay your necessities first and then worry about credit.
Know that you are not alone. Good luck!

In the proposal plan the CC company gave you, I am assuming it included these two cards? If so, your CC plan should be reduced by this amount, for example: your plan was 500 for all your cards - two cards, that won't accept this, each payment was $25 - so start paying the two payments to the cards directly. Now this won't stop late fee's, over the limit fee's etc - but is shows you are doing what you can and may buy you some time or force them in another few months, to actually work with you. So just keep to the plan the Consolidation company setup for you but make these two Card payments yourself - just do it online and then the companies have to accept the payments.

I can't really think of anything else besides this. Because if you don't make any payments you will eventually have to settle these and it doesn't sound like you will be able to save any funds up.

I guess my vote is to make the payment amount the counselor setup and hope these two CC's come to the realization this is all they are getting and they should work with you or they might not get anything at all!

Also - I agree with girlindebt - first and foremost - housing, food, transportation to keep your job - credit score means nothing really if you can't even feed your family! And you can always rebuild your CS later.

Citi IS very hard to deal with. We ended up filing BK because of them :x But that was 11 years ago.

You may need to consider whether your house payment is to high. If your house payment is more than 30% of your take home pay you need to sell and buy cheaper freeing up additional money for day to day expences. Do you have car payments? You need to list your income and debts for us to get a better idea how to help. Remember this, selling things to reduce debt is always a good thing to do, stuff can be replaced. Living pay check to pay check is not worth the stuff. Reducing as much debt as possible is a good way to get out of debt quickly, then you can save and pay cash for stuff much easier. These are a lot of things you don't won't to hear, but if you go this route you will never regret it later.

sorry it took me so long to get back here.

Yes our house payment is too high. I dont have a choice there though. Its complicated, suffice it to say that I made a commitment and I cant get out of it. I also would be further into debt as we wouldnt get what we paid for it now that the market has crashed.

I should be getting a fair amount back with taxes and then dh gets a bonus and a raise in the next 3 months. Hopefully all of the above will make a large dent in our issue. I know at least we will be caught up and then have some to spare after that. We are putting 90% of it to the debt and the rest will go to restore our emergency fund.

Thank you again for all of the advice I really do appreciate it!

Selling stuff is also a great option and one I have been looking into today in fact. I have a lot of stuff that can go.

Thanks again.

Good to hear from you, and with your taxes and bonus sounds like you are on the right track! Also - make sure if you are getting alot back on your refund that you change your deductions, this way you can get more back each check and put that extra amount towards debt instead letting the gov't use it for a year just to pay you back. Sounds like you could use the funds more now through out the year! Good luck

well just got my totals back from the accountant, it was a little less than I anticipated.

It will still get us caught up to date but it wont get us ahead. We owe about $28,000. in cc debt. Part of that was neccesities when he was out of work, part was medical, part was the headhunter ($4000!!) and part was just plain stupid (as if the headhunter wasnt stupid enough).

We now make about $60000. I own my own business and while it is my dream to do this I think it may be time to hang it up and get a job in the same industry, just not working for myself. It kills me to say that but I think its true.

I am going through everything we spend and really getting rid of a lot of the "extra" stuff.
I have cut back on the phone we have, just the neccesities for business now. Our contract is up with Direct TV in 2 months so that will go then. I already do what I can to trim the fat on the grocery bill and neccesities, I coupon, shop the sales, and keep a price book.

I called my mortgage guy today just out of curiosity and our credit scores have dumped into the high 500's :( He said it was due to the late payment but also because our balances got so high, when we get out o fthe debt consolidation we shoudl be fine. He also said that even just getting those paid down a little will help a lot! The good news is our house did not depreciate like I thought. We actually went up roughly $15000.

If it comes to that we may have no choice. It is an absolute last resort though.



Any other ideas? Am I missing a key to trimming the fat?

Thanks again for sticking with these really long posts. I appreciate it.

heres one I thought you all might enjoy. I got a nice woman calling today from Citicard (she must be new) Anyway, I told her that my DC company had taken the payment from my account and it was in the amount of their counter proposal. I also told her that I had sent in a letter saying they were not to call my home or business lines again.

She was very nice and said "may I ask why you decided to go with a dc company?" I said " well if Citi card had been willing to work with us, we wouldnt have had to go this route. Citi, however was not willing to even talk to us when my husband was out of work so I had no choice. It was this or claim bankruptsy" she said "Oh my, I am very sorry for that."


She wa snice and told me that if someone else called that I should tell them that payment was made and everything is noted in the account. She said she also made to note that we put in a written request and that the calls should stop now.