What do I need to do
Date: Sun, 01/11/2009 - 13:48
After a divorce and having to start over at 50 I have had a struggle. I am self employed and love what I do. My BF and I have a flooring installation and sales business. Due to his credit, I put all of this in my name and am a sole prop.
The CC are personal cards, not business. Now with the economy although we are busy, we could be busier. Also due to some choices we made and now know that they were mistakes my CC have gotten out of control. A year ago I was sitting good.
We started the business thinking that since we were an unknown we couldn't make people pay us up front for the materials we were buying them for their jobs. Well you can see where this went.... a couple of times people just didn't pay and then on more than a dozen occasions the jobs would get pushed back sometimes a month or more then I was sitting with this on CCs and also not getting paid for the install.
One thing led to another and I robbed Peter to pay Paul but then Peter never got paid back.
So here I am about 5 or 6 cards, what steps do I need to do and in what order to figure out what to do next. I just don't think I can afford the debt settlement programs at this point. Right now I have no savings at all and can't predict how much income I can put back each month.
I have a medical condition that is a problem for me in many traditional jobs so that is why being self employed is working great.
I am buying a house on contract. It is old and needing fixed up but I will have it paid for in 2 1/2 years and don't want to lose it. It is all I have. Seriously I don't want to lose my house.
Please help me.
Robbing Peter to pay Paul obviously is a problem. I doubt a deb
Robbing Peter to pay Paul obviously is a problem. I doubt a debt management program will work but worth checking. Look into a settlement plan as well. It will take a hit on your credit yes but the reality is you're 50 years old, you don't want to be paying on unsecured debt for the next 10-20 years, you want to start accumulating wealth; the first step in doing this is to get out of debt as fast as you can. Credit's resilient, it does bounce back. However the other problem is that the business and lines of credit are in your name due to his credit. Look into your debt relief options, weigh them out, and make a decision.
I have redone my business the last few months and now have start
I have redone my business the last few months and now have started making all my customers pay me for their carpet, pad, flooring in advance before I will buy it, so basically, I am paying cash.
The only problem I see is if I am made to close my checking account. I am considering opening another personal account if Ican get one opened before everything gets real bad for me.
Other than that I am buying my house on contract and it is not deeded to me yet, it is still in the owners name. So that might be good.
I want to get this resolved so I can quit worrying about it. I have never been through this before.
Good for you you're making the correct steps. Look into settlem
Good for you you're making the correct steps. Look into settlement, it won't hurt and does help in eliminating your debt pretty fast. In the meantime continue to do what you're doing by paying your inventory up front in cash. One of the cardinal rules is to get out of debt, you have to stop getting into debt.
I guess what I need to know is how to deal with the credit card
I guess what I need to know is how to deal with the credit card companies that are calling me. Do I not talk to them for a little bit yet or what do I do? I am a little behind this month due to the holidays and it is going to take me a few weeks to have some decent income coming in again. I hate to tell them I can pay something if I can't. I just don't know how to proceed from here.