Urgent! Please Help Me!

BTW, this is all credit card debt...

i will blow in a PM to mobile0311.he is an expert on this.

Anyone?

Anyone?

okay,how many cards are we talking?what is the debt per each card?some companies will take there fee for the first few months before negotiating.you can do it yourself,but it depends on the number of cards and how much debt each one carries.as to your first question.yes you can enter debt settlement if you still have a job.most if not all prefer that.they also prefer if you were at least 90days past due as cc companies won't settle on current accounts.just research each place you consider as there are alot of scams out there.

Thanks Paul. I have about 10K saved up. Here's my debt details.
Citi Financial = 4K
Citi = 12K
Citi = 10K
Chase 6K
Chase 5K
US Bank 6K

All of this debt is unsecured debt, however, the Citi Financial card we used for a big purchase.

Here's my strategy.

1) Stop paying both Chase cards and US Bank until settlement offers come through.
2) Keep current with all 3 Citi cards due to the big purchase and my recent balance transfer taken.

What do you think?

well.it sounds good just don't let CHASE and USBANK find out that your keeping the citi cards current.

I heard creditors run credit reports as soon as someone is late to whats up, is this true? If Chase sees I'm current with Citi, what is the likeliness that Chase sues me?

jp123, they check your CR as soon you miss a payment.
if they see you paid others (and they will) your settlement will be a hard to get option unless you are a very-good negotiator.

Sorry I am late. jp123 can you please break down your budget. I would like to know your income - fixed expenses. I want to get an idea of how aggressive of a settlement program you can afford to see if settlement would be beneficial.

Thanks Mobile0311. Here it is.

I make $68K and here's my monthly bills. I bring home after taxes about 4K per month. All of this debt is in my name. I got married last year and my wife has her own financial problems. Actually she was in a car wreck and now has medical bills that I'm trying to pick up. It's consuming all of our income.

1500 mortgage
500 real estate tax
car 600
insurance 230
Utilities 500
Loan 130
groceries 350

As you can see this is just about everything I make, which doesn't include unexpected expenses or my wife's medical bills.

PLEASE HELP!

mobile, lol, i forgot to add on the minimum payments to this. As you can see, I'm in the red by about 400 per month. Please give me your advise. Thanks.

one last thing, I'm trying to get rid of my car, but I'm up side down so I can't really sell it...

you must consider that if you still stay current on some it is true that it will be harder to negotiate. also most cards use that universal code which means if you default on some the intrest rate on the others may rise alot. in my opinion you would be better off to stop paying all of them and get it done. as for your vehicle could you trade it in for something a little more modest? something around 200 month? this will save you another 400 month, or read the paper and by a 1,000 beater alot of good vehicles are going extremely cheap right now. with my refund this year i purchased a 2000 durango (beautiful) trans was out i got it for 800.00 (my husbnad is mechanic cost me 400 in parts, so 1200.00 for the nicest vehicle i have ever owned completely loaded leather seats and all and i sold my crappy van for 1,000 so i essentially got it for 200.00 if you think about it and no payment. people are unloading thier 2 and 3rd vehicles pretty cheap right now rather than fixing them. check out your local newspaper, auctions, and stuff. good luck!

Please mobile 0311, help me!

4k- about the 3800 dollars in fixed expenses. That only leaves you with around 200 a month you can save to eventually use to settle. Thats not really going to be enough to build funds fast enough to settle before all of your creditors try and sue you. Honestly I schedule a consultation with a bankruptcy attorney. It appears you would qualify for a Chapter 7.

mobile0311, I did leave out my wife's income. After her expenses, she brings home around 1300 per month. Does this change your suggestion of consulting a bankruptcy attorney? This would leave us with saving anywhere from 800 to 1500 per month. Again, I'm leaning towards DIY DS. No programs. BTW, you kick ass, I've read your other posts, GOOD STUFF!

one last thing mobile, i already have 10K saved up to do this. Not sure if you know this already...

That changes everything. It appears settlement would be a feasible option. I would try and settle that Citi Financial account first because are a local finance company and can be some what aggressive.

Quote:

I think everyone who got their interest rates raise and or your minimum payments doubled we should all STOP MAKING PAYMENTS TOTALLY! They are trashing our credit scores anyway and eventually are going to take away all our credit, if not already like me. If someone knows how to tweet?? send this message across the world. If everyone stopped making payments... then maybe these credit cards would negotiate on OUR TERMS? They cant takes ALL OF US TO COURT they would go broke......

oh yes they can,and they can win.with your strategy everyone will owe more than they do now,and the credit card companies laugh all the way.nice try.

sadly they would most likely LOVE that scenerio. the only way we really could hurt them would be to pay the balance in full and all protest to never use them again. sadly this could NEVER happen due to the fact that none of us could ever afford to pay them all off all at one time let alone have enough money left to pay cash for everything for say 6 months or so. sadly people are depended on thier credit cards. My scenerio i use every dollar to pay towards them, so in the end when something breaks that needs replaced i have no money saved to purchase so guess what? im using the trusty card. its a never ending vicious cycle.

So What can you do? I'm wating for you answer..Mobile111