scared of screwing this up
Date: Sun, 07/18/2010 - 16:56
My husband and I just this week stopped paying our cc. It was the scariest thing I have ever done. We have always had excellent credit scores, always pay our bills on time but recently have been only able to pay minimum payments. My husband still has a good job but my job had cut hours and cut pay for me for 2008-2009 and finally they laid me off last summer. We were barely squeaking by paying minimums with my unemployment and that just ran out so I just had to set my priorities on which bills get paid and mortgage, food, insurance, utilities have to come first. I know it in my head but I'm still freaking out a little.
We have over $70K in credit card debt and were considering taking a 401K loan of up to $50k to settle the debts. Even at the whole $50K my payments are less than half what my minimums are right now and my husbands job we feel is very secure. Worst case is something happens with his job and we would have to pay the penalties and taxes but I just cant keep spinning in this hamster wheel. I'm not getting anywhere.
Our debts are to Citibank ($17), Chase (2 cards totalling $13K), Bank of America ($28K) and Discover ($15k). Personally I think we'd rather settle earlier in the process for 50% than wait til later hoping for a better deal. I'm trying to plan on when we should start talking to each one about a settlement. Any advice on where to start first and when. Should I really wait til at least 90 days?
Thanks for any help you can give. I appreciate all the advice and sharing of stories on here. Makes me feel better and feel we can survive this.
Thanks,
A
Good luck to you in the process. I would even cash it in and ta
Good luck to you in the process. I would even cash it in and take the early withdrawal hit. Whatever works for you. I have settled over $250k in debt this year at 27% average.
Welcome and we've been in your shoes. You won't be walking dow
Welcome and we've been in your shoes.
You won't be walking down this path alone.
Your priorities are dead on "mortgage, food, insurance, utilities have to come first".
If you are going to start the path to settlement, you can doa lot better than 50% on most of the cc's.
Regards,
King "Kash" Jabba Labba
Dear Scared....I remember not so long ago stumbling onto this bo
Dear Scared....I remember not so long ago stumbling onto this board and I had never even really heard of settlements....I've come a long way and had a lot more debt than you have ......I never had "bad" credit....my score was at 800 when I bought my house 8 years ago....so do not feel alone. My husband lost his business and went a bit crazy trying to make it up with credit card debt.....a lot has happened since then.....first we were going to do bankruptcy ....then I saw this site and info about settlement.....
I agree ....you can do better especially with BOA ....and also Citi.....they both can be settled for 30% or less from what I have personally experienced and observed from others on the board.
I settled at 120+ days ......and I feel I got very good settlements from these ccs. You may want to settle Citi and BOA first....and aim low because I believe Discover is more difficult ...settle easiest cards first ...so you have more money to settle the rest.
Also, I strongly advise you to change your contact info to a cell phone # ......all calls went to my husband's cell which made it much easier on us.....Please keep reading and posting.....I am debtor from CA .....I always have problems with signing in....forget my password or something....so check Jabba's posts.....he replies to us "settlers" a lot.....and you will find info from Shazzers and debt to be free and Bensworld....Lots of good folks who have similar problems due to this horrible economy.....
Thanks so much. I am feeling better after reading more and more
Thanks so much. I am feeling better after reading more and more. This will be a tough time right now but we are finally finding a way out of this mess. Our plan is to tackle B of A and Chase 1st since they may be easiest, then go for Citibank and see what can be done with Discover. I keep reminding myslef this is what's best for out family. I can't pay what I have been and get behind on house or utility payments-makes no sense. My family and my marriage is strong-we will get through to the other side of this.
I will keep everyone updated as we go through this and I'm sure I'll have many more questions as we go.
A
I know it looks hard now, but I think you are going to be surpri
I know it looks hard now, but I think you are going to be surprised at how easy it is. You just have to survive a few months of daily, all day calls. But once you get to about 90 days they usually start entertaining settlements and within 6 months you are done.
Once I had the monkeys off my back and started feeling normal and hopeful again, life really has been great. Business has picked up and I don't worry all the time. You will see the same thing happen.
Good luck and keep us informed!
