Need some advice
Date: Tue, 09/21/2010 - 07:32
Ever since the Spring I've been trying to play catch up and I'm losing ground.
I have 2 credit cards (Chase and Citi) that I have fallen way behind on in payments, and 1 account with Pay Pal which they gave me credit towars online purchases.
If there's any good news with this, all accounts are under $1000 and combined I owe roughly $1800.
Although I receive calls everyday from these companies regarding my past due totals, I've refused to talk with them in fear they'll harrass me into making certain payments that I unfortunately can't handle right now.
Would it be best for me to try and call them myself and tell them that I want to pay but can only afford X amount each month? Or should I do debt consolidation? I want to pay what I can but don't want to break the bank in order to do it as well. Especially since I have rent, bills, car and student loans I'm paying as well.
Thanks in advance for any advice....
Do you have any money set aside that you could use to settle the
Do you have any money set aside that you could use to settle these loans? How behind are you?
Hi OhioGal, thanks for the quick reply. Unfortunately I do no
Hi OhioGal, thanks for the quick reply.
Unfortunately I do not have any money set aside because I just haven't been able to afford to do so. It's a sad and hard reality living paycheck to paycheck, especially when I'm working my butt off 40 hours a week just so I can afford to pay bills and barely live off anything I have left over.
My Chase account is actually closed and I owe $808.
My Master Card (not citi) acct. isn't closed and I owe $822.
My Pay Pal Buyer Credit is $592.91
The Master Card account is the only one that seems salvageable. Although my buyer credit account is not closed I haven't been able to pay since May.
I've been searching around for part time jobs and such to try and help pay but it's hard since I work full-time already. So I'm just trying to weigh my options as best I can, and it's why I'm seeking advice.
Are you paying anything on them at all? The problem I see is th
Are you paying anything on them at all? The problem I see is that, if they agree to a settlement, you're only going to have 90 days (in most cases) to pay it off and the first installment is usually due within 10 days of the agreement. If you don't have any money set aside, that can be an issue. What you could do, if you're paying anything on them right now, is stop paying and try to settle 1 at a time. Then you could leverage the money to pay them off. Even if you're able to settle your highest at 30%, you're still going to have to come up with 3 monthly payments of around $80. Is that something you could make happen?
The master card is the only one I've paid on. In fact I only ow
The master card is the only one I've paid on. In fact I only owe a mimimum of $52 by 10/7 and the account is still not closed.
Chase Card they keep saying I owe a minimum of $300+ even though the account is closed.
The pay pal credit they are asking for a minimum of $82 by next month.
I could do $50 a month for each of these if I can but the problem is since I've had a hard time paying on time with these, they've added late fees and all that other nonsense that the minimums have sky rocketed.
I could probably do a settlement (possibly for the chase card since acct is closed) as long as they give me 90 days to pay it off. Unfortunately short term I cannot afford a few hundred bucks at once.
I keep trying to convince myself that I'll be ok once tax season comes and I can use my tax return to get me by, but who knows how high the balances will get the next 5 months. I need to take some sort of action now without being constantly hassled.
I would call Chase. Tell them you'd like to settle the account.
I would call Chase. Tell them you'd like to settle the account. Offer them 20% over 90 days and see what they say. They'll likely counter with 50% and you can counter. Hopefully you can settle around 30ish% and go from there. If you skip your MC payment, could you swing paying $80-$100 per month for 3 months to pay off Chase? Once Chase is paid, you can then do the same with MC, then with PayPal. My only concern is not knowing how behind you are on PayPal. They may charge you off before you can get to them but, you could just work out a payoff with whatever CA they send you to.