Minimum debt required to qualify for debt consolidation

Go through the student loan consolidation forum here. You will get helpful information on how to deal with your student loans. Since they are in the forbearance stage, many consolidation companies work when you have defaulted on it.

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/student-discussion/index.html

How much is the total debt except student loans?

Most debt consolidation companies won't touch my student loans. I'm frankly not worried about those. My forebearance is good for another 6 months. If I can get some relief from my other debts, I can work out a plan for paying off the student loans, when it's time to pay those. What I really need help with are the medical bills that are in collections. My debt minus the students loans is maybe $4000.

Your debt total is not a problem. You can negotiate with the original company and get a reduced amount. Talk to them and assure regular payments if some extensions are possible. Put your proposal in writing and advance some money to make your deal stronger. If they are willing to work with you, you won't need a professional help. If this doesn't work, PM me. I will send some information.

I was turned down before when I wanted to enter a debt management program because I didn't have enought debt. I ended up going to the nfcc.org website and put my zip code in. It popped up with local non for profit agency in my town and I immediatly made an appointment. They have been very helpful and it's nice because I can sit with them face to face.

Like andyyoung said, try to negotiat with the creditors and see what you guys can work out. Also try to maybe send in minimum payments so that they see you really want to resolve this and an effort is being made.

The debt consolidation firm I talked with yesterday, just officially gave me a "no." I had to call her to get that! She wasn't even planning on calling me to tell me they couldn't help me! :evil: I sent her my credit report last night and she only got a small portion of it for some reason. She never even bothered to email me or call me to tell me she hadn't gotten all of it! My medical bills are divided up into a bunch of small accounts, but they're all from the same place. they're just separated to make my credit look even worse. Anyway, she won't take any of those because they're all under $500. But added up, they're about $1500, and they're all from the same place! Geez, do you have to be 90 million $$ in debt and living on the street before they'll agree to help you?? The problem is I've been so nickeled and dimed on my credit report that I have a million little teeny accounts. Now there's so many of them that I can't manage them myself and I can't get anywhere when I try to talk to them. They just treat me like I'm the scum of the earth. That's why I'm trying to get into some kind of program so I have somebody else helping me deal with these people and consolidating all those accounts into one payment. I checked out the local CCCS near me and called them. They don't have the same types of restrictions on the amount of debt, but the debt consolidation firm from yesterday told me that CCCS really hurts your credit because it shows up on there that you sought third party assistance. How much is going through CCCS really going to hurt my credit? And were they just feeding me a line so I'd give them my business?

Wow, I haven't heard anything about CCCS hurting your credit report, actually I don't think my credit can get any worse...LOL I was in a program about 4 years ago and I saw my credit score go up, I didn't see anything on my report that looked bad because of it.
Maybe she was feeding you a bunch of bull. If anybody knows more about that, please enlighten us.

Yeah, I thought that sounded strange. I went through CCCS about 8 years ago, and they were a godsend. They were so nice and so helpful. And my credit did get better. The only problem I had was a few years after I went through CCCS, I applied for a credit card and got turned down for having been in credit counseling. So I guess the fact that I needed to seek credit counseling in the past made that bank not want to lend to me. The lady yesterday told me that going through CCCS was like declaring bankruptcy because it goes on your credit as a third party assistance, which, according to her, is terrible. Can somebody out there shed some light on this? This debt consolidation firm that just turned me down and fed me this crap is Superior Debt in Nevada. Does anybody know anything about Superior Debt? The lady I dealt with was SO nice, so I was beginning to get hopeful, but then when she decided they couldn't help me, she apparently was just going to ignore me and hope that I go away.

Hi...I'm new, but just wanted to comment on a few quick things here.

First, I've heard about having a "tpa" on a credit report (short for third party assistance). That's what they're probably refering to. Some creditors (not all) look at that as a bad thing. Maybe thats why that credit card company denied you a while back.

Second, when I was exploring debt settlement services (Superior Debt is a debt settlement comp, not a debt consolidator), I had a lot of little charges at the same medical place too. But the ones that I talked to wouldnt include them into their programs because they all had different account numbers and were all under the 500 minimum. They said the creditor wouldnt negotiate on amounts less than 500 and since they were all individual accounts (regardless of being from the same place) they couldnt be lumped together.

Lastly, depending if youve been late at all already on any of your outstanding accounts, your fico score might already be in the toilet. As a result, anything you do (debt settlement, cccs, bankruptcy etc), other than simply not paying your bills, would be a step up, fico-wise.

Just thought I'd throw in my two cents, for whatever its worth. Good luck!

Thanks for telling me my credit score is already in the toilet. Like I didn't already know that!

your better off taking the heat and doing it on your own. anything a debt consolidation firm does with a collection agency you can do too. why pay another middle man your already paying a collector. debt settlement completely tore my credit to shambles allowed accounts to charge off settled on them and didn't pay minimums on accounts already in good standing puttin gthem in a terrible standing. I've worked with 4 differen't settlement programs. terrible. just seeing every single day that someone's credit is in shambles when they sit there thinking they are ok. Better off taking a bankruptcy