My story is simple: work, pay rent and maybe utilities, someitmes I sleep. On occasion I get to eat something. I have huge debt due to health problems that landed me in the hosptial, keeping me for over a week. This resulted in a job change and not being able to make payments due to unemployment. Sixty percent of my income goes to rent, leaving me with very little left to pay the utilities. I am flooded with phone calls and letters wanting payments of $75 or more a month. I can't pay these amounts and am now completely depressed and am in need of some serious help.

Everytime I look for guidance on this issue all of the articles and advice is based on incomes above poverty levels. I would like sound advice for a single income household with a yearly income of less than $25,000. We have debt too and would like to pay if off. Do you have any advice on where to look for appropriate articles and advice for the real poor of this country?

I looked at my credit report and I have I mean horrible horrible report--I would like to find a way to pay off these items but, I am under-employed meaning I am making less than minimun wage and I think that my report is keeping me from getting the employment that I am qualified for.

Hello everyone, My advice on dealing with collection agencies is to NEVER DEAL with them period, do it by writing by mail and have them proof that you OWE the debt that's it. DO NOT GIVE OUT YOUR SSN over the phone, it will auto confirm that it is YOUR debt. If they call you, only give your name and address for them to mail you a letter, nothing more than that then hang up. I agree they are dirty and they do not care about your problems or excuses, save your breath, to not deal with them at all.

We have been using this website at work for anyone seeking employment or better employment. It pulls from all search engines and newspapers, kind of a onestop shop. If you are in this boat it is an awesome site, you can register if you want and they will send you job leads from everywhere to, best thing since sliced bread for us to help those in need of employment. http://www.indeed.com

Is it better for my credit to: 1. Work out a payment arrangement and pay the full amount owed over a long period of time. OR 2. Work out a settlement offer 1 at a time and get them marked "paid for less". Right now either option is better than what I have done over the last year and ignore all bills (was in payday loan hell but as of last week I am finally payday loan free). I just want to work on repairing my credit and the sooner the better. Thanks for any advice you can give.

I had sent a letter to American Collections (collector for my son's medical issues). I complained in the letter about the representative that refuse to give me dates of service and take my insurance information. Obviously they got it, because I received a package of paper in the mail today of atleast 50 pages of copies of hospital bills for my son. There was a letter (a very generic one) with the bills that basically said here's your bills, we take checks and we charge 35.00 if it bounces.

This is kind of long, so I'm going to apologize in advance. My second semester into college, I got a job. As soon as I got a job, the credit card offers started rolling in. I tried to be smart about it but by the end of the semester, I had one card with a $1000 credit limit maxed out. My dad found out and made me close the account and pay it off. I did and thought it was over until the next semester. By the end of that semester, I had 6 credit cards with a combined total credit limit of about $4000, all maxed out.

Paying off one payday loan made it so I had to take another then another. How do you pay these off and be able to afford your normal monthly bills?

No! I'm not looking for another job. Not yet anyway. I've been thinking about going back to school again and if I did that I would need to find a job that would pay well and accomadate my schedule. Is there anyone here that might have some helpful ways to do a resume. I've never had to do one before.