logo

Debtconsolidationcare.com - the USA consumer forum

Feels Hopeless and helpless about now. ? on consolidation

Date: Mon, 05/01/2006 - 22:52

Submitted by anonymous
on Mon, 05/01/2006 - 22:52

Posts: 202330 Credits: [Donate]

Total Replies: 4


Okay folks. here it is. Wife and I married in 2001. Our financial affairs brought together, terrible. Bankrupcy in 2003. Afterward still had about $10,000 debt.
Cruise along awhile, start getting small credit cards. Idea was to use for Xmas and pay back with income tax refund. First year it worked okay. But, it snowballed somewhat. Now have six cards that total $3000 in limits, but, total balance is $3880. Of course they want the $880 overdrawn payments now and we get about $80 a month on each tacked on for being overdrawn and late fee on payment. On top of this, we have about $5500 worth of unpaid medical bills. That is after insurance payments. And together we have 3 student loans. One is in the process of being put into the William D. Ford program. One is in forbarence until June and the other I'm unsure of right now. I also have a loan out against my retirement account that is being repaid at $50 a payday (every two weeks) for about another three years before it is paid off. I also pay about $85 a month to my ex-wife for a debt that I incurred in our divorce that I was unable to get out of her name. That one will last about two more years. Okay that is the debt side of the equation.
On income side, we are barely keeping basic bills paid, such as electricity and rent. Only real "luxury" is high-speed internet access at $43 a month. I make, what I think is really good money, just under $30 an hour making maps for the U.S. Government. However, I have lots of kids. one daughter that lives with my ex-wife and I pay a little over $400 a month child support for (it should be more according to the worksheet, but she settled for that amount), I have 3 step-sons. One is 20, but still ends up costing us financially (Mom doesn't quite get it yet). One who is 17 and we will lose his $600 a month child support in August when he turns 18. One who is 12 and his dad only pays about $175 month in support. I doubt the courts would make him give us anymore and I doubt I could get my wife to take him to court to try. I have one adopted son who is 14 and then we have 2 sons that are ours. Ages 4 and 2. Total there is 7 kids. Six of which are under 18 and we have some legal financial responsibility for. Fortunately, we have no car payments. We own 3 vehicles outright, even though none of them is worth much and one is for sale. I'll only get about $500 or so for it when it is sold. It costs us a bit over $300 to live, after normal bills. This amount includes gas, food, clothes, medical co-pays and the like. That seems high but with this many mouths to feed, it is up there. I sometimes think that could be lessened. But, when I sit down and examine what we actually do spend money on each week, we maybe could save $30 a week and that would be cutting out stuff for the kids, such as renting movies. We almost never go to movies and such. Seems we never can afford much. A couple of months ago the child support I pay was increased to the $400 amount I mentioned before and that raised it by $300 a month. It has been since then that non-essential bills stopped getting paid.
I'm terrified of what is coming up in the August/ September timeframe. First off, we will lose $600 income in child support when the 17 year old turns 18. Second, we live in a hot weather climate and it is in this time of year that our electricity bill normally jumps to over $500 a month. Since electric rates have increased, I'll be surprised if our bill doesn't go above $600 for one month in that time frame. In years past we have always run into financial difficulties in that period and I have always been able to do something that raises $3000 or so to get us caught up. But, this year I have nothing left to liquidate and give us a cash infusion like in years past.
Seems pretty bleek to me and I'm at my wits end. I've been thinking of getting an extra job. But, I'm not sure it would make enough money to make much of a difference. I know I am having a difficult time putting some of these pieces together in a solution because I feel so discouraged about things right now. I'm hoping that maybe I can do some debt consolidation stuff to at least get the credit card companies off my back (we do not answer our phone if it is a 1-800 number and we will get at least one call every twenty minutes until 10:00 at night) and perhaps some way to see through this so I can keep food on the table and electricity turned on.

Sorry to ramble so much. It felt better just to dump this all out. Thanks for your persistance at reading this.

Terry!


For some reason this post was posted as being from guest. That'guest' was me a new member. Sorry for nay problems that might create.

Note: since the original post is a "guest" post, I can not edit it. In the above post I was trying to say that we use a litte over $300 PER WEEK for living money.

In re-reading the post I noticed that info was missing.

Terry!


lrhall41

Submitted by Six9GS on Mon, 05/01/2006 - 22:57

( Posts: | Credits: )


Terry--I am so sorry that you and your family have found yourself in this situation...now take a deep breath (this is what everyone told me), call a consolidation firm, they will help with medical bills, credit cards, etc. I hate to hear of anyone having to take another job on, but sometimes you just haveto do what you have to do. I would also suggest eliminating all the extras until you resolve this situation. Kids would rather have power than a rented movie. I know it sucks to feel like your are denying them in anyway, but it wont be forever. I am with T & C and they have worked pretty good for me. WHAT EVER YOU DO....DO NOT GET ANY PAYDAY LOANS!!! They will bury you and your family in deeper debt than you are now...It'll be ok, just hang on, Stephanie


lrhall41

Submitted by c_stephanie on Tue, 05/02/2006 - 07:20

( Posts: 92 | Credits: )


Hi Terry,

I am sad to see you in a situation like this. You need to organize all the debt accounts in a piece of paper and discuss with the consultant who will be calling you back shortly.

You also need to see if you can increase your source of income. Knowing the fact that you will be losing some income of child support in the future, you have to make up that loss with a second job.

Talk to your consultant and get the accounts that need immediate attention and you are getting call from the creditors. The consultant will negotiate with them for a lower pay off and you will be offered easy monthly installments. If you are not able to work out all the accounts, explain your difficulties to the companies that are left out from the plan. Request them for some extensions and assure that you will be catching up the payments soon.


lrhall41

Submitted by john on Tue, 05/02/2006 - 09:54

( Posts: 1231 | Credits: )