First of all, let me just say that I am perfectly aware that I got myself in into this mess and have noone to blame but myself. My credit sucks.....bad. I fell into the classic trap in college. I got a credit card and a girl friend at roughly the same time. It was just too easy, you know? The damned thing did everything from pay my phone bill, to pay for dinner, to make sure I could get something nice for everyone at Christmas. I used it for everything and, of course, dug myself into a hole. I'm also over a year out of school and have to start paying my loans back. I say start because I had to get a forbearance right off the bat because I couldn't afford it. Throw in my car payments, rent, etc....I have to make quite a lot of money just to break even. A lot for me, anyway. And, as a non-union actor, that kind of money is hard to find. I can't quit acting and work a couple of jobs for a while while I pay back some of the money I owe because that would kill my career. I've got a nice bit of momentum going, career-wise, and I can't afford to lose it now. However, I can't afford to pay these bills either. The latest problem has been that, due to missed and late payments, my credit card is over it's limit, which means I get charged a fee every month for being over my limit. Along with the normal service fees, that means that, althought I haven't actually used the card in almost two years, I'm still falling farther and farther behind due to monthly charges. I honestly don't know how I'm going to pull myself out of this hole. Does anyone, by any miracle, have some advice for an idiot who is having to pay for his mistakes? ------------------ Sometimes I think I'd be better off dead. No, wait, not me...you. [This message has been edited by Gascon (edited October 12, 2000).]
There really is no easy answer, I'm afraid. You're better off just trying to ride it out than doing something like declaring bankruptcy. As a matter of fact, in some ways, you're better off not paying your credit balance at all and just riding out the seven years rather than trying to make payments and keep up. The seven years start when the payments first fall in arrears. Getting back on track and paying for a few months only starts the clock over. It sounds like you don't need the card to live your life (you haven't used it in two years). Though you'd likely not be able to get another card for many years if you just let this one go, if you really having trouble keeping up the payments, you might just consider defaulting on the card. The company will write off the debt in a few months. You'll have to deal with years of calls from collectors, but you may have that going already. (And in a couple of years if you are in a better place financially, you can offer the collectors to pay a small part of the bill to settle the entire outstanding amount). What you do not want to do is declare bankruptcy. There is nothing that a bankruptcy can do that will really help you, and bankruptcies stay with you worse than simply defaulting here and there does. Somebody else probably has some better advice, but that's my wisdom from my experience in the seven years since my divorce years ruined my credit. ------------------ Houston Sports Board DFW Sports Board
best advice would be to only pay the minimum on evry bill. also, if you are making payments on a car, than im sure the bank is making you pay a **** load of insurance. to save a ton of money, i would sell my car and buy a nice used nissan, honda, or toyota. for about 2000 you will have a good reliable car for 2-5 years. get the cheapest insurance possible. i pay only 75 bucks a month and im a 25 yr old male in NY. im sure insurance is way cheaper in houston. ohh and dont get into an accident, because with insurance you get what you pay for. im sure that if i get into an accident my company will laugh at me. by changing the car situation you would be saving 2500-3500 a year in insurance + payments (well those are NY #s, im sure its diff in TX) by the way your first mistake was to think a collage degree would help you be an actor. good luck ------------------
Another thing you can do is call your credit card company and arrange monthly payments. When you do make sure to cancel it. Don't compound the problems by keeping it active. Disable it, destroy the card and start paying it off. ------------------ Save Our Rockets and Comets SaveOurRockets.com
Spend, spend, and spend all you can....then declare bankruptcy and all your debts will be washed away. It ain't that tough to get on with life either, like renting a house and stuff. There's just so much out there now that bankruptcy won't kill you like it used to. God Bless the USA.
Call a Credit counselor. Most cities have them free of charge. They will tell you exactly what to do. Don't worry about it, you can fix your credit and get out of your problem. A lot of people run into the same problem. A lot of people here in DC. The counselor will help you big time. It's not that bad. But you do need to kill that card first. That's the most important step. The girlfirend thing. Let it be a lesson. And don't do it again. The girl can pay half. You just haven't let her. ------------------ humble, but hungry.
"by the way your first mistake was to think a collage degree would help you be an actor." VOR, You sound like my dad. I suppose you could say the same about going into almost any occupation. geez. Gascon, You sound like me about 10 years ago. Right down to the girlfriend. I also got into trouble with credit cards (paying house bills that was run up by my slacker college roomates that never payed me back). The only advice I can offer is, DON"T ignore your student loans and let them default. Man, that is the worst thing I did. I've been paying on them for about 4 years now (and haven't been late or missed a payment), but before I just ignored them thinking "oh they'll go away". Guess what? They don't. Boy do they don't. I had about 8 grand in loans and after running from them for 6 years, it grew to 19 after interest and penalties. It does get better. Just be careful. ------------------ 'Deeds, not words, shall speak me.'
My advice is to heed the advice of Jeff and PSJ. Also, avoid a bankruptcy. It stays with you a long time. It CAN affect your employment and WILL affect your future purchasing ability. For example, if you get/have a job which requires a government security clearance, they ask about that. Good Luck. ------------------
I too suggest Debt Consolidation. These folks will take all your debt and put it in one bill and you pay one low monthly payment for like 3-5 years depending on the size of your debt. I did a Debt Consolidation and saved hundreds of bucks in interest alone! There are several of these type places around. You can also do a web search for Debt Consolidation and you should come up with several options. One I used was GE Capital Finance. There's also CCCS Consumer Credit Counseling Service. The service type places, are usually free and there's no shame in doing this. Like others have posted, just be sure to NOT use the cards, pay off your debt and then cancel all those accounts. I have paid all my debt and now only have 2 emergency credit cards and now just pay cash or debit. If I ain't got the money, I don't get it. I wish you the best of luck. rockHEAD ------------------ *** THIS SPACE FOR LEASE ***
Be careful about debt counselors, however. Even the federal agencies who do this report that to credit bureaus, so, in some ways, it harms your credit. If you are that far behind, then it doesn't matter I guess. Try working with the company first. ------------------ Save Our Rockets and Comets SaveOurRockets.com
mc mark and all, i was watching some news show like 20/20 a a few years ago and they were doing a segment on persons not repaying their college loans....ever. Since there was no way to force them to pay, these people...who had graduated college and gone on to become doctors, etc. just ignored their loan situation. SO, what happened is 20/20(or whomever) went around following up with these people...you know..to catch up with them and get that "in your face" interview as to why they hadn't payed back their student loans. Some of these people were in their 40s and 50s and were very successful. My question is how can anyone get away with this? What would happen if you continued to ignore these loan payments? Would you get away with it? I suspect that your credit would be horribly bad but, judging from how these people were doing with their fancy cars and house, you could never tell that by looking at them. Has anything changed to prevent ex-students from defaulting on their college loans? thanks, Surf ------------------
Gason, I've been in a similar situaion. What I've found works for me is applying for credit cards with introductory rates around 2.9-3.9% and transferring the balance to a new card before the intro period expires. The good points are that you are paying a very low rate on the money you owe. The bad points are that you have to apply for a new card every 4.5-6 months and transfer the balance to the new card(s). Also, if you do this be sure to cancel the card when the rate goes back up. It can be a hassle to do this, but if you keep up with it, you can save ALOT of money. Currently I am saving about $60/mo in interest and have paid my credit card down from $9000 to about $6000 in a few months. It would be even less, but I use my card from time to time. Good luck! ------------------ Too often, we lose sight of life's simple pleasures. Remember, when someone annoys you it takes 42 muscles in your face to frown, but it only takes 4 muscles to extend your arm and pimp-slap the mother****** upside the head!
That sounds like a pretty good savings idea there, Rocketsgimp. But, damn....that is quite a balance you got there . Indeed . Updated: Uh...sorry...I caught that afterwards...reference to prior poster should be Rocketspimp. A pretty big difference there . Surf [This message has been edited by Surfguy (edited October 13, 2000).]
An added note, to improve your credit score, there is an easy way that doesn't cost anything or require you to charge or transfer. Your credit score is largely comprised of what is called a credit to debt ratio. Which is how much credit in dollars you have been issued versus the dollar amount you owe to your creditors. So, say if you have been issued $50,000 in credit, but $45,000 of that is owed to creditors, there goes your score. An easy way to improve this number is to open up credit card accounts, and charge nothing on them. Leave the accounts open, but don't use the cards. This increases your credit issuance figure, and does not change your debt amount. So you could be looking at $60,000 in credit issued, and $45,000 in debt, thus improving your credit score quite a bit. ------------------ There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
Until very recently, student loans were not reported to the credit bureaus. The law was only changed within the last ten years to add another way to compel people to pay back their loans. Be careful with those credit counseling places, too. Several of the ones through the lawyers are actually having their customers declaring bankruptcy and many of those customers aren't aware they are doing that. So, if you go to any credit counselor, you have to pay attention to what's happening (you should pay attention anyway). Jeff's got good advice about contacting the credit card company and trying to work something out with them. They want to get paid, and many card companies are more than happy to work with people to get that debt paid. You may have to talk to several different people before you get what you want, but it does often pay to be persistent. ------------------ Houston Sports Board DFW Sports Board
I was in the same boat. I ruined my credit because they gave me a card at 18. What i did was get rid of the cards and slowly paid them off. My credit was ****ed for 7 years but it actually was for the best. By my late 20's it all disapeeered and everybody wanted to give me credit. My advice: Ditch the cards and pay them off. You HAVE to cancel them and make a payment plan or else you will NEVER get them paid off. Minimun payments are evil. They are a trap. You will incur about the same amount in interest EVERY month. So basically you not paying off anything but the monthly interest fees. Just remember, it's not your money. If you can't pay something off in a month or two, then you can't afford it. Credit cards area crutch. they give you a false sense of security. Your best bet is to use a check card. It acts just like a credit card except it uses YOUR money in you bank account. Just bite the bullet for 7 years and get your stuff paid off. You will need all the good credit that you can get when it comes time to buy a house and everything that goes in it. ------------------ RocketFuel is dead!
You've got some pretty good advice above (Except for the default thing.) I know what you are going through. If you only had one college card, it probably isn't all that bad, because the limits are only so high. Maybe $2,500? It's better to work out a payment plan than default, because you'll pay a lot more down the road. Not to mention, you won't be able to buy a house, get a loan on a car, and will be limited on the type of apartment you can rent. Also, if that's it, your credit isn't really that bad. People have much worse. A few late payments on one credit card isn't going to kill you. Most of the time, they won't even report it as long as you don't let it get more than a month late, as long as you keep paying. In fact, if you can make at least the minimum monthly payment (and get the balance back in line) your credit will be pretty good in a year, with all of the late payments more than 12 months old, and the three loans current. In two years, if you keep everything current, it won't even matter. Make a budget, planning your expenses, and don't charge anything else. Jeff's payment plan suggestion is excellent. In fact, recognizing the problem at this stage puts you ahead of a lot of people. ------------------ Stay Cool... [This message has been edited by dc sports (edited October 13, 2000).]
"In fact, recognizing the problem at this stage puts you ahead of a lot of people." dc truer words were never spoken! ------------------ 'Deeds, not words, shall speak me.'
