I maxed out all my credit cards

[Anonymous]

NASA credit union actually denied me a couple weeks ago.

[SuperKirby]

OP, I once maxed out all my CCs before, at about 11K total.  It was A LOT of money for me especially because I was a student. Every year I said I will work hard and get it down but it never worked because I kept telling myself "ahh, once I get a good job it'll go down". Well, I got a good job and because I had that good job, I kept spending more and more. That 11K never went down and eventually, because of my awesome job, that debt went to 33K (I kept getting CLI increases because of my higher income and I was paying off large amounts at a time but at the same time spender more. Yet, they still kept giving me high Auto-CLIs). 

Basically, once a spender, always a spender. I always "had an excuse" saying "well, I really need this car now, I really need this couch now, once I get everything I need, I can finally pay it off. I make good money and will pay it off later". Guess what, that's the mentality that will make you broke like every American, and for the rest of your life!

Point of story is, I eventually, and forcefully told myself "no more". No matter how much I needed that watch, how much I needed that car, or book, or coffee maker, I just stopped buying ANYTHING.  It is a life choice and hard passionate decision you have to make, just as hard as an obese person losing weight, or the smoking addict needing to quit. If you do it, you will live a truly, graceful life. Please PM me if you have any questions or concerns. 

[jamie123]

SuperKirby, that was very well said.

I've been there too and you just have to say, "Enough is enough! I'm not buying anything else!"

Life will truly become so much more enjoyable when you stop chasing the latest thing that you just have to have.

[fot1]

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@d170 wrote:

First, sit down and create a budget.  See if you can cut some things out.  IE cell phone cable etc.  I've had to go prepaid and we got rid of cable saving a little over  100$ month.  We now use Netflix and Hulu plus and I give a friend 15$ to use their comcast log in for other shows.  Next groceries.  Coupon.  I'm not saying sacrifice healthy decent food but, for us, buying in bulk and meal planning helped ALOT.  we pack lunches and don't eat out too often.  (Once a month a treat is Qdoba at 20$)  Cut out  the coffee if you do that.  That was also 160$ a month minimum blown.  Creating and looking at a budget put ALOT of things in perspective.  Contact your utility company and see if they can put you on any programs. I wish you the best and I'll see if I can find one of the budget planners I started off with and seen how in the red I was. It can be both scary yet eye opening and a lot of diligence and sacrifices  will have to be made but it can be done.  I wish you all of the best.  

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I second this one...   I did this to both get out of debt and to save money for a house down payment.. I dropped Cable for Netflix, stopped the fast food,  Cooked a lot of Chicken, rice, potatoes and top Ramen. It sucked but GF and I could eat for a week for $20 with those items..( plus can a soup or bullion cubes or something small added.)....

[amysmith9876]

Thanks!. I am going to make my budget this weekend. I tried to cut the cable off since we have Netflix but I am on a 2 year contract. So I am cutting Netflix off. I cut one cell phone off yesterday also. The worst part of this whole thing is I have a vacation planned out of the country in December. I will be using my paycheck money for the remainder of the trip the entire month of October and November. I already have all the plane tickets purchased and hotels, all non refundable. So I basically cant start saving more until my first paycheck in January. I will have about $600 a month then to pay on credit card bills, every month. I have decided not to even think about buying a car until I have a few of those cards paid off. For groceries I will just ise Peapod. I really learned a lesson from this. It really sucks.

[amysmith9876]

My family members use my Netflix account for their tvs. They wont be happy lol.

[taxi818]

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@Anonymous wrote:
My income is 50k a year. If I get a car note I wont have enough to pay more on my cards. Then again if I dont have a car I will be asking family member to take me to the grocery store every weekend. I do that now (the ones I helped) and they said they cant keep doing it.

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Are you kidding/.??? they are the reason your cards maxed out and they don't want to take you to store for groceries. sometimes family can be the worst. time to look out for numero uno.

[taxi818]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@-Kenny- wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I found myself in a very similar situation a few months ago. Pretty much all my credit cards were maxed. I had just enough available each month to cover that month's interest. I even met with a BK lawyer...that's how bad I was. In the end, I got a couple of consolidation loans (no bank would approve me for the entire amount, but I managed to get two loans that equaled up to the amount...just some food for thought). LendingClub was actually one of my lenders. The rate isn't great, but it's better than 20%+ that some cards are charging.

While I wasn't able to consolidate all my debt, I did managed to consolidate a huge chunk of it, to the point where it's manageable. Just stay the course. As others have said:

* Analyze your spending and create a strict budget. It may be very difficult, but at this point, sounds necessary.

* Strong-arm those friends/family that you helped. You may lose a couple of relationships, but if that's the case, you don't need them in your life anyway.

* Strongly look into consolidating debt, but don't get too comfortable. Just because you get a loan and you have a few hundred left over after paying off your CC's, don't go splurge.

* While I've never done this, perhaps contacting one of those credit counseling services may help. You're borderline about to default, so you've got little to lose. I'm not sure if/how that affects your credit, though.

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I would agree with everything you've stated except the last part. I've refrained from posting because I wanted to say something similar, but didn't have the time to post it. The reason why I strongly do not suggest credit counseling services is that they do everything that you can do.. you can choose to stop paying your cards and then try to negotiate a payment plan or pay for deletion--- this isn't advisable unless you want to ruin your credit for a while.

The biggest thing for the OP to realize is this: you've got to change your spending and you've got to change it now. No more buying what you want.. only what you need. It will be hard, but you absolutely can get through it.. you placed yourself here by choosing the make the decisions that you did. Look at those people that you helped and request some or all of it back.. if they can't do it immediately set up a payment agreement with them. If they don't want to do this, remind them what you did for them (with the only caveat being if it was a GIFT that you did on your own without them asking or telling you they'd pay it back...)  No more excuses.. it's going to be very freeing when you actually turn this all around if you just commit to it.

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Yeah, that's why I said I wasn't sure how it affects your credit. I've heard it can negatively affect you, but I've never done it, so I can't speak from personal experience. Thanks for the confirmation.

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Well my brother maxed out all his cards. he is at about 90 percent. on 11 credit cards.

very little left.

his score went from 732 down to 590. but the good thing is he has not missed payments. or even been late. so i truly beleive that as soon as he can get it down. because now is done with the other debts he had. accident where he had to pay. now he can focus on credit cards. i think his score will be stronger than ever because utilziation has no memory. good luck op

[taxi818]

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@fot1 wrote:

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@d170 wrote:

First, sit down and create a budget.  See if you can cut some things out.  IE cell phone cable etc.  I've had to go prepaid and we got rid of cable saving a little over  100$ month.  We now use Netflix and Hulu plus and I give a friend 15$ to use their comcast log in for other shows.  Next groceries.  Coupon.  I'm not saying sacrifice healthy decent food but, for us, buying in bulk and meal planning helped ALOT.  we pack lunches and don't eat out too often.  (Once a month a treat is Qdoba at 20$)  Cut out  the coffee if you do that.  That was also 160$ a month minimum blown.  Creating and looking at a budget put ALOT of things in perspective.  Contact your utility company and see if they can put you on any programs. I wish you the best and I'll see if I can find one of the budget planners I started off with and seen how in the red I was. It can be both scary yet eye opening and a lot of diligence and sacrifices  will have to be made but it can be done.  I wish you all of the best.  

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I second this one...   I did this to both get out of debt and to save money for a house down payment.. I dropped Cable for Netflix, stopped the fast food,  Cooked a lot of Chicken, rice, potatoes and top Ramen. It sucked but GF and I could eat for a week for $20 with those items..( plus can a soup or bullion cubes or something small added.)....

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Not Ramen. !!!!!! Nooooooo.

[youdontkillmoney]

There's no way around it, unless you get a hold of a lot fo cash to pay off the debt (not by borrowing, having the money free and clear!), get the meat cleaver out and cut the expenses, cut, cut cut, and Cut; pay for food and rent and other basics, and the rest goes towards paying down the debt if you have a stable job, otherwise, devote some towards savings.