Major DEBT ...Need help!

Anonymous · ‎05-06-2015

Hello all!

First off, I'd like to thank you all for all your valuable information you share on these forums. I cannot go a day without reading or learning something new on here. I am in a pinch to help my mom get some breathing room on her credit cards.

Here are some of her stats:

She is currently sitting at 65% overall credit utilization.

Her FAKO scores are 630/644.

AAOA: 4 yrs 3 mos OLDEST: 9 years 3 months

INQ: TU -2 / EQ: -4

Payment history: 100% 390/390

0 baddies or lates

Current cards are as follows:

Barclays (Juniper): 3000/3300

CapitalOne: 4500/5000

Chase: 2900/4000

Discover: 6300/8000

FNBO: 700/1500

Target: 1500/2300

Auto lease: $219/month

She has other cards as well which I didn't list, that do not have any significant balance. With her stats being the way it is, is there any hope for her to get approved for a high limit BT card to move some of these balances over? I know a few of her creditors have lowered her CL I'm sure due to the high balance. I want to get her out of this mess the easiest way possible as she is paying a ton of interest monthly on these cards. Even a card with a 9-12% interest rate or whatever will be better than some of these that are @ 20%+.

Is there any hope of getting approved for something reasonable? I have tried calling a few of the card companies to lower her APR but they wouldn't budge. Any help or insight would be tremendously appreciated. Thank you again in advance.

Anonymous · ‎05-06-2015

Well, based on what I am seeing, your mom currently has $18,900 in cc debt. I am taking a guess that the FAKO scores are probably from CK, am I correct? Since I do not know your mom's entire situation (salary & other info) I can only guess on what she might be able to do.

With having that much cc debt, it is unlikely that she will be able to get approved for another CC with a high enough limit to transfer even a large portion of her balances, although that is just IMO. If she were to apply the lender will look at her utilization and high balances, this could be a red flag to them. She might be able to get a debt consolidation loan though. There are numerous lenders that she possibly could get approved through.

If you don't mind me asking, what is her yearly salary? How much if any, can she pay to help lower her balances?

Anonymous · ‎05-06-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello all!

First off, I'd like to thank you all for all your valuable information you share on these forums. I cannot go a day without reading or learning something new on here. I am in a pinch to help my mom get some breathing room on her credit cards.

Here are some of her stats:
She is currently sitting at 65% overall credit utilization.
Her FAKO scores are 630/644.
AAOA: 4 yrs 3 mos OLDEST: 9 years 3 months
INQ: TU -2 / EQ: -4
Payment history: 100% 390/390
0 baddies or lates

Current cards are as follows:
Barclays (Juniper): 3000/3300
CapitalOne: 4500/5000
Chase: 2900/4000
Discover: 6300/8000
FNBO: 700/1500
Target: 1500/2300
Auto lease: $219/month

@Anonymous has other cards as well which I didn't list, that do not have any significant balance. With her stats being the way it is, is there any hope for her to get approved for a high limit BT card to move some of these balances over? I know a few of her creditors have lowered her CL I'm sure due to the high balance. I want to get her out of this mess the easiest way possible as she is paying a ton of interest monthly on these cards. Even a card with a 9-12% interest rate or whatever will be better than some of these that are @ 20%+.

Is there any hope of getting approved for something reasonable? I have tried calling a few of the card companies to lower her APR but they wouldn't budge. Any help or insight would be tremendously appreciated. Thank you again in advance.

I wouldn't count on any limit large enough to cover ALL of that. I hate to say this, but I think there are only 3 ways out here. One is to look into a P2P loan to consolidate all the balances onto one payment with a lower average APR, But that has it's downfalls such as.....How do you know she won't charge the cards up again.

Two would be BK13 to stop the clock on the interest....There are obvious downfalls to this, but it would stop the haemmoraging.

Three is probably the one where most lessons are learned. Concentrate payments on highest APR balances first and a literal belt tightening. No more going out to eat, No more movie night, No unnecessary expenses and an aggressive paydown plan.

Anonymous · ‎05-06-2015

have you looked into a p2p loan program like Upstart?

She can take out a loan and consolidate all her CC payments into one. Interest rate under 10% would be better than what's she's paying now.

Anonymous · ‎05-06-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
Well, based on what I am seeing, your mom currently has $18,900 in cc debt. I am taking a guess that the FAKO scores are probably from CK, am I correct? Since I do not know your mom's entire situation (salary & other info) I can only guess on what she might be able to do.

With having that much cc debt, it is unlikely that she will be able to get approved for another CC with a high enough limit to transfer even a large portion of her balances, although that is just IMO. If she were to apply the lender will look at her utilization and high balances, this could be a red flag to them. She might be able to get a debt consolidation loan though. There are numerous lenders that she possibly could get approved through.

If you don't mind me asking, what is her yearly salary? How much if any, can she pay to help lower her balances?

Her current annual salary is roughly $40,000. She makes 100-200 payments on all of her cards with a minimum of like $75 due and $60 in just interest. It would take 15 years at this rate I'm guessing.

edited: Yes, her scores are from CK. Her TU scored on capitalone Tracker is 643

Anonymous · ‎05-06-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Hello all!

First off, I'd like to thank you all for all your valuable information you share on these forums. I cannot go a day without reading or learning something new on here. I am in a pinch to help my mom get some breathing room on her credit cards.

Here are some of her stats:
She is currently sitting at 65% overall credit utilization.
Her FAKO scores are 630/644.
AAOA: 4 yrs 3 mos OLDEST: 9 years 3 months
INQ: TU -2 / EQ: -4
Payment history: 100% 390/390
0 baddies or lates

Current cards are as follows:
Barclays (Juniper): 3000/3300
CapitalOne: 4500/5000
Chase: 2900/4000
Discover: 6300/8000
FNBO: 700/1500
Target: 1500/2300
Auto lease: $219/month

@Anonymous has other cards as well which I didn't list, that do not have any significant balance. With her stats being the way it is, is there any hope for her to get approved for a high limit BT card to move some of these balances over? I know a few of her creditors have lowered her CL I'm sure due to the high balance. I want to get her out of this mess the easiest way possible as she is paying a ton of interest monthly on these cards. Even a card with a 9-12% interest rate or whatever will be better than some of these that are @ 20%+.

Is there any hope of getting approved for something reasonable? I have tried calling a few of the card companies to lower her APR but they wouldn't budge. Any help or insight would be tremendously appreciated. Thank you again in advance.

I wouldn't count on any limit large enough to cover ALL of that. I hate to say this, but I think there are only 3 ways out here. One is to look into a P2P loan to consolidate all the balances onto one payment with a lower average APR, But that has it's downfalls such as.....How do you know she won't charge the cards up again.

Two would be BK13 to stop the clock on the interest....There are obvious downfalls to this, but it would stop the haemmoraging.

Three is probably the one where most lessons are learned. Concentrate payments on highest APR balances first and a literal belt tightening. No more going out to eat, No more movie night, No unnecessary expenses and an aggressive paydown plan.

If she does get a p2p loan, would that effect her credit rating negatively? I mean, I know she wants to keep her cards but I always thought these debt consolidation companies negotiate with creditors to lower apr, etc...or is this just a big fat check given to us, pay off her cards, then just make payments on the loan itself? Is that how it works? I know she doesn't want to do anything with the word bank and ruptcy in it as she filed over 10 years ago and was the worst time of her life when my father passed away.

She just gets by on what she makes, being that she has to make hefty payments on these cards monthly and barely scratching the surface on balances. Do you know of any p2p companies that you can recommend?

Anonymous · ‎05-06-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
have you looked into a p2p loan program like Upstart?

She can take out a loan and consolidate all her CC payments into one. Interest rate under 10% would be better than what's she's paying now.

By doing so, does this have any downsides to it besides the risk of potentially charing up the cards again? (Which I plan on taking from her to help)..

Any p2p loan companies you can recommend who are not like those annoying debt consolidation companies that always advertise?

icyhot · ‎05-06-2015

Yes I think if her income is good enough she should be able to get a debt consolidation loan. She'll have one payment but will really have to be diligent in not charging up her cards. If she can't get a big enough loan, get one at least enough to cover the balance on the highest interest cards, then her utilization should be low enough to get a BT card to transfer the rest.

onstar · ‎05-06-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Hello all!

First off, I'd like to thank you all for all your valuable information you share on these forums. I cannot go a day without reading or learning something new on here. I am in a pinch to help my mom get some breathing room on her credit cards.

Here are some of her stats:
She is currently sitting at 65% overall credit utilization.
Her FAKO scores are 630/644.
AAOA: 4 yrs 3 mos OLDEST: 9 years 3 months
INQ: TU -2 / EQ: -4
Payment history: 100% 390/390
0 baddies or lates

Current cards are as follows:
Barclays (Juniper): 3000/3300
CapitalOne: 4500/5000
Chase: 2900/4000
Discover: 6300/8000
FNBO: 700/1500
Target: 1500/2300
Auto lease: $219/month

@Anonymous has other cards as well which I didn't list, that do not have any significant balance. With her stats being the way it is, is there any hope for her to get approved for a high limit BT card to move some of these balances over? I know a few of her creditors have lowered her CL I'm sure due to the high balance. I want to get her out of this mess the easiest way possible as she is paying a ton of interest monthly on these cards. Even a card with a 9-12% interest rate or whatever will be better than some of these that are @ 20%+.

Is there any hope of getting approved for something reasonable? I have tried calling a few of the card companies to lower her APR but they wouldn't budge. Any help or insight would be tremendously appreciated. Thank you again in advance.

I wouldn't count on any limit large enough to cover ALL of that. I hate to say this, but I think there are only 3 ways out here. One is to look into a P2P loan to consolidate all the balances onto one payment with a lower average APR, But that has it's downfalls such as.....How do you know she won't charge the cards up again.

Two would be BK13 to stop the clock on the interest....There are obvious downfalls to this, but it would stop the haemmoraging.

Three is probably the one where most lessons are learned. Concentrate payments on highest APR balances first and a literal belt tightening. No more going out to eat, No more movie night, No unnecessary expenses and an aggressive paydown plan.

If she is serioius about paying down her debts, and you're serious about helping, then she/you need to cut up (a.k.a. SD where she cannot reach it) ALL the credit cards. If you're comfortable, you can manage her cards and her account for her? It's easier if there is accountability with another person.

I once had around $20K in credit card debt. It seemed unsurmountable. But I got through it. Basically did what Nixon wrote at the end: <$10 a day in food, no going out for movies or other paid entertainment, aggressively paying down the debt.

BK DC 4/9/2018
FICO 08 (4/9/2018): EQ 647 EX 609 TU 620
FICO 08 (10/16/2020): EQ 676 EX 659 TU 653

Anonymous · ‎05-06-2015

@onstar wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Hello all!

First off, I'd like to thank you all for all your valuable information you share on these forums. I cannot go a day without reading or learning something new on here. I am in a pinch to help my mom get some breathing room on her credit cards.

Here are some of her stats:
She is currently sitting at 65% overall credit utilization.
Her FAKO scores are 630/644.
AAOA: 4 yrs 3 mos OLDEST: 9 years 3 months
INQ: TU -2 / EQ: -4
Payment history: 100% 390/390
0 baddies or lates

Current cards are as follows:
Barclays (Juniper): 3000/3300
CapitalOne: 4500/5000
Chase: 2900/4000
Discover: 6300/8000
FNBO: 700/1500
Target: 1500/2300
Auto lease: $219/month

@Anonymous has other cards as well which I didn't list, that do not have any significant balance. With her stats being the way it is, is there any hope for her to get approved for a high limit BT card to move some of these balances over? I know a few of her creditors have lowered her CL I'm sure due to the high balance. I want to get her out of this mess the easiest way possible as she is paying a ton of interest monthly on these cards. Even a card with a 9-12% interest rate or whatever will be better than some of these that are @ 20%+.

Is there any hope of getting approved for something reasonable? I have tried calling a few of the card companies to lower her APR but they wouldn't budge. Any help or insight would be tremendously appreciated. Thank you again in advance.

I wouldn't count on any limit large enough to cover ALL of that. I hate to say this, but I think there are only 3 ways out here. One is to look into a P2P loan to consolidate all the balances onto one payment with a lower average APR, But that has it's downfalls such as.....How do you know she won't charge the cards up again.

Two would be BK13 to stop the clock on the interest....There are obvious downfalls to this, but it would stop the haemmoraging.

Three is probably the one where most lessons are learned. Concentrate payments on highest APR balances first and a literal belt tightening. No more going out to eat, No more movie night, No unnecessary expenses and an aggressive paydown plan.
If she is serioius about paying down her debts, and you're serious about helping, then she/you need to cut up (a.k.a. SD where she cannot reach it) ALL the credit cards. If you're comfortable, you can manage her cards and her account for her? It's easier if there is accountability with another person.

I once had around $20K in credit card debt. It seemed unsurmountable. But I got through it. Basically did what Nixon wrote at the end: <$10 a day in food, no going out for movies or other paid entertainment, aggressively paying down the debt.

Yes I am slowly taking control of some of her accounts. I have access to pretty much any and all information I need. She is not telling me no, so I won't stop. I feel bad for her and the situation she got herself in, because a lot of us have been there once. She will not be using the cards anymore, we have already talked about that with her. If she did use them, it was basically to cover ends. i.e. paying X amount monthly towards cards leaves you with pretty much nothing to work with, so she ends up charging again just to keep up, it's a big circle jerk.