I am an irresponsible college student

[kaylabaylawayla]

So.... I am an irresponsible college student and I have gotten myself into a little credit card debt. I currently have 1 collections account on my CR and balances over 30% with Captial One, Discover, and Nordstrom. I am working to pay off the credit cards I have now, but I need to find a way to not damage my credit for good. Any help/advice given will be greatly appreciated. I will admit, I shop...a lot and that is something that greatly effects my balances. I usually shop before I pay bills and now I am trying to turn that around and find a way to pay off my credit cards ASAP and work to rebuild my credit positively. Will just paying off my balances do this?

[myjourney]

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@kaylabaylawayla wrote:

So.... I am an irresponsible college student and I have gotten myself into a little credit card debt. I currently have 1 collections account on my CR and balances over 30% with Captial One, Discover, and Nordstrom. I am working to pay off the credit cards I have now, but I need to find a way to not damage my credit for good. Any help/advice given will be greatly appreciated. I will admit, I shop...a lot and that is something that greatly effects my balances. I usually shop before I pay bills and now I am trying to turn that around and find a way to pay off my credit cards ASAP and work to rebuild my credit positively. Will just paying off my balances do this?

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Welcome to the forum

Your not the first college student to do this ...so take comfort and bravo for seeking help

Now the tough love ........Stop using your cards and living beyond your means and let's get caught up.

If you would post CC balances and APR% maybe we can find a way out w/o damaging your credit.

When UTL comes down scores will go up and the most practical solution is to work on the highest APR first then the next .

Questions to ask yourself:

Do any of my cards have a BT or 0% promo currently?

If not is my credit good enough now to apply for a new card that has these features?

However if you do this it still means not using your cards (insert tough love again)

[RobertEG]

I presume the debt that is now in collection remains unpaid?

A collection is a major derog, and has significant affect on your score.

If unpaid, it also has potential to get worse if still within SOL, and even if the SOL has expired, it remains as unpaid delinquent debt that will forever have potential negative possiblibites until satisfied.

If your other accounts with relatively high balances are taken care of by paying at least the min each month, and thus avoiding any additional monthly delinquencies or collectins, personally I would focus on paying the collection.  Their high util level can be addressed later provided they dont result in any more lates.

The tried and true first step is normally to make an offer to pay the debt if they agree to deletion of the collection.  That has two-fold benefit.

It removes the collection from your credit report, and thus helps your scoring, and it satisfies the debt. 

I would first consider putting aside enough $$ to make a PFD offer on the collection.  How steep is that debt?

[kaylabaylawayla]

Thank you for the tough love. It is greatly appreciated.

Here it goes..

Capital One: $626.76 APR 19.90%

Discover: $622.40 APR 16.99%

Nordstrom: $1264. 72 APR 27.9%

So obviously I need to start with Nordstrom. The account has already been closed (I know, thats bad...but too late) but I believe that it would be easier for me to pay the other two accounts off the faster, which would leave me with Nordstrom. Is that smart? I checked my CR (credit karma..Im going to pull it from the 3 agencies later tonight) and it has a score of 544. I have a few inquiries from a student loan this month while a few other inquiries have dropped off the report. 

[kaylabaylawayla]

I am kind of confused in terms of the collections account. It has been sold to GC Solutions Limited and I've requested that information be sent to  me to ensure they have the rights to collect on behalf on Chase (the original bank). I haven't received anything from them so far. Its been over 30 days. I want to try to come up with a payment plan (the balance is $5000) but Im not sure if I would be able to request the monthly amount I can truly afford. I dont want my wages garnished and I want to pay this off. 

[myjourney]

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@kaylabaylawayla wrote:

Thank you for the tough love. It is greatly appreciated.

Here it goes..

Capital One: $626.76 APR 19.90%

Discover: $622.40 APR 16.99%

Nordstrom: $1264. 72 APR 27.9%

So obviously I need to start with Nordstrom. The account has already been closed (I know, thats bad...but too late) but I believe that it would be easier for me to pay the other two accounts off the faster, which would leave me with Nordstrom. Is that smart? I checked my CR (credit karma..Im going to pull it from the 3 agencies later tonight) and it has a score of 544. I have a few inquiries from a student loan this month while a few other inquiries have dropped off the report. 

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Have you arranged a payment plan with Nordstrom yet or has it gone to collections already? 

Reason I ask is if you can afford to set up a plan you can string this debt out over a period of time and focus on the Cap1 and Discover cards. Especially since you feel you can pay them off pretty fast and then when paid off up the payments to Nordstrom to pay off faster.

Is Cap1 and Discover Maxed out?

[kaylabaylawayla]

I have not arranged a payment plan nor has it gone into collections. I still pay monthly on the bill. What is the best way to set up a payment plan? Both Capital One and Discover are maxed out. The limits are $500 each and I just paid $100 on each which hasn't posted yet. 

[myjourney]

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@kaylabaylawayla wrote:

I have not arranged a payment plan nor has it gone into collections. I still pay monthly on the bill. What is the best way to set up a payment plan? Both Capital One and Discover are maxed out. The limits are $500 each and I just paid $100 on each which hasn't posted yet. 

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Set up a payment plan that you can afford keeping it as low as possible yes the interest will hurt and ask can the interest be waived or reduced to help ....

It never hurts to ask.

This should keep it from going to collections and giving you time to bring Cap1 and Discover down below 100%

Once those 2 are paid off channel all that money to Nordstrom until paid

[kaylabaylawayla]

Once again, thank you.  I will be setting that up later tonight

I do have another question. This is my last year of school and I need a student loan for $15000 which is my remaining balance to graduate. I have applied for scholarships and have not received any and I've used all of my financial aid (schools financial aid is terrible and supposedly stretched compeltely) I've already applied to Sallie Mae and I've been denied. Should I try somewhere else? and where? Someone said Wells Fargo. I have a cosigner with a pretty good CS upper 675-700. Would Wells Fargo be a good choice and do you think my chances are good?

[myjourney]

I can't help with that one but there is help here on the forum 

Go to the student loan forum and post for best results.

I would have suggested Chase but just read yesterday that they are no longer doing student loans effective immediately unless the loan has already been filed....Sorry