Hi all. This may be long, so please bare with me. I am looking for a reputable DMP to enroll in. My credit score went from 760 in May 2014 to 540 in September 2015. Basically, in May 2014, my fiance' and I moved from a cheaper less desirable area to a slightly more expensive, more desirable part of the city. On paper, we thought we could manage. However, that was not the case. There was a $300 rent increase and about $150 electric bill increase since we were on the top floor of the apartment building. Needless to say, we used a lot of credit to help supplement our income. Not to mention, I had a medical concern come up and used credit to pay the bill as I have a high deductible plan with my employer and had not met my deductible. Our income is about $67k between the both of us. We did move into a more affordable place, but again in a less desirable area in June 2015. It cut the rent $200 and the electric bill dropped significantly, But Our CC debt is now about $15k. We were maintaining the minimum monthly payments and were never late until August. I made half payments on two CC's which resulted in late fees and it has basically snowballed from there. The minimums are now in the $80's-$120's, a lot of them because the interest free period expired. We have not used ANY of the cards since August.
We have been making small payments here and there, but it's not really helping and now one of the cards has cut the limit right to the balance causing a over the limit fee. I should mention that we have three children, one of which is in a private school and are in after school programs. We don't have cable, but do have Netflix and Amazon Prime. We do have the internet as my teenager in the private school has an internet class and does a lot of homework online. We ate out ONCE last month, and it was Little Caesers $5 pizza. We take sandwiches to work for lunch. My children take lunch to school. I have put things for sale on Ebay and either I am not pricing the item right, or no ones in the buying market. We explored one of us getting a second job, but we work opposite shifts now, and we don't have a babysitter (no family in the area). We are backed against a wall. So, I began searching for a DMP and found Greenpath. However, they could only offer $790 per month for 48 months. This wont work for us. I was hoping for more of a payment around $400-450. Greenpath was the only one I found and had good reviews. I've heard about Care One Credit but their reviews are all over the place. Can someone direct me to another DMP that is reputable and some advice on how to handle our current situation? Thanks!
