topic Re: Credit Card Forbearance? in Credit Cards

Credit Card Forbearance?

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Dec 2017 22:59:42 GMT

Hi, I was curious to see other peoples opinions regarding this and what I should do..

Back in June I had lost my job making about 55k a year. I was out of a job for 2 months until I find something that only pays about 36k a year. So I am short about 20k a year. My bills come out to be $2800 a month and if you do the math I can't afford my bills. I know an answer would be to find a better paying job, but I love what I do, better then what I did making 55k a year. Anyways, I am picking up a second job (recently applied to Walmart), but between life and my siginificant other, we have decided we want to have a child within the year or two. When I lost my job I had 4-6k in savings, well I basically kept pulling from savings to pay my credit card minimum payments and now i have gotten to the point where I am "running" out of money. My current job I work in they have a lot of positions where I can make more money, i just need to go through this program at work for 6 months to a year before I apply and get promoted. Anyways, what I have been leaning towards is talking with my creditors about a forbearance on my cards 6-12 months of no payments, or trying to get my minimum payments below $50. This way it gives me to time save up some money and find myself in a better spot. I will be using my bonuses from work (quarterly bonuses $500-$1900) as well as my taxes each year to help with my debt. Does any body have any advice on what I can do?

I am really looking into the forbearance programs, but before I make those phone calls, how should I go about asking them? I havent missed any payments, but by the looks of it next month i will, below is some cards with high owed amounts...

Capital One: $3000 owed | $3500 credit limit | $94 min. payment

AMEX OPEN: $8600 owed | 9200 credit limit | $236 min. payment

AMEX: $7800 owed | $8000 credit limit | $150 min. payment (reduced interest @ 9.99 until Jan. 2018)

Walmart Mastercard: $6300 owed | $7500 credit limit | $218 min. payment

Paypal Credit: $5300 owed | $5500 limit | $175 min. payment

Here are my bills...

Mortgage: $786

Electric: $75 - Budget Plan (Just got this lowered from $106)

Gas: $63

Water/Trash: $60

Car Insurance: $142 (Just got this lowered from $233)

Cell phone: $71 (I do get provided a company cell phone, so im wondering if i should just use company cell?)

Auto loan - $324

Auto Loan - $269 (I am a cosigner for girlfriend, reason I pay half of her $539 is because her loan is upside down because I put $7000 of a trade in on here auto loan..)

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

AverageJoesCredit — Sun, 03 Dec 2017 23:19:54 GMT

No experience to offer but i wish you the best on your new journey in life and credit.

Just like to add looking at your minimum payment for Walmart is super important for people to see what could happen if you let balances get carried away with Synchrony. My worst fear so i wont make that mistake again, my dad gets killed on all that Sync interest.

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

rprisco — Sun, 03 Dec 2017 23:20:47 GMT

Wow, lots of debt. What are your true fico scores, actually I'd provide info fr your credit reports, inqs, oldest and newest account dates. Have you thought about a debt consolidation or possible house refi to pay down. I bet all creditors will work with ya, but b4 I alerted the creditors, I'd look to consolidate, that would be much better imo and would minimize score impact and u must immediately stop charging.

I hope others chime in and u really need to provide more credit profile info. I would not tell my creditors I have a problem paying until all other options are exhausted.aybe penfed or navy would give a decent loan to pay off and reduce overall payments.

Good luck.

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

CreditCuriosity — Sun, 03 Dec 2017 23:25:35 GMT

Curious what others will say but you basically owe on CC's what you bring in per year which certainly isn't a good thing and your other monthly exepenses are pretty high as well. Hopefully others have some good advise for you although from a birds eye view this doesn't look good. Hopefully the 2nd job will help out also adding a child into the family probably isnt the most wise thing until the ifnances are in order, but that is just my opinion. Best of luck to you and hopefully some good advise will come.

edit: I never advise a bk7, but in your case it might be the answer and an "easy" way out of your short term problems.

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

CreditCuriosity — Sun, 03 Dec 2017 23:29:22 GMT

Also what about your GF and her helping out on the house payment her full car payment and other things where she can help as sure some of your debt comes form her?

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

bourgogne — Sun, 03 Dec 2017 23:59:46 GMT

First off I am really sorry for the situation you are in. unless a miracle happens I don't see how you can get whole here, you have ~$28K in debt + expenses. I think there might be a better place to post this so you will get more exposure, I suppose the mods will do this if this is the case but I think over time it will be hard for you to concentrate at work and enjoy life in general with this over your head. you were on your way before your job loss, it just sealed your fate. I just cannot get my head around that much debt and not being able to address it. as incredible as it might sound you might check into a BK7 and just wipe the slate clean. The BK area is probably where this post should go. good luck, again very sorry for the pickle you are in

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

rprisco — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 00:05:04 GMT

I too wish ya the best and I hope you find a way to pay without bankruptcy and to help your recovery along. Chapter 13 is much better than chapter 7 if it comes to that, sounds like OP wants to pay, so needs to get creative, imo. Bk is the worst and good luck explaining GF car payment.

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

bourgogne — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 00:11:29 GMT

@rprisco wrote:
I too wish ya the best and I hope you find a way to pay without bankruptcy and to help your recovery along. Chapter 13 is much better than chapter 7 if it comes to that, sounds like OP wants to pay, so needs to get creative, imo. Bk is the worst and good luck explaining GF car payment.

@agree, bk is the worst, I just cannot imagine. the prob is that $28K would not be an issue if it were a car @ 2-3% but the card %s are just impossible to get under control. agree that its great the op wants to pay but there is not not enough cash flow to keep this afloat imo. I am no expert, the first step is to find one

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

CreditCuriosity — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 00:40:34 GMT

I just don't know if OP can get approved for a personal/consolidation loan. As essentially OP is maxed on 5 cards I would be shocked if scores were above 620ish even what appears to of been a good credit profile. To get a personal loan with that many maxed CC's is going to be hard if not impossible, but it is something I certainly would look into as paying off the debt vs. the easy way out aka BK7 (which i commend you for looking for a way to pay it off vs. write it off). Although certainly there would have to be many cuts in your lifestyle such as probably getting rid of one car, cell phone is gone since company pays for your other one along with another job at least until you can make 60kish+ a year again along with eating very frugally at home for several years, etc. As another poster stated earlier even when you make 55k a year you were already on a downhill slope with the debt on CC's and other bills.

Keep your head up and more and more people will ring in with other possible solutions. Things that will also help is current FICO's, any past bad history meaning lates or CO/CA's, etc? Any other access to money to help pay off the higest APR cc's or at least get them down aka walmart, etc.

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 01:09:20 GMT

You said your monthly spending is $2800 but your bills only add up to $1790, where does the rest go other than grocery spending? I think there are some discretionary spending there to be had. I would also suggest getting rid of one car for now which will save both in car payment and insurance, add in cell phone, I think you can more than break even with your current income, you just have to be discipline until your income situation improves. Lastly, is your girlfriend living with you? Is she working? If you guys have long term plans together, it might be a good time to combine your resources and work together.

edit: Forgot about CC payments.

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

SBR249 — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 02:51:21 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

I will be using my bonuses from work (quarterly bonuses $500-$1900) as well as my taxes each year to help with my debt.

Sorry to hear about your situation and I wish you the best in getting through this. However, when you say your taxes do you mean anticipated tax refund? If you are anticipating a substantial tax refund or you get one year after year, you should try to talk to your employer about adjusting your withholding, particularly if you pick up a second job. You don't want to give the government an interest free loan for months at a time, especially when you are probably getting hammered by interest charges on CC balances.

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

TimeLBK — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 03:30:09 GMT

I know that plasma centers pay about $200-$300/month for donating it about twice a week.

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 03:32:53 GMT

Sorry for your situation. I suggest cutting expenses and raising income. A second job at a 24 hour Walmart could yield 30 hours a week.

In 2008 and 2009 when everything went bad I had to find a part time job to keep food on the table and keep our business going. I found a company that need a person part time on Saturdays and then got a job for the county teaching people how to get home loan mods and short sales (if needed) to avoid foreclosure. Cutting costs is equally important. I cut cable and went to Netflix and Hulia(sp) My lunch and dinner were not noodles as I had suffered that fate with the Queen of Tightwad but instead each meal was a $1 microwave dinner and iced tea. I personally have to work jobs I hated before. You should not consider adding a child this mix. Many couples find day care for children under 5 very very costly and costs can outway the income brought in.

I have a friend who did not follow this. They sold their house, traded car in for beater, wife quit her teaching job, they had no credit cards, moved to a housing project, they had 2 kids while they lived in the projects. They got wic and food stamps. Once the kids got in K she went back to teaching. They then bought a house again along with a non beater car. I personally thought this was crazy.

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

Loquat — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 03:52:31 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi, I was curious to see other peoples opinions regarding this and what I should do..

Back in June I had lost my job making about 55k a year. I was out of a job for 2 months until I find something that only pays about 36k a year. So I am short about 20k a year. My bills come out to be $2800 a month and if you do the math I can't afford my bills. I know an answer would be to find a better paying job, but I love what I do, better then what I did making 55k a year. Anyways, I am picking up a second job (recently applied to Walmart), but between life and my siginificant other, we have decided we want to have a child within the year or two. When I lost my job I had 4-6k in savings, well I basically kept pulling from savings to pay my credit card minimum payments and now i have gotten to the point where I am "running" out of money. My current job I work in they have a lot of positions where I can make more money, i just need to go through this program at work for 6 months to a year before I apply and get promoted. Anyways, what I have been leaning towards is talking with my creditors about a forbearance on my cards 6-12 months of no payments, or trying to get my minimum payments below $50. This way it gives me to time save up some money and find myself in a better spot. I will be using my bonuses from work (quarterly bonuses $500-$1900) as well as my taxes each year to help with my debt. Does any body have any advice on what I can do?

I am really looking into the forbearance programs, but before I make those phone calls, how should I go about asking them? I havent missed any payments, but by the looks of it next month i will, below is some cards with high owed amounts...

Capital One: $3000 owed | $3500 credit limit | $94 min. payment
AMEX OPEN: $8600 owed | 9200 credit limit | $236 min. payment
@Anonymous: $7800 owed | $8000 credit limit | $150 min. payment (reduced interest @ 9.99 until Jan. 2018)
Walmart Mastercard: $6300 owed | $7500 credit limit | $218 min. payment
Paypal Credit: $5300 owed | $5500 limit | $175 min. payment

Here are my bills...
Mortgage: $786
Electric: $75 - Budget Plan (Just got this lowered from $106)
Gas: $63
Water/Trash: $60
Car Insurance: $142 (Just got this lowered from $233)
Cell phone: $71 (I do get provided a company cell phone, so im wondering if i should just use company cell?)
Auto loan - $324
Auto Loan - $269 (I am a cosigner for girlfriend, reason I pay half of her $539 is because her loan is upside down because I put $7000 of a trade in on here auto loan..)

Sorry to hear about your troubles OP but happy to hear that you're employed again. As others have mentioned, you do have some options and bankruptcy is one of them. However I would suggest otherwise. I'm not saying that bankruptcy isn't a solution, it may very well be but there are some other alternatives if you're willing to sacrafice for about a year or so.

I know a lot of folks aren't built to work 2 jobs...at one point in my life I conditioned myself into that very same thinking. But guess what...it can be done. Is it going to be tiring?, absolutely! Will you miss a few birthday parties, wedding parties, and "she had a mole removed" party...you bet. But if you're willing to give up a little sleep, and a little time, you can turn this around without ever stepping foot into a bankruptcy court.

You say you have no kids so I'm going to guess that you've got some free time (since you mentioned you're already looking for another job). Find a second job (full time) and even if it pays $10-12 bucks and hour...if you stay committed you can turn this around in about 12-14 months. If your scores have tanked due to utilization and not missed payments, that would be even more of an incentive (to me) to work another job and pay it off. Utilization has no memory but a BK will haunt you for some time to come. If I knew then what I know now, I would have just taken the second job and dealt with the lack of sleep.

It can be done...trust me. I did the BK thing and while it isn't the worst decision I've made, I wish I would have chosen differently. I currently work 2 jobs now; 45 hours a week at one and 27 hours a week at the other. I do it now because I want to rather than having to. It keeps me busy, and provides a very nice safety net and helps me to sleep a little easier.

Do what you think is best for you but do know that you have options...just have to know what you're willing to sacrafice to get out of this situation. Best of luck to you!

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

bourgogne — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 04:21:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Sorry for your situation. I suggest cutting expenses and raising income. A second job at a 24 hour Walmart could yield 30 hours a week.
In 2008 and 2009 when everything went bad I had to find a part time job to keep food on the table and keep our business going. I found a company that need a person part time on Saturdays and then got a job for the county teaching people how to get home loan mods and short sales (if needed) to avoid foreclosure. Cutting costs is equally important. I cut cable and went to Netflix and Hulia(sp) My lunch and dinner were not noodles as I had suffered that fate with the Queen of Tightwad but instead each meal was a $1 microwave dinner and iced tea. I personally have to work jobs I hated before. You should not consider adding a child this mix. Many couples find day care for children under 5 very very costly and costs can outway the income brought in.

I have a friend who did not follow this. They sold their house, traded car in for beater, wife quit her teaching job, they had no credit cards, moved to a housing project, they had 2 kids while they lived in the projects. They got wic and food stamps. Once the kids got in K she went back to teaching. They then bought a house again along with a non beater car. I personally thought this was crazy.

respect. very impressive, just shows what can be done when pressed. good for you

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

bourgogne — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 04:26:42 GMT

@Loquat wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Hi, I was curious to see other peoples opinions regarding this and what I should do..

Back in June I had lost my job making about 55k a year. I was out of a job for 2 months until I find something that only pays about 36k a year. So I am short about 20k a year. My bills come out to be $2800 a month and if you do the math I can't afford my bills. I know an answer would be to find a better paying job, but I love what I do, better then what I did making 55k a year. Anyways, I am picking up a second job (recently applied to Walmart), but between life and my siginificant other, we have decided we want to have a child within the year or two. When I lost my job I had 4-6k in savings, well I basically kept pulling from savings to pay my credit card minimum payments and now i have gotten to the point where I am "running" out of money. My current job I work in they have a lot of positions where I can make more money, i just need to go through this program at work for 6 months to a year before I apply and get promoted. Anyways, what I have been leaning towards is talking with my creditors about a forbearance on my cards 6-12 months of no payments, or trying to get my minimum payments below $50. This way it gives me to time save up some money and find myself in a better spot. I will be using my bonuses from work (quarterly bonuses $500-$1900) as well as my taxes each year to help with my debt. Does any body have any advice on what I can do?

I am really looking into the forbearance programs, but before I make those phone calls, how should I go about asking them? I havent missed any payments, but by the looks of it next month i will, below is some cards with high owed amounts...

Capital One: $3000 owed | $3500 credit limit | $94 min. payment
AMEX OPEN: $8600 owed | 9200 credit limit | $236 min. payment
@Anonymous: $7800 owed | $8000 credit limit | $150 min. payment (reduced interest @ 9.99 until Jan. 2018)
Walmart Mastercard: $6300 owed | $7500 credit limit | $218 min. payment
Paypal Credit: $5300 owed | $5500 limit | $175 min. payment

Here are my bills...
Mortgage: $786
Electric: $75 - Budget Plan (Just got this lowered from $106)
Gas: $63
Water/Trash: $60
Car Insurance: $142 (Just got this lowered from $233)
Cell phone: $71 (I do get provided a company cell phone, so im wondering if i should just use company cell?)
Auto loan - $324
Auto Loan - $269 (I am a cosigner for girlfriend, reason I pay half of her $539 is because her loan is upside down because I put $7000 of a trade in on here auto loan..)

Sorry to hear about your troubles OP but happy to hear that you're employed again. As others have mentioned, you do have some options and bankruptcy is one of them. However I would suggest otherwise. I'm not saying that bankruptcy isn't a solution, it may very well be but there are some other alternatives if you're willing to sacrafice for about a year or so.

I know a lot of folks aren't built to work 2 jobs...at one point in my life I conditioned myself into that very same thinking. But guess what...it can be done. Is it going to be tiring?, absolutely! Will you miss a few birthday parties, wedding parties, and "she had a mole removed" party...you bet. But if you're willing to give up a little sleep, and a little time, you can turn this around without ever stepping foot into a bankruptcy court.

You say you have no kids so I'm going to guess that you've got some free time (since you mentioned you're already looking for another job). Find a second job (full time) and even if it pays $10-12 bucks and hour...if you stay committed you can turn this around in about 12-14 months. If your scores have tanked due to utilization and not missed payments, that would be even more of an incentive (to me) to work another job and pay it off. Utilization has no memory but a BK will haunt you for some time to come. If I knew then what I know now, I would have just taken the second job and dealt with the lack of sleep.

It can be done...trust me. I did the BK thing and while it isn't the worst decision I've made, I wish I would have chosen differently. I currently work 2 jobs now; 45 hours a week at one and 27 hours a week at the other. I do it now because I want to rather than having to. It keeps me busy, and provides a very nice safety net and helps me to sleep a little easier.

Do what you think is best for you but do know that you have options...just have to know what you're willing to sacrafice to get out of this situation. Best of luck to you!

gosh, there is some really inspirational stuff a float here. its really amazing what you and others have committed to. I can't add anything other than how impressed I am at your drive to better yourself and your situation + you are right, BK is the very worst of options, knowing friends that have gone through the tunnel its the gift that keeps giving for up to a decade in some cases

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 14:17:23 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

Cell phone: $71 (I do get provided a company cell phone, so im wondering if i should just use company cell?)

Best of luck in everything OP.

I don't have much to add except that right now I'm paying $3/mo on T-Mobile prepaid. You only get 30mins/month, but it's a cheap way to keep your number (They will port it in) and have a personal phone for emergencies.

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 15:43:21 GMT

I went onto Capital One and it says 615 for the score. I have never missed a payment...Yet. My oldest line of credit is 4 years, I have 19 recent inquires. I have tried applying for a consolidation loan, but couldnt get approved. I just purchased my house in December so not much equity on that end. I have also not gotten a 2nd job yet, i pretty much have only applied.

As far as my girlfriend, she does live with me however she will be going to school here shortly so she will be working less hours at work and wont be able to help me out. The most she might be able to do is takeover her full car payment so that would wipe $269 off my end. My thing is that she already thinks I work too much even though I put in 45 hours a week or so, but we have opposite schedules so we never get to see each other and that kind of effects her. I am not really looking for an "easy way out" but more or less something where I can have a halt on my payments for 6 months -12 months so I can get myself situated and save up some money, get a new job. It is very stressful and i think about this everyday that I can't have a good life because I am so stressed with what I had gotten myself into. I know Bankruptcy is an option, but I also want to get a newer house in 3 years or so...

As far as taxes, I am not sure how much I would get back for owning a home, but I got a good return last year because of school tax credit. So I am pretty much relying on getting a few grand and using my quarterly bonuses from work to go straight to my cards.

I am going to start going back to donate plasma because it is an easy $200-300 a month for just sitting there and getting poked with a needle. Good money can help me pay for some stuff.

My only thing with working two jobs is that I can tell it might make my relationship go down because of the situation I am in, we don't spend enough time now because I work mornings and she works nights. This would make it even worse. I dont mind working 15 hours a week when she is working her night job, this way I can work while she works, and when she is off on days I can be off too. Its more or less finding some type of job that can be flexible with me.

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 16:13:22 GMT

Try driving for Uber when she's working. Some folks doing Uber at odd hours can earn $20-$30 an hour. Some earn way less.

Relationships suffer when financials suffer. If you can't fix your financials, your relationship isn't going to get better. Cut your personal spending to $0. Turn off cable TV and internet at home for now (or put it in vacation mode for a year). Turn off Spotify, Netflix, Hulu, all that garbage. Restaurant and bar spending to $0. Eat cheap meals you prep yourself.

You need a budget ASAP. And you need to set up a 6 month plan to pay everything off in full -- 12 months at the most. If you do that in 12 months or less, your relationship will do better because you won't bring financial stress into it.

Also, this talk about having a child in a year (or two) is really bizarrely timed. I would be firm and say "I won't have a child until we each have $15,000 in savings that we don't touch."

I can't imagine planning for a child when you can't pay your own way yet. Put savings away first, and then plan for the child. Just my opinion, but I have a lot of friends who decided to bring a kid into the world when they were $100,000 in the hole, and now they're $200,000 in the hole. The kids suffer for it.

Re: Credit Card Forbearance?

rprisco — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 16:32:24 GMT

Sounds like OP has some serious decisions to make. Although relationship time is important, imo when there is a need like this, both need to make serious concessions. Sometimes the jobs we need are not what we want, so what... also imo if ur relationship won't get stronger or last if u have to take extra work to remain responsible, then I'd seriously reevaluate my future.

With the above said, the selling plasma bit seemed over the top. How about liquidating some of the stuff put on those cards.

I think there is genuine concern for the OP, unfortunately seems only options are being limited by OP and GF on what sacrifices they must make. I wish you the best.