topic Re: Need advice in Rebuilding Your Credit

Need advice

Anonymous — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 17:42:09 GMT

Hi all. Hope everyone is gearing up for a good new year. This year I'm really hoping to dig myself out of the hole I'm in. For a little bit of background - I have chronic kidney disease and had to make the decision to leave my job in public school administration about five years ago. For the first three years, I did very well working from home as a virtual tutor and educational transcriptionist. When COVID hit, things were initially okay because students were learning from home, but soon families were having to cut all nonessential expenses which often meant me. My income was reduced by about 75% in 2020. I racked up quite a bit of credit card debt to cover living expenses with the expectation that things would improve quickly and I would be able to pay off the debt. As we now know, that simply hasn't happened. I owe about 15K across a number of different cards and a personal loan. As of now, everything is current, but I cannot continue at this rate.

I want to pay my creditors, but I cannot afford the current minimums. I'm considering contacting the credit card companies individually and asking about hardship plans, but I know they are often unwilling to help until you are behind. My creditors are: Capital One, Discover, Dell, Ollo, Opportun, Credit One, Aspire, Merrick Bank, Target, PayPal, and Upstart loan.

I live in South Carolina. The debt collection laws here are rather consumer friendly. I do not have the any property other than about $45,000 equity in my primary residence. I'm really trying to determine what the best course of action is. I know not paying the cards in hopes of qualifying for hardship programs involves a risk of suit, but even if there was a suit, I don't believe there's much they could take.

I also know there's the option of debt consolidation, but I know that would be yet another bill that I don't need and I might be able to accomplish the same thing myself. Does anyone have any experience with this process? What is your opinion/advice? Thanks so much.

Re: Need advice

FireMedic1 — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 18:21:20 GMT

Sorry about the hardball thrown at you. Maybe look into equity loan with your bank. Pay them all off and save your credit. Cheaper payments and lower interest. Only other way is more income. Others will have ideas.

Re: Need advice

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Jan 2022 00:36:10 GMT

Thank you for the response. I really do not want to put my house at risk given that my income has been so impacted. I have slashed all the expenses that I can from my budget and I can afford to pay everyone something if the creditors are willing to negotiate. I have heard of some companies that are willing to offer account restructuring programs and/or hardship programs. I know that my credit would take a hit but it would honestly be worth it to me if it would take some of this pressure off. My largest debt to a single credit card is $1900. I know CC companies can and do sue for that amount, but I guess my biggest question at this point surrounds past experience with the companies I owe. Are some of them known to be better with negotiation than others? Would it be "better" to let a collection agency get involved when it comes to some of them in hopes of being able to get a smaller payment?

Re: Need advice

tnhomestead — Sun, 02 Jan 2022 01:03:44 GMT

Can you get a second gig doing something? Even part time at Dollar Generally something like that? 15k is really not a lot of you can get another couple hundred a week to throw on it. And it seems a shame to ruin your credit over it. Also at least here in tn, everyone is hiring. My brother is on disability, working part time and they are working him so much they are paying him off the books after 28 hours!

Re: Need advice

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Jan 2022 04:00:41 GMT

@tnhomestead wrote:
Can you get a second gig doing something? Even part time at Dollar Generally something like that? 15k is really not a lot of you can get another couple hundred a week to throw on it. And it seems a shame to ruin your credit over it. Also at least here in tn, everyone is hiring. My brother is on disability, working part time and they are working him so much they are paying him off the books after 28 hours!

Honestly, I wish I could. I can't work outside the home. I did for 16 years but my health deteriorated to the point that it's just not feasible anymore and because of the increase in health problems, the amount I have to spend on medications also increases, so it's just kind of a cycle. I am seeing a slight increase in work over the past few months, so I'm hoping the trend will continue. If it does, it's possible I will be able to keep things going. Several of my credit lines are structured to pay off in about 3 years, so the minimum payments are higher, but it's not going to be perpetual debt.

Re: Need advice

FireMedic1 — Sun, 02 Jan 2022 10:41:23 GMT

Check out GoodRX. I pay $6 a month for a med that I used to pay $40. Not no more. I worked for a plasma center for a while. Donate plasma and theres an avg of $400 a month or more. You can give twice a week. 30 mins avg per visit.

Re: Need advice

satio — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 02:54:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@tnhomestead wrote:
Can you get a second gig doing something? Even part time at Dollar Generally something like that? 15k is really not a lot of you can get another couple hundred a week to throw on it. And it seems a shame to ruin your credit over it. Also at least here in tn, everyone is hiring. My brother is on disability, working part time and they are working him so much they are paying him off the books after 28 hours!

Honestly, I wish I could. I can't work outside the home. I did for 16 years but my health deteriorated to the point that it's just not feasible anymore and because of the increase in health problems, the amount I have to spend on medications also increases, so it's just kind of a cycle. I am seeing a slight increase in work over the past few months, so I'm hoping the trend will continue. If it does, it's possible I will be able to keep things going. Several of my credit lines are structured to pay off in about 3 years, so the minimum payments are higher, but it's not going to be perpetual debt.

What amount of available tutoring time do you have available as of today that you would like to fill with additional hours?

Are you currently under engagement with an online tutoring service, that is, how do you generate new business?

What amount of additional income do you need each month in order to meet current debt obligations?

Re: Need advice

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 03:48:11 GMT

@satio wrote:
What amount of available tutoring time do you have available as of today that you would like to fill with additional hours?

Are you currently under engagement with an online tutoring service, that is, how do you generate new business?

What amount of additional income do you need each month in order to meet current debt obligations?

My hours are pretty open ended. I did a lot of work with a company based in China for several years but they had to close that market which cut my roster of students a great deal. I am still under contract with them for their global platform but their student base is not even a quarter of what it once was. When I was working at my full capacity, I would do between 25-30 sessions a week and I could make anywhere from $600-$800 a week with those hours. Currently, my rosters are about 12-14 students a week, which means I'm making about $300-$400 a week.

I have some students from the previous company under the global contract, but most of my students come to me from contacts from the local school district. I worked with our local district for 16 years before leaving due to health issues and teachers and staff will recommend me to any families and students they know. That's one reason I found so much success early on, but many families can not really afford to pay for services anymore or they have had to cut down drastically on the number of sessions they purchased. I have started to do more educational transcription for one of the colleges in the area and that is working out well. I'm hoping that will allow me to start building back up my hours.

I'm not terribly far off with my monthly goal. If I could manage an extra $180-200 a month, I'd be able to handle at least the minimums.

Re: Need advice

satio — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 04:57:50 GMT

I have been self employed for over 25 years. I am a member here because I have gone through my own credit recovery which I am now on the other side of.

As you already know first hand, people have had to tighten their spending, tutoring hours though very important to student success, become something that households have to cut back on.

Based on what you have shared and the success you have had with educational transcription, if I were in your shoes, I would pursue that further.

I don't know exactly how those opportunities present themselves, whether you deal with professors directly or various departments within the college you are doing the work for. You have some success and I would think doing such assignments given you the greatest flexibility in the hours that you work depending on the turn around time that is required.

If you deal with Professors directly, I'm sure one or more might act as a reference you could use to seek others. If you deal with a department, the same could be had from whoever your contacts are within those department(s). You could take some of the available time you have and market yourself to other professors or departments within the college.

And is there any reason why you could not expand that to other colleges besides the one you seem to source work from now?

I don't know the revenue you achieve per transcription or how you price your services but it seems to be something that you enjoy doing and would like to do more of if you had the opportunity.

So the goal is to create the opportunity by emails, phone calls, and other outbound marketing activities , drawing on the positive experiences you already have with the existing college contacts, to use as a reference to new prospects.

Staff rosters for Administration, Faculty and Heads of Departments is readily available on most college websites. I know this based on one business activity I am involved in which collects such data on an annual basis. So building out a list of prospects either within the college you have an existing relationship with or for other colleges within some radius geography from where you live may help you grow this business area for yourself.