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Trying to decide what options would be the best for me......

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Anonymous
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Trying to decide what options would be the best for me......

Hello Everyone.

 

I am trying to decide what is the best course of action for me. I am 31 years old and have been battling debt for as long as I can remember, and thats sad since I really only have been able to get credit since I turned 18.

 

Anyways, I am dealing with a very large amount of unsecured debt.

 

I have the following

    - 65K - Sofi Personal Loan at 10%

    - 22K - Citizens Bank Personal loan at 10%

 

     -9K - PNC Credit Card - Currently 0% until 11/2018

     -9K - Citi Bank Card - Currently 0% until 3/2019

     -8K - Capital One Card - Currently 0% until 3/2018

     -6K - BofA  Card - Curently 0% until 11/2018

     -8K - Discover Card - Currently 5.99% until 4/2019

 

I also have a car loan 31K, mortgage 258K and home equity loan 45K. Also not to mention about 13K in school loans. I bring in about $115K a year and my wife brings in about 50K a year. I feel like we should have enough money to pay these debts off, but I feel like we are making ZERO progress. We have cut back on things we don't need like cable, and we recently sold my wifes car and bought a beater car so we could save 450 dollars a month in the car payment.

 

Most of the debt, besides the house in on my name. My wife barely has anything under hers. I really am kind of ashamed to file bankruptcy, but would some other kind of debt consolidation or debt management work out better for me? 

 

Looking for some input as basicaly my credit scores are about  an average of 630.

 

Thanks!

5 REPLIES 5
medicgrrl
Valued Contributor

Re: Trying to decide what options would be the best for me......

Are you able to make your payments on time?  If so, I would continue paying the installment debt as scheduled and work on paying off the 0% cards before the promo period ends.  If you can get those paid off, that'll leave you with a definite end in site on the installment loans.

 

You need to figure out why you're in debt.  Have you eliminated using the cards?  



EQ 778 EXP 782 TU 729
Message 2 of 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Trying to decide what options would be the best for me......

I am going to try to pay down most of them here hopefully sooner than later. I doubt I will get them all paid off before the 0% runs out. I am not using them currently.

Probably the main reason why I am in debt is poor money management and a house that was a complete money pit in my younger days and a business opportunity that didn't work out. I guess you live from life lessons but what can you do. I am probably trying to aim for the capital one first. It will have the largest interest rate when it's done.

Has anyone ever tried to negotiate with the credit card companies for a lower rate?

Thanks
Message 3 of 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Trying to decide what options would be the best for me......

Do you live in a community property state (Arizona,California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico,Texas, Washington, or Wisconsin)?

 

If so, was the debt obtained after marriage?

Message 4 of 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Trying to decide what options would be the best for me......

I live in Pennsylvania. Most of the debt I already had prior to marriage. The only joint debt we have is the house and home equity loan.

Thanks
Message 5 of 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Trying to decide what options would be the best for me......


@medicgrrl wrote:

Are you able to make your payments on time?  If so, I would continue paying the installment debt as scheduled and work on paying off the 0% cards before the promo period ends.  If you can get those paid off, that'll leave you with a definite end in site on the installment loans.

 

You need to figure out why you're in debt.  Have you eliminated using the cards?  


^^THIS

 

Additionally, there is a big problem with your budget somewhere. Make a list of ALL of your inflows/outflows. Off the top of your head, you probably *think* it's 100%, but I think most people find a big sum of money unaccounted for each month when they actually add it up.

 

I would also consider selling or renting the house for a couple of years, living somewhere cheap, and knocking this all out and just being done with it.

 

It seems like you have good credit based on your loans/rates and that your scores are mainly held down because of the debt. You have the income to pay it back and have great credit without having a BK follow you around for 10 years. Plus, you'd probably have to go CH 13 and pay a good amount of it back anyway.

 

Good move ditching your wife's car payment. Ditch yours too.

Message 6 of 6
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