Nice limit. I would search this forum for their back door #. You may have better results that way.
Starting Score: 648
For all the folks posting about I-love / I-hate / I-whatever HSBC, please keep in mind OP's issue: difficulty in making minimum payments, much less paying off CC debt, and what the best option might be. HSBC advised him/her to check into NFCC, and that's the topic of this thread.
I'm a terrible thread-jacker myself, but on a thread with an important issue like this one, let's all please try to stay on topic and support our fellow member. 
@cantretire wrote:Thanks, Hauling. I was making slow, but steady progress getting my CCs paid down. I was supposed to have them paid off by the end of 2012, (if not earlier), then would start making triple payments on my student loans. My goal was to be completely debt-free around 2020, at age 57.
Then January 30, 2009 came around and I lost my job. I don't know what to do. I had a complete breakdown about a week ago, my first one since losing my job. I feel like I'll never make a decent living again, never get things paid off, never build enough retirement.
What's really, really sad is, I'm one of about 25 million.
What a revealing, and heartbreaking, summary of what has happened in our country over the last several years. 
Like so many other people, I used to think that bankruptcy was a tactic employed by losers and cheaters. No more. I've read too many stories here on the boards by people who did what research and HR seminars and financial magazines and "experts" in general told them to do, and then the rug was yanked out from under their feet. It might have been extended unemployment, it might have been devastating medical bills that weren't covered by insurance, it might have been a truly nasty divorce, it might have been a little bit of all three.
You're a bit less than 20 years away from retirement age. You shouldn't have to write off your future at this point. In your position, I would seriously consider bankruptcy. Your student loans can't be discharged (this is only possible in very, very rare circumstances), but there's a lot to be said for starting with a clean slate otherwise. If you do go this route, it would take either 7 or 10 years for it to fall off your reports, but if you read around here, you'll find that people are able to buy cars and even houses before this point. In the meantime, they're back working again, contributing to society, and they're not crushed by debt.
I never thought the day would come when I would nod my head up and down when someone was contemplating filing bankruptcy. But then, I never thought the day would come when I would see that many of the corporations --and corporate executives --who were largely responsible for this devastation would be rescued by taxpayer dollars and are already back to business as usual, with apparently no repercussions. 
Your situation might not be right for BK. I don't know if your debts are bad enough to go through all this. But if you have no realistic expectations of your income returning soon, you might not have a choice. If you haven't already, do some reading over on the Bankruptcy forum.
I wish you luck with whatever you decide to do!
@haulingthescoreup wrote:
@cantretire wrote:Thanks, Hauling. I was making slow, but steady progress getting my CCs paid down. I was supposed to have them paid off by the end of 2012, (if not earlier), then would start making triple payments on my student loans. My goal was to be completely debt-free around 2020, at age 57.
Then January 30, 2009 came around and I lost my job. I don't know what to do. I had a complete breakdown about a week ago, my first one since losing my job. I feel like I'll never make a decent living again, never get things paid off, never build enough retirement.
What's really, really sad is, I'm one of about 25 million.
What a revealing, and heartbreaking, summary of what has happened in our country over the last several years.
Like so many other people, I used to think that bankruptcy was a tactic employed by losers and cheaters. No more. I've read too many stories here on the boards by people who did what research and HR seminars and financial magazines and "experts" in general told them to do, and then the rug was yanked out from under their feet. It might have been extended unemployment, it might have been devastating medical bills that weren't covered by insurance, it might have been a truly nasty divorce, it might have been a little bit of all three.
You're a bit less than 20 years away from retirement age. You shouldn't have to write off your future at this point. In your position, I would seriously consider bankruptcy. Your student loans can't be discharged (this is only possible in very, very rare circumstances), but there's a lot to be said for starting with a clean slate otherwise. If you do go this route, it would take either 7 or 10 years for it to fall off your reports, but if you read around here, you'll find that people are able to buy cars and even houses before this point. In the meantime, they're back working again, contributing to society, and they're not crushed by debt.
I never thought the day would come when I would nod my head up and down when someone was contemplating filing bankruptcy. But then, I never thought the day would come when I would see that many of the corporations --and corporate executives --who were largely responsible for this devastation would be rescued by taxpayer dollars and are already back to business as usual, with apparently no repercussions.
Your situation might not be right for BK. I don't know if your debts are bad enough to go through all this. But if you have no realistic expectations of your income returning soon, you might not have a choice. If you haven't already, do some reading over on the Bankruptcy forum.
I wish you luck with whatever you decide to do!
+1