Credit Card Forbearance?

[Anonymous]

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..)

[AverageJoesCredit]

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.

[rprisco]

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.

[CreditCuriosity]

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.

[CreditCuriosity]

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?

[bourgogne]

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

[rprisco]

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.

[bourgogne]

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@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.

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@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

[CreditCuriosity]

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.  

[Anonymous]

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.