@Anonymous wrote:
Easier said than done, but where will I get the $10K from? Wish I could win the Lottery! Please give me your thoughts on asking the bank for a bank loan, if possible. Very depressed and scared.
Hi Marzy 
I just now became familiar with your question and thread. If you don't mind, I would like to ask some additional questions.
1. What are your CL's on each card? You gave the balances, but I don't see a post on what your available CL on each is.
2. Do you ever receive any BT (Balance Transfer) offers or Convenience Checks that offer a promotional period of reduced interest on any of these accounts?
3. What is your take home pay?
4. What is your monthly expenses?
5. What is your current monthly minimum on each card?
6. Where do you currently bank?
7. Have you had any past personal installement or auto loans? If so with who (who was the lender)?
8. What non-retirement assets do you have? This would include autos, boats, RV's, higher dollar electronics, furnishings, collections (guns, stamps, coins, etc), etc, etc?
9. Are you and/or your husband in good enough health to consider a part-time second job? This could be anything from cashier, greeter, etc. While this may not be attractive, making an extra $300-$800 per month can really go a long way toward debt over the next 3 to 4 years.
10. Do you have family that could assist you with a loan (kids, siblings, etc) at a better rate?
11. Do you belong to a Credit Union?
12. Can you move into a lower cost housing solution?
With this information, it may be easier to offer some more creative ways to structure, pay or act upon the debt.
You definitely need to keep paying on it and maintain your credit rating. You definitely should approach it with a snowball plan and you can go with lowest balances or highest APR.
Also, you can borrow against your 401k or IRA, pay toward your debt (don't run it up again !!!!) and then pay the 401k/IRA loan back and a much better rate (to yourself I might add). Think about it. At this point I assume all of your retirement funds are in secure cash like investments which give you a minimal return.
You are paying 13% or higher APR on your debt. If you borrow against the retirement and pay the debt, you eliminate the high interest. Then you pay back your retirement with interest at a better rate than you would have gained in the fund to begin with. The real thing here is NO NEW DEBT! Pay everything you possibly can back to the retirement loans to get the funds back in there ASAP!
You will have to forego the trips and extras. You are down to crunch time now. You don't need to visit 3x per year, you need to move there in 3.5 years free of the debt.
I'll be watching for your reply. Don't give up hope. And don't let fear paralyze you. Fear tends to do one of two things. Either motivate change, or actually cause the crisis feared. Go with the first, not the second. And we'll all be here supporting your efforts!
This too shall pass.
@Anonymous wrote:This is a reply to txjohn:
Hi, You had asked certain questions and I'd like to answer in order that you wrote them:
1. Available Credit on each card follows:
Citibank, 10,768; Optima, 1,037; Bank of America, 681.38; Sears, 3,637; Discover, 3,519.
2. I haven't received any bank offers in a long time.
3. My take home pay is $3400 a month.
4. Monthly expenses are about $1500 per month w/o credit cards.
5. Current monthly minimum is roughly, $250, 150, 100, etc.
6. I bank at Chase bank.
7. No loans.
8. No non-retirement assets.
9. My husband has COPD and is a financial writer at home. When I'm home, I'm his primary caregiver, so I don't have enough time to get a second job.
10. My daughter is just barely making ends meet as my son-in-law lost his job in January.
11. I don't belong to a credit union, but perhaps I should?
12. Our rent is $1100 a month and we are rent stablized.
I hope this helps. I am also going to try to see if I can get a personal bank loan. Banks may be reluctant to loan money now b/c of the slow economy, but it won't hurt to try.
Thanks for your help and I'll look forward to your reply.
Marzy
What is "rent stablized?" What I was asking is if you felt willing to move to a lower rent housing solution. Maybe you could find something for $800 to $900 per month and save $2000 to $3000 per year which goes toward CC debt.
I do suggest you look into a CU. They have more than just credit and deposit account services. Many offer financial advisors and Credit Counseling/Debt Management programs FREE to their members.
You said you take home $3400 and have $1500 in monthly expenses. Does this include rent? How are you able to pay electric, phone, water, sewage, trash, cable, cell, food, gas, auto, etc. for only $400 per month? That seems very low.
If you were able, somehow, to live on $1500, that leaves a substantial amount left over....approximately $1900 per month. But lets say you only have $1500 (let's throw $400 more at food and utilties, etc). That's still $1500 per month, which is $18,000 per year if nothing else changes.
If you moved to a place that was $200 per month less, that would be another $2400 per year, making your ability to pay over $20,000 per year with 3.5 years till retirment.
QUESTION: Would you consider and do you have the ability to work for an extra 1 to 1.5 years? That would give you another year and $20,000 toward debt.
I don't see what the problem is. I agree you are way over extended, but based upon the nubmers you have given, you are within reach of digging out. And this does not include any other cuts in expenses or additional income.
Personally I would recommend contacting AARP and a CU about financial services (planning, debt management, etc.) for a financial overview and to get some outside perspective.
From what I see, you have the ability to pay the debt off over 4 to 5 years or the abilit to borrow against retirement to eliminate the high APR and then spend 3 to 4 years replacing it with what you would have paid to debt.
But I don't have enough information, and nobody on this board can act in an official advisory capacity. I highly recommend using the services of AARP and a good CU to get a plan in place and then execute.
Good luck, hope all works out....my unoffical advice is STOP SPENDING ON CREDIT and start paying it off asap. You can't spend what you don't have (as you have learned) and paying it off is harder than accumulating the debt.