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Thanks.
Fortunately, the $186,000 is *only* $112,000 now and I've always been able to keep up with the payments. If I was hit with default rates or a ton of overlimit fees I don't think I would have made it.
The hard part is the $1,300 a month I'm paying in interest to service that debt, but in the current credit environment I've been unable to refinance the highest interest rate credit cards (about 23%) to something more reasonable. Fortunately, that 23% only represents about $20,000 of my debt so it is not debilitating. Once I pay off that $20K I will be in much better shape.
@woodstock wrote:Thanks.
Fortunately, the $186,000 is *only* $112,000 now and I've always been able to keep up with the payments. If I was hit with default rates or a ton of overlimit fees I don't think I would have made it.
The hard part is the $1,300 a month I'm paying in interest to service that debt, but in the current credit environment I've been unable to refinance the highest interest rate credit cards (about 23%) to something more reasonable. Fortunately, that 23% only represents about $20,000 of my debt so it is not debilitating. Once I pay off that $20K I will be in much better shape.
Do you have any retirement accounts, such as IRA or 401k that you could "borrow" against to pay some of the higher rates down.
You could then pay those "high rates" back to your retirment account instead of to the banks.
I agree that the $20K at 23% is the main priority to pay off since that is $384/month in interest.
You might run your credit reports and see if you are being penalized for too many accounts with balances. It could be worth it to pay off a lower interest account that has a low balance to get a FICO boost and a BT offer. Be careful with this since I'm at 709 and only getting a few offers.
IF your divorce is finalized and you have some solid history of perfect payments, it could be worth it to talk to a banker and see about a personal loan - at least to get rid of the 23% CC.
The interest has to really hurt. I just recalculated my effective interest after the BT in the OP. I'm now paying 5.71% average on the $91K that shows on my CRs. I'm paying 9.85% average on the $45K that does not. This is a mix of business CCs so that interest is deductable and $16K at 10% on a personal loan that my ex is ordered to pay. I know I'm unlikely to ever see the money but it is worth something for bargaining power. I'm trying to balance paying the higher interest rates on the accounts that don't report and keeping my FICO up by paying the ones that do show.
@woodstock wrote:
Thanks for the advice guys. It really helps to get the positive feedback.
txjohn - My 401K at work does allow loans, but I took out a loan in 2006 (to try and keep my head above water when I was still married) and am still paying it back. I am only allowed one loan at a time, so I need to pay it off before I can borrow again. The balance on that loan is $9,100 and I pay $311 a paycheck (biweekly). I believe it will be paid off in October 2010. At that point there is a 60 day "cooling off" period before I can take out another loan. I really would like to refi my highest rate debt before 12/2010, but it may be my only option.
GregB - I am being penalized for too many accounts with balances, and too high of utilization as well. I have a perfect payment history with one exception. The mortgage on my house (which the ex was ordered to pay by the judge both during and after our divorce) has gone both 120 days and 90 days past due in the last 2 years. The most recent being 90 days through 5/2009. My payment history on the 13 credit cards I've been juggling is perfect. The credit union I have banked with for the last 19 years is several hundred miles from where I live and I haven't had any luck trying to work with them on a personal loan.
Based on some of the feedback here, I opened an account with Alliant Credit Union and am going to try and meet with a banker there about the possibility of a personal/debt consolidation loan. I didn't realize it, but they are located just a couple of miles from where I live so I was eligible to join on that basis. When I applied online I got the 5-7 day letter message. When I got the letter it said they needed to verify my identity. Yesterday, I stopped by their office with my drivers license and utility bills and was able to open an account. I'm hoping if I can talk with someone face-to-face and explain my situation I can find someone who will help me out. My income is much higher than most and I've finally gotten my CR up to 638. My last pull was on 8/18 and I'm hoping for another small jump around 9/15.
OUCH! That mortgage is killing you! I guess if ex is paying late, not much chance of them refinancing it out of your name....which would be the ideal, and then you could work on GW for those lates since you have a reasonable explanation.
FYI: You do have a cause of action against your ex for damage to your credit. If the judge has ordered them to pay the debt and they failed to do so, and it has damaged your credit resulting in AA and/or inability to get new credit....that is damages. I don't know if the ex has anything of value to pursue, but you might be able to get some leverage and incentive to get them to pay the mortgage on time or to sell the house if they can't afford it.
Good luck!
A little additional info:
A Quitclaim gets one person off the TITLE. It does not affect the mortgage. Normal procedure in a divorce is to either sell the house or have one person keep it. If one person keeps it, the other one executes a quitclaim to get off the title. The mortagage stays in both names. The credit reporting remains the same. This could be good or bad.
A CC is always (I think) in ONE person's name. The other person is an AU. The only thing required is to remove the AU. I believe there is no such thing as an actual joint CC.
@GregB wrote:A little additional info:
A Quitclaim gets one person off the TITLE. It does not affect the mortgage. Normal procedure in a divorce is to either sell the house or have one person keep it. If one person keeps it, the other one executes a quitclaim to get off the title. The mortagage stays in both names. The credit reporting remains the same. This could be good or bad.
A CC is always (I think) in ONE person's name. The other person is an AU. The only thing required is to remove the AU. I believe there is no such thing as an actual joint CC.
There are indeed joint accounts. My mother-in-law when divorcing was forced to close the majority of CC's because they were all joint and the CCC's would not allow one or the other to be "removed." They required the closure of account and then new account applied for in the individual names.
I wonder if this varies by State?
I'm working later today at a forensic accounting firm that specializes in divorce - I will collect more info.
The info that I have is that my wife ended up with some business accounts as "hers". I was AU. The business had been mine for 20 years prior to marriage but when she applied for the CC she listed herself first and me second. The business was a Sole Proprietership at that point. I had to work to get the business name removed from her accounts since she was the only one with rights to the account and I was AU. It still pisses me off when I recieve a CC offer in the mail for the business with her name on it!
The one that told me there are no "joint" accounts was Amex. It has been long enough I don't remember all the details.