Credit Situation

[Anonymous]

This is my situation. I am an inventor and have been amassing debt for some time. I have a few products that I feel I will eventually get on the market and make considerable money. Call it bad judgement or whatever you want but I figured that if I reached a point where I could no longer handle the payments, I would borrow money against my house. Well, as it turns out that option is not available to me. It may not be a wise idea anyway. I have 56,000 dollars in credit card debt. I do not want to file bankruptcy. I am not trying to get out of paying what I owe but a debt settlement seems to be my only option. I have contacted a debt consolidation company in the past and the payments would have been just too high for me to meet. I feel very good about my chances for success in the future, but I don't honestly know when that will be or even if it will happen for sure obviously. I can't wait any longer. I am current on my credit cards. If I go to my credit cards and settle on them is to my advantage to pay the difference later if I am able or not? What reasons are there if any that any of my credit cards would not settle? Especially since my only other apparent option is bankruptcy. If my credit card companies agree to settle, are they only going to what me to pay them in a lump sum or can arrangements be made so I can make payments to them? I have one product that may be on the market before the end of the year, so I don't want to do anything that would damage my credit score. It is currently 710. If I settle, how much will this affect my score? When I go through this settlement process, what steps do I need to take in order to properly resolve this matter with each of them? Finally, is a debt settlement company an option? Can they help you without damaging your credit? I talked to a debt settlement company yesterday. They assured me that if everything is handled properly that my credit score would take a hit but it wouldn't be anything dramatic. What do you think? Thanks.

[MattH]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This is my situation. I am an inventor and have been amassing debt for some time. I have a few products that I feel I will eventually get on the market and make considerable money. Call it bad judgement or whatever you want but I figured that if I reached a point where I could no longer handle the payments, I would borrow money against my house. Well, as it turns out that option is not available to me. It may not be a wise idea anyway. I have 56,000 dollars in credit card debt. I do not want to file bankruptcy. I am not trying to get out of paying what I owe but a debt settlement seems to be my only option. I have contacted a debt consolidation company in the past and the payments would have been just too high for me to meet. I feel very good about my chances for success in the future, but I don't honestly know when that will be or even if it will happen for sure obviously. I can't wait any longer. I am current on my credit cards. If I go to my credit cards and settle on them is to my advantage to pay the difference later if I am able or not? What reasons are there if any that any of my credit cards would not settle? Especially since my only other apparent option is bankruptcy. If my credit card companies agree to settle, are they only going to what me to pay them in a lump sum or can arrangements be made so I can make payments to them? I have one product that may be on the market before the end of the year, so I don't want to do anything that would damage my credit score. It is currently 710. If I settle, how much will this affect my score? When I go through this settlement process, what steps do I need to take in order to properly resolve this matter with each of them? Finally, is a debt settlement company an option? Can they help you without damaging your credit? I talked to a debt settlement company yesterday. They assured me that if everything is handled properly that my credit score would take a hit but it wouldn't be anything dramatic. What do you think? Thanks.

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I think you should start by spending a few hours browsing http://www.daveramsey.com/ which is one of the better personal-finance sites around IMHO.