@CreditInspired wrote:I just want to add how impressed I am with this thread and all the productive and respectful responses that were given to OP, and also to you OP for sharing your predicament with us, and willingness to accept and/or implement the suggestions provided.
This entire thread is so different from a thread I read just last week where a member asked for help but at every turn, literally every productive response that was given by MyFICOers, was met with unbelievable negativity.
This is why I love the MyFICO family. You've been there, done that, and you are willing to share your experiences with others so that we all learn together.
Thank you for this.
Here here! One major difference is that MyLoFICO is a very active member of the community and knows that we have all learned from each other and that there is no magical quick solution to all of this. There are many of us here that have been drowning in debt and thought there may have been no way out before really digging into the wealth of information here and putting a plan into action. I don't mind sharing that I was paying over $35,000 a year in interest alone for years and have been making huge progress actually paying down the balances. It can be done.
One key thing here is that MyLoFICO is addressing this before their credit is seriously damaged, which gives options like being able to shuffle around the balances to increase credit scores in order to hopefully qualify for a card (or cards) or loan to get these balances on better terms. Loans may be an option, but generally speaking a balance transfer will almost always have better terms and some of the well-known lenders will actually take for example $1k of a $20k loan and give you $19k at 9% or something. The Ramsey method can be great for some people, but it's not always the best solution for everyone. I would say the same of just stopping credit card use altogether. If you're going to be buying daily essentials anyway and you can trust yourself to pay those in full, you'll certainly be able to pay down your old balances faster when those daily essentials are costing you 1-5% less as either statement credits or cash back.
You can do this, MyLoFICO!
Well said CreditInspired
Well said K in Boston
Dont be afraid to ask for help, so many have been through same or worse. In example, Lol, yes, and lol, no, compared to the things our friend, UncleB, had gone through in his past, makes my experiences with credit and life just not that bad. ( thanks UB for all your wisdom always ) Negativity gets us nowhere, postivity lights the path forward
Well said K in Boston
Dont be afraid to ask for help, so many have been through same or worse. In example, Lol, yes, and lol, no, compared to the things our friend, UncleB, had gone through in his past, makes my experiences with credit and life just not that bad. ( thanks UB for all your wisdom always
) Negativity gets us nowhere, postivity lights the path forward
@Anonymous wrote:Here's my 2 cents. I think your plan for paying down cards has the right priorities and having some income from your son will certainly help pay this down. I would take a look at all of my spending and determine if your living beyond your means. Trust me I am not judging, my wife and I were king and queen of living beyond our means before the recession and paid in a big way. After a forclosure we lived for 5 years using no credit cards at all, no lines of credit nothing but a car loan. In that time we took a major pay cut and had to pay a huge IRS lien but we pulled it off. Now that we reentered the credit world and began rebuilding it is much easier to know how to use or not use credit. If your income is not sufficient to pay this debt off then you may have no other choice. That is a call you can make after looking at all of your income, spending and debt.
I was absolutely living beyond my means. No question about that at all. After 3 years of the single life doing nothing but living to work I got a lot of credit and did not tend to it properly. I had fun and bought some new toys, which are up for auction as I type this and thankfully, they retain their value so I am getting near face value for most.
Now it's time to pay the piper. All my cards are in the SD and I am working on this 100%. I am single, I don't eat at restaurants, no movies, no toys, I don't buy anything anymore except what I need to survive. I should also add that when my ex and I built this house in 2004 she insisted my mom move in with us since the city we live in bought her house from her and tore it down.
The ex is gone (Amen!) but mom is still here and she helps with electric and Cable/TV. My income is weird. It fluctuates around 60k a year depending on my business performance. I am going into what is likely a very slow period though and that is what got me to take a more indepth look at my bills. Can I do this? Do, I have the income? I really don't know. I have never been down this path before. What I do know is that I intend to try and give all I have towards it. What I won't do is hang on when I know it is hopeless. If it looks liek I am making no progress and all avenues have been exhausted, I will file bankruptcy. But until that time, I intend to fight like hell. I will update this thread with my ups and downs in hopes that some day some poor sap will find what they need to keep fighting or the peace to let go depending on their situation.
@HeavenOhio wrote:MyLoFICO is looking at seven more cards reporting zero, which I think will be a huge help with his scores. That's 18 cards out of 24.
MLF, in addition to your currently planned payments plus this month's minimums, can you spare enough to pay Spark $200 and CapOne $360? That would get each of those cards down to a hair under 88.9%.
Yes, I could manage that if needed. That is actually a good idea. I would get below 90% on all my cards.
@sarge12 wrote:I think the plan laid out by K-in-Boston is feasable, and would also throw in having a yard sale to sell off unused items in your house and throwing all that at these cards. In the future you need to be a strict transactor to the point it becomes habitual. You can with due diligence make credit cards into a profit making experience, while also getting very high credit scores. You are not the only one to learn this lesson the hard way by any means. At least you have stopped hiding from it and are working on a plan to recover. With the ridiculous APR of credit cards, they are very dangerous. Also if I were you I would be very cautious of predatory credit repair companies, they do soft pulls to get a list of those who are in a little trouble and then offer miracles that do not exist, making the problem a lot worse. I wish we could tell you it will be easy, but this like all lifes problems must be taken one step at a time. I can tell you that credit problems are very recoverable and once you truly get in a habit of PIF, life will be much better. I have actually filed both ch.13, and ch. 7 in my life, and have now had 800+ scores since 2010...you can do this!!!
I am being inundated with loan offers. Some are as high a %40. I throw them all away. Thank God I learned enough about them from this forum before I started getting them. I think my credit union might be of assistance if I can get these under control too but I am also entertaining Pen-Fed if my scores recover nicely. In addition to my plan, when this is all said and done I am going to close all the high APR cards and store cards I have. Getting most of them was a huge mistake. I should have shown patience and taken the time to grow my scores and move into decent cards as my score warranted but I had dollar signs in my eyes. And now I have exclamation marks. lol
@redpat wrote:Maybe So-Fi for example, rates look like 5.70% - 12.99% for 3yrs / 7.07% - 14.24% for 5 yrs. Close many of your cards and only keep 2-3 of them perhaps if they let you.
@25K payment at highest rate would be $584.82 per month 5yrs / $842.23 per month 3yrs. They go out as for as 7yrs it looks like on their website @ 14.24% highest rate,
Nothing wrong consolidating and cutting back cards that you can't afford to use anyway. Also, you can keep save some of your 10k.
Just a thought and good luck.
So-Fi is the only company that has made a decent offer. I have not been keeping them but when the next one comes in I will hang on to it and post the offer here. I am selling off a lot of inventory from my business (which is where some of this debt comes from) and paying off as much as I can. When that is exhausted I will know just how hard this is going to be. The 10k must go towards this or I might as well file. There is no way I can handle the full 35k on my income. But I appreciate your train of thought and your suggestions.
@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
Best of luck MyLo in tackling your debt. Glad you are getting some healthy good advice from our fico fam
Thanks, and I am too. I knew I would get excellent advice. I guess its taking that first step asking for help that is the hardest.
@CreditInspired wrote:I just want to add how impressed I am with this thread and all the productive and respectful responses that were given to OP, and also to you OP for sharing your predicament with us, and willingness to accept and/or implement the suggestions provided.
This entire thread is so different from a thread I read just last week where a member asked for help but at every turn, literally every productive response that was given by MyFICOers, was met with unbelievable negativity.
This is why I love the MyFICO family. You've been there, done that, and you are willing to share your experiences with others so that we all learn together.
Thank you for this.
Thanks. I don't mind sharing. It's a little embarrasing but we are all human and we make mistakes. As far as mistakes go, it is by far not my most embarassing moment. lol. I wish I didn't have to go through this and share obviously but it is what it is. I have read a few threads where folks ask for help but then fight to stay afloat when the current changes in a direction they don't want to go. If you want your situation to chagne, you have to change. You cannot keep doing the same thing and expect a different result.
@K-in-Boston wrote:
@CreditInspired wrote:I just want to add how impressed I am with this thread and all the productive and respectful responses that were given to OP, and also to you OP for sharing your predicament with us, and willingness to accept and/or implement the suggestions provided.
This entire thread is so different from a thread I read just last week where a member asked for help but at every turn, literally every productive response that was given by MyFICOers, was met with unbelievable negativity.
This is why I love the MyFICO family. You've been there, done that, and you are willing to share your experiences with others so that we all learn together.
Thank you for this.
Here here! One major difference is that MyLoFICO is a very active member of the community and knows that we have all learned from each other and that there is no magical quick solution to all of this. There are many of us here that have been drowning in debt and thought there may have been no way out before really digging into the wealth of information here and putting a plan into action. I don't mind sharing that I was paying over $35,000 a year in interest alone for years and have been making huge progress actually paying down the balances. It can be done.
One key thing here is that MyLoFICO is addressing this before their credit is seriously damaged, which gives options like being able to shuffle around the balances to increase credit scores in order to hopefully qualify for a card (or cards) or loan to get these balances on better terms. Loans may be an option, but generally speaking a balance transfer will almost always have better terms and some of the well-known lenders will actually take for example $1k of a $20k loan and give you $19k at 9% or something. The Ramsey method can be great for some people, but it's not always the best solution for everyone. I would say the same of just stopping credit card use altogether. If you're going to be buying daily essentials anyway and you can trust yourself to pay those in full, you'll certainly be able to pay down your old balances faster when those daily essentials are costing you 1-5% less as either statement credits or cash back.
You can do this, MyLoFICO!
This is exactly what prompted me to take action now rather than wait. I have been waiting for baddies to drop off my CR's for over a year now and if I have learned one thing, its that I don't want to start that process over. I hate waiting. I mean, obviously if I have to file, I have to file. But it will be a last resort. And if I have to get a little egg on my face spilling my story onto the forums to get going in the right direction to avoid that, so be it. The benefit is well worth it.