GM to all,
To save you looking for my story, the Reader's Digest version is that I am just getting started with Greenpath Financial on their Debt Management Plan. There have been some definite hiccups in the process but I think it's within about a week or 10 days of being on autopilot. I have removed 2 Discover accounts from the plan, and am still waiting on responses from 5 creditors: 3 of the 5 I think will accept without and issue, 2 of them not so sure. I made my first payment last month and have confirmed that it was applied.
The good:
Wow...I couldn't have been happier when I called Discover!! I have a credit card and a personal loan with them. The credit card will be starting on their in-house hardship program in December, which will lower interest rate for 6 months and lower my minimum payment by $80/month. Current pmt is $330, hardship payment is $252. After that 6 months, I can put it on the program with Greenpath, and the payment then will be $302. Account is current now and will remain and will report as current the whole time! For the personal loan.....knock me over with a feather!!! WOW is all I can say. The proposal on the DMP was $185/month which Discover had not responded to. Payment outside the plan was $332. I called to ask if there's anything they can do. They asked what my ideal monthly payment would be, and I said $150/month. Well, they will do $150/month for 12 months, and then over the next 3 months it gradually increases back to my current monthly payment. Interest is ZERO while I am making the $150/month payments. Being proactive and contacting Discover myself seems to have made a world of difference. Not only that, they were kind, and understanding, and actually offered me BETTER terms if I wanted them. I said the $150/month, and the Discover counselor said, "we can definitely do that, but I think I can actually even do better than that if you want." I was floored.
The other good: I have started a part-time job, and while the income is likely to only be maybe $100/month, it's easy work for me, and everything helps. I can do overtime at work, too. My p/t job is as a mystery shopper! Great fun, and some of the assignments reimburse rather than pay: when my car needs an oil change, for example. I go to the assigned client, get the oil change, fill out and submit the mystery shopper survey, and get reimbursed for the oil change. So in some cases, I get reimbursed for things I need. In other cases, I get paid. Disclaimer on this job is that pay is not instantaneous due to the nature of the work, so someone needing cash quickly might not find this suitable. But it is flexible and fun, and they pay via Paypal.
Another good: I pulled my USAA credit expert 3B report Nov 1st and it's not as bad as I thought: 652/653/659. I'm not sure yet if all accounts on the DMP are updated yet, but *I* pre-emptively closed accounts before starting so they would at least report as "closed by consumer" rather than "closed by credit grantor." This "good" may be the nosedive in December when all accounts update. (sigh)
The bad: I have definitely found out that I need to stay on top of Greenpath during the set-up process. I wish there was more info on the web site about the status of communication with my creditors....not just "proposal sent" but maybe also dates they had followed up, etc. I have probably one or two accounts that may end up showing a 30 day late due to this process, but maybe not. This is not "set it and forget it" in the early stages. Nor is all of the information I received from them 100% accurate. For example, the proposal they sent for my Citi-Shell gas card did not get accepted. When the Greenpath Expert called Shell, they wouldn't speak with her and said I needed to call them. The Expert (as they call their associates) told me I needed to call because my Shell account was being charged off and they wouldn't accept the program because of that. I was a bit shocked, because it was current going into the program, and all of my other Citi accounts were accepted no problem. I almost had a heart attack, called Shell, and it was not being charged off, and the reason it wasn't accepted was because either there was missing info on the proposal or the balance was incorrect. Shell requested they correct the proposal and resubmit, and they did not anticipate a problem with it being added to the program after that. When I called back, the "Expert" said, "oh, in my experience, when they want the customer to call it's because it's a charge off. They didn't actually SAY that." I was beyond annoyed.
Another bad: In another thread here, someone said Dave Ramsey would tell me to stop investing until I have an emergency fund. I stopped my smaller investments (I think it was a total of $50/month with Stash...GREAT little app!!!) and also dropped my work investments to 1%/1% TSP/Roth. THAT one hurts because I have matching up to 5% at work, and to me, I am now giving away free money. I suspect my tolerance for that is not going to continue.....I'll leave it like this for a few pay periods but not many....just enough to get an emergency fund started at least.
The questions:
1. I hope this is ok to ask, but could someone compare USAA Credit Expert 3B at $12.95/month to a membership here at $39.95/month? I have USAA Credit Expert but am ok with switching to My FICO if there is that big a difference. I see no point in having both services? Before I join MyFICO and stop USAA Credit Expert, I guess I'd need to know if MYFico paid membership is worth more than triple what I am paying now.
2. Has anyone heard of a program called EarnUp? I am thinking of doing this as well as Greenpath. It seems to work in a similar way: they debit your bank account out of each paycheck and then they pay your recurring bills out of that. For me, that's a mortgage, a camper payment, and I actually could put on my electric bill and cell phone bill since they are recurrring amounts every month, as well as my student loans once they come out of deferment. The goal is to not have to use one entire paycheck for those kinds of things but rather to split them up. I was unaware that my Greenpath payment on the DMP could be split into biweekly chunks rather than monthly, and doing that with both Greenpath and EarnUp would be an easier option, plus since I get paid bi-weekly, I'd actually be paying more on my accounts than continuing monthly. EarnUp is either $9.95/month if you work directly with them, or $19.95/month if you work through Greenpath but the first year is free.
3. How do you all get those neat little picture icons of your cards at the bottom of your posts? And the icons for the different credit bureaus to track your scores?
4. Is it too late to join the financial fitness challenge for 2018?
Thank you!!
