I have done everything I can to reduce my spending, and my interest rates (on unsecured debt), yet there are still so many demands on my income that I am still unable to meet my monthly obligations. (My VA Compensation was just "reduced" making my problems even worse). Due to the nature of my current "graveyard employment", I have been experiencing a great deal of trouble finding a second job.

Must Bankruptcy be my only solution? I entered into a Debt Management Program (to have interest reduced), 4 months ago. Until then, I had not even had a "late payment" in over 8 years (no longer the case thanks to the DMP).

I was forced to file Bankruptcy in 1999 (so it is about to be removed from my credit file), due to my divorce and excessive student loan payments.

Now I am about to "start all over again" due to my inability to obtain reasonable interest rates on my debts.

Can anyone suggest alternatives to Bankruptcy?

Technorati Tags: 4 months, 8 years, alternatives to bankruptcy, case thanks, debt management program, debts, divorce, dmp, excessive student, graveyard, interest rates, second job, student loan payments, unsecured debt

I am in a situation where I can no longer pay my credit cards. I have paid them in a timely fashion for the past 17 years but can longer handle even the smallest payment. I am sending them each 5 dolllars a month and that is money that I really could use for groceries. My interest rates kept raising although I paid early each month thus I had less buying power and I did depend on the cards to buy necessities along with a few extras. My cards are a few months deliquent and they are sending me bills for three months back payments and my interest rates have gone to 29.99% and thus my minumum payments are higher. They are not going to get this money so why do they ad in on? I want to file bankruptcy but dont’ have the money to do so. Dont’ they realize that if I can’t pay 150 dollars I can’t 300 dollars?

Technorati Tags: 17 years, bankruptcy, credit cards, deliquent, groceries, interest rates, money, necessities, three months, timely fashion

i had ,000 credit card debt and ,000 medical bills. They were unsecured debts and i filed chapter 7 protection. Now who will cover my ,000 bills? will BOFA, citi, wells fargo etc etc write it as loss or will they increase interest rates on those who pay bills on time or will government give them bail out?

Also my ,000 emergency surgery bill — who will pay that now? hospital depends on patient bill payment to pay the employees. Does that mean some employees will be laid off because i didn’t pay?

The bankruptcy lawyer wasn’t interested in answering such questions

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy lawyer, bill payment, bofa, chapter 7, credit card debt, emergency surgery, interest rates, medical bills, patient bill, unsecured debts, wells fargo

I have had two financial advisers tell me to declare bankruptcy when I graduate from college, or sooner to eliminate my credit card and school loan debt, and one telling me that I should probably get more financial aid (all from different firms)…. The interest rates on private loans for schools are ridiculous (I am going through Sallie Mae), and I am already freaking out about how much I am going to have to pay back…

I don’t really have any family, and I am currently in my Junior year in college. I have been working full time, and paying my school on my credit cards, apartment etc etc.. (I have 3 with a total of 00 credit line, and they are usually maxed out when new semesters start). I get a little bit of money from the federal government (FAFSA) for school, but it obviously is not enough… I also have a bit of private loans from my grand mother who is co-signing for them.

So should I declare? When if I should?

I am not trying to skeeze my way out of it, and I am fine with paying it all back with the career I get when I graduate, but I am really scared about the whole thing (private loans), and I would like to know if there is an ALTERNATIVE route without having to sell my first born child. The gov. and my full time job do not provide enough income for school and such, and I can only work so much taking an average of 18 credit hours a semester.

If I declare bankruptcy, will it affect my grandmother since she is co-signing?

Please help me out. I am open to all constructive help and legitimate ideas that don’t involve anything illegal.

Technorati Tags: apartment, bankruptcy, credit card, credit cards, fafsa, federal government, financial advisers, financial aid, full time job, grand mother, grandmother, interest rates, little bit, money, private loans, sallie mae, school loan, semesters

Why do so many take the easy way out?

I pay my bills on time, and do not buy what I can’t afford…but, yet all responsible people end up paying for the losers by having to pay additional fees, higher interest rates, etc…is this fair?

What kind of world do we live in when people do not take responsibility for their own actions and expects the world to bail them out?

How many fundamentalists get in debt, and take the easy way out?

Will you not answer to God for your poor decisions? By not repaying debt, isn’t this stealing? If not paid back, this will be a sin for which you never resolved, so will you go to hell?

Technorati Tags: fundamentalists, god, hell, interest rates, losers, poor decisions, stealing

I have a little over ,000 in credit card debt between my husband and myself on six different cards. Of those cards all of them are above 20% interest rates. The highest balance is 00. 8 ½ years ago I had to file for bankruptcy before I married my husband because of a car I was duped (very long story and this was the only thing I filed) into signing for, thus I cannot file bankruptcy. We also have 00 in hospital bills we have accumulated in the last year we are paying on sporadically when I can make payments. They were 00. I am about to have a baby in July, which means I will be on maternity leave for two months with a reduced income. We are having problems making payments on our bills now because we are overwhelmed. Prior to, financially we were doing ok, but we had some unexpected expenses come up and we previously had gotten lots of overtime at both our jobs which has been cut due to the economy. I just obtained 00 from a family member I do not have to pay back and I am having a hard time deciding where to put this money towards. A few of the doctor bills have threatened to send us to collections even though I am making payments when I can. I figure credit cards are best to put the money towards because of fees, credit report problems and interest. I have only been about 10 days late on one of the 6 cards and maybe 16 days late on another one, thus none of them show up late on my credit report. I manage to make payments, but barely. Late fees have been racking up though because I may pay a week late here and there on those two. Here are my primary questions after hearing my story…

1) Should I try to negotiate lowering my debt on the credit cards and doctor bills so I can get them paid off although I am not really showing up late on my credit report? Will they work with me if I am going to pay off the balance? I figure it is pointless to negotiate interest rates if my point is to pay it off…
2) Should I pay off the highest balance of 00, which also happens to have the highest interest rate and then put the rest towards doctor bills or the next higher interest rate card, which the balance is more than what will be left over? Or, should I put the left over money towards paying off the lower credit card amounts and the 00?
3) I have read that if I negotiate lowering my pay off amount with credit card companies then it will affect my credit and this is what I am worried about primarily. Has anyone had any experience with this?
Thank you ahead of time!!

Technorati Tags: 8 years, bankruptcy, collections, credit card debt, credit cards, credit report problems, doctor bills, economy, family member, hard time, hospital bills, interest rates, jobs, late fees, maternity, money, overtime, story 1, unexpected expenses

I have around 00 there right now at Gmac online savings. I have around 00 in INGDIRECT online savings account. Well the interest rates you know have dropped. However, Ingdirect offers 2.374% and Gmac gives me 2.956% at the moment. A month ago Ing was 2.7% and Gmac was 3.45% along those lines. I had ingdirect for around 1 year and love it because it is so easy to use. Gmac is good as well.

I know the difference now is small between GMAC 2.956% and INGDIRECT 2.374% which is around 0.6%. I was thinking about transferring all the money i have in ingdirect into gmac bank b/c it gives a bit more in terms of interest. However, i read something that Gmac may file for bankruptcy 2 months ago i think.

Is my money 100% safe? I know it is FDIC insured up to 0,000 but i just want to make sure. I do not want to lose 00 b/c that is all the money i have at this moment.

Thank you.

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy, fdic, gmac bank, ing, ingdirect, interest rates, money

I lost my job in early September and have run into some serious financial problems. I have a part time job and I should be receiving unemployment but they denied me at first and I have to wait for a hearing to appeal that decision, and they are super backed up and I will not even find out when my hearing is for another four weeks. I took out a distribution from my 401k, went through that, and they are taking their sweet time getting another distribution sent out to me. None of my accounts have been sent to collections yet, but they are almost there. I am considering bankruptcy or using one of those companies that negotiates better interest rates with my creditors and gets them to reduce my debt by up to 40%. I want to know which route I will recover from quicker. I eventually want to buy a house, take out student loans, etc. I keep hearing that bankruptcy is not as bad as it has been made out to be, and I have heard nothing about how debt settlement programs effect your credit. Does anyone have any advice?

Technorati Tags: 401k, bankruptcy, collections, creditors, debt settlement programs, early september, interest rates, part time job, student loans, sweet time, unemployment

I just out of the blue received two letters for two of my chase bank accounts, saying that they elected to close my accounts because of: 1 incident of a returned payment on the accounts, too many accounts opened recently, and too many inquiries.

Anyways, these accounts used to be wamu credit cards, which recently switched over to Chase, and not even a month or two into Chase..chase decides to just close my accounts just like that.

Now…what the HECK did I do wrong, so majorly wrong that they decided to do that? why would credit companies do that?

they already jacked my interest rate up to 29.99% and if that wasn’t enough..now they decided to close both accounts.

First of all, will this look bad on my credit score, and how long will this affect my credit score, second of all, WHY are they such …Aholes and out of the blue did this,…even though my payments and history have been on time and great,

and third, can accounts ever be reopened, or once they’re closed, that’s that?

I’m just shocked. Is this because of the economy and the credit card industry suffering, or is this because of something else?

I just am scared..I knew that credit cards were slashing credit lines, jacking interest rates and adding other unfavorable things, but now…I didn’t expect this out of nowhere. I’m terribly disapointed, and I guess there goes two years worth of positive history….just because of one returned payment (which was my banks fault for putting my money on hold), and because they claim i have too many new credit cards and inquiries, because I’m trying to re-establish my credit after going bankrupt in 2005.

Oh well. chase is horrible.

I heard that a new law is being passed to keep them from doing that, to make it harder at least, but at the same time it will be harder to obtain credit.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Technorati Tags: banks, chase bank, credit card industry, credit cards, credit score, economy, inquiries, interest rate, interest rates, money, out of the blue, suffering, two letters, wamu, what the heck

We are refinancing our house to pay off some credit card debt. I have heard that the debt management companies will negotiate on your behalf and either lower the interest rates or lower the amount they will accept to pay off the debt. I have also heard you can do that yourself.

Anyone have any experience with this tactic? I have also heard that trying to settle for a percentage of your balance will wreak havoc on your credit rating. Is it worth it to save a couple of thousand dollars?

Do you try and reach an agreement with the first CSR you talk with, or does it only count if you negotiate with a manager or other official? Should you get the agreement in writing, as well as any effects on the credit rating? What is an appopriate percentage to ask for (50%? 60%?), or does it depend on factors like amount owed, past payment practices, etc.? Does it help to threaten you might be filing for bankruptcy if they do not settle?

Technorati Tags: credit card debt, credit rating, csr, debt management companies, filing for bankruptcy, havoc, interest rates, payment practices, tactic, thousand dollars

Over the last few years, my husband has been laid off numerous times. Each time, I had to take out credit card cash advances to keep us afloat. In addition, we had refinanced several times and took out a home equity loan so we now owe more than our home is worth. When we are both working, we can pay our bills but with him laid off again, we are drowning. I can no longer take out any more cash advances. I have been paying my credit cards on time because I don’t want the interest rates to jump up but then I can’t pay my mortgage on time. I’ve been paying it right before the 30 day mark so it won’t show up on our credit reports as a late payment. I don’t think I’ll be able to do that this month. What should I do? My mom thinks we should file bankruptcy but I really don’t want to do that.

Should I continue to pay my credit cards on time and pay the mortgage late? Possibly let the house go and rent something cheaper?

Should I pay my mortgage on time and pay the credit cards late? Possibly file for bankruptcy? We have about ,000 in credit card debt.

I am so stressed out by the mess that we’re in. We have 2 children in college that will be depending on us at least for the next year. I am mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted.

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy, credit card cash, credit card cash advances, credit card debt, credit cards, credit reports, home equity loan, interest rates, mom, mortgage, several times

Income=1200/mo. 4 creditcardpayments + 1 unsecuredloan (used for massage theray school) payment= 940/mo. Rent=5. Not to mention other bills and food. The only way I am making it is thru occasional money and food help from friends/family, tho very few of them know that I am ,000 in unsecured debt. I used that money to help pay expenses- scraping by frugally, not spending unwisely, just making ends meet for past 3 years on very low income when i was going to school. Also 2 roomates skipped out and I used the credit for 4 months to pay 00/mo rent that I should have only paid 1/3 of, two years ago. Now I am having to use what is left of my credit to help pay the other credit bills. And having paid no more than a week late a few times while waiting for income, (hard to choose whether to pay late or to pay with other credit cards!),interest rates way high: 80 x 32.99%, 50×26, 00×26, 00×23, 00×9. Am in deferrment of 000 university loan. HELP very ashamed
Thanks for your help!!! Tried to get a loan with lower interest from my credit union and wellsfargo- refused. nobody in my family wants to cosign- i don’t blame them! 5 is cheap rent downtown Denver! moving back home would kill me, (plus 1000 miles away and no work there). I’m not really making enough to have credit counseling take a autodeduct, esp because my bills end up exceeding income. Bankruptcy seems like the "easy" way out (except for the shame and embarassment, and also the only way out at this point), tell me how it’s not. Only thing I’m worried about is that I won’t be able to get more loans to keep going to school. I don’t plan to buy house or expensive car. Also, I’m trying to run a web dev business, so far mostly building portfolio. How will it affect my options with the business? You guys rule.

Technorati Tags: 3 years, 4 months, bankruptcy, credit cards interest, credit counseling, downtown denver, embarassment, expensive car, friends family, interest rates, loans, massage, money, roomates, shame, thanks for your help, tho, university loan, unsecured debt, web dev

I filled bankruptcy last week with plans to reaffirm the auto loan and keep the car. Mostly because my dad is the co-signer.

Today I tried to make a payment only to find the loan has been sold to some other company, and now I fear they will change the interest rates and add fees. Is this what will happen? What would happen to the co-signer if I decide to return the car and discharge the loan?

Technorati Tags: auto loan, bankruptcy, co signer, dad, interest rates