Comments on: Your Bailout: Slash your Credit Card Debt

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:17:42 +0000

I’m one of the deadbeats commented on here. I’m a smart 41 year old who has always had EXCELLENT credit. I have up to 5 offers for credit a day. Its been so easy to get credit. I have been stupid with my lifestyle and stupid with my finances. I haven’t missed a payment. I have been paying faithfully but I have too much unsecured debt and now the credit companies that offered me credit at a great rate have raised my intrest rate to over 23%. I’m not even in default. I called the company to ask for a lower rate. In the past I have never had a problem with this. But now!!! I can’t get it lowered. Remember I haven’t missed a payment and have had every intention of paying my debt. But with the intrest rate so high the payments are more then I can pay. What can I do about this. I’m considering stopping my payments to settle. I made a huge mistake and my family is drowning in over $1000.00 a month credit card debt. I have always been very responsible with my finances but with my income cut due to the economy what else can I do. I have always frowned on people that don’t pay their debt. I see them as deadbeats! People who try to beat the system. How can I be one of them. But at this point…I don’t see how not to be one!

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By: Tamara Holmes

Tamara Holmes — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:30:46 +0000

there are many people who are not aware of the existence of personal grants. It is indeed a great opportunity for you. You shouldn’t miss any grant that you are eligible for and you should fully utilize it to reduce your burden of debt. You will definitely be able to improve your financial situation.

By: Facebook User

Facebook User — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:31:06 +0000

There’s some good info in there about How to Settle credit card debt, thanks.

By: ed r

ed r — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:28:20 +0000

Did you negotiate on your own

By: DL

DL — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:52:41 +0000

For those that consider us all deadbeats please pause a moment and consider there are facts you may not know. Don’t judge. My husband and I owe about $50,000 in unsecured debt due to job loss, medical hardship and a slow down in his industry (he’s a self-employed contractor). A triple whammy! We’ve seen our nest egg disappear, our 401K was cashed in to survive and then finally had to rely on credit cards to try and float. Last home we built took over 2 years to sell and we barely got enough to pay off the bank – all the payments and interest paid were a loss. I’m not asking for sympathy – nothing ventured, nothing gained. The real problem is our cc companies have raised rates from below 10% to as high as 34.99%. I want to repay the principal and am willing to repay with reasonable interest but 34.99 is outrageous! I’m not asking anyone to forgive what I charged – just stop making it impossible for me to make any headway. My conscience won’t allow me to ask anyone to foot my bills. Our family and friends have no idea of the drowning debt we have incurred. A. They can’t help us out and B. it’s so shameful.

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By: joblost

joblost — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 18:07:59 +0000

milwakee -

I went to http://www.nfcc.og twice, and explained my situation. They did not discuss ‘all options,’ but referred me to a debt management agency. They would not suggest any other alternative as viable. Have you had a different experience with them?
For those of us with very little income and mounting debt, the author presents a real alternative to bankruptcy.

By: Kenny Golde

Kenny Golde — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 06:34:16 +0000

This is a really great article. Lots of good pointers for people, more than I see in most posts. I was actually quite successful at negotiating settlements on my credit card debt. I reduced $212,000 to $30,000 and had over $100,000 in debt written off. One thing I can tell people is that you must be patient, it often takes months. And you’re absolutely right about getting settlement agreements in writing. One company I settled with tried to collect on the written-off debt balance and if I didn’t have the agreement in writing I don’t know what would’ve happened. In the end, reducing my debt by 85% was well worth the process.

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By: AJ

AJ — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:03:30 +0000

As the economy continues to struggle and the banks and other financial institutions (like credit card issuers) get government bailout money, more and more places are going to seek out people to offer them a settlement. Why? They want to make some money off the loans instead of getting nothing. These financial institutions know they are raising rates like crazy and that means more people will run into default. They want to make some money off those in default, so they settle. IF you settle, you have to know they consider that money “forgiven” and therefore you have to pay taxes on it. There is a tax break because of all the foreclosures though for the years of 2007 to 2010 I think. Also, if you don’t settle, you have about 1 to 2 years before they send the case to a lawyer to try and seize your income. There are ways to fight this. If anyone is interested, let me know and I can dig up the process for fighting this in court. Most times you can win against a lawsuit of this nature. Like some of the other posters on this discussion, we would all rather just be in a place to pay off all our debt instead of having to settle or file bankruptcy. I found a great site for getting out of debt I love to share with people becasue it is so unique. It is http://www.money-cocktail.com and they talk about budgets failing because it doesn’t match the “money personality” of the person. They also have great resources for getting out of debt fast, even paying off your mortgage in like 9 to 15 years. They have some great suggestions and great resources if anyone would like to check them out.

By: Chris Bloom

Chris Bloom — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:15:25 +0000

Thanks @ Justin Dux for the additional advice.

@Responsible Adult – We like to consider ourselves responsible too. We had almost 0 debt 6 years ago, but had to fall on our credit cards to help support our family of 4 while my wife finished Pharmacy school. We figured her PharmD degree would be our “ticket” out of debt when it was al said and done. In reality her school loan payments are almost as much as our mortgage. Our mortgage is more than the value of our house (we own a modest 2br townhouse, not a McMansion). Our credit card companies kept increasing our interest rates to the point where we could no longer afford to make extra payments. We make too much to benefit from for bankruptcy proceedings, but not enough to meet our bills. We want to pay off our debt and accept responsibility for what we borrowed to keep us afloat so many years ago. However, even living extremely modestly (both cars are over 10 years old and we make no payments on them, we have no cable/satellite service, in fact we have no TVs in the house at all, and our kids go to public school) we can’t afford to make payments to the credit cards any more. We are going to have to settle at some point, so we thank Mint for posting this advise. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover as the saying goes.

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By: milwaukee

milwaukee — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:29:44 +0000

I would have emailed this comment to the author but did not see that option.

Just an observation: “You’ve done everything you can to get out of debt, but just can’t seem to dig out of the hole. Your only option is to settle.” This seems clumsily worded (at best), or an irresponsible piece of advice (at worst). While the options that can face folks who have had a job loss may be ugly – having to choose from a set of bad options – it is incorrect to say that the only available option is to settle.

Talk with a non-profit financial counseling agency that will discuss all options, including pros & cons, including settlement on your own, debt settlement companies, credit counseling/debt repayment programs, ways to work with your creditors, bankruptcy, and the consequences of just stopping paying on your debts – as well as the types of (possibly difficult) changes to lifestyle, including income & expenses, that could help make things work. Then you can make a balanced and informed decision about how to proceed.

A good place to start is http://www.nfcc.org to find an agency near you. Good luck!

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