Debt Elimination Companies

credit/debt solutions help?

i owe about 40,000 thousand in credit cards, 50,000 in cars, 20,000 in student loans, and 350,000 in my home loan. i'm up to my neck in paying these bills and i'm afraid next month i won't be able to handle it. does anyone know anything about those credit/debt solutions services? would i qualify? anything else i should know about?

Public Comments

1. Contact a non-profit credit counseling agency(CCCS in most of the US) in your area. They will see if they can develop a reasonable repayment plan for you.
2. You would likely qualify for debt counciling services. Does your work place or your spouses workplace offer an employee assistance program (EAP) with your group benefits? It's basically a free counsiling services for a multitude of personal issues and debt counsiling is one of them. They offer you unbiased advice on what steps you should take. Many debt management companies will focus on one thing, such as bankruptcy, or debt settlement or something and they will just tell you that you should do that. An independent debt service like an EAP program will give you advice and not a sales pitch. My advice to you if you don't have EAP would be to create a strategy to pay off the debt. Without knowing all the details its hard to say whether the other options might be more beneficial to you (you say you have a total of $460,000 of debt. If you make $30,000 a year, that's a lot of debt, but if you make $250,000 a year, that's peanuts). Here's the repayment strategy I would suggest (it's called a debt snowball and most debt management companies and financial "guru's" like Richard Kiyosaki and DAve Ramsey promote): #1 - do a budget/cashflow analysis. Find out how much money is coming in and where your money is going. Make it very detailed. Don't just focus on the big bills. Those $3 coffee's 2-3 times a day add up to a pretty big bill at the end of the month! #2 - Cut expenses. Find ways to reduce your monthly expenses, like cancelling your cable (get basic cable rather than 600 channels of satelite if it's cheaper...if you have enough time on your hands where you need 600 TV channels, then you've got enough time on your hands to get a second job to pay down your debts more). Look at getting a consolidation loan for your credit cards to lower interest rates. IF you have life insurance or disability insurance on all of your debts, look at getting on consolidated individual life insurance or disability insurance policy from a broker (the benefits far exceed just the cost savings, but that's a whole other story). Call the credit card companies and ask them if they can reduce the interest rates to help you pay them off (Yes, some will do that for you). Instead of dining out all the time, cook for yourself. Rather than going out for beers with your buddies for the football game, invite them over to watch the football game and BYOB. Rather than having a $4 coffee at Starbucks, have a $1.50 coffee at Tim Horton's. Shave any costs that you can that aren't a basic requirement of life, even if it means lower your lifestyle for a little bit (food is a requirement, steak and lobster isn't. Transportation to and from work is a requirement, driving a Lexus or BMW isn't. Having a roof over your head is a requirement, owning a mansion isn't.). If this means selling a few things and downgrading a few things, you might as well do it. If you default on your mortgage or your car loan it's going to get repo'd anyway. Keep track of all the money that you've freed up. #3 - Sort out your debts from smallest to biggest debt amount (if there's a debt that is the same balance, put the higher interest rate first). Count each credit card as a seperate debt, each car loan as a seperate debt, etc. Let's use this as an example: MasterCard: $5000 - Monthly payment $50 Capital One card: $15000 - Monthly Payment $125 VISA: $20000 - monthly payment $175 Student Loan: $20,000 monthly payment $300 Car loan: $23,000 Monthly payment $325 Car Loan: $27,000 Monthly payment $350 Mortgage: $350,000 Monthly Payment $1000 #4 - Re-payment strategy: Let's say you were able to free up $100 a month for example in your budget. Take the freed up money and apply it all towards the smallest debt, in the example that would be the Mastercard, over and above the regular monthly payment. So now you are making a payment of $150 to the MC. Continue making the minimum monthly payments on the rest and the increased payments on the MC until the MC is paid off. When the MC is paid off completely, take that entire payment ($100 of freed up cashflow, plus the $50 monthly payment) and add that to the monthly payment of the next debt, in this example the Capital One Card. Now the payments to the C1C are $275 a month. Continue making moinimum payments on the rest and the $275 to the C1C until the C1C is completely paid off. When the C1C is paid off completely, take that entire payment ($275 = $100 of freed up cashflow + $50 MC payment + $125 C1C payment) and add that to the monthly payment of the next smallest debt, in this example, the Student loan. Now you monthly payments on the Student loan is $575. You're making almost twice the monthly payments so it should be cleared up in half the time. Continue this process of moving the monthly payments completely to the next debt until all the debts are gone. The basic idea is that you don't reduce your monthly payments, you just shift htem from one debt to another,
3. You might consider debt settlement. You can payoff the debts over 36 months while paying less per month and being DONE at the end; paid in full. My sister used a company called Total Debt Solutions --www.totaldebtsolutionsllc.com to get out of debt. If you have more than $10,000 in debt, check them out; you can call and talk to them toll free for nothing. The company they partner with has been in business 10 years, have no BBB complaints, and mandate that you keep your funds in a trust account (this protects you.) Best of luck to you.
4. Hi, My name is Ross Fazio from Gildersleeve and Associates, The National Debt Arbitration Company. Im sorry to hear about your financial situation and hopefully I can be of some help to you. There are many options for you. There is bankruptcy which should always be the last resort, due to credit circumstances, frustration and fees implied. There is serious budgeting for many many years, which depending on your lifestyle could be a large burden. Or there is debt arbitration which is the most commonly used way to help with debt. Debt arbitration can lower your debts by 50% or more and then help you consolidate all your debt into one low monthly payment. If you have any questions or if you simple want to see if you qualify please feel free to contact no charge. Our number is 888-40-SETTLE or visit our website www.settlingtime.com. We will see if you qualify for our program, answer all your questions and provide you with free information even if you choose not to accept our program ( provided you qualify ). Thank You for your time and hopefully we will hear from you shortly. Ross Fazio Outside Sales Manager Gildersleeve and Associates - Nation Debt Arbitrators www.settlingtime.com
5. llcooljaimers, Get an online auto loan quote. http://www.simpleautoquotes.com/Auto-Loans.html The automated questionaire will give you results based on your credit and financial situation. It's free and you can get an answer in minutes.