Credit Card Debt - Lincoln,NE

D.:

If you want to pay me to pay your bills - great! I'll do it.

That's EXACTLY what these companies do - YOU PAY them to pay your bills for you. They contact your creditors and TRY to negotiate a pay off or a lower amount - and then they pay them for you.

DO NOT DO THIS!! YOU can do this on your own and you can take control of your finances. It's not easy. But you need to learn to live within your means.

1. Stop living with the "see it, want it, buy it" mentality. If you cannot pay cash for it - don't whip out the credit card.
2. It is NOT an overnight fix.
3. Cut out all unnecessary spending.
a. Stop going to Starbucks every day and spending $5.00 on a cup of coffee
b. Stop buying books and borrow them from the library.
c. Bundle your cell, land, internet and TV into one provider.
d. Drop the fancy cell phone - get one that has the basics. Learn to live simpler.
e. use coupons WHEREVER YOU GO!!
1.a. Check out Groupon - you can get coupons for oil changes, dinners, massages, etc.
1.b. Do not go grocery shopping without a list and your coupons to match your list.
1.c. Make a menu for the week and stick to it - switch the meals around if you want - but stick to the menu.

4. If you have two cars - do you REALLY NEED two cars? If not - then sell the one you can get the most money for - especially if neither one are paid off.

5. If you own a home - CONSIDER refinancing and/or taking a second out to pay off all of your debt and get things done around the house. This is a LAST CHOICE option as you will be stating you will be staying in the house for at least 3 to 5 more years - you will owe more on the home and you will be paying for it longer (in essence starting over).

THINK before you buy something. If you can't pay cash for it - do you NEED it? Need being an essential for life. Not a niceity - that's where many people go wrong - I "HAVE" to have this. I will DIE without it. You bring it home and it sits on a shelf or in your closet collecting dust. The essentials are food, water, housing.

Don't be sucked into the scam that says "we will take care of your debt for you" - they may end up ruining your credit rating - if it's bad, they can make it worse.

Put money in a savings account EVERY payday. NO MATTER WHAT! you HAVE to build a reserve. My husband and I had over $50K in debt - it took us 2 years and a lot of hard work and many tears - but now? we are a cash only family- the only debt we have is our home. No car payments, no loans, etc. We have 6 months of my husband's salary in savings and are rebuilding our retirement fund.

Sell on ebay or craigslist things you have not touched in six months. Let of of the item(s) and use the money from that sale to help pay down your debt. Shop at consignment shops and thrift shops - you'll be surprised at how many people give away their "name brand" clothing and you can pick it up - many times NEW WITH TAGS -for a few bucks vs. the $$$$$ they paid for it.

YOU CAN DO THIS!!

Don't do it! I used to work for a debt settlement company and they just charge you an arm and a leg for their services and they can't guarantee that all your credit cards will get settled! There's alot to say in the fine print that our customers never read and it's not easy as it sounds. It's such a headache, I would never do it. It's best to order a copy of your credit report and start paying off your debt one by one or if possible a couple at a time. Why pay someone to do it for you?

basically they charge you a fee, consolidate your debt and then you pay them. I would be very wary of this.
It isn't fraud, but no one offers this type of stuff with out benefiting from it.
I believe there are some free and inexpesive credit counselling services out there that can help. I don't know any off the top of my head
Your best bet is to contact the places that you owe and work directly with them if you can. Pay more than minimums and pay on time, if possible. It will take time, but it can work.

Like the other moms said, it will ruin your credit. They will advise you to stop paying your credit cards for 6 months, and only then will the credit card companies negotiate a lower balance. Meanwhile your credit will be so terrible you could almost have declared bankruptcy, and there will be the fees to the credit card "counseling" service... it's not worth it.

Check out www.debtgoal.com. It's a website that will help you organize your debt and pay it off in the most efficient manner possible. You can try it free for I think 30 days, and after that it is $15/month. What amazed me was just how quickly we could get out of debt... simply by paying it off in the right order! (For the record, we started off over $50K in debt and have paid it all off, woohoo!) I would recommend debtgoal.com - it helped us a lot.

We had cc debt, and about 5 years ago we decided to try something, anything, whatever it took to take care of it. careonecredit.com changed my life. They charged I think about $5 a month. The biggest thing was the interest rates. They sent proposals to each creditor and had cards lowered to around 5.99%, from highs near 28%. It took dedication, but we paid off $15,000+ in a few years. Everyone will say negative things about how you shouldn't consolidate! Well, it DID work for us! Did it put a ding on our credit? Maybe? We just purchased a toyota sequoia without a problem, so I'm guessing it didn't hurt that bad!

Put your credit cards away.
PAy down the highest rate card first by paying more than the minimum
Then pay down the next highest rate card.
Try to only buy with cash or credit card that directly comes from your account
MInimize some fees,
set the house at 65*
get rid of cable for a year
consolidate all errands
stop buying junk foods ( I bought popcorn for the first time in 16 years last week, you'd think my kids were at the fair)

It's not easy, but it is doable. I don't know if this is the Dave Ramsay way of doing it but it has worked for us.
Oh and we set aside a little bit every month in a separate account for Christmas and last year bought all Christmas gifts with cash. THat was the best feeling ever!!

I am wary of any of those credit fixit type places.

The only real way to get out of debt is to pay it off. Yes, it takes time, discipline and sacrifice, but its totally worth it and in the end, you're a stronger person for having struggled and sacrificed. Those ads are often companies that want you to pay them money and get yourself deeper into debt with false hopes of coming out debt free OR they are going to convince you that filing bankruptcy is your only option and then you will have to pay them to represent you in bankruptcy court.

If "they" charge for their services, it's a business that will probably get you in deeper, because they'll add their own fees. If you google "non-profit debt counseling," you can see what FREE services are available in your area. These are legit and worthwhile.

Whatever kind of service you use, you will still have to do most of the "fixing" yourself, by paying down your debt and stop using your cards. But the agency can help you prioritize and consolidate your debts, and help you come up with a payment plan that works for your circumstances. I believe they also run interference with the companies you owe, and try to get them to agree to a workable repayment schedule.

Good luck.

Don't do it-it is more damaging than filing for bankruptcy

I don't know about that particular company (I've seen the ad), but many of these companies that do this type of advertising can get assist you in getting out of debt. I believe this is for a debt consolidation company. What they do is contact your creditors and make deals with them, like reducing your interest rate. Then you make only payments to them and they make the payments to the creditors. Of course, they charge you a hefty fee for doing this. Is it fraud - NO. Is it a bad idea - 90% of the time.

If you are settling, that could hurt your credit.
I have used www.careonecredit.com They are a credit counseling service and it will NOT hurt your hurt as some people think it will. Its not like filing for bankruptcy because you are paying off your debt. All of my credit debt will be paid off in 2 1/2 months thru care one. I have been on their program for 4 1/2 years. I have also bought a car and opened a credit account while on it since we needed a new couch (even though you're not supposed to) with a pretty good credit line. I have excellent credit. If you want more info about it, send me a message! I had great service with care one.

Scam, scam, scam....

Debt must be paid.

If something sounds to good to be true, it is.

Get a Dave Ramsay book and work your way OUT with the debt snowball technique.

It works.

If you are not delinquint (sp?) on your current debt I would suggest working on the Dave Ramsey method of snowball to pay off your debt. If you ARE delinquint contact your creditors, the avoidance technique WILL NOT WORK! If you are delinquint to the point that your creditors have hired attorneys to work your accounts, hire your own attorney. They way the debt settlement companies that you described work is that you pay them forever and ever and ever and once they have a sum that they feel they can use to negotiate on your behalf to settle accounts they will do do (but NOT well) but before that they do NOTHING. And I believe if you stop paying them they keep the $. Look for something non-profit if you're truly interested, but having worked for years in "creditors rights" (the other side of the coin) these companies do very little good for the debtor and usually the person can get more accomplished on their own. Ignoring your debt is def NOT the right thing to do, it will never ever just 'go away.' Even after it's out of statute there are bottom barrel debt collectors out there that will buy it for well under a penny per dollar and hound you and hound you. If you're in any kind of predicament, hire an attorney.

just a have quick sec before got to take oldest to school but wanted to say it is a fraud kinda. they will have monthly payments for you to make to them. then when you have the amount agreed on they will get a hold of the credit card companies and settle with them. while you make these payments each month to this company you don't make it to the other credit card company/s. they can take you to court if they want to while you are making these payments. the company tells you don't talk to the credit card/s the whole time,don't tell them you are doing this and what not. and in the process you fall more into debt. it sucks. we did this and wish we hadn't because now instead of having the cc paid off we went further into debt and are still working on paying them off. any more questions feel free to email me. gotta go and get oldest off to school and youngest to day care.

it is called Debt settlement. A 3rd party takes a fee and negotiates a lower balance payoff for you. No, it's not fraud. But, it's not something that I would not enter into without a law firm's advice... I'm heavily engaged in the business of helping with mortgage loan resolution, so this is a hot topic. Many of our clients stop paying credit cards and the law firm eventually negotiates a settlement at about 10-20% of the balance.

It is a great alternative to BK, and will not damage your credit like BK in the long run.

Sounds like fraud. If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

There are credit counseling services which you should check with the Better Business Bureau first to make sure they have a good listing. There you reach a settlement with the credit card companies and agree to pay a percentage back every month. It's usually lower than what you were paying but it does go on your credit record. The other option is bankruptcy which I do not recommend. In today's environment many credit cards are willing to help you if you need it by lowering your payment or interest just by asking.

It will RUIN your credit. It is nearly as bad as taking bankruptcy. And most people who do so do it again within 10 years. Plus, the fees were high.

It is easy. They tell the credit bureaus that it is fraud on your account. The bureaus take it off your credit report until the CC company confirm that it in fact not fraud and it is put back on. This takes about 30 days so you can take out a loan with stellar credit but if you get caught they can say you applied for money under faults pretenses and can hike up the rate or worse. It isn't illegal to do this persay but does raise red flags like crazy. In the sand it is better to just pay it off slowly.