I'm in debt.., What should I do? Options

[x_itchy_b_x]

This video, should help you immensely its very short but has so much information in it.

[D-Man]

1. Do not charge or borrow another cent until everything is paid off
2. sell unnecessary items and put all proceeds to debt
3. get rid of discretionary monthly bills (cable, more than one phone, etc.)
4. get 2nd or 3rd job and put ALL of the income to the debt
5. pay off highest interest rate loans (cards) first

6. Don't use credit cards period. They are retarded.
7. Start operating with CASH as to not send that bank acct. negative
8. Quit buying people stuff
9.Get the car back from your ex; and if he wants to play hardball, you can file it stolen. It's on YOUR credit card after all. It's YOUR car
10. Sell the car


Was your Ex on the lease at the appt? If not than you are screwed. If so than he can be made to pay too.

Credit cards are the STUPIDEST invention on the planet!! Say that you have high intrest (just to make this easy) 20%. Okay, so you go and buy something that's on sale for $100. IF YOU PAY IT ALL OFF THE NEXT DAY YOU PAY $120. That credit card just made that sale price regular price Taking a loan to pay debt will do the exact same thing! You'll borrow $8000 @ 20% so that you can repay $9600; plus the intrest will compound over time (meaning that what ever you don't pay, interest is accumulated on the already interest-accumulated interest)

Bank Accts are pretty retrted too. They leave massive paper trail so you can get "Credit-Line" and get bigger credit cards, & They give you a debit card. of course they'll ALWAYS find a way to send you overdraft, and "clear" every little tiny purchase AFTER they process the Overdraft so they can hit you with $35 charges for a $2 soda. Ridiculous. Cash is the only way to pay.

But that's just my humble opinion. MANY people will disagree with me. (hell i just don't like paper trail )

This post has been edited by D-Man: Aug 19, 2008 - 8:21 AM

[DEATH]

I too, try to handle everything I have in cash. I take the entire amount of money I pay in bills every month add 10% [total x 1.10] then divide that by the number of paychecks you get each month and that is your deposit every pay period. Then the rest of the money is yours to do with as you please always bearing in mind Gas, Cigs, Food etc but if you do use up all your cash you are only ever poor for 1-2 weeks depending on how often you get paid. It seems simple but it's a wonderful system designed to keep people like you from doing what you have done to yourself.
I also agree on this: Stop buying people stuff [Especially stuff that must be payed in payments]. No one is forever and they always give you the backhand with your own kindness as they walk out the door [As you ex has demonstrated]

[CAMAricer]

$8K may seem like alot of debt, but trust me, the amount of money I owe eclipses that amount by many times over.

Consolidation is not a bad idea. Credit scores are easy to fix. As soon as you start making payments and begin lowering the amount of revolving credit, your scores immediately will start going back up. And yes, the best way to consolidate is with a personal loan from a bank or family member.

It's a shame that you don't have more credit cards right now. Yes I know that sounds stupid (what I just said), but many credits cards right now (due to the economy) offer balance transfers at LOCKED APRs of 0-5%. So if you can, try going online and searching for all these credit cards companies that are offering 0% balance transfers with fixed APRs on all transfers. It is important to make sure that the APR are fixed for a good amount of time (of forever). Then after you switched all your debt to these credit cards, cut them up so you never can use them and make sure you make the minimum payments on each one.

Yeah, it'll take alot of book keeping to make sure all of them get paid on time, but in this way, you can take advantage of all of the low APR offers out there. I, myself, have transferred about $40K onto my credit cards and have fixed them to 0% and 2% APRs which are WAY lower than my student loan interest rates!

PM me if you want to know more about how to do this.

[97Celica]

Do you own the title to the car? you could sell it.

[creis]

best buy
medical bills
school
clothes
shoes
ex-fiance's car
my car
oweing an apt complex money b/c of my ex
blockbuster [stupid ]

ok so here is what I would do, I would not consolodate by getting another loan, I would prioritize and change a few things. pay it off like this in order: (pay the min on the other bills and every other cent must go to the one your paying off.)

- Blockbuster (cant be THAT much pay it off first with every extra cent you have including selling the movies if u can. (can re-buy them later when your out of debt.)
- best buy (again hopfully not THAT much, pay it off after the blockbuster bill is gone, sell the stuff you bought there if posible)
- cloths and shoes - sell sell sell, whatever you dont ware or can live without, sell it to help pay this off, then go from there till its paid off.)
- as for the ex'es car, if he is not paying for it and its in your name, its now your 2nd car, take it back and sell it, if he wants it he can buy it else he needs to not be a bum, its only hurting you. if he is paying for it then unless he misses a payment your good on that one.
- your car - just make the payments, with most everything else paid off this should not be so bad.
- medical bills - dont know just make the payments. Insurance?
- apartment - is the ex on the lease? if so make him pay up, if not it was probably a mistake to take it, find a cheaper appartment or move back home or stay there and just make the payments chances are by this point you will only have 1 car payment, medical payment and apartment, you should be in the clear.

Best of luck!

[Jen]

Gosh maybe I should elaborate. I feel like I am being lectured.

I repo'd the car from my ex, but he hasn't paid me for it. Yes he was on the lease because we lived together.

The car got sold. But, for way less than what it was bought for, and without the $1200 of money I put into fixing it while with him.

I was with my ex in 2005-2006. I am not with him at the moment.

I have learned my lesson when it comes to buying people big things.

I appreciate all of this advice, but your advice is what I have been doing for the past 2 years to pay off the debt I did have.

I was hoping for advice on whether or not I should get a loan. A few of you said it would screw up my credit, and then another few said it would help. I did a lot of research last night, and talked to a few reliable sources, and all of them said as long as I pay my loan on time, pay off my debts with the loan, and then cancel all of my cc's (which I've already done).. my credit will improve. The ONLY downfall, is that it may take me longer to pay off. But, I will no longer have to deal with SUPER HIGH interest rates, and paying 5 different bills a month just for credit cards.

[SlickRick]

fake your death problem solved

Thanks for the help! Wow, this was the best advice so far! I shoulda thought of that..

well your asking advice from a bunch of guys who (for the most part) cant save enough money to get a beer, and are not old enough to buy one if the had the $$$ but u want advice on how to get u out of debt? I think u just want to complain about it more than anything. But if u do consolidate into a loan that goes on your credit to so does going to those credit counseling places.

[forkee]

as long as I pay my loan on time, pay off my debts with the loan, and then cancel all of my cc's (which I've already done).. my credit will improve. The ONLY downfall, is that it may take me longer to pay off. But, I will no longer have to deal with SUPER HIGH interest rates, and paying 5 different bills a month just for credit cards.

yup

consider yourself lucky. i was about 16k in debt when i first got my credit cards cuz it was so fun to spend haha. i had people hired from circuit city, best buy, american express, visa, and mastercard calling me for money, lol. it didnt help that they made the interest rate around 55%!!!!! i put it all together and with the help of my parents, took out one big loan and paid it off slowly by working my butt off at disney and verizon. took about 2 years and overall i think it cost me 21k after interest but thank god thats over. the whole fiasco killed my credit score but they are slowly beginning to trust me with their money (mwahahahaha)

now i have 27k that i owe for school......yay

good call on not going the bankrupt route. thats the LAST thing you want to do. plus 8k is nothing if you can keep it around that

msn has a new article out. maybe it'll help

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Inves....aspx?GT1=33011

This post has been edited by forkee: Aug 19, 2008 - 12:39 PM

[D-Man]

The car got sold. But, for way less than what it was bought for, and without the $1200 of money I put into fixing it while with him.

I was with my ex in 2005-2006. I am not with him at the moment.

HOLY CRAP!!

In less than a year you'll buy your boyfriends a car and put $1200 into it? Will you go out with me?!?!

fake your death problem solved

Thanks for the help! Wow, this was the best advice so far! I shoulda thought of that..

well your asking advice from a bunch of guys who (for the most part) cant save enough money to get a beer, and are not old enough to buy one if the had the $$$ but u want advice on how to get u out of debt? I think u just want to complain about it more than anything. But if u do consolidate into a loan that goes on your credit to so does going to those credit counseling places.

I can too afford beer, and i am indeed old enough to drink it. Not everyone on this site recently became of age to drive Many people here are WELL past their teenage years.

This post has been edited by D-Man: Aug 19, 2008 - 12:35 PM

[SlickRick]

^ well u know what i mean i am just saying i dont thing this thread is gonna solve much.

[D-Man]

Right-Right. I gotcha.

But its not really complaining, when the OP states:

I am about $8k in debt. My credit score is a 600 , and my income is so crappy.. that I don't even want to post it.

I was in more debt, but I have paid a lot of it off.

Should I get a consolidated loan, and put all of my bills into one?

I asked someone, and they said they could only give me a credit line of $2200, or something.

I'm just so confused.. and I just want to not worry about making 5 payments a month.

Does anyone have experience in this kind of thing, and could help me out?

I'm going to go to the bank sometime this week and see what I can do, but I'd like a little advice beforehand.

I am STRESSED to the MAX.

[GriffGirl]

If you're eligible to get a personal loan through your bank in order to consolidate your bills, then yes, I'd do it if I were you. That would reduce your monthly payments and afford you to make over the minimum payment. I don't think it's likely that you will get a personal loan though; you have to have good credit to get a personal bank loan.

If you're looking into one of those consolidation loans from crap you see on TV, my answer would be no, don't do it. That WILL mess up your credit more, because those places will basically negotiate a charge-off on your behalf for your debts, so you can pay a lesser amount back. And yes, those places are basically only out for your money.

All the stuff I said about bankruptcy was stated to be informational as a course of last resort.

[saleeka]

If I were you I would NOT cancel any lines of credit you have once they are paid off- doing so will actually lower your credit score, regardless of reasoning as to why! Over time, slowly cancel lines of credit if you must, but you will preserve what's left of your score by just letting them sit at idle, so to speak. Also, even inquiring about any other additional loans/lines of credit will also cause your score to drop, FYI... The closer together the inquiries, the harder the hit will be. These little things don't sound like much, but when added up, they can really screw your score over if you already have poor credit...

[Jen]

I'm keep one credit card.. just to have it in case. It's the one.. that if I use it, it's paid off each month. But I only use it if I have to.