How to deal with banks when you can't make payments?

[X1095]

Greetings,

I'll try to be brief. I am a German citizen and have been in the US for the past seven years on a student visa. I received BS and MS degrees here. My visa is about to expire and I am about to leave the States since my visa is about to expire. I am about $30,000 in debt (credit cards, bank loan, car loan, and motorcycle loan). There is a good chance I'll be back in the States this August to start a PhD program on a full fellowship. If this is the case, then I'll be able to pay off the debt, albeit very slowly. However, I won't able able to make any payments until I start the program, i.e. for the next four months.

How do I go about dealing with that? Should I send a letter to the banks/credit card companies and explain the situation? What will be their response? There's not much that they can do since all the loans except for the car are unsecured (the motorcycle is not worth much, having been in a crash) but I still wonder what is the right way to approach this situation, and what is the way banks deal with such situations. My credit so far is perfect in the sense that I have never had a late payment, over the limit, repossession, bankruptcy, etc.

Any advice or links to helpful websites is appreciated.

Thanks,

ML

[PRICEPLUS]

I would give them a call and see what they have to say! Try it out as a hypothetical without giving your name and number first!

[LuxLiving]

Can you sell some of your assets in order to keep current in the intervening four months? Will you have no income at all during the four months?

Could you conceivably keep up w/just the interest payments alone during the four months? Some banks will allow you to make interest only payments for awhile - I'm not sure about four months though...

[catlinye_maker]

I would be concerned to make sure that bad credit will not damage your chances of getting into the doctoral program. I don't know if they consider that or not, but in competitive programs they might. Perhaps someone with more knowledge of the subject might comment?

[Elgin526]

I've never had to deal with not being able to pay a creditor myself, but from what I've read, most are willing to work with you as long as you are able to pay something each month. You'll definatly need to work with the bank about the car payments or they'll take back your car! If you need the car for when you come back to the US, that should be your first priority.

Good luck!

[PRICEPLUS]

Well, I suppose you have nothing to lose from asking. You'll still owe the money one way or another!