Need suggestions on late credit card bills

[flash]

Re: Need suggestions on late credit card bills

My husband was laid off for 1 month during december and I do not work due to illness. We have always paid our bills on time. We live paycheck to paycheck and have no savings and had to not pay some of our credit card bills to pay our most important bills since we had no income coming in. Now 2 of those bills have minimum payments of $178 and $138 because of late fees and over the limit fees. There is no possible way I can pay this at one time to catch up. Both of these cards have $3000 balances on them. I don't know what to do. I am not worried about what it will do to my credit as my credit already is as bad as it gets due to earlier circumstances, but I want to pay what I owe. If I say pay them only $50 which is more manageable for me they will hit me with another late fee and over the limit fee im almost sure and I will never get under the limit. Does anyone have any suggestions as what I can do besides shoot myself for getting in this mess to begin with. Thanks.

From my personal banker:

She should call the bank first to see if they can make hardship payment arrangements. Another option is to contact consumer credit counseling services. Here is the website. http://www.cccsintl.org/
I hope this helps.

She is a great resource. I hope this helps.

[Ima saver]

Re: Need suggestions on late credit card bills

That is it; consumer credit counseling!! They are free and help a lot of people out. I think you have to give up your credit cards too.

[flash]

Re: Need suggestions on late credit card bills

I wasn't even aware most banks had hardship payment arrangements. I agree with my banker, see what they can do for you first. It may be that simple.

[scott]

Re: Need suggestions on late credit card bills

Have you ever considered going the debt settlement route? Debt settlement isn't for everyone though. It is meant for people who are burdened with overwhelming unsecured debt who are going through a legitimate financial hardship (loss of job, medical, etc). It's not meant for people who just dont feel like paying off their bills.

Debt settlement is the process of negotiating with creditors to actually reduce the balances that you owe. Let's say you are 20K in debt. With debt settlement, you may only pay back around 10K to get out of debt. There are companies out there who specialize in debt settlement.

I actually work for a company that does this type of work. If you want some more information, PM me. I'm not going to give out the company name because that could be considered spam. Debt settlement is just one option you have that I thought i should bring to your attention.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[BignRichfan]

Re: Need suggestions on late credit card bills

I have not charged anything on these cards in awhile and do not ever intend to again.it's the interest and then like I said they nailed me with a late fee and then a over the limit fee because the late fee put me over the limit, which I don't think is right. I only have a problem with 2 of my credit cards now because my hubby is back to work and has gotten his first small pay so I was able to make the minimums on the others. The 2 I have a problem with now have a combined minimum payment of over $300 due in like 4 days and there is no way I can get that kind of money. I have a $450 car payment due that I only owe $3200 on and I am just in a heck of a mess. I do sell stuff on ebay,but only make a few bucks here and there. Also I tried credit counceling about 4 years ago and they screwed my accounts up so bad because they do not initially send your payments to the credit card companies so I would not go that route again. Hopefully I can figure it out. Thannks everyone for your help with this. I appreciate all your input.

[Tree0164]

Re: Need suggestions on late credit card bills

Deep breathe. Good that you are not charging anymore.

Is DH check going to be that small all the time or was it for a partial pay period. Also check his tax withholding-adjust it so you get paid more each check rather than giving the IRS a tax free loan.

Have you looked at working online at all since you can't work out of the house. You may want to check outwahm.com and work at home job leads

Good luck

[flash]

Re: Need suggestions on late credit card bills

I have not charged anything on these cards in awhile and do not ever intend to again.it's the interest and then like I said they nailed me with a late fee and then a over the limit fee because the late fee put me over the limit, which I don't think is right. I only have a problem with 2 of my credit cards now because my hubby is back to work and has gotten his first small pay so I was able to make the minimums on the others. The 2 I have a problem with now have a combined minimum payment of over $300 due in like 4 days and there is no way I can get that kind of money. I have a $450 car payment due that I only owe $3200 on and I am just in a heck of a mess. I do sell stuff on ebay,but only make a few bucks here and there. Also I tried credit counceling about 4 years ago and they screwed my accounts up so bad because they do not initially send your payments to the credit card companies so I would not go that route again. Hopefully I can figure it out. Thannks everyone for your help with this. I appreciate all your input.

Is there any way the bank/cc's will give you a hardship allowance? It sounds like you have really turned things back around, just need a break.