Mom Seeking Information on Credit Card Consolidation

N.,

Although I do not know about this personally, everytime I read the paper about getting out of debt, it almost always says do NOT use one of those companies. It will reflect negatively on your credit. You are better off calling your debtors and arranging to make payments on your own. Alot of times, when you call and let them know that you are interested in a payment plan or something, they will forgive late fees, lower interest rates, etc. I do have experience talking with customer support at the credit card companies, and it is amazing what things they will do to keep you as a customer. It is in their interest to keep you and not let you file bankruptcy (not that you will) because then they don't get anything. So, it is worth a try. Also, the biggest advice I can give is to take the cards out of your wallet, cut them up, etc so you are not tempted. Just keep one in a secure place for an emergency.

J.

HI N.,

I have personal experience with a reputable company, as we had a mountain of credit card debt about 5 years ago from various things. I talked to one of my creditors and they recommended this company. You give them all of you credit card info, tney call the companies and negotiate much better percentage rates. I even have a card at zero %. Believe it or not, we started out with around 14 cards. At the rate I was paying them down, we would have been paying on them for the next 40 years at least without adding to the balances. I had figured that out on my own and was just freaking out. We're down to the last 3 and expect to be done by the end of this year. While our credit rating is pretty good, until we finish with this we do not apply for new ones. We still get "pre qualified" offers. I file those in the waste basket! I kept one card (to rent a car, mainly) that didn't have a balance at the time. They are very good at talking with you and always keep me up to date. Yes, there are plenty of good and bad companies out there. I researched this one prior to signing on. They charge $35 a month (that's been the same all these years) to process the payments. You make your one monthly payment on time (we use direct debit) and about 5 days later the payments go out. You can choose a payment date, but try to make sure that the payment dates on you credit cards fall after that date so the payments are on time. You can call your creditors and ask to change the dates. Most are okay with that. Until you have everything set up, continue to make your regular monthly payments.
Here is a link to this company: http://www.takechargeamerica.org/Pages/default.aspx
Also, a link to consumer info:
http://www.debtadvice.org/PersPlans/guidelines_credit-cou...
A link to a third party org.: http://www.aiccca.org/

There is a simliar-named company that is a scam or least not reliable. This is the real deal. They don't judge you, they are really there to help. I woulnd't sign up with the ones on TV, they probably charge more per month to pay for all those ads.
Most people don't have as much debt as we did and will be paid off much sooner. You can also send them extra to put on a specific card if you can. It's hard to trust anyone these days, but I wouldn't recommend something like this if I hadn't had such a positive experience. When it's done, we'll have money to really save for our future and our kids. Finally.

M.

PS I did try talking to my creditors to negotiate better rates and didn't get nearly the results TCA did.

Check out http://www.cccsstl.org/?referrer=google&cccs&gcli...

The Credit Union I work for uses this company to help our members in times of need. I do not know that much info about Credit Consolidating, but I am sure this website & Co will be helpful.

Good luck!!

Hi N., I live in the Ocoee area and I was a single mom for a few years with no child support and no family to back me up. I was living off my credit cards but I had very good credit and did everything in my power to keep it that way. I also was anxious to consolidate my debt but the one thing I learned was not to go to one of those agencies. Depending on who you go with they will hurt your credit score. I suggest that you try and apply for a high limit credit card and do a balance transfer of all your credit cards on to that one card. And just pay as much as you can to it every month. It's hard, especially if you have bad credit but I feel it beats going to one of those agencies if you can do it yourself. I hope this helps.

Hi N.! I did this when I was in college and don't remember it effecting my credit too negatively. I guess at the time I figured that it was better to have this on my credit then a lot of unpaid bills. However, I would definitely ask this when you go in for an appointment with whatever company you choose.

My husband is in IT for a local non-profit debt management company called In Charge Debt Solutions. It is a great company and focuses not just on helping with repayment, but on education so that you can have better success in the future. Their website is http://www.incharge.org/.

Best of luck!
M.