Credit card debt

[indebt]

Can you just get a little part time job making the 500. a month?
I know it is hard with the kids, but would only be temporary until you pay it down or hub gets better paying job. Or, have hub get part time job.

Having your house paid for is wonderful. If you can get a handle on this cc payment and start using cash for everything, you will be set.

That's the idea, but I thought it would be under control by now. It's been 4+ months since we moved here. The house is our retirement, we have nothing else, so we have to hold onto it no matter what. We bought low, so we should gain equity fairly fast, but at least we don't have the house or rent payment right now.

If it wasn't for the card bill, we could make it on $8.50 per hour. With that card debt, if he got hired and made $10 per hour, we would be able to pay it, but it's getting harder and harder when the monthly payment keeps going up like it is.

[B12]

Come on, you can do this. You or hub go get a part time job at the Piggly Wiggly in TN, (sorry lolol, New Yorker inside joke) and make that extra money to get rid of that payment.

Sounds like you are an excellent budgeter and have a wonderful family. Go get that card paid off.

[lrprn]

Do you start with the card company directly before it goes into default/collections??

Most companies will not even talk to you until you are several months past due and even then don't get out the serious reduction offers for quite a while after that. Don't forget about the 1099 taxes you'll pay on whatever is forgiven as well.

It's unsecured debt, what's the worst that could happen if I just didn't pay it and didn't file BK?

Oh, how about wage garnishment, liens against assets....nothing good, I promise you.

You have valuable assets - that means the companies are very likely not going to deal. They will garnish your wages or get a lien against your home to pay off the debt instead. It is definitely NOT a good idea in your situation to do nothing.

I have amazing credit and we really don't need to finance anything anyway.

Allow me to redirect your thinking a little farther down the line. You have amazing credit NOW and don't need to finance anything NOW. What about 10 years from now?

Deal with this problem now while your credit is still good. Find a part-time job when your husband is home to be with the kids, take in a child for babysitting, sell stuff on eBay, pick up work you can do from home, etc - be creative.

All of us would have preferred to maintain our status quo and not change what we were doing once we realized we had serious financial problems. However, to get out of this debt hole, you may have to consider making a few temporary compromises to generate more income for the family short-term and pay down or pay off the big debt that is slowly killing you now.

You are looking for a way out....generating a little more income while continuing to stay home with the kids is the best one in the long run.

[indebt]

There really aren't any jobs that I am qualified for and with home schooling my kids, I can't be gone while they're home.

I guess we'll just keep trying to make the payments. I don't mind drawing this out for many years to pay it off, but the $500+ monthly payments aren't going to come out of thin air.

All we need is for hubby to get hired on and life would be sweet! I guess I'll just keep doing what we're doing and hope he gets hired on soon.

[SinkingFast]

There may be some good news.

You said you thought all the CC debt was in your name alone. If that's the case, your house could be safe.

Property held as tenancy by the entirety may be exempt against debts owed by only one spouse

http://www.bankruptcyinformation.com/TN_exemp.htm

Definitely something to check into as you research around.


Our experience was the same as CHP. None of our Creditors or our mortgage Lender would work with us.

Individuals being able to negotiate deals is the exception, rather than the rule. At least from the bulk of postings here anyway.

[keepmine]

For sure, investigate the TbyE angle as SF suggested.
Does that temp job offer helth insurance? Regardless if you file or not, you can't support a family of 5 on $8.50/hour=particularly if there is no benefit package.He either needs to find some pt work or, while he's home with the kids, you need to get a job. You don't need any special qualifications to work at WalMart or some other retailer.

[nc73]

She obviously cannot work or doesn't want to work. With that many kids she is better off at home. Your husband will have to find a better job and fast. If not you'll have to sell the house. There aren't that many options with your current situation. Ignore me all you want but you'll see.

[B12]

LOL I meant, ignore your attitude. Your advice, sometimes is sound.

[indebt]

I can't make enough money to make it worth me working, I haven't worked in 15+ years I have no skills and jobs are very hard to come by here.

The job my husband has is a better job, he was working 16 miles out of town for $8 per hour, now he's closer to home (only 2.75 miles) and is making $8.50 per hour. He's working as much overtime as they'll give him. He worked Sat/Sun and made almost $200 extra.

If it weren't for the credit card payment, we could survive on $8.50 per hour. The temp agency does offer health insurance, but it's $200 a month for crappy coverage. So we can't take it. At this point my kids are all covered on the state plan which costs us nothing.

I will look into if he's on the card. I know I didn't have his signature on there, but he does have a card in his name. Does that mean he is on the account. I mean, I have one card I don't use and my mom has a card in her name, but that doesn't make her responsible for it does it? (it's not used and has a zero balance).

If it wasn't for the interest I would have things made, like the one BofA card, the interest is only $23 a month (or some incredibly low amount)

As for if we'll make it or not, we aren't out of options just yet, I am not worried and we WILL make it. I am just trying to find out what options are the best at this point.

[zwiepak]

Have you considered selling the house and buying one that is 26K cheaper?

As others have said, a part time job might be the way to go. Christmas is coming, and you don't need any experience to work some retail store somewhere.

[JollyGG]

Have you considered selling the house and buying one that is 26K cheaper?

As others have said, a part time job might be the way to go. Christmas is coming, and you don't need any experience to work some retail store somewhere.

I did retail for extra christmas shopping money last. I had no retail skill, but they hired me. They mainly wanted people who could work evenings and weekends. So I was off to the second job while hubby was home. Just working two to three evening or weekend shifts I made on average 250 extra a month. It wasn't much but every little bit helps.

As for everything being in only your name. It sounds like you need to call up the cc companies and ask who is the owner of each account, who are co-debtors, and who are authorized users. Account owners and co-owners are responsible for the debt. If everything is truly in your name you may be able to file and keep the house. Deffinately look into it.

[indebt]

As for everything being in only your name. It sounds like you need to call up the cc companies and ask who is the owner of each account, who are co-debtors, and who are authorized users. Account owners and co-owners are responsible for the debt. If everything is truly in your name you may be able to file and keep the house. Deffinately look into it.

I talked to Citibank today, I am the owner of the account, my husband is a user on it. They can't lower the interest rate at this time as I am already on the lowest interest rate they offer. They can lower my rate to 0% for a couple months, but that won't do me any good as in a couple months I'll still be in the same boat.

They only offer "settlements" for terminally ill people.

This is the only card I have a problem paying. I have moved $10k over to another card that I am only paying 2.99% on until next August and I think I have a grip on it and can pay it off before then. But this one, I'll never pay it off.

I don't mind trying, but the problem is, the payment is $550 a month and $300 of it is going toward interest. So at $250 a month going to the principle, it's not going to get us anywhere, ever.

And even if I did get a job or he worked all the over time he could, there's no way we're going to pay off $25k and the $10k on the other card.

Can anyone tell me what my options might be?!

[indebt]

There may be some good news.

You said you thought all the CC debt was in your name alone. If that's the case, your house could be safe.

Property held as tenancy by the entirety may be exempt against debts owed by only one spouse

http://www.bankruptcyinformation.com/TN_exemp.htm

So to file myself, I would just not list the house as an asset?

We have two cars in both our names too. One we just bought for him to use to go to work, it's only worth about $3000 but the van we bought 5 years ago is probably still worth about $14,000. I guess that wouldn't be exempt and I would have to sell it? Used cars here are just so dang expensive. The older car we bought a few months ago, we paid $4000 for it and it's 15 years old with 160,000 miles on it and that was the best deal we could find for a reliable car.

[ssdsco]

You're probably not going to be able to use the TN exemptions if you just moved there. Hopefully the exemptions you can use offer some protection for your home and cars.

As many have suggested you should do 3-4 attorney consultations. Most are free.

Write down your assets (including approximate value), amount owed on assets, all debt, whose name the debt is in, income, places of residence for the last 3 years, all your questions about BK and see several attorneys. Even if you're filing yourself it is strongly recommended you do this. You can also post this info here for advice and ongoing help getting through BK.

Piecing your posts together it sounds like your unsecured debt is twice the amount of your annual income. That's a deep hole to dig out of without filing BK or selling your house.

Good luck.

[indebt]

Well I think I can do it if I just have a reasonable interest rate. But Citibank isn't going to lower the rate to make it worth it.

I just applied for a Chase card with 0% until February 2009, if I get accepted, then I'll transfer everything over to it. I can pay $500 a month on the cards, but not if $300 of it goes to interest, I am going to get nowhere. But if I pay $500 a month with NO interest, then in the 14 months I will have $7000 paid off, which is a nice chunk of it. At that time I could transfer it to another card possibly.

As for our income/debt ratio, the only debt we have is the cards, the BofA card I can manage. I have enough money in my BofA checking account to pay that minimum for 12 months. (it's only $120 a month) so I will let the checking account balance pay that bill for now.

Our bills are low, we don't have a house payment and the most expensive thing we buy is food, so on his income we can make it. It's just that whopping $500 a month, which if he works overtime we can pay it. He is going to go talk to the shipping department today to see if he can work 2 hours over time every day in that department. If he works 2 hours over time a day, he'll make enough to pay the other card payment.

He's waiting for a permanent job to open up at this company, if that happens, he'll go up to $10.50 per hour, so then we'll have no problems at all. But he's only bee there a couple weeks, so it all takes time, we just have to buy time until it happens.

If I can get the debt moved over to the 0% I think we'll be just fine.

I just talked to a friend who is in a bigger hole then I am. She also moved from CA to TN to get out of debt, but do to Dr.s bills and credit card offers, she is in debt over $100k just in those things, not including her house which she owes her dad for. She stopped paying Citibank over a year ago and in 6 months time they gave her a settlement offer of 60%, she had to make two payments to pay it off. If I don't get the new 0% card, I might have to try my luck with Citibank.

If I do stop paying Citibank will they send me a settlement offer for sure? What if they don't? If they do, I could borrow the money or take out a small loan to pay the 60%.

But interest is still adding up for all those months and then no-pay fees and such right?

As for selling the house, it's not an option. Houses aren't selling here and we're likely to not get out what we paid for it, PLUS, even if I got what I paid, I would have to pay nearly $20,000 in Realtor fees and closing costs, so it's like throwing away $20,000 which if I was going to throw away money, I would just throw it away in the form of credit card interest.