Credit card debt

[treehugger1]

Citibank will work with you for a few months. My experience is 0% for six months and then they want to review the situation. In my own experience, they do not have any long-term (5-year) payoff plans. My educated guess is that Citi will charge-off your account six months after your last payment. Then, I assume they assign (or sell) to an outside collection firm. I'm not positive about this.

Other national credit card companies can offer 5-year payment plans; but it varies from consumer to consumer (what I've read on this board and others.)

It has been my experience if that you are not going to file, you need to speak with folks about any kind of plan they can offer. If/when you know you are filing, then there is probably no concern.

I find the amount of debt big companies are willing to write off (unsecured and secured losses) staggering. See what Citi announced the past couple of days. I don't get it! I guess they are just not set up to deal with the problem.

JMHO

[indebt]

So if I don't get the 0% new card, should I just let Citi default and see what they're willing to do? What if I do default and they don't offer me a plan?

[indebt]

OK, I heard back from Chase, they approved me for $4000 and transferred $3500 over to the 0% interest card.

Then I got a pre-approval for BofA for up to $10,499 at 0% until 10/08. I applied and got $11,000 so they are supposed to transfer $10k over.

So that means $13,500 is transferred to 0%. That should help?!

I have $10,000 on a BofA card that is at 2.99% and the interest is only like $32 a month. I should only have $12,000 on the Citi card at 12.5% interest, that will still hurt, but I think I can just keep asking for increases on the other cards and if I can pay it down and transfer some more to 0% then I'll have it made. (I hope)

[BKcrazy]

I recently read about a man that had a house in NJ ( I believe) and moved to FL for retirement, he too paid cash for his house. Then, down the road he could not afford to pay his bills either. The court argued about that, but then stated, when he paid for the new house, he had no idea that he would not be able to pay his bills. They went with the thought that he had good intentions of living out his retirement, and not going broke as he did. They still discharged him and didn't make him sell the house he paid cash for. I hope that story helps. Just have to get people that understand life doesn't go how we plan, and sadly the job market just sucks all over now.

[CindyLou]

Just thought I'd ask and make sure you are keeping only your name on these cards in case you need to stop paying them in the future?? But it looks like you have a plan for now and hopefully a job will come through for hubby soon. I'll keep my finger and toes crosssed for you.

[indebt]

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, the cards are still only in my name. I hate spreading things out like that, but with the zero interest, I can pay the minimums on those cards and send more to the one with the 12% for now. I will only owe about $12,000 on that one so could make a good size dent in it since the interest won't be as much since the balance isn't as high.

I am working on it. I know since our bills are so low, that we have a better shot at it then anyone else. I added up our monthly bills and it comes to about $360, that does not include our insurance policies and come 02/29/08, we will have $1800 due for taxes, but we should get back at least that in our income tax refund. (fingers crossed)

I haven't used the cards for about a week and a half now, which was part of the battle. I was used to using them for EVERYTHING, so I think with his $1300 a month income, we pay our bills, and will have about $950 left over for food, gas, and card payments. It will be tight, but it's not impossible for now.

[gwebber]

Indebt, there a few tricks you can try with your credit card companys.

what are your interest rates at currently.? are they high like in the 20's.? which is not too uncommon these days.?
Before of places that fix cards, as I did that and what they did was negotiated a payment for me and it did help me from the monthly perspective, but long term wasnt such a good thing. They will end up closing the cards, which doesnt help you.
I have removed all my cards from debt management(lessoned learned) and would never do it again.

[rest of post removed by moderator]

[indebt]

Thanks for the info.

I did move most of the debt to 0% interest cards. I now have:

$10,000 - Bank of America 0% for 12 months
$10,000 - Bank of America 2.99% until paid
$3,500 - Chase 0% for 14 months
$13,000 - CitiCard 12.99%

I will pay the minimums on the 3 lower interest cards and send extra to the CitiCard when I can. I think having the 0% on the majority of the debt will help immensely.

[Hollyhomemaker]

I homeschool as well and I wanted to tell you that I make about $85 a month doing surveys from 3 reputable companies. It's not a lot of money for sure, but it pays a bill or two. The companies are sendearnings.com, inboxdollars.com, and pineconeresearchcom. Pinecone pays $5 a survey and you receive a check in the mail about 4 days after you do a survey. The problem though is you can ONLY sign up on one of their flashing banners online. Some people find a banner only after months of searching but I found a banner after 3 hours of searching. Just google pinecone banner and always look at the top of major websites to see if a pinecone banner is flashing.

Sendearnings and inboxdollars pay a dollar a survey and you can do one a day from each company. They send a check out on a net 30 basis. Ive belonged to these 3 for a long time. There are other survey places online but most are scams. Notice that I did not include my referral number, and I didnt for 2 reasons, one I am not trying to make money here by posting this info and 2, I dont do referalls anyway. A lot of people do, but I don't.

Good luck and if this doesn't help you I hope it helps others who read this.

[BKcrazy]

Thanks for the info.

I did move most of the debt to 0% interest cards. I now have:

$10,000 - Bank of America 0% for 12 months
$10,000 - Bank of America 2.99% until paid
$3,500 - Chase 0% for 14 months
$13,000 - CitiCard 12.99%

I will pay the minimums on the 3 lower interest cards and send extra to the CitiCard when I can. I think having the 0% on the majority of the debt will help immensely.

Kepp your eye on Chase. They can be super nasty. And they are sneaky.