I am in way over my head. I have a good salary 100K a year, but got divorced last year, had to pay a bunch of money and I have custody of my kids thankfully. I have around 90K in credit card debt. Plus my two house payments and a car. Is any relief available. I have a legal plan at work so I am thinking about going to an attorney. I have paid the minimum each month but I am not getting my head above water and dont know what to do. I do not want to lose my home, I have plenty of money to pay for the house, the credit cards are just overwhelming and I cant even save money for emergencies…Help
what can i do about credit card debt?
May 23rd, 2010 
admin 
Posted in Card Debt Relief 
Call all of them and work out a payment plan and try to get your interest lowered or stopped.
Then, make the minimum payments on every one of them. On the lowest dollar value, put all your extra effort toward paying it off. Once it is paid off, then roll that extra money to the next largest balance. Continue this snowball until all your debts are paid off.
You probably need to cut your expenses back to the bare minimum. Get rid of cable, cell phones, internet, etc. Lower your electric bill, gas bill, water bill, etc. Don’t eat at a restaurant until your debts are under control. Take a sandwich for lunch. Cancel the gym membership.
Try to increase your income by getting a second job. If you have a car with payments, get rid of it, and buy a good dependable used car for CASH.
Go to the library and get "The Total Money Makeover". Read it and follow it carefully.
Go check out Dave’s website as well. Yahoo is blocking his site again, so take out the spaces in the following:
www. Dave ramsey. com
You don’t need an attorney. You need to get on a written budget (which includes saving into an emergency fund), cut lifestyle, stop using credit, and sell stuff. Suggestions: sell the house and find something more affordable. Sell the car and find something more affordable.
Sell what ever you don’t need. Don’t purchase anything you don’t need.
How can you say you have plenty of money to pay for your house when you owe 90K?
You should not be thinking of going to see an attorney, maybe you might want to go to some money management class.
With your salary, you should not be having this problem.
First: Read The Total Money Makeover by Ramsey.
Second: get on a written budget each and every month, follow it to the T.
Third: Evaluate your home and car expenses. Example- if you can’t pay off your car in the next 6-12 months, SELL it! Get a cheap, cheap car and use the money that was going to car payments to your debt snowball. Evaluate the 2 house payments- is it for one or two homes? If you have two homes (vacation, etc), sell one or if it is a second mortgage on your primary residence- see if you can consolidate the loan for a better rate.
You don’t need an attorney. You need a good budget and a really hard look at where all your money is going to, you have been overspending for awhile to obtain $90k in credit card debt. You will need to cut your lifestyle and depending on the kids ages, you will need let them know that your lifestyle is being cut which means, their lifestyle is being cut.
Read the above referenced book and you will get on track. Dave also has a radio program (check out his website for a station near you) or you can stream the broadcast each day or listen to archives all from his website.
YES, Dave Ramsey will truly help. It is called the snowball effect. While paying the minimum on all other bills, pay as much as you possibly can to the smallest bill (regardless of the interest rate), and eliminate it. Then take the money you were concentrating on the smallest, and go after the second smallest. After paying that one go to the third on and so on. You will see the momentum grow like a avalanche.
Also, have a garage sale, a second job, deliver pizzas. Cut out some of the unnecessary expenses right now. Like dinners out, lattes, entertainment, you know stuff you can live with out. Your expensive car may have to go. Get a cheap car you can pay cash for.
Good luck. Dave is great at this, and has helped many hundreds get out of debt. Here him on your radio station, and he is on cable TV too.
I want to assure you that you are not alone in this predicament; many consumers find themselves buried in debt before they even know what happened. Thankfully, I can think of several possible solutions to your problem, but which option is the best for you will depend on how old the debts are, if you own property, and how much money you can afford to allocate to your debts on a monthly basis.
A secured debt consolidation loan may be right for you. This type of loan is essentially a home equity loan which is used to pay off your other creditors. Secured consolidation loans help many consumers by consolidating all of their debts into a single monthly payment with a lower interest rate and payment amount. Also, be careful before you borrow money against your home to pay off credit cards and other unsecured loans; you will be converting what was previously unsecured debt into secured debt. This could cause you problems down the road if for some reason you are unable to make your payments, or if life circumstances force you to file bankruptcy, as you may not be able to discharge the secured debt as you would unsecured debt. However, secured debt consolidation loans work for many people, so this is an option to consider carefully–the Bills.com Savings Center is a great resource to help you find a lender for this type of loan.
A website such as Bills.com makes it easy to compare mortgage offers and different loan types. Please visit the loan page to a loan that meets your needs at: http://www.bills.com/mortage/refinance
Another option to consider is a Consumer Credit Counseling Service, or CCCS. CCCS companies offer numerous services, such as financial counseling and budget planning, as well as Debt Management Plans (DMPs). In a DMP, the CCCS would arrange a new payment amount with each of your creditors, usually based on a reduced interest rate. You would then make a single monthly payment to the CCCS which would distribute the funds to your creditors, based on the new payment amounts. There are several drawbacks to CCCS, though. First, depending on your creditors, it may not be able to reduce your monthly payments enough to improve your financial situation. Second, it may have a negative impact on your ability to obtain a loan, so you may not wish to enter into a DMP if you anticipate any large purchases, such as home or an auto, in the near future. Third, the average DMP takes around five years to pay off your debts, so you must be willing and able to commit to a long-term repayment plan.
You may also want to consider the services offered by debt settlement firms. Rather than making monthly payments to your creditors, these programs negotiate lump sum settlements with your creditors, frequently reducing your debts by 50% to 60% of your principal balances. These programs usually take only 2-3 years to complete, so this is a good option for many people to rid themselves of debt in a relatively speedy manner. In many cases they can also reduce your monthly payment toward your debt. There is one major drawback to debt settlement programs, though–they will significantly damage your credit while in the program and for at least a year or two afterwards. However, if you are currently unable to afford to pay your creditors, the hit to your credit may be worth the benefit of ridding yourself of credit card debt. Because of your financial difficulties, you may want to stop focusing on the importance of your credit score. Although you may have a good credit score, because of your low income and large debt amount, most lenders will likely see you as a high risk borrower, and may not be willing to extend you credit, so your actual credit rating may not good as you believe. A debt settlement program is probably the fastest way to resolve you debts, and once you repay your debts, you should be able to rebuild your credit score through careful management of your credit accounts.
Hopefully, one of the several options I have described above may be able to help you.