Debt Consolidation
by Ok, have any of you or someone you know and trust ever used one of those debt-consolidation services? I mean I get junk email about them CONSTANTLY and there are like a million commercials on the radio and TV about the different services, but I don't know if i trust them. Did anyone ever use them and like, have SUCCESS eliminating debt? Or are they just a scammy scam? Please share! Thank you much.
I'm actually filthy rich and I just want to know if anyone knows anything about these little consolidation services, because uh.. a friend wanted to know. Haha.
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they basically reduce your interest rate, because they lay out the money to pay off your debt and then you pay them. over a LONNNNNNNNG period of time. they make a LOT of money off of you.
they don't all work the same. but i'd stay away from them. it can hurt your credit even more. there are simple things you can do on your own that work basically the same, except you aren't paying them for their 'help'. i can post details here or you can email me. (or im)
Hmm if you want you can post details here so that others can be helped in case they have this question. Or if you want just send it to my Ezabel inbox. Whatever works.
not buying more stuff, and paying your bills seems to work.
also, grow your own wheat to make bread in your backyard, and have a vegetable garden. oh and a cow for the occasional steak or milk.
Having a vegetable garden would be sweet. And some chickens, gotta have some chickens. I gotta get out of this state.
Yeah thanks, fellow ex-unemployed victim of the system who should understand a little bit of what it's like. I haven't bought new anything or gone out to eat or gone to the movies or gone snowboarding in like, a YEAR and that doesn't really stop the ridiculous interest charges on old credit cards that havne't been used in three centuries. And did i mention paying for a wedding (that we didn't even want or need, but the families HAD TO have a certain type of reception) because I didn't like the idea of dating 5 years to save up money because the parents sure don't have anything. AND every month has some kind of gift-giving occasion like a wedding or bridal shower or baby shower or graduation or i duno, anything anyone can think of... PLUS have you SEEN the price of gas these days? Times are rough, sarcasm doesn't make them less rough. Sometimes it does, but not right now, heh..
It's sucky when you have a job making a lot of money and you spend some of your money and maybe you even put things on credit cards because you think, hey, i have a great job! And then you lose the job. And then you find a job but you will probably never again make the money you made pre-9/11. I duno, New Jersey sucks, it's so hard to make ends meet here. I didn't mean to sound all whiney in that last post.
too late ;)
yep. I was all, "Hey I've got a great job with more money than I've ever seen, and my crappy '89 Grand Marquis's transmission just disentegrated, maybe I'll buy my first new car ever!" and then 9 months later I got layed-off.
oh yeah, and then I'm paying a loan forever for college that I needed to get the job I just got layed-off from. I would have been better off just being a really bad carpenter or something.
you know what's great? CarLoan + Rent + StudentLoan + Commuting = AllMyPay
u must be real thin
Yep. I know it. So again, didn't mean to sound whiny and complainy. I just know you must know what I'm going thru. Lol remember we lost our jobs within a week of each other.
yeah, when you called me up and told me I thought you were playing a really cruel joke.
Haha. I remember that so clearly. I was sitting on the train, and the person next to me just stared at me bewildered and with like a "i'm sorry" look on his face for the entire ride home, since he heard me talking to you and stuff. It was awkward and a little funny. What a weird day that was. I didn't know what to think. hah.
yeah, I was driving home from reading books for free at Barnes&Noble or whatever unemployed people do when you called.
but I remember the day I got layed-off. I was so out of it I didn't know what to do. I just drove around by myself and got some pizza. then I had to call my parents and tell them. ughgh. that was crappy.
At least it's cool to live with your best friend so you can just sit home and hang out and entertain each other and don't have to spend money. :) Or asking people to come over and bring food works sometimes, even tho i hate doing it because I feel like i should make all the food in the world when people come over, ergo, i haven't had people over in ages.
"ergo". there you go busting out weird polish words again.
I love the word "ergo" and i hardly ever get to use it, so it's like, super exciting when I can use it. I'm very gay.
yeah, you're a gay man trapped in a woman's body. that explains a lot.
hmm yeah it does explain some things, but it still doesn't explain the lack of arm-flesh
!!!remember when we used to think we were the same person? I was gonna say the thing about your arms. haha.
ok...typical debt consolidators do this:
1. they call your credit card companies and request lower interest rates. many times ccc's run promos, but they don't tell you. you can just as easily call yourself several times a month and ask for your rate to be lowered.
2. these debt cons then have you pay down your balance at a set monthly payment. typically, they have you cut up your cards and close out your accounts. this is bad news, because ccc's don't like you cancelling your account. this will show negatively on your credit report.
3. debt cons work dif ways. some may pay off the debts themselves, and then they give you one big loan to pay them back. others may simply have you send them one big check, and they break it up into smaller pieces to pay off individual ccc's. again, these cases usually involve you cancelling your ccc's. this messes you up two ways: a) those ccc's will be less likely to give you a cc in the near future; b) any other company that looks at your credit report will see a low rating (i.e. other ccc's, auto loan co's. or mortgage co's.)
if you want to pay off your debt yourself, here are some tips:
1. call your ccc's and ask if they're running a promo for a lower interest. like i said before, they usually don't tell you about it, but have specials all througout the month.
2. be careful with balance transfers. i only bal-tran on offers with NO TRANSFER FEE. this can be 2%, and is just stupid. also, be careful that the new card doesn't end up with a higher rate after the promo period. for example, i have a citibank promo which was 'no transfer fee, 3.9% until balance is paid.' other promos are '3.9% until Nov. 2003' then the fine print says it will become 12.9% in Dec. 2003. This of course will depend on what your rate is now.
3. Here's a tip to paying off your balances quickly (esp. if you like paying the minimum due):
- figure out how much you can pay each month for ALL your cc's. (let's say $500)
- arrange your statements in order of interest rates (highest to lowest).
- take your highest interest rate statement.
- now, for all the other cards, pay the minimum only.
- what's left from your 'monthly payment' ($500), pay towards the highest interest rate card
- when that card is paid off, do the same with the next highest interest rate. don't change your $500 monthly payment. that way, whereas you may have originally paid $30 towards the 2nd card, you're now paying $30 plus the money that originally went towards card #1.
that's all i can think of for now. feel free to ask more questions...and i hope it works out.
for interest, credit card companies actually do it by days. So if you get paid twice in a given month, rather than make one bigger payment, two smaller payments works out to be less interest. I learned this from talk radio.
nope dont know. i have a tree that grows money in my pants. so i'm alright.
you have a tree in your pants?
(okay please keep the forrest comments in your heads at least this once)
hahahahahahhaahahahah
LOL, all this talk about forests and trees in pants.. interesting!
i just realized i spelt it with 2 r's but without the "e" i wonder if i was thinking about myself or Gump or a forest hmmmm
yeah originally i thought you were telling yourself not to say something really funny, then realized you were asking us not to say something like what grows in a forreste?
haha yes most of the time i dont know what I'M talking about
sorry only debt i have is to my parents. oh shoot i had to edit out that part don't tell anyone about that!
wow, i won't bug her about that....