Cheap Debt Consolidation
Credit Card Debt Consolidation?
I owe $11,000 in credit cards. When economic times were better, it wasn’t so bad; I could balance transfer to 0% for a fixed 3% one time fee. Now it is much worse, I had to close an account to keep the interest rate from going high, when my debt to credit ratio is already bad now and nobody will give me a balance transfer anymore.
So now I essentially owe $9,000 at 8.5% or so, if you compound the different interest rates and balances. With my current living situation / area I live in my rent is over 30% of my expenses. I can make payments each month, but eliminating the debt will take at least 3 years and most likely longer, as something always comes up. I budget extremely well; but it just comes down essentially eliminating a social life, cooking every meal, and that just sucks!
Should I do Credit Card Debt Consolidation or is that too drastic and I just should move in to a cheaper living situation (which is drastic as well, but oh well).
Hey there – I feel your pain, but my answer is no. They will charge you a percentage of what you owe, and it affects your credit report when they start bargaining with the credit card companies. (I worked for Experian for 7 years.) Plus, there’s no guarantee they can do anything to consolidate to something you can afford – trust me on that one. I’ve seen it a 1,000 times.
What you can do is bargain with them yourself. Call them up and ask to have your rate lowered for a specific amount of time, which will allow you to ‘catch up’ and save a bit of money. Then, when it goes back to the normal rate, you’ll be able to put some extra money toward your monthly payments which will eventually help your credit report and in the long run save you money.
Basically, and I hate to say it, you’re in the same boat as the rest of America. Be glad you don’t have my $50K in student loans on top of $9K in credit card debt. Good luck, and really, please don’t be fooled by those companies… You’ll regret it.
Credit & Debt Consolidation : Cheapest Way to Consolidate Debt