What to do??

[Worried]

We are in debt about 30,000 and need help. We were never late on anything but it was getting to the point where there was nothing left over to even buy groceries. In July we join Credit Solutions and now we are more then 90 days late and already been summons. We decided to make payments to the attorney to stop anymore legal action (we are paying more now on these two accounts then we were paying for the min. payment). We feel we should drop CS and try to settle on our debts on our own. We will not be able to settle on anything until Feb. that is when we will have enough saved up.

We finally woke up and did a budget at the beginning of Oct. and have done real good sticking with it. But, with the holidays coming it is going to be hard to save.

Has anybody had any experience with this company? I am scared to death of collection people calling.

What should we do?:(

[elyse449]

Take heart, you aren't the first people to have these sorts of difficulties and you won't be the last. Also, don't think for a moment that your creditors are staying awake nights wondering where your payments are.

Try to stay focused. Try to stay organized. Decide what you can do with the bills and what you can't do. Once you have a plan, I promise-you'll feel better. There are a ton of books out there to that can help-just visit your local library and look in their finances section.

Yes, definitely-lose credit solutions. It sounds like they're purposely dragging their feet on helping you folks and are proving to be more of a liability then anything.

Please elaborate on "payments to attorney..." what is this regarding?

Elyse

[Worried]

My husband and I each have a Household (Orchard Bank) credit card. Each have about $1500.00 on them. We were summons by an attorney office. We agreed to pay $91.00 per month on each to stop the lawsuit. Should we have not done that? Should we have done a dv? We are about 3-4 months behind. I want to stop everything with Credit Solutions, but I am not sure where to start on my own. Not one of our cc are over $2000.00, we just have nine of them. One from Chase, five with Capital One, three with Household and one big loan (not a credit card) with Household Retail Services. We stopped paying on them in July and August due to joining Credit Solutions (BIG MISTAKE)! Where do we start?

Thanks for any advice!

Worried

[elyse449]

This may sound stupid but...if it were me, I'd send letters to each of your creditors. Explain to them you were mislead by Credit Solutions. Explain that you thought they'd help you get up to date with your bills and avoid bankruptsy and you were wrong. Explain you are sorry and eager to work with them to find a positive solution. More than likely, any payments you made to Credit Solutions never even made it to the creditors because they swallowed those as their "fees" and what not, butt faces.

As far as your agreeing to pay the 91.00--how's that going? Are you still paying it? Was it wrong? Well, at this point hon-it doesn't matter. You did what you thought was right and there is no crime in that, you're doing your best...don't be too hard on yourself.

*NOTE* Any credit card that has NOT charged off is worth attempting to salvage, but get a payment in IMMEDIATELY (if it's 90 days or less overdue). Household and Capital One both allow online acct access, you may want to attempt to access your accts there at their websitesand see where your accts are at this point. Also, remember--these companies may have a hardship program that you can see if you qualify for. Try hard to save the Chase one, if you can.

If the acct has already charged off, find out what collection agency has the account, if any. Then, put that acct to the bottom of the file as you work to rehab the accts that ARE NOT charged off. Those are just my initial ideas...

Elyse