You can’t get “rid” of it and make it go away. And for $5,000 you can’t (shouldn’t) even think of bankruptcy.
For that amount you ought to be able to reschedule it with the credit card company. If you can’t, then you should try working with a bank, or failing that a NONPROFIT credit counseling or rescheduling organization.
Do not, NOT, do business with a for-profit outfit that makes impossible promises and takes your first year’s payments as its profit upfont, paying nothing to the credit card company.
You have a relatively small amount of debt, so you may be able to handle it on your own.
I recommend speaking with a credit counselor about your debt to see if they can recommend strategies you can take on your own to eliminate debt. If you are having more serious problems with it, such as falling behind in payments, then they do have consolidation programs for those situations.
I recommend choosing a program through an agency that has a satisfactory rating with the Better Business Bureau. Also, ask if the initial meeting is free. A directory of agencies by state is below.
From personal experience, it is hard to find a good debt consolidation. I feel the best way is to get a loan from your bank to pay off these bills and then just have that one to pay. The interest rates are generally better and it takes less time to pay off than a credit card. Most consolidation groups say they can help, but in the end they make matters worse.
I am not sure, but if none of the accounts have gone to collections agencies, and it’s not bad enough to consider filing bankruptcy-the best things to do may be handle it yourself or go through credit counseling with their DMT debt consolidation repayment plan. (It’s usually called CCC, it’s the one that is “non-profit” but they make their money thru donations from creditors and fees paid by consumers on the plans.) If you handle it yourself-you could pay the full amount in return for them agreeing to take off and keep off all negative reports from being reported to the credit reporting agencies.
If your accounts have gone to collections agencies they may not be willing to agree to any debt consolidation. Being on a DMT plan/debt consolidation plan-can be negative on your credit reports-as it’s not “paid as agreed”. Good luck!
Debt consolidation won’t ‘get rid of’ debt. The debt is still there, you’ve just moved it to a single creditor.
$5,000 is not a lot of money. You could try your bank: this is what I did and I was amazed that they offered me a loan to pay off my cards. I now have to pay the bank, but they deduct a monthly amount from my checking account.
But that’s not the end of the story. What this taught me was that I absolutely must stay within my monthly budget as it’s too easy to just get back into debt again. So cut up those cards! Try living on cash for a couple of weeks and get your priorities straight.
best way is 1) stop paying your credit card for 3 mos straight so they will send your bills to collection and send you out notices 2) call the collection company back to tell them you do not have enough $ to pay them and that you want to negotiate 3) 80% of the time they will negotiate for less.
HOWEVER, if you don’t have 3K or 4K to payoff the negotiated payoff amount, you just have to try to stop spending so much and payoff your credit debts fast. Do not go thru any consumer credit counseling services, it is bad for your credit unless you could careless about your credit at this point then do it.
8 responses so far ↓
1 Andy
You can’t get “rid” of it and make it go away. And for $5,000 you can’t (shouldn’t) even think of bankruptcy.
For that amount you ought to be able to reschedule it with the credit card company. If you can’t, then you should try working with a bank, or failing that a NONPROFIT credit counseling or rescheduling organization.
Do not, NOT, do business with a for-profit outfit that makes impossible promises and takes your first year’s payments as its profit upfont, paying nothing to the credit card company.
2 stopccdebt
You have a relatively small amount of debt, so you may be able to handle it on your own.
I recommend speaking with a credit counselor about your debt to see if they can recommend strategies you can take on your own to eliminate debt. If you are having more serious problems with it, such as falling behind in payments, then they do have consolidation programs for those situations.
I recommend choosing a program through an agency that has a satisfactory rating with the Better Business Bureau. Also, ask if the initial meeting is free. A directory of agencies by state is below.
3 pickle_980
From personal experience, it is hard to find a good debt consolidation. I feel the best way is to get a loan from your bank to pay off these bills and then just have that one to pay. The interest rates are generally better and it takes less time to pay off than a credit card. Most consolidation groups say they can help, but in the end they make matters worse.
4 terriintexas2003
I am not sure, but if none of the accounts have gone to collections agencies, and it’s not bad enough to consider filing bankruptcy-the best things to do may be handle it yourself or go through credit counseling with their DMT debt consolidation repayment plan. (It’s usually called CCC, it’s the one that is “non-profit” but they make their money thru donations from creditors and fees paid by consumers on the plans.) If you handle it yourself-you could pay the full amount in return for them agreeing to take off and keep off all negative reports from being reported to the credit reporting agencies.
If your accounts have gone to collections agencies they may not be willing to agree to any debt consolidation. Being on a DMT plan/debt consolidation plan-can be negative on your credit reports-as it’s not “paid as agreed”. Good luck!
5 jan d
Ways to Consolidate Debt
6 Gillian G
Debt consolidation won’t ‘get rid of’ debt. The debt is still there, you’ve just moved it to a single creditor.
$5,000 is not a lot of money. You could try your bank: this is what I did and I was amazed that they offered me a loan to pay off my cards. I now have to pay the bank, but they deduct a monthly amount from my checking account.
But that’s not the end of the story. What this taught me was that I absolutely must stay within my monthly budget as it’s too easy to just get back into debt again. So cut up those cards! Try living on cash for a couple of weeks and get your priorities straight.
I hope this helps. Good luck!
ps. this website has some very useful stuff:
7 oilman11977
Maybe you should talk to a debt counselor.
8 sarkatick
best way is 1) stop paying your credit card for 3 mos straight so they will send your bills to collection and send you out notices 2) call the collection company back to tell them you do not have enough $ to pay them and that you want to negotiate 3) 80% of the time they will negotiate for less.
HOWEVER, if you don’t have 3K or 4K to payoff the negotiated payoff amount, you just have to try to stop spending so much and payoff your credit debts fast. Do not go thru any consumer credit counseling services, it is bad for your credit unless you could careless about your credit at this point then do it.