Anyone know of any good debt consolidation programs?
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This is an oxymoron "good debt consolidation programs." And they don't save your credit. Most debt consolidation programs appear as bad as a bankruptcy on your credit report.
They are over priced for something you can do yourself. Plus they don't treat the symptom (over spending). You need to change your behavior. Put it another way, if you are going to diet, you have to reduce your food intake & increase your excercise, you can't have me do it for you and you loose the weight. Same with debt, you need to work this out.
I suggest you start with reading The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. Then start your baby emergency fund and then a budget. You will be amazed at how much money you may be wasting each month by not using a budget.
We have paid off over $15k in 1 1/2 years of working his plan. But we had to budget and tell our money where to go, instead of just spend, spend, spend. We also have stopped using all credit cards (and canceled them). We have stopped they cycle of debt.
Read his book and I bet you can be out of debt on your own in about 18-36 months!! (depending on your salary)
Student loans are good loans even if they leave you with a bit of debt. You can use a student loan consolidation program or look for a program that combines both your student loans and other debts into one consolidation program.
The key to a successful consolidation program is to avoid going back into debt. You mentioned credit card bills, utilities, etc. If you are falling behind on everyday expenses, I would suggest getting a 2nd job so that you don't fall back into debt even after a successful consolidation program. Good luck.
I found most of the places you find on the net are a scam. It is best to go to a local bank and talk to them. The scam of most places is that they will take your small monthly payment but wont send any to your creditors. Finally the creditors will settle with them for a smaller amount and in the mean time your credit is shot. That is something you can do yourself. If you are not worried about your credit score for now you can just not pay on your unsecured loans and after about 3 to 4 months they will ask you to settle out for a lot less than you owed.
I just recently answered this same question for someone.I used Incharge debt soultions...Why? I was working partime after being laid off... All of my monthly bills started to get behind and it seemed that the money I was making wasn't enough to even attempt to pay the bills.
So I had been hearing about companies that can repair your credit if you pay them a certain amount and make monthly payments to them.. And I was actually going to give them a call until I saw a commercial about incharge... I called got started on the program..
What they did was have me gather all and I do mean all even the same ones (bills) together. Then did asked me what my income was, how much I spent on clothes, shoes, the ususal stuff.. they then added up all the bill amounts that I had given them and gave a figure of how much they all were. Then they asked me of all the names and companies so that they could contact them for me and see if they could get them to lower my intrest rate.
They also gave me a figure that was signifcantly lower than the first amount of all the bills. The was the quoted amount I would actually be saving and having to pay if I worked with the company and paid the monthly amount that we would settle on.
So after giving them all that info the next day I sent them my bills. A week or so later I recieved an agreement that was between us three.. the company-incharge, myself and my bills...that stated that I would pay a certain amount to them every month that would either be deducted out of my account or a check or money order would be sent. Then incharge would send the money to my creditors and then they would recieve the updates and send them to me...
All of this would have been acknowldeged by the companies with letters stating that they recieved my payment. I stopped recieving harrassing calls, and letters and made a monthly payment that I could afford. Yes, I did have to pay incharge a few of like 20.00 or so but it wasn't anyting compared to me not having those calls and all those bills piling up.
The gave me a 3 year plan and I'm still on it... I have paid off a few of my bills and can't wait to pay off more.. I have started to send more than was agreeded so I'm paying more on certain bills... I like it and incharge hasn't given me any issues or anything they are always nice, and respectful...
I have heard horror stories about other companies but I would reccommend them to anyone... I know everyone doesn't have the same amount of bills but they can help.
Good luck...
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