I am currently in about $8,160 worth of credit card debt, with the average interest rate being about 22%. I've been looking into debt consolidation programs but they all sound sketchy as hell. "Let all your accounts go delinquent, we'll pay them less than you owe and you pay us with 25% interest"
How would you guys go about paying this off in the fastest and smartest way possible?
PUT IT ALL ON BLACK
>>1176378
Sounds good but ima need that money first :c
>>1176373
>take out a loan at anyrate under 22%
>pay off credit card
>pay other loan at reasonable rates
>go work an extra day a week
>use all that money to pay depts without reducing life style.
>>1176384
Talked to a debt management company that said they will lower my interest rates by up to 11% on average. They said that with their plan I will be paying xx amount per month, 20$ of which being their fee for up to 49 months which is the term of the program. Over the term of the program, I will have saved over 16 grand on interest rates. Deeply considering it guys, but part of me is uncomfortable because its unfamiliar with me. Are these types of programs a good idea, or would I be an idiot for joining it? It sounds like the perfect scenario
Just use betterment or some other p2p lending service
options:
a)take out loan at 3.5% for "used car"
b)run up cards then leave country and forget the debt
c)do none of the above and pay your silly 10+% interest
>>1176373
8160 isn't that much mang,
you probably need to force yourself to do withouth some things cable tv, car if you can bus or train it to work, your fancy lunch coffee etc and just pay more toward teh card and get rid of it.
my sister had like 22K credit card debt, you can settle with your crediter for less sometimes, like of you say "here is 14 k, have this all now, and call it done" and some do.
Well OP I can tell you how I did and I owed a hell of a lot more. Three things.
Write down all of your expenses for one full calender month.. doesn't matter if it's a pack of gum or your electricity bill. Write it down in a notebook.
Use the numbers you wrote down the previous month and plan the following month with a written budget. Nothing online just old fashioned pen and paper.
Then, follow it up with this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU7HEIs3IWw
Stop following his advice once you complete step three. The rest of what he says is bullshit.
>>1176373
If your score isnt shit open an amex and then call to have the max raised to like 11k (they only do transfers up to 85% of the limit)
Then balance transfer. Thatll buy you 16 months interest free to snowball it (so min payment will be like 80 bucks but if you keep paying what you are now youll actually make leeway instead of paying so much interest)
>>1176795
>a)take out loan at 3.5% for "used car"
This isn't an option. If it's a secured loan then it won't get funded without confirmation of the car's existence.
If it's an unsecured loan then the rate is going to be much higher than 3.5%.
My advice to OP is to shop around for the best personal loan rate you can find.
Once you've found some banks that offer good value then just go in and discuss your situation with them.
They'll then organise a consolidation into a single personal loan which should have a much lower interest rate. This IMO is a better option than dedicated debt consolidation providers who generally sting you with higher fees and rates.
