Last year my partner and I had a rough time financially, he lost his job and even though he picked up work where ever he could and so did I ( I'm usually a stay at home mum) we fell behind, we basically became homeless.
Any way now we are back up with and great income and trying to get on top of it all again (loans etc)
My question is has any one used a debt consolidator before? Who would you recommend? Is there any point seeing the bank we bank with to see if they can help even though now we have bad credit? Even negotiating with our current creditors and a strict budget (we aren't bad with money it was just a tough time) we don't seem to have an end inside for years if we keep going. Any information would be great.
Debt Consolidation, how do we go about it?
Debt Consolidation, how do we go about it?
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Money
3 Replies
Be very careful of debt consolidator loans, some have huge interest rates that leave you worse off than you already are. If you have a home loan you may be able to get everything rolled into that. I think it's worth having a conversation with your bank. You won't know if they can or will help if you don't ask.
Ok, we have been through this just 12 months ago, we were going through a rough time, just a few family circumstances which ended up sucking us dry and overloading our credit cards to the max, it got to the point where I was sitting there crying and trying to figure out how to end my life so my hubby could collect my life insurance and live comfortably with our 3 children... We went to our bank with which we had been dealing for 10 years and asked to consolidate it into our mortgage, they sat there and punched the numbers and by adding it to the mortgage, it was going to add $5 a week to the mortgage and save us $900 a month in repayments.... THEY said we couldn't afford the extra $5 a week???? (But they expected us to still be able to pay the $900 a month?????) totally ludicrous!!! Soo after a few more sleepless nights we ended up going to a debt place and entering into a part 9 debt agreement, it's where they approach your creditors, offer them a reduced amount, once they accept this amount the debt place then adds up all your out goings, from haircuts to groceries to major bills and insurances and work out what YOU can afford to pay, (the part 9 debt agreement is NOT bankruptcy, it's a government agreement which they set in place because of all the changed lending laws after the global crash that left those of us battlers struggling to consolidate and get ourselves out of debt) If you already gave bad credit, go to the debt place, they are very discreet, very supportive. Once we contacted them and all the papers were signed, we stopped all payments in our debts, if a creditor called we just have them the debt agency's number and they handled everything... It'll take us 5 years to be debt free, but we're already 1 year closer to it... It's scarey but it sounds as if it's no where near as scarey as what you have just come through... Big hugs and make the call... It's definitely worth the peace of mind you'll get... Xx
I am through Debt Cutters at the moment. Best thing we ever did!! Same situation - partner lost job, and I was only working casual. We were getting phone calls every day from people wanting money, and almost had our car repossessed. Give them a call. The lady I spoke to was fantastic. No need to decide straight away. Yes, you will have a mark against your name for 5 years - but hey, at least it stops you from getting more loans etc,...and falling into debt again. The only loans we are paying off now are the secured loans, and $75 per week to Debt Cutters (compared to hundreds and hundreds per week to creditors).