Anyone looking to get out of debt quicker

MammaBear81

There have been several posts lately about job losses/reduced income, so I just wanted to let people know what we did when DH lost his job, maybe it can help other people.

We called our credit cards and were able to get our interest rates reduced (two were cut in half and the other went to 0%) due to "hardship" which really helped us get our credit cards paid down, even though DH was unemployed. Basically we told them we were about to file for bankruptcy (which we considered) and then they were willing to work with us, because if we file for bankruptcy they might not see any of their money.

We couldn't use the credit cards while we were on the reduced interest rate, but we were able to pay the minimum (or more if we had the money) to keep in good standing and our balances still dropped.  The program only lasts 1 year, but you can stay on it even if you or your SO becomes employed again.  You have to call each credit card separately and not everyone will do it, but it's worth a shot!

We still have one credit card left (out of 5), and I don't recommend doing this unless you are having trouble with your payments, but it did make me feel better knowing that not only would we be able to make the minimums, but our balances would still drop.  GL to everyone, hopefully the economy will get better for all of us!

financialdiva

Thanks for the info!

I'm curious, and you don't have to answer if you don't want to- did doing this and going on this program affect your credit score at all?

MammaBear81

financialdiva:

Thanks for the info!

I'm curious, and you don't have to answer if you don't want to- did doing this and going on this program affect your credit score at all?

Since it's not debt consolidation  (I asked each CC company individually) it didn't affect my credit score negatively.  Our credit score has actually increased in the last year because we were able to decrease our debt to income ratio and we were paying our bills on time because we could afford to.  I will say that we didn't have "excellent" credit to start with, so I don't know if that matters.

juliettodd

  Great info.  Thanks for the tip.