Hmm... I need to find out myself. I don't know what is the answer to that question. I'll do some Googling and get back to you if I bump into an decent answer. You should email the people at Lending Tree as they probably could help you..

1. find a part-time second job.

2. cut back expenses (i.e. HS internet, cell phone plan, caller ID, cable, etc...).

3. consolidate as many balances to as few cards as possible (preferably 1) and then enroll that/those cards in a *local* type of CCCS. Make sure the issuers will work with the CCCS programs. Then watch the CCCS program like a hawk to make sure the payments are sent on time. And send any additional money to the creditor in addition to CCCS..

4. Borrow against your whole term life insurance..

There is nothing wrong with CCCS as long as:.

1. you have written proof that the creditor will accept the CCCS terms and payment amounts..

2. you make sure every month that the creditor's minimum payment was made on time by CCCS...

Unfortunately, you've really answered your own question. There are no real solid answers to get rid of cc debt, and not hurt your credit rating, unless your in a position to consolidate your debt, and pay everybody off, get a 2nd job and make paying down your debt a focus, or skim your other expenses to bare bones and pay off debt. Sometimes none of those are viable options..

BK and credit counseling are similar. They both trash your credit. IMHO, there isn't much difference, except if you feel morally obligated to not walk away from your debt. I did counseling many years ago. It worked for us. Our credit was toast, but with the exception of one creditor, once we completed the program, all counseling notations were removed and we were in decent credit shape.

BK sits there for 10 yrs unless you are lucky enough to remove it in the repair processbut that is an unknown..

You are right, most cc's won't even think about putting you in a hardship program until your credit report is severely blemished. And they wonder why so many BK's are filed. I have never heard of NCC, but maybe others can share the good and the bad part of using them..

They are no easy answers, and whatever you decide to do, it is a purely personal choice. I feel for you, and wish you luck!..

Mr. Breeze,.

If you are making the minimum payments. You can do this without a BK or credit counciling..

Pay the minimum payments on all accounts, except for the ONE that is costing you the most in interest each month. For the debt that is costing you the most....pay that debt the minimum amount and an extra $5.00 or $10.00 or whatever you can find that month. The next month pay the new minimums on all debts again, except on that ONE that is costing you the most. (which is the one with the highest interest) Pay that debt the same thing you did the month before, plus the difference in the new minimums for the others.. even if it's only a dollar or two. In time it will get going.

You must not USE them any more. ( I'm the pot calling the kettle black now). Don't cancel the cards as you will lose your bargaining power later on when it comes to requesting a lower rate. If your rates are high anything over 9.9%. Call and ask NOW for a lower interest rate.

Watch your mail for new offers, but ALWAYS read the fine print..

I am very proud of the fact that since finding this board and another that the highest interest rate I am paying at the moment is 3.9%. However as of this morning our credit card debt is over 20K. The thing I/we must do now is budget, get these suckers paid off and STOP using them period..

I hope I have been helpful, If I can answer any more questions for you just ask..

Cherie..

Thank you ALL for the helpful responses.....it's just that the debt looks SO overwhelming right now, as I'm sure alot of you can relate. I have already cancelled my Internet Access....cable "should" be next( I still can't believe the rates for just "basic" cable)....I WISH I could cut off my regular phone altogether! LOL...

My only problem with debt consolidation/help companies are, they want you to pay them and then they make the payments to your creditors. There are alot of stories about the payments being late or not made at all. I just think the risk of your credit getting screwed up by one of these companies is to great. Have you thought about a home equity loan. I dont know if you own a house, but if so that would be an option. I have heard of people cashing in on the 401-K, but that would have to be a last option for me.

You are lucky that you have been on time and only one over the limit fee. There is no other real solution that I can come up with other than get a second job or file BK..

Good Luck!!.

Matt..

If you are going to use the programs you speak of be sure to check in your area to see if there is a program put on by Catholic Charities or Neighborhood Service Organizations or other non-profit type of organizations. They are usually a lot more reliable and much cheaper too...

You are correct. People on these financial sites trash talk these companies. I was in the same situation as yourself a few years back. I used such company to get back on track. I would try to give you a brief run down..

Be carefull about who you sign up with. Be very carefull..

Do not buy into the non profit crap that people keep saying, they probably don't know what they are talking about. In my state, only non profit orgs can be in the business (debt Consolidation). I think the law that requires them to be non profit is federal. Therefore, they would all be non profit..

Starting a non profit business is not that hard to do..

ANY COMPANY CAN SCREW UP YOUR FINANCES< profit or no profit..

Make sure you sign up with a company that has a local office of business. Remember that this is your personal finance, you need to be able to walk in and talk to a manager or sup. if you have issues with the way they a handling your "personal finance.".

The company I worked with was small local when I joined but became national by the time I left. They handled my account well enough. HOWEVER ....

Overall, I think they were morons. I never really had a problm with them because I paid VERY CLOSE attention to what they were doing. After all, this was my "Personal finances"..

The few times that I looked the other way, they SCREWED UP..

The morality of my story is that "your Personal finance" is your personal business. Do not leave it to anyone else. These companies offer a valued service but do not expect to dump your problem on them and leave them to solve it for you..

Most people who get screwed by these compaines do so because they failed to take basic responsibility..

Willy Nelson was a millionaire who left all his personal and business finances for accountants to deal with. He is now a bumb who will work of food..

I personally know other people who used the same service as myself but had problems. They were also late on payments many times or missed payments. If you are responsible and care about your finances you would do just fine with these companies..

Before you join, make sure to keep one good card active and away from them. You would not be able to get another card until after you have completed your repayment plan..

Yes, it would leave a "temporary" bad mark on your credit report. However, it is still about 10 times better than BK..

I can go on and on, but I think you get the gist of it..

Bottomline, Debt Consolidation Companies are only as good as you take responsibility for your own finances. If I needed to I would use them again in a heart beat...

Thanks all.........I appreciate the responses. I basically had the same ideas/impressions as all of you, but was mostly looking for some "reinforcement". Looks I will go with ncc and watch them like a hawk...

Ms.Breeze cops out and Mr. Breeze takes her place...

I'm in your situation as well.. I called CCCS and they couldn't help.. They even told me they couldn't help.. The program would have got me out of debt one month earlier. I (nor them) thought it was worth it.. Then the guy mentioned settling with the c.c.

He said he knew of people that quit paying their cards that they were barely paying and once they got close to charge-off date they would come up with a settlement offer from the c.c. company usually 30-50% and with the money they were paying to the cards each month they paid soem of the settlements...

You could try this....

While I don't disparage anything anyone has said here, one thing that people might want to consider is that if they care about getting their credit straightend up it's going to be a lot harder to do it after CCCS than it is before using them..

It might be impossible in fact. Some might think it better than Bk but in reality both are about the same in the eyes of future creditors. You may have done the honorable thing and paid them off but it still says that the debtor could not manage his own affairs so he had to run to someone else for halp. That's basically what BK says too in the eyes of new creditors in the future...

.....anybody know what this guy's talkin about? Did I miss somethin?..

Several months ago there was a lady who used the screen name of Breeze also..

Haven't noticed her posts in a while now...

Lbrown, you are.

Such.

A class act..

Not.

I wasn't going to do this, because I am a really nice person, but you gave me the perfect excuse...

Lbrown,.

You're a piece of chit!!!!! i've always given you the benefit of the doubt, but this comment was the proverbial straw! You, sir, are a complete waste of time on this board. Not once, have I seen you give any useful information. NOT ONCE!!! that's really sad considering how many post you have! Next time, you feel like making a smart a$$ comment hoping you don't get caught, why don't you direct it at me???!!!!! i'll be more than happy to get into intellectual fisticuffs with you, and unlike Pat, I have no problem shooting an unarmed man. (i know you are terribly slow, so let me translate. YOU ARE AN IDIOT, and the original troll)..

Well, mr Bill. I would like to attest to the fact that they are no where as damaging as filling BK. The big difference is that BK stays on your record for 7 - 10 years even if you paid it all up and became a millionaire in six months..

With debt consolidation, The notation on your account is removed after you complete pay off program..

I put 3 of 4 cc in the program and only one card (MBNA)reported to CRA as belonging to the program. I have heard same thing from other people as well. All other accts. were showing current..

With MBNA, I did not have to do anything. Once they got paid in full (I over paid), they sent me a check and my next CR showed no sign that I was in any program. I was in the program for 3.5 years but scheduled for 5 years..

I got my first house with conventional First time home buyer Lending Tree loan (Not FHA), 2.5 years into the program..

Also, Debt consolidation has a positive mental advantage. You don't have to live with the stigma of filing BK chaper 7 or 13..

Look at it this way, if your boss called you into the office and said you have two options right now. "I can fire you or you can resign" You are out of a pay check with either option. Which one would you choose and why?.

Again, If I had to do it again. I would go to a debt Consolidation company in a heartbeat...

1*Come now where is your sense of humor?It was just a joke..

2*Because I don't have any reason to do so unless you consider this post of yours grounds for doing so...

Have you thought about a home equity loan. matt30.

===================.

Renters don't have this option...

Humblemark:.

First of all lb59 isn't a he but rather a she..

I've felt that way sometimes myself. but I do think tht such a vicious attack could have been couched in kinder words..

As you probably know, I've been there and done that more times than most people care to remember. Most of them got pretty hot to say the least. But they accomplished exactly nothing worthwhile. In this case LB has had more flames thrown at her than Saddam Housein and just like he, it hasn't phased her a bit..

Saddam may or may not survive the rocket attacks likely to come his way soon but you don't have nearly as much capability as a barrage of cruise missiles so you aren't likely to shoot her out of the saddle no matter how many barbs you throw at her. (LOL)..

FunkSoulBr:.

Like every other enterprise the good, the bad and the ugly usually exist side by side and the bad and the ugly ruin the pot for all..

As usual, one just has to be very careful in choosing not only the route they take to accomplish their goals but must carefully investigate, manage and work with whatever program they get into. It's always wise to check them out to the best of one's abilities before taking the leap..

Even the best of them have those customers who feel that they have not been well served in using the service. How much good they can do often depends on the customer and his individual circumstances. One size does not fit all...

Haven't noticed her posts in a while now..

Bill Bauer.

=====================.

She a while back and left..

LB 59..

She got tired of putting on her sunglasses to read any threads you'd posted to..

8-)..

First of all lb59 isn't a he but rather a she..

NOT THIS AGAIN!?!?!?.

HE NOT SHE..

Did you get PERMISSION to return after being BANNED...or did you just sneak in UNDER THE RADAR???..

F.Y.I.~~lbrown59 is NOT my "BUDDY".

It is just a FACT that lbrown59 WAS NOT BANNED...YOU WERE...

Camel's nose under the edge of the tent maybe?????..

Quick! Sound the alarm! Enemy sighted in the camp!!! Get the shotgun!!! Kill the louse before he reproduces!!!..

Bill,.

Long time no see. I didn't want to hijack the thread, but I believe thats already been done :).

How's everything?.

Humblemarc,.

All I can say is AMEN!..

I DON'T GET PAID TO TYPE 100% PERFECT (as in a book)...LOOSER~~LOSER...doesn't matter. THE MEANING IS THERE.....

It strikes me that you may have mis typed again. Seems to me that it should have been typed "MEANNESS" as in "vicious" or as in "slamming".

I have been under the impression that the purpose of the board was to teach and learn, not run contests to determine who can be the MEANest...

MEANING.

\Mean"ing\, n. 1. That which is meant or intended; intent; purpose; aim;.

Www.dictionary.com..

For the record, our admin log notes that bbauer was never banned. On November 28, 2001, pbm suspended bbauer and another member (for exceptionally disruptive fighting) for one month and gave bbauer the option to return after that time upon request. bbauer never requested to return until three days ago, and of course his request was granted..

CCN steve..

Bill did you come back to fight or to help ???????.

Can you clarify what your aim is ?????..

How can we ever learn ANYTHING, if we don't get opinions other than our own? Right or wrong, green or purple, that is the purpose of getting another set of opinions, which in my case, are always better than my own!! If a debate gets heated, it only shows how strongly people feel about their convictions! I think it's better to be passionate about a subject than apathetic...

I've never started a fight on any message board that I can remember. At least not knowingly nor deliberately. There are a number of reasons why different ones got started and most of them were so long ago that I probably don't have the correct details of them anymore..

But no, I don't go about deliberately starting fights. In fact I try to avoid them if at all possible..

Maybe I did at some time or another without actually realizing what the results would be. I hope that among many other things I have learned how to prevent them from happening by trying to be more careful of what I say and how I say them and better how to put the fires out if and when they do start..

I certainly admit that I may not be the best "statesman" by anybody's standards or by any stretch of the imagination. I also realize that I am sometimes caustic when I really don't mean to be that way at all..

Some accuse me of holding back on information they know that I obviously have in order to make money off of them. While that may be partially true, it goes a lot deeper than mere money..

Let me explain my thinking which is backed up by hard experience..

I've developed a working strategy that is at least 75% effective over a very large number of cases. Hundreds of them. And the success rate usually runs far higher than that. It's taken me many, many sleepless days and nights weekends included to get the job done. And it's still nowhere near done and it probably never will be..

If I put all of what I know how to do all over the message boards for the public to see and do with what they will for free or even somehow for pay people will end up in trouble because they didn't understand what they thought they had read and even worse it will have very quickly become public knowledge and because a substantial part of that viewing public will be the very people whom the party of the first part hoped to use against the party of the second part and will almost immediately become totally worthless because the instant the party of the second part will recognize it immediately and will develop strategies to defeat the party of the first part..

Then I will have wasted my time and really ended up hurting others in the process. Hurting the very people who trusted me to help them. I just happen to care about the average person a lot more than to let that happen..

So by controlling who gets the real meat of what I know very tightly I make sure that it's going to get in the hands of those who need it rather than in the hands of those who might wish to capitalize on it. And I also know that when they get it I will have the opportunity to work with them and be certain they know how, when and where to use that information to their best interests and not go off on some tangent and get themselves in hot water with it..

There is also another great benefit to controlling the most vital parts of what I know and that is by working with those who purchase it I can see any difficulties they might run into and I can make corrections to the material that will keep them and others from making the same mistakes..

If it were all about money and only about money then I would simply write a book and put it all in the book and let Barnes&Noble or whoever sell it across the counter for $29.95 or whatever and just sit back and reap the royalties not caring whether the purchaser of the book got any good out of it or not..

While helping people for free by posting all that one knows on message boards for free may seem a noble thing to do, there is far too much evidence out there that supports the idea that doing so only results in the information becoming obselete and worthless in a very short period of time and therefore new stuff has to be invented and perfected all the time just because of it..

Lots of people just don't seem to understand that or don't stop to think about it and when they can't get it for free they get mad and want to start fights which makes the whole situation even worse..

A very few want to post what they know on the message boards for ego building purposes so anyone posing a threat to their egos is immediately attacked either directly or by some subterfuge which generates the fight and the resulting hate, discontent and chaos. And some probably do it in order to cause so much confusion on the board that the newbies will all just give up and leave in disgust. After all, if someone has a vested business interest in collecting debts and they saw information that could easily be devastating to their business and badly hurt their cash flow being publicly displayed they may very well put certain trusted and knowledgeable people into the discussions for the sole purpose of seeing to it that the newbies did all leave in disgust not being able to find what they need or trust what they saw..

But I don't do it just to make a few bucks and I don't deliberately go about starting fights and I don't do it just to make me look bigger and badder than anybody else..

And those who disagree with me or pick my statements to pieces are doing all of us some good most of the time. So maybe we should not be too unkind to them. They, albiet unwittingly most of the time do point out our weaknesses and where we have made errors in our thinking. I try to listen to them very carefully for they too have much to teach even if their methods may leave something to be desired as my own often do..

Hope that clears up some things...

WE ARE A BUNCH OF.

LOSERS.

...BUT YOU ARE BACK???..

Hey bbauer, remember CREDITMANIA?.

It was the first board I joined. Unfortunately, it was shut down last July..

I noticed it is back up, why haven't you rejoined?..

Actually it is no longer up, but a new board has been formed. Things got out of hand with another troll actually harrassing people posting personal info, having porn sites sending e-mails to the posters etc...

I think **someone** completely abused that board..

Any ideas who?.

It was shame when the board shut down, I really liked it. [sad emoticon]..

Well I hope Mr. Breeze got the answer he needed. This thread has been so severely hijacked it should be criminal! LOL.

Mr. Breeze - if you still have questions, please feel free to start a new post!..

Yes, it was Bill's sparring partner who tormented Bill much as you're doing now for very little reason. What do I win?.

Doc.

P.S. Jlynn, you're right. Sorry. :(..

Nobody won, the board got shut down. Anyone who liked the board lost..

But IMHO, before the board shut down, it had already turned sour. A few posters dominated the board with their never ending nonsense..

Takes two to tango..

Maybe CN won with the new members?..

Yes, it did get hijacked, didn't it? The responses previous to that were helpfula nd I'm still leaning towards the ncc for debt negotiation. Thanks all. I'll keep looking and lurking, though. There's alot of helpful information here...

I've never heard of ncc, and didn't find their website very informational. Maybe you can explain it to us, and some experienced might give you the up and downside of it...

Ok lbrown59, fess up, because inquiring minds want to know (although I'm not sure why) lol!.

Male or female? Patti..