I think everyone goes through this at
one time in their lives. Getting in credit card debt is awful. I know,
I was there too.
But the good news is, you can overcome it and move on. You don't have
to be afraid to answer your phone anymore. I can't believe I used to be
like that, but I was. I hated it and I really had to do something to make
it stop.
It made me feel like I had no control over anything anymore. I was so
stressed, all I ever thought about was where am I going to get the money
to pay these people. And if you've ever been in this situation, you know
that debt collectors will Not leave you alone until you pay them.
I always intended to pay them. The problem was, we were going through
a foreclosure at that time so we lost our house, and that's when I got
out of the city and moved to the country. I wanted a fresh start at everything
again.
So we get moved up here and it took about a year before they found me
again. LOL I can laugh about it now but then I was so nervous. I took
it and faced it head on. Talk about overcoming my fears, this one really
took a lot to face up to, but I had to do it so I could move on.
Now this is where you really need to pay attention if you're in this
situation right now, because this will Save you a ton of money if you take
my advice. Seriously, I went through this just 5 years ago and if you want
to Avoid Bankruptcy, then listen up.:)
Now all of my credit cards are maxed out with the late payments and
finance charges adding up every month. You know how they work. They get
you for everything they possibly can.
So after I moved, it took them 1 year to find me. They all didn't come
knocking at once thank god. They came one at a time which was good because
that way I paid off one, then the next and etc..
Now what they did was called me on the phone. They asked if I could
settle and I said no, so then they ask if you would like to make payment
arrangements and I said yes. I paid $50 - $100 a month. Now what this does
is once you set-up this payment arrangement, then that Stops the late payment
and finance charges from adding up. So now you're paying just what the
balance is.
Now listen to this because I just did this last year and it was my Biggest
card that I owed. After they got done adding all of their finance charges
etc., the balance was a little over $7,000. Yeah, like I can pay that off.
I did. Take a guess at how much I had to pay to settle that big one....Ready?
LOL I paid $2,500 to settle that $7,000 credit card. Yep, saved myself
$3,500.
I used my hubby's income tax, $2,000 of it and made payment arrangements
for the other $500 spread out over 5 months at $100 a month.
No, we didn't have the extra $100 a month but I made it stretch to get
it paid off. I believe we have the power to do anything we want to do and
I tell ya, after I got rid of that debt that just proved to myself that
we Do have that power. It's all in how we put it to use.
Use the negative to your advantage and turn it into something positive.
If you can do this then you can do anything you want to. I didn't want
to file bankruptcy because I really did want to pay them credit cards back.
I felt obligated to do that because we did use and run them up. So we foreclosed
on our house, moved to the country, paid off our debt and got married.:)
Life is so much better without the stress and now I try my hardest to
keep it like that. Do yourself a favor..if you are going through any kind
of debt right now, then start making arrangements to pay it off because
the sooner you do that, the sooner you can move on with your life. Don't
let something like this keep you held back. Life is to short.:)
All the best,
Audra
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Audra Gehrke is the owner of Ecommerce Resources:
http://www.ecommerce-resources.org
she's also the
publisher of: Ecommerce Resources Ezine:
http://www.ecommerce-resources.org/e-zine.html & the
Author of: http://www.ecommerce-resources.org/guide.html
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