I have a question on how to best handle my debt situation. I am over 70 years old and retired and on fixed income. When my husband died recently, my income dropped and of course my credit card debt became harder to manage. I currently have two cards for a total of 13k. I pay nearly $250 in minimum’s which is nearly half of my social security income and is too much money for me. I have made payments on time to these companies for nearly 20 years! I called a debt settlement company and their payment is closer to $300 which is too high for me even though I will be out of debt quickly with their method. I know taking a loan or doing consumer credit counseling will be too much money for my current situation. I know my only two affordable options are basically to let this go and quit making payments or Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
The only problem is that one of my credit cards actually has my son as a primary applicant. So my arguments for my two solutions above do not work anymore. I know in my situation the creditors cannot garnish my wages and they are not likely to pursue me legally. But for the one card with my son, I know maybe they would pursue him legally or garnish his wages. Or if I file Chapter 7, will that go against him? Is there any way I can have him removed from this account? What options do I have in regards to my situation?
Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
B

Instead of using a debt settlement company, or filing BK, have you considered settling the debt yourself. You could take the same $250 per month you are paying now and put it in a separate bank account, a "settlement account." You'll have to deal with phone calls from the bank for several months, but in ten months you'll have $2500 in that account. You could then tell your bank you want to settle the entire $13K balance for $2500. 20% settlements are common these days. Or perhaps they'll want $3500. That means saving an extra $3 a day for those ten months (into the settlement account), so that you can then pay them $3500 to have the entire $13K written off. After than, the $250 a month becomes money you can actually use. My name is Kenny Golde. I am the author of "The Do-It-Yourself Bailout," a consumer guide to debt settlement. Google it for more info.

If you do it yourself, you may have a better chance of settling with the lending company after explaining your situation.

Also, the one with the son's name on it, I'm afraid that you most likely will not be able to remove his name off the card. Mainly due to the fact that they want their money so it's highly unlikely that they won't see that you're just removing his name to file chapter 7.

You have to go straight at them and see if they will give. Like I said they want their money, so a settlement is way more profitable to them than you filing a chapter 7. Hopefully after you explain your situation, they will forgive a lot of the debt as they figure this out.

I would definitely call the creditors to see if you could work out a hardship program.

Agree with Kenny Golde. You can settle credit card debt yourself by negotiating directly with the company. Don't pay out any fees, that will only make things worse.

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