Long story short - relationship went south and I got left with credit card debt. I have a house but the mortgage and second are fully maxed in ratio to the value of the house. I have an 06 explorer which is paid for but i've missed payments on things this year because what i owe each month exceeds what i make each month by about $400 so my credit rating is just under 600. My debt to income ratio is too high to qualify for a loan. The credit cards are around $14,000 with total combined payments of $575 per month. I have a 401k that would pay it off but the company its with will not allow me to take a withdrawal until my house is in foreclosure. I'm trying not to let it get to that point.

I don't think i can get a loan against the truck to pay off credit cards and the best I've come up with so far is a credit counseling service that wants to charge me $50/month to take credit cards down to $383. It would help, but does anyone know of a REALLY good credit counseling service... one with cheaper fees or that might be able to get me a lower monthly payment?

Or does anyone have any other suggestions or know of a financial counseling place that can go over my finances and help me get this mess worked out? I'm in over my head and TRYING my darnedest not to lose my house.

thank you thank you thank you for any advice.

Credit repair companies typically can not do anything that you can not do yourself. If your spending more than your making something has to give. It has been my experience that credit card companies dont like to give bargins on settlements or payments until you end up in an extreme situation. 4 years ago I would of said work on paying things off to keep your credit clean. However banks and lenders are your worse enemy right now. Whats happening is even though you may have paid your credit cards perfectly for years, lenders are looking at you as a high risk consumer. Lenders are now automatically lower your available credit down to the amount you owe. So it doesnt matter if you have 100,000 in credit card debt or 14,000 in debt, as you pay off your credit lenders are dropping you available credit down to the amount you owe making other lenders think your using 95% of your credit. It seems the only way to break the process is by paying all debt at the same time and getting past the lenders debt to credit ratio parameters. In my opinion many lenders internal policies are forcing consumers into bankrupcty. Instead of keeping loyal customers for paying them during hard times, they reward you by cutting your available credit

401K - see: Cash Out 401k
that explains the pro/cons

negotiate yourself with the CC, make a payment plan which allows a lower payment, remember if you get them to waive a debt the waived amount is considered income and taxable, after that try to learn the tricks to get your credit up again. Not sure you can get your ex to join in. Ah and try to look into possible tax refunds.

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Have you considered do-it-yourself debt settlement. Why pay an agency to do what you can do yourself.

Stop paying your credit cards. Your credit score has already taken its big lumps, so put it to work for you instead of against you. A lower credit score puts you in a better position to get a good settlement.

Take the $575 you are paying in interest right now and put it in a separate bank account. This is important. If you leave it in your own bank account it will never be there when you need it. Put it in a separate bank account and in six months you'll have saved about $3500. That should be close to what you need to settle out your $14K in debt in full.

I wrote a book called "The Do-It-Yourself Bailout" to teach people about how to settle credit cards debt without using an agency. Google if for more info.

Good luck.

I don't know about stop paying your credit cards just to get your settlement $ amount lower, sounds ethically and legally wrong.

I agree with the others though, credit counseling companies don't have anymore power than you do when trying to negotiate a settlement.