Well I have old debt and while I'm not proud of it I was young and in love and stupid and credit cards and him were evil. I've been ignoring it for years and years and well that's not making it any better.

I settled today for one @ $750 cash payable within a week. I have the money cause I've been saving up and it will wipe out the whole thing. I still have an even bigger one to pay off and I'm considering getting it consolidated with a debt consolidation place but I haven't fine tuned it yet.

What freaks me out is how low my income is already and I am on my own with 3 little people to support and I just spent my emergency back up money. Please please keep us in your thoughts that nothing major happens that I desperately need money.

I'm going anon but I think some of you may know who I am just by me saying I'm a single mom with 3 children.

I sure wish sometimes I had family I could borrow money from. If I did I would borrow it and use it to pay off the other debt and be in the clear and I could start rebuilding my credit *sigh*

The sucky part is my oldest son's dad owes me over 6000 in back child support and IF I could get those payments I could be using part of that for paying it off...as it stands now I just have documentation that it's owed but I can't get it. That's a long story too as to why

Ginny I imagine you might know who I am just by me saying what I said about my family dynamics.

By Emily7 on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 06:27 pm:

You may look into your state laws. In Wyoming the Staute of Limitations to collect a bad debt is, I think 10 years, which means if you have not paid anything in that time frame you may no longer owe it. I have never done this, so I don't know the steps involved.
You are in my thoughts!

By Anonymous on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 06:41 pm:

Thanks Emily!

Here it's 6 years. I have a friend who used to work for a collection agency. The only problem is with just leaving it alone is that they know where I'm at and if they decide to just take further action and the judge awards them damages they can take wages etc. from me.

I have had some bad debt just "go away" and that's great but these ones aren't. Sometimes I feel like just disappearing for a few more years!

The good thing about this other debt getting paid off is I talked them down $400 from what it actually was and if I had set up a payment arrangement with them they wanted $150 a month for the next 10 months so it would be a balance of zero (interest til then) and it would have cost me twice what settling did.

By Colette on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 07:09 pm:

Congratulations on paying off what you did. I think that must feel good, knowing you did it the right way. It must be scary though, tapping into emergency funds. Can you transfer the rest on to one of those really low interest credit cards? You might have to switch to a new card when the interest goes up but it's one way to chip away at it.

By Anonymous on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 07:17 pm:

It's gone to collection because it's been so long. I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. I had to cancel the card when I left my ex so he wouldn't run it up anymore than it was. If I'd known then what I know now I would have tried to sort it out ages ago, however I was in a really bad/painful place and well yeah it didn't work out that way.

What I need is about $6000 LOL! winning the lottery right now would be such a good thing!

By Anonymous on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 07:23 pm:

(((hugs)))

We've BTDT with old debts. We used our tax returns (4K)this year to pay off more debt. Now we are officially under $5000 in debt. That includes all vehicles, just not the house. It really is a great feeling when you make progress. You will be there soon enough! Keep your chin up. You are on the right track!

By Anonymous on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 07:45 pm:

We're in the middle of paying off some old debt. We had some medical debt that we've ignored until now and it's really screwing with our credit now that we're looking into buying a house. We've paid some off with our tax refund and some with our savings and it's killing me to pull that money out. Just keep remembering how good it will feel when you can pull up a clean credit report. {{{Hugs}}}

By Anonymous on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 07:55 pm:

I wish I had tax returns I could put towards it. I'm currently not working so that's really not an option. I imagine it will be soon enough. I'm just feeling so lost as to what the best option is to do with my remaining debt.

I've got another appointment with the debt consolidation place next week and I'm going to see what he suggests. My s/o said "You should look at bankruptcy" then he said "I know you won't consider that idea" I really don't want to have to for $10,000 of debt. I think there has to be a better way.

I'm tracking my spending and working on cutting down on my spending too. No more coffee's out on the way to school, no more renting movies. I can get stuff like that free from the library. No more unnecessary purchases and doing things like using my cell phone when I have to pay minutes that sort of thing.

Anon #2 that's why this is important to me. I imagine at some point I may want to look at buying a house and with bad debt on my credit report I doubt I'll be able to do it. I did request a copy of my report and only two things showed up on it so I was I must admit happy about that.

I can't thank you all enough for the support and letting me know that I'm not alone in this one.

((((((((( hugs ))))))))))

By Colette on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 08:33 pm:

Anon, it sounds like you are trying really hard to turn things around. Try to celebrate paying part of it off, it's a step forward and you should focus on that.

By Crystal915 on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 01:41 am:

Anon, one thing you must remember is not to let anyone bully or threaten you into making larger payments than you can afford. If it goes to colection and they say "We want $X every month" and you can only afford half that, tell them, and don't let them threaten you. It's got to be BIG money for them to sue you for it, most creditors will not take you to court as long as you are paying SOMETHING. Even still, a judge will not garnish your wages to a point of not being able to feed your kids. I know a lot of people who have owed a LOT of money, and very few have every had judgements, (I sold cars for a while, saw LOTS of credit reports). Those who did paid what they could, regardless of the judgement, because you can't get blood from a stone. I know how hard it is to pay off old debts, and you're doing the right thing by trying. Pay off high interest first, then let the payments "snowball". You owe ABC $1000 at 17%, DEF $1000 at 10%, and GHI $400 at 6%. Make the largest payment to ABC, and minimums to the others until ABC is paid. Then take the payment you were paying ABC, and pay that to DEF until it's paid off, and so on. Get what I mean?
Believe me, there are things on my credt report that I just gave up on, charge offs, and such from the time of my divorce. We're finally getting in order, and actual rebuilding credit since DH and I have both been divorced, and it IS hard, but it is so rewarding. Do what you can afford, because feeding your kids is more important than some collector's threats, but keep working at it and it'll improve.