u/CoolCalmCollected65

I am generally curious when/what it takes to financially and mentally move past caring about credit score to focus on becoming debt free and building money to stay debt free.

Looking forwards to hearing about moments in time or life events that created this mindset shift.

I was thinking about this as I was paying $88 to fill up at Costco and seeing how sick people felt when they saw the price.

Specifically asking the people with 450-750 scores paying on debt/interest every month.

Looking into Debt Management Plans and trying to understand how they work from start to finish.

From what I’ve gathered, a DMP usually involves:

• One monthly payment through an agency
• Reduced interest rates
• Structured payoff over time

I want to know more details like:

• Does the nonprofit work/perform on the interest rate reduction before my first payment?
• What creditors work with DMP?
• Are there loans that can be helped with and in what way?
• Are you able to leave certain accounts out of the plan?

Would appreciate any real experiences or insights from people working as a nonprofit credit counselor.

Obviously not paying on the credit cards will cause credit damage and a lot of collection calls, but I wanted to get a deeper explanation of what happens.

When do things escalate from collections to more serious actions?

How common are lawsuits, wage garnishment, or bank levies?

Are there certain thresholds (balance, time, creditor type) where risk increases?

What does 3 months, 6 months, 1 year of non-payment typically look like?

Would appreciate insight from anyone who has been in this position and how they were able to resolve the debt.