r/DebtAdvice

Hello! I am looking for any advise on my current situation. I am a 30M with a full time salaried job making around $52k/yr taking home \~$3200/mo. I currently have an Apple card that is hovering around $8k in balance and a Chase Freedom that is at $20k putting me at around $30k in CC debt. I have around $30k in student loans at the moment but I know that there is not much that I can do about that and the Payment ($150/mo) is incredibly doable with my current income. The CC debt is really what has me drowning. Both of these cards are basically maxed out so now I will just be putting minimum payments on them and then having no money to even do anything else for the month (\~$650 for the Chase card and \~$300 for the Apple card a month) and I do not want to open another card and get another line of credit as I know that card will just end up on the same path as these two.

I have done some simple research here and online on the possibilities I have but I wanted to write a post and see if anyone could point me in the right direction on getting out of this debt and getting on the right track for my financial future.

Are these ads for "debt relief" from Forbes or Nerdwallet legit at all? I have heard about negotiating down the credit balance but have not dove into those services yet as I do not want to open myself up to more solicitors.

Should I take out a personal loan to cover the balance and just pay that loan off with a single monthly payment? I have seen that this does not seem like the smart thing to do as the interest on that could not the best and then I kind of am in the same situation but the debt is just under one umbrella.

Should I be looking into what bankruptcy would look like? (I have no car or overhanging loans, besides the student ones, and I do not plan on buying a house or car for the foreseeable future so a credit drop does not concern me much)

I have heard about "Hardship Programs" from these credit card companies, but have seen they only trigger when I miss a payment. Should I miss a payment and see what they can offer from that program?

Overall, I am at a loss on what my path should be to try and right this ship. I have been looking for Jobs that will pay more so I can put more money into the payments, but I know that there can be a better solution that can help on all fronts.

I was a little skeptical doing a HELOC for consolidation but the bank was very helpful. I was able to do a balance transfer promotional credit card with them for other credit cards and move the personal loans to the heloc. I was paying roughly 2k monthly on debt and it wasn't that I couldn't make the payments but I saw no movement with the high interest rates. I'm now paying about 200 on the HELOC put plan to pay extra to get it done sooner. I did a 60k HELOC but only ended up needing 30k since the bank helped me with my credit cards and my car loan so that became a huge relief. I plan on selling in 3-5 years which gives me tons of time to pay it off and build a savings. I know every situation is different and I had some anxiety doing it. I hope to have a success story eventually.

I’ve been paying the minimum balance and sometimes when I can I pay more. It’s almost $600 a month and I haven’t been late paying it. I want to know if there is a forgiveness program or a way I can change my bank to a better bank that offers something like that (I know Bank of America is awful, I thought I couldn’t switch bc I had credit card debt)

That’s all I need to know + any serious advice on how to solve my problem is welcome. If you’re interested in how I got to $12,000 on debt you can read on, otherwise any response is helpful!

How I got here:
About 3 years ago I lived in an apartment that increased my rent by about $400, they said it was all in the lease that I neglected to read all the way through, so I had to start putting a portion of my rent on my credit card which had about $600 debt on it at the time.
I then lost my job and worked for AT&T door to door sales. That paid as bad as it sounds but i was blinded by the aspect of maybe owning my own llc, in hindsight i was an idiot I know so I stayed and thugged it out for a while. So now I had to put almost the full amount of rent on my credit card. That lasted about 2 months. Before I ran out of space and I requested a credit increase to $8000 and then I could put a few more months on it.
It started paying so bad I had to leave because my money is based on the sales I got and believe it or not, nobody wants an AT&T guy at their door at 8pm selling them internet.
I ended up finding a roommate but I had to wait until their lease was up to get the apartment so I had to stay in my apartment past my lease paying month to month which was almost $2,000 a month.
Alas I had to request another credit increase up to $12,000
Now I’m at a stable job but am struggling to make payments and live a basic life.

I live in Indiana and am 1099 as a therapist. I am struggling with debt and initially planned to do debt management. However, I have an upstart loan for 24k who from what I read is notorious for not being willing to work with debt management. I currently make 6k before taxes and am trying to figure out if realistically life will be affordable on a chapter 13 since I am fairly certain I will have to file. In total I have around 55k in debt. I want to get married but reality is that I’m afraid on a chapter 13 I won’t be able to save money for that and that the apartment I’m currently in won’t agree to a lease renewal after filing. Just looking for advice

Hello, i have $22,000 in cc debt on 8 accounts, totaling to about $900 in monthly payments and it feels like a never ended cycle and is getting worse. today i made the decision to enroll my debt with with and start bi-weekly payments and not paying my cc. i’m working 2 jobs so i would be able to save up large amounts of money a lot faster like that. Was it a mistake to sign up and should i cancel before it’s too late? i understand it will tank my credit and all the adverse affects but has anyone seen it through and had it help?

As the title says, what should I ask them to get on a payment plan and also what terms should I ask them for?

I.e 1-2 day grace period for payment deadline before it going back to court.

Or some other terms?

I’ve obviously built my credit a ton since I got my Amex. Currently sitting at 780-805 depending on which platform I check. I am paying above the minimum but Christ is it going to be slow at this rate.

I was thinking a balance transfer card could give me 0% interest for a year or so but I’ve got $9300 on the Amex so I need a card that will give me a higher interest rate from the jump.

If anyone knows alternative cards with higher limits I’m really trying to get away from credit cards for this reason. I will happily take any and all other suggestions. Debt consideration loans? Personally loans from my credit union?

I really have no idea where to go I’m just working my tail off to get rid of this junk and assuming the balance transfer and aggressive pay down makes the most sense.

Thank you for the advice!

I fell into the quick loans trap and their not all tribal loans some are legal but the interest is just insane it’s advanced America, credit ninja, tbo bank, speedy cash, cashnet USA, and spot loan.
They all add up to around $8,000 in loans and idk if I can revoke ach without getting sued or what I can do. I was just wondering if sombody on here could help. It’s just taking over my income I can barely afford anything because of the high payments twice a month

TLDR ; Should I do bankruptcy and start over later or stick to a challenging repayment plan?

Hi all,

I'm at the end of a year long process of figuring out how to pay down about $23k in unsecured debt I accumulated. Most of it was personal spending to stay afloat while going to school full time + spending that got out of control after going through my father's passing, funeral and complications thereafter that affected my income at the moment and really set me back.

I initially believed that a service like FDR (Freedom Debt Relief) would help me. I put 3 accounts in, 2 Capital One accounts with small balances and one Chase account with large balance. Cap One settled, Chase SUED me and sought summary judgment (meaning they would pass judgement in court and get permission to collect, garnish wages, freeze funds etc...)

Since the situation with Chase was getting nowhere and the judgement loomed over me, I decided to seek pro bono legal advice (should've done this earlier). The lawyer convinced me to leave FDR since they are basically a for profit scam - adjacent company. I got my money back from the dedicated account, which was about 4000 accumulated ( but I had ended up paying about 3k+ in unnecessary "settlement fees" because this is how those companies make their money, since one is afraid to negotiate a settlement directly with creditors.

I set up a repayment plan directly with Capital One after getting the debt settled for about 3-4K less than the original amount.

As for the Chase account, I am currently looking at a settlement of $13k as opposed to the original $17k. The current deal on the table is I will make a 5k payment upfront and then pay $800/month for 10 months until the payment is complete.

My lawyer says I have two options. I can struggle through the repayment process, considering my income is very inconsistent and I have other obligations on top of that. OR I can file for bankruptcy, keep all my money, take the hit and start over financially.

I'm 36M, living in the east coast of the US, no intention of buying property any time soon.

Any advice? What would you do? I think I could make the repayment work but the thought of struggling for all that time and being so tight with money scares me. Bankruptcy seems like an "easy" way out, but from initial research it really may have some deep consequences.

I am conflicted. Help!

So just looking on some advice to clear debt, bad credit score, and a lot of mistakes that’s caused a lot of loans im 25 and have around 1485 coming out each month I only get paid 1720 which leaves me with 235 every month, worst thing about this is I haven’t even got my own home or ain’t even got a penny to save for one, got like 5 years left of this what would you recommend I do in this situation

Hello everyone, I’ll try to keep it short but it is kind of a long story.

TLDR: I was young trying to figure out my life, accrued a lot of debt, make good money now but struggling to overcome it & not sure what to do.

Just want to start this off by saying I have done minimal research regarding which type of bankruptcy would be best for me, and I have not spoken to any kind of lawyer or someone who can truly steer me in a direction, just looking for opinions here.

Lately I’ve been heavily considering bankruptcy as the debt I’ve accrued since I was 18 is starting to pile up and im trying to buy a house sooner than later and at this point I don’t think I’ll be able to for several years without starting all over. As it currently sits I have about $80k in debt this includes credit cards, student loans, a camper, my fiancé’s ring & my vehicle. The obvious answer here would be to sell the camper & sell my vehicle. I am currently upside down on both of them and don’t have the cash to make up the difference to sell them. I have about 10k in student loans which I’m not very worried about because it’s only $125 a month and I know those can’t be discharged anyways. The big hitters are the credit cards & the engagement ring. All in all they add up to about $1000 a month in payments & the interest rates are so high they basically don’t move. I think one of my discovers has a pay off date of like 40 years from now just paying the minimum (not joking). I also am the main source of income for myself & my fiance. She does work full time but she has also a car to pay for & some other things (not going to get into her situation she is much better off than I am although she makes much less.) she makes roughly $30k/yr. the upside to this is that now after many years I do make pretty good money (roughly $150k/yr) so if you were in my shoes what would you do? Would you just try & really tighten your belt & pay things off? Or would you rip the bandaid off & seriously look into filing? I would love to just try & pay it all off but I think it will take longer than just filing and starting over. I’m about to turn 30 in April & I want to start getting my life on track and have a house & get married soon, but I can’t do that with this debt looming over me. Any advice helps please.

Good evening all,

Firstly thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings.

I’m a 38y female based in the midlands UK, I hit financial hardship mid last year where my finances have taken a hard hit since then, I hold a professional position earning 50k per annum with a company car.

I’m at the point where I can’t poke my out of this financial dead spot & looking for advise/support/guarantor/loan option outside of the traditional loan process - I seem to keep digging deeper and deeper into debt.

Respectively, I’m not interested in any kind of debt management or IVA plan, the aim is to ultimately lend to pay off each individual debt and dramatically improve my credit score from the off.

As mentioned, I’m new here and not really sure what to expect so please be kind with your suggestions etc.

I’m fully aware of potential scams so if this is your vice, please do not respond.

The best in total is just over £10,000 and it’s built up of various kind of debts.

Obviously will divulge further details should a serious offer be on the table,

Hoping for some useful and insightful advice.

Many thanks

Hi, everyone!

I’m not in much debt (compared to most people), but would love some insight into how I could dwindle down what I currently owe through a reconsolidation loan. I understand what one is, but I have no clue if it’s worth getting for myself, or how to even inquire about one.

My debt is racked up to $4,671.67 between two student loans — FAFSA and Sallie Mae. My interest rates are 15.78% and 6.53%. I was out of a job for a few months, and finally got one a couple weeks ago so I’ve been playing catch up. While I can pay these amounts, money is tight and I’m looking to pay these off as quickly as possible, or at the least lower my rates.

Any advice or insight would be extremely helpful for this clueless 25 year old!

48k in credit card debt (including a 12k loan for plumbing).

I took out a second mortgage in 2022 as well as refinanced my home to pay off debt back then. 😬🥴 Total payments between the mortgage and 2nd mortgage is around $2100

Which direction should I take?

debt consolidation company?

heloc? (Confused how these work but I do have a good amount of equity in my home)

personal loan through Sofis/BHG?

any other ideas?

I bring home decent money, but with two kids in sports and everything being so expensive (gas and food), I never have anything leftover. My bills are all paid on time, never late. I try to throw $50-$100 extra on top of minimum payments, but life is kicking my butt financially right now! I’m a salary employee and really do not have extra time in my week for another job. I also do not have any savings.

Credit cards are nearly maxed out. Plumbing loan is $300/month and 1/2 of it is going to interested. APRs on 5 cards are on the higher end.