Posted on June 7, 2010 at 6:24 am "Hi everyone, My wife and I currently have $23,000 in credit card debt, which is eating us alive. Most of this was racked up during our college years as my wife had to put herself through school on her own. We are now both 27. I started tracking expenses 2 months ago, after all the monthly bills are paid we have $600 left over- or should. The problem is the $600 gets eaten up by clothing for our daughter, toys, vet bills, all the random things that just don't get on the monthly bill list. I contacted a national bank and requested a $23,000 personal loan to pay the credit cards off. They would only do $15,000 which would pay off the largest credit card we have. The interest rate is 9.9% and would save us $50 a month- and be paid off in 5 years vs 85! This leaves us with $8000 in debt. I have 3 options here: -Apply for another personal loan at a different bank (doubt they would give me one?) Ask for a loan from a family member. -Ask my parents to take a home equity loan out for the full $23,000 and let us make the payments. I do not know if they would help us like this or not, their house is paid for and has been for awhile. The payment would be low enough that defaulting should not be a concern. I also have $70,000 +/- in a 401K but have been told I can not take a loan out against it (due to program rules?). We are very responsible with our money, but can't seem to get these cards behind us.My goal here is to just get all the debt off the cards and into something that is a low fixed rate. ;Any thoughts out there?"

Posted on June 7, 2010 at 7:31 pm Check out http://www.howtosettleyourdebt.com and we may be able to help you with a lower interest rate and a quicker way to get out of debt.

Posted on June 8, 2010 at 4:24 am "NO. It doesn't. That leaves you with the same $23,000 in debt but instead of owing it all to credit card companies you owe some to the credit cards and some to the bank. It does nothing to reduce your debt. It just shuffles it around a bit.You can not borrow your way out of debt. Not from a bank. Not from a family member. Not from a retirement plan. You just can not borrow your way out of debt.The only two ways to get out of debt are 1) increase income and 2) decrease spending. Number 2 is generally the easier of the two to accomplish. You have at least $600/month going to ""random things."" That needs to stop. You and your wife need to sit down and go through the budget with a fine tooth comb and cut out all unnecessary spending - new clothing, toys, entertainment, cable tv, fancy phone service, gym membership, haircuts, charitable donations, dining out, etc. As for number 1, go through the house room by room and collect anything that you don't need and can sell either on ebay, craigslist or a yard sale. I've read that the average family can make at least $1,000 by doing that. I don't know how old your daughter is but sell all of her outgrown clothes and toys she no longer plays with and books that are below her reading level. Sell tools you never use, wedding gifts that have never come out of their boxes, unwanted holiday gifts that you never got around to returning. Anything and everything that you can live without needs to go. The other piece of number one is working more. Do both of you work now? Get second jobs. Turn a hobby into a business. Whatever it takes.Don't forget to look at every possible expense. Get new quotes for auto, home and life insurance and see if you can get cheaper policies. Buy more store brand groceries and clip more coupons to cut the food budget. Be more mindful of your driving to conserve gas and make sure you know which stations in your area tend to have the lowest prices. Lots and lots of ways to trim spending that can all add up to big savings.What shouldn't you do?DO NOT borrow from family.DO NOT borrow from retirement plans."Here you can find debt settlement reviews:  http://www.debit-free.us/

Posted on June 29, 2010 at 5:47 pm neilgunt,I have to say this is the best, most coherent advice I have ever read on this forum regarding credit card debt.  Congratulations!!!

Posted on June 29, 2010 at 9:01 pm A consolidation load wont help, in fact it might make things worse. You might have a little bit of a lower payment but it will be constint for the 5 years of the loan (or whatever the length of the loan is) but with credit cards the pay will become less the more you pay off. Also what most people do (even though they say they wont) is rack back up their credit cards so then you'll have $40,000 in debt. You have to start treating credit cards and personal loans like they are the plague, stay away from them. Work on paying off the credit cards, the 85 years is only if you pay just the minimum, you can make your own plan to pay them off in 5 years You say you have $600 left, don't look at it that way, put $200 (or more) in savings and only let your self spend $400 in "stuff" per month. After 5 months you'll have $1000 saved up. Try to pay off the credit cards one at time, meaning send minimum payments to all your credit cards except the smallest one and send a higher payment to that one. After that on is paid off you have more money to send to the second lowest credit card and so on. To learn about when to file bankruptcy, join a debt consolidation program or to just wait it out, go to www.besthelpfinancial.com/bankruptcy.html