OT....anyone "consolidated" their bills?

[disneysteve]

if the OP isn't a person who pays off the cc's in full each month, think carefully before you consolidate. I know some have mentioned getting a refi, because they wanted to redo their home, etc, and throw in the cc loan, but that shouldn't be done (IMO) for that reason (cc payments), unless you don't plan on using cc for anything other than convenience and they will be paid off. It's too easy to start the circle of cc debt again.

I totally agree - come on, you all know how fiscally conservative I am by now.

I was just pointing out that the OP might not be looking to consolidate because she is having financial difficulty but could just be looking to simplify her financial life. I don't believe in carrying CC debt, but there are lots of folks who do it to finance a one-time purchase, like a wedding or honeymoon. They live within their means the rest of the time and are not out regularly buying things they can't afford. We don't know if the OP is one of those people or not - I just didn't want to assume she was. If her CC debt is the result of a one-time event and her finances are otherwise in good shape and she is responsible with her money, a HEL can be a good idea. It sure beats paying 18% interest or higher on the CC.

 

[michvin]

Just be careful as I have said before as some of these places like CCCS show up as a bankruptcy on your credit report - that also goes for other places like Ameridebt. Not sure what AFS is, but I would check to make sure how it appears on your credit report. I would check with someone who is knowledgeable about credit reports as Im sure AFS wont tell you that as they want your business.

Check on www.creditboards.com - they are real helpful with credit reporting issues!

Also, just thought people should know that CCCS (I'm not sure about the other places) are supported by the credit card industry...meaning it was an organization created by the credit card companies. Its not that independant if you think about it. My husband and I did the tiered thing, smallest bill first, put that payment on next bill, etc. Then, when he got a new, awesome job, we just piled the money on that and then paid off his car too. We still use credit cards, and if we don't pay them off that month, we make a purchase know that by a certain time it will be paid off with this amount of money each month. Good luck!

 

[crisi]

Actually, you can simplify a lot of that if you want to. Our auto insurance, phone (local, long distance and cell), alarm, Internet, gym and a couple of other things get billed to our credit card, so paying one CC bill actually settles 8 or 9 other bills. Our water, gas, electric, life and disability insurance, HEL and a few other things are deducted automatically from our checking account, so we don't have to pay those each month. The only bills I actually have to sit down and pay every month are the mortgage (which I could set up automatically - just haven't yet) and the CC bills. I only write about 5 checks per month for incidental stuff. Everything else is done automatically or electronically.

You sure can. I used to do that, then the account was compromised. The resulting headaches of having to contact all the account holders, switch accounts, etc., convinced me its far easier for me to write checks - it was six months to clear up all the problems - quarterly and semi-annual bills I'd forgotten about. Also, I discovered it was far to easy not to notice what came through on the bill - and at least once there was charges I didn't care for on my phone bill (add ons the phone company had applied).

Our most recent case of "just put in on the card" ended up with me spending six months to get someone to cancel an account, at $45 a month, ending with threats to report them to the attorney general.

I use Quicken to automate a lot of bill paying, but I still put the bills into Quicken each month rather than check them out.

 

[luvthatdisney]

Crisi~

You are exactally correct! By using my debit card at a restaurant over the summer our # was stolen and used a month later! It caused major problems with items I had scheduled to come out of my account (car ins, cc payments) - it bounced several of them. I had to kind of prove I did make these unauthorized charges - after faxing back and forth with bank and gettiing a police report - several days later I got my money back, but not after I had to contact these places and explain. Plus I had to fight the bank to get the bounced check fees back (now they were not really checks - just auto draft payments), but they still charge the same amount!

I no longer let my debit card out of my sight. If I cant swipe the card myself I dont use it - I do follow Dave's Plan so I am using the evelope system more - if I dont have the cash with me - I dont buy! Self control - how wonderful!

 

[disneysteve]

By using my debit card at a restaurant over the summer our # was stolen and used a month later!

I no longer let my debit card out of my sight.

I don't use a debit card at all so I guess I'm safe in that regard.

crisi - Do you have any idea how your account got compromised? Was it also due to a debit card or some other way?

 

[crisi]

In my nightmare case, we were using the checking account, and someone stole a check, had their own checks printed, even got an ID in my husband's name, and created a problem. I've closed credit cards for unauthorized charges as well, but none of those have had auto debits, so closing them hasn't been a big deal.

 

[disneysteve]

In my nightmare case, we were using the checking account, and someone stole a check, had their own checks printed, even got an ID in my husband's name, and created a problem.

Wow! Amazing what can happen. My checkbook never leaves my desk at home so I guess my checks are safe but who knows what can happen with credit cards or other stuff. Pretty scary.

 

[reeddi]

Just my two cents here. I don't know why you are asking for a consolodation loan but I will tell you my story.
My DH and I were in college with a young child. We built up quite a sum in CC debt just paying bills and putting food on the table. Once we got out of college (and got nice paying jobs) we went a little nuts - bought a house and other "stuff". I started looking at our credit scores online and what they meant. We got serious. After about 2 years in our house we had enough equity to pay off our CC debt. We did it and I for one am very glad. We did go to not using CCs at all for a long time. We are slowly but surely working on the charging for points but only if you will pay it off. It is working so far. So I guess it depends on your situation and what will work for you.

Good luck

 

[donnabc]

I totally agree - come on, you all know how fiscally conservative I am by now.

I was just pointing out that the OP might not be looking to consolidate because she is having financial difficulty but could just be looking to simplify her financial life. I don't believe in carrying CC debt, but there are lots of folks who do it to finance a one-time purchase, like a wedding or honeymoon. They live within their means the rest of the time and are not out regularly buying things they can't afford. We don't know if the OP is one of those people or not - I just didn't want to assume she was. If her CC debt is the result of a one-time event and her finances are otherwise in good shape and she is responsible with her money, a HEL can be a good idea. It sure beats paying 18% interest or higher on the CC.

Yes, this is us...we financed our wedding AND honeymoon 6 years ago(in retrospect NOT a good idea!). Then had a pre-term baby a year later and had to pay over $2,000 a month for a shot to keep him from getting RSV! Plus he was in the hospital for a week at one week old and a week at two years. Then DH had gall bladder surgery (after a week stay in the hospital thinking it was his heart)...so there's THAT unbeleivable bill...ok so see the picture?
Normally, I do not use credit...hate it actually. DH does and that is a sore subject but he is pretty good at not running it up.
I just was looking to consolidate into a LOW interest loan so that we could pay one bill and see some results!

 

[donnabc]

Have a couple questions....
1. WHAT does ASF stand for?
2. Anyone regret buying Ramsey's program?

 

[mikesmom88]

My question also: What is AFS?

 

[dizagain]

Hi! AFS stands for American Financial Solutions. It has been 3 1/2 years since we started with them and we actually got a link to them through my husband's company 'wellness" plan - that's how we found them. I like it because as I said before we paid minimum balances, occasionally late, and those things just grew and grew even though we had stopped using them. AFS got most of our finance charges at 10% or lower which was great for us, got one company to drop it completely, and once we got started, the "evil" phone calls from these places stopped. Now not everyone is in the situation we were, of course! Anyway, our bills started going down instead of up and that's what matters for us. They charge a "voluntary" fee per month, and say you have the choice to pay it or not. I called once to not pay it just for that month (to see if it was true) and it was fine. Anyway, I am pleased and I enjoy only paying them once a month while they disperse it. Never had any problems at all with changing amounts around between cards and my bills have always been paid. So, it has been a blessing for us and we're less than a year from finishing up...I have continued to stay home with my DD's so we can't really send them extra so it's probably more slow going for us. We have chosen to vacation once a year for the last few years with bonus money instead of pay more down...wouldn't change a thing!

 

[luvthatdisney]

Donnabc you asked if:

2. Anyone regret buying Ramsey's program?

Well, I for one have not had one regret and feel great about our finances now. And I just got laid off to boot!

We are current taking Dave's Financial Peace University classes (13 - 2 hour classes) we bought the FPU program for $96 through the church we attend the classes at. Now you have to understand I am not like most of the people on the DIS (or at least by what I have seen posted about their finances) as we do have alot of debt we are trying to out from under - we are probably still paying on trips we took to WDW years ago! We did alot of stupid stuff with money and have just now learned, after I found Dave on this forum, how stupid we were!!!

That was this summer - within one month we had the $1k baby fund and have been on the debt snowball ever since. Now we did take a WDW trip in August - but you all know you cant get a refund within 2 weeks of a trip and it was our 20th wedding anniversary - so we sucked it up and went. We had already saved up cash for spending money and even brought back some and put it on the snowball!

Alot of people dont take to Dave real well and think he goes to extremes. But sometimes you need someone to take you by the hand and lead you through tough times - that I what I feel Dave has done for us. The baby steps are so easy to follow (my DH can even follow them!).

Donnabsc - all I can say is go to the library and check out Dave's Total Money Makeover and read it - see how you feel after that. It may not be right for you but you wont know until you give it a shot!

Good luck!

 

[agotta]

We have consolidated our CC. Our student loans and car payments weren't eligible. I hate the company we are working with, we have had several problems within the first 6 months. However, we love paying one bill per month, all our accounts are closed so we CAN'T spend anymore and all our interest rates were lowered. We had some trouble with communication between the CC companies and our consildation company. Now we are all set up and things are fine. Autmotically deducted every month and they say we should pay off all 4 cards in 3 years. Dh and I figure at this rate we will be free of everything but our major student loans in 4-5 years.