I am about 25K in debt. I was on track paying down my debt until I got myself into a marriage prematurely with someone who is highly controlling, has a very poor financial history and who looked at the income I made as “extra play money”. As a result, I started missing payments to my creditors and then got so overwhelmed that I was too afraid to deal with my creditors to try to work something out with each of them. I defaulted on several credit cards. I have received offers to settle for less than owed on the accounts, but was not able to come up with the lump sums that they wanted. Now one creditor has put a judgement for approximately 5k against a condo of mine and I have been served with papers from another. The local Budget and Credit Counseling center said they could not help me. I did consult an bankruptcy attorney, but I’d rather try to pay these off rather than file for bankruptcy. What would you suggest the best course of action would be for my situation?

Thanks!!

Maria

I was working with a credit counseling agency for a year, but was unable to maintain the payments. I am self employed and experienced a drop off in income after the stock market crash. I’m starting to see an improvement in my business, but have not made any credit card payments for about six months. I’m starting to negotiate with the banks, but many of them will not offer any plans to reduce my interest rate or have sold my account to a collection company. What is your advice for settlement plans and negotiations with collection agencies? Do you know how long my credit report and score would be affected by settlements?

Thanks,

Chad