As of the first of the month I will be on a debt management plan. I am using a company that basically negotiates an APR with the credit card company on your behalf and send the payment to them (via auto draft from my checking). This will cost me 50 bucks a month (or 2,700 for the life of the program IF I don’t pay it off quicker).
This reduced the APRs for all 4 cards by about 3/4 (except BOA which SUCKS BALLS).
It’s a 54 month plan. The cards will be paid off in 4.5 years (or faster if send additional payments).
It will not affect my credit rating (well only a small amount).
So all fur credit cards are going to loose a ton of money because of what THEY did.
Oh well.
Nathan,
I hate to tell you but you probably would have been better off if you called each of your creditors and negotiated a settlement or reduction in interest yourself. Most of these "debt payment" companies are crooks. $50 per month? They don't do anything for you that you could'nt have done for free yourself. Many people who have used these types of services end up in worse situations then what they started out as. You have to make sure that this company is making your payments to the credit card companies on time each month or whatever they may have negotiated in your behalf will be cancelled and the old credit terms will then re-apply.There have been many people who have shelled out thousands of dollars only to not have these companies pay their bills. Oh, and by the way, they lied to you. It affects your credit score about the same as filing bankruptcy, buddy. Bankruptcy probably would be cheaper. Well, good luck with that.
Take care of you,
Kelly