student, no income high cc debt

[jc]

Snowballing cc debt (insufficient student loans) is causing loan checks to go towards cc payoffs rather than living - which in turn causes increased cc usage by the end of the semester. What is the best way to handle this? The school wont certify additional student loan money, and no income rules out a personal loan...

[Gingerly]

How much CC debt?

[DHK]

get a job.

[jc]

its med school - the job is not going to happen. cc debt is ... "scarey" - but deleted every 4 months...several thousand. Afraid to see myself type it.

[jc]

guess i'm in denial - need help managing this.

[amszyh]

You can't keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. So you either need to increase your income (get a job) or decrease your spending.

 

Now that you've stated you can't get a job, that means you need to spend less. Try cutting your budget down to bare minimums. Do only what is absolutely necessary.

[VibrantEcho]

First thing you need to do is break this cycle of run-up/pay-off on the CCs. Do what you have to do to make it to your next disbursement date, but then skip the pay-off and use the money as it was intended - for living on. Pay the cards down as little as possible, just worry about getting the balances low enough that you won't go overlimit from interest charges right away. Then just let the balances ride (make at least the minimum payments, of course) for a couple months while you get a handle on your income/expenses and make a budget. Then you can work out a long-term plan for paying off the cards that won't leave you short of food money every trimester. I'm sure the folks on the board will be glad to help you out with the budgeting and CC pay-down plan if you decide you want/need it.

 

Good luck!

 

Fiona

Edited March 11, 2005 by mkfionap

[jc]

mkfionap - you really made me feel good. Its hard to admit this kind of information. The first thing that comes to mind when I read your post, is - will these credit cards see that I'm paying minimums each month on all my cards, will they close my accounts, and if they do, how bad does this affect me and for how long? I get really nervous when the cards are all just about maxed - I feel like the companies will cut me off, shut them down, and leave me owing all that money PLUS no way to survive once I have paid them off (no card to charge anything to and no cash either). I know this sounds bad...but its my reality right now and I have to find out HOW to get by and change this cycle. I really do appreciate any help. If you have ideas on how, I would love to try. Also, info on the cc issue would help. Thank you.

[mrhope]

ughhh family? mommy? daddy? maybe they will help out seeing - if you have cards that have universal defualts i can believe paying minimums on high balances is going to result in rate jacking making it even harder to pay? what is your total balance - to you 2000 maybe alot while 20000 to me is nothing - if you arent willing to post some of the important information than no one can truely advise you. so that leaves us with the big question... WHAT IS THE TOTAL AMOUNT OWED IN CC DEBT? do you have cable? cancel it. a cell phone and a land line? cancel one of them. try your parents - i am sure if you have a good relationship they may be willing to help you since you are going to med school and might be sucessful.

[uuuuut]

ughhh family? mommy? daddy? maybe they will  help out seeing - if you have cards that have universal defualts i can believe paying minimums on high balances is going to result in rate jacking making it even harder to pay? what is your total balance - to you 2000 maybe alot while 20000 to me is nothing - if you arent willing to post some of the important information than no one can truely advise you. so that leaves us with the big question... WHAT IS THE TOTAL AMOUNT OWED IN CC DEBT? do you have cable? cancel it. a cell phone and a land line? cancel one of them. try your parents - i am sure if you have a good relationship they may be willing to help you since you are going to med school and might be sucessful.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually, anyone can advise him what to do with the given information. The OP needs to stop charging, period. The charges will be harder, and more expensive, to pay off sooner rather than later. So, making more charges might seem like it's making life easier - it actually makes things much more complicated and difficult in the long run.

[jc]

cc balances are about 2,000 X 1 card, 1,500 X 1 card, 3,500 X 1 card, and another one for about 350. They are all at almost what their limits are, making the fico scores in the mid-upper 600's right now. The charging has stopped at this point because the cards are almost maxed out. Do you suggest just continuing to pay minimum payments - or a little more than that, and saving my cash to live on instead? Just clarifying what you think is my best plan of action...

[VibrantEcho]

If the cards are near-maxed then just paying the minimums will get you in trouble pretty quick - you will be over limit in no time, then you'll have over limit fees on top of everything. But that's jumping ahead a bit, I think.

 

For just a minute, let's not worry about the credit card balances, and just start with a semi-budget. What is your "income" (the $$ you live on, wherever it comes from), and what are your expenses? (Include just the minimum payments on the CCs for now, because if you forget to budget for those, you'll have a problem later.) Once you know how much EXTRA you have after your basic living expenses are met, you can determine how much of that to apply to the credit cards to get them away from being maxed out.

 

Put those numbers down on paper (and here, if you like) and then we'll look at the next step.

 

Fiona

Edited March 14, 2005 by mkfionap