go talk to a Bankruptcy lawyer
they will do a free consultation
they changed all the Bankruptcy laws

if you cannot pay, yes file it, and do a complete filing, that will erase everyrthing and then you will start to get the creditors sending yo new credit card apps, they figure that yo now have money so now you can pay again, its werid how it works but it does.
dont worry about rebuilding credit, it will come soon, and you will be good again in time.
i know i did it.
also, you caqn get secured cards after filing andf dont need a cosiner for them, you will see thst it works.

If a person has accumulated a large amount of credit card debt due to multiple credit cards, the need for a proper counseling for credit card debt consolidation can’t be understated. Credit card debt consolidation counseling helps a person get vital insights into the facts that can help him get control over the credit card debt.

Credit card debt consolidation counselors are experts with a good knowledge of debt management, budgeting and behavioral patterns of credit card holders. These services are vital for those struggling to manage their credit card debts. Also called credit counseling or debt counseling the credit card debt consolidation counseling brings immediate relief to a credit card holder.

A person seeking credit counseling can get it from two types of organizations. The professional or commercial organizations, and the non-profit organizations. As depicted by its name or categorization, the commercial organizations charge money for their credit counseling sessions and consolidation help on the other hand the non-profit organizations offer free of charge services. Just because the non-profit organizations are free, it doesn’t undermine their quality of service. The persons associated with such organizations are thorough experts and have lived the trauma of being under credit card debt themselves and hence bring their vital experience to the credit card holder.

When a person approaches a credit counseling agency, the first thing it will do is to take stock of the situation and get various facts about the credit card debt. The credit counseling agency collects data about the income, expenditure and spending habits. It will guide the credit card holder about budgeting benefits and try to inculcate good financial habits. Read more from:

This is a good question because the two things (debt consolidation and credit counseling) are vastly different.

A debt consolidation loan is just that, a loan from a lender to pay off bills. Often the bank will make you show proof of the bills and then cancel your cards. However, if the accounts are in collections banks may shy away from lending you the money.

A good solution to this would be Prosper. Prosper is an online community of people that lend money to people. When you open an account on Prosper they run your credit and classify you (A, B, C grade) and then you do a little bio of yourself and what you need the money for. Various people will “bid” on how much they will loan you and when the entire amount you need has been reached Prosper will fund the loan and deposit it into your account.

Payments are set up on a direct withdrawal from your account over a 3 year period. It’s really a great system!

Credit counseling can be good too. Credit counselors will contact all the lenders and arrange to have your accounts frozen and an interest rate fixed. Then they set you up on a repayment plan (usually 3 years) and you make one payment to them and they disburse the funds.

The credit counselors will charge a small fee (usually about $25 a month) for paperwork. Which isn’t so bad.

Posible problem – If your accounts are in collections with an outside party – in other words the debt has been sold to a collection agency – this probably won’t work for you as counselors work directly with the credit card companies, not collection agencies.

If you like you can come onto my site here at: and read more about debt consolidation and credit counseling. Many of my pages have an “online assessment” you can take to see which solution works best for you.

I have referrals on the articles to various credit counselors or to the assessment page. Once an organization is recommended to you you can usually call them directly to speak with someone.

All I ask is that you remember my website and tell them I referred you. I get $3 per referral.

You are on the path to recovery. It’s not easy, but at the end when you are debt free it is so liberating!

Good luck to you!

Debt consolidation programs usually leave you worse off than you were originally. My suggestion would be to call your creditors and ask them if they could get you onto a payment plan that will work for you. Also, pick the card with the lowest rate and ask them if you could consolidate all of your debt to their card with the agreement that you will close other cards. They may do this, and then you will only have to make 1 payment per month and deal with 1 company when you’re having trouble making payments. If this isn’t an option, try to make your minimum payments while any extra money goes to the card with the highest interest rate.

This is a very bad idea. For starters these companies don’t do this for free, second, are you going to 100% sure that ALL your payments will go to the credit card companies and not in there pockets?
You mentioned you don’t have money to pay all of them, so how are you going to pay if you consolidate?
The best thing to do is if you have a full time job, get a part time job and use that money to pay off your debt. Doing this will allow you to pick which credit cards you want to pay off first and you know that all your money is going to that company. Its also free this way.

you will have to contact me!

The tax consequences of early withdrawal before age 59 1/2 from any retirement account will be 10%. If you are willing to accept this fact, then by all means, use your IRA funds to pay off the debt. I wouldn’t suggest you do that because you will lose the earning power if you withdraw money from the IRA. Your SEP IRA may or may not be growing at all since you don’t work there anymore. So it may be wise to roll it over into a Traditional IRA. Then 12 months after that, roll it over again into a Roth IRA.

Here is what I would do if I were in your situation:
1) Create a budget worksheet. That way you can analyze your monthly spending and where you can save money on. The budget worksheet should list everything you spend on, from food, gas, car, insurance, maintenance, entertainment, utility, personal maintenance (ie haircut), clothing, child support, etc.
2) Stop contributing to your 401k
3) If you have any insurance (car, life, etc), shop around for a lower premium.
4) Whatever money you save, use it to pay off the principal balance (if there’s no early payment penalty on the loan)

You just said you want to use your SEP IRA savings to pay off debt so you can start to save money.

doesn’t make any sense to me

My plan:

pay off your debts

start braiding your hair

when you get the raise put it in a savings account for your down payment.

You can do it…but it will cost you in the long run. Taking that 10k now will cost you $125k at retirement. Use EXCEL to figure it out…10k balance earning 8% per year for 35 years. You are far better off financially in paying down your credit yourself then taking this money and paying it down.

Your debt is a finite amount…you will have it paid off in 4 years. But the compounding of income will go on for 35 years. You are far far far better off stopping any payments on your 401k at your new job then you are in taking a withdrawal.

I realize that you want peace of mind…but, you also have to think in the long term…and that’s what’s important. If you take the easy way now and sacrifice your retirement to pay off this debt then you will have to INCREASE your contributions substantially to make up for this loss. I realize your retirement is a long ways off but that’s exactly why you shouldn’t do it. The compounding effect will benefit you so much if you don’t take a distribution.

If the IRA balance is twice what your debt is then roll your IRA balance into your 401k. Then, after your husband gets his masters and gets a job take a loan from it and pay the debt off. Don’t do it before as you have better interest rates from your debt management program then your 401k will give you. But after your hubby gets his job you’ll be able to afford slightly higher payments. It’s critical though that the terms don’t exceed that original 4 year length. You don’t want to go backwards here. What will happen is that your credit will repair sooner by paying off the debt, but you won’t hurt your retirement as much , you will be paying yourself the interest not the companies, and you wont make things tougher on you with higher payments when you can’t really afford it. AND my solution is tax neutral…no extra taxes and no extra penalties. Please please please consider it. This is what I do for a living (401k consultant). I know it’s tough, but there is a light and I you will sacrafice the least by following my advice.