I love this woman's story but, I have to tell you, things have changed A LOT in only the last month. Credit card companies are no longer willing to work WITH customers headed toward trouble and if you call to try and negotiate they'll red flag you. Then they'll begin legal action against you and try to force you to pay them back EVERYTHING immediately. These days, If any of your creditors receives a single payment one day past due ALL your creditors can hike interest rates upwards of 30% (where they think the money will come from is anyone's guess), making even keeping up with the minimum payment a virtual impossibility. I don't care how many hours you work (I worked CONSTANTLY so I speak from experience), if it isn't enough to keep up you certainly will not be able to dig your way out - at least, not if you're single. Now, if you're $30,000 in the hole and there's nobody to help you (no lottery jackpot or big, fat inheritance coming your way) bankruptcy is your only option. The banks have been allowed to do all sorts of things to pad their coffers (the aforementioned jacked-up interest rates are perfectly legal {why???}), $40 late fees tacked on to the principle, short billing cycles {so every time you turn around that same credit card company needs another payment}, giving credit to people who surely weren't going to be able to pay it back...). The days when a bank would work with a credit card holder who was doing everything possible to make things right ended with the big banking disaster/bailout. I speak from my own experience. After my car crash and 2 carpal tunnel surgeries It was all over for me, only I got back to work and killed myself working all the overtime I could grab because I was so ignorant I didn't realize it would never be enough. Now, all I can do is what so many others are doing: pick up the pieces and vow to never ever get in this position again.
If you're not in trouble with credit cards ask yourself what shape you'd be in if some tragedy befell you and you couldn't work the hours you're working now? That's all it takes. Pay the damn things off now and don't use them. Get yourself out before the banks have a chance to trap YOU.
