Has anyone heard of or used Green Path Debt Solutions?

[Oyeve]

My hours were cut drastically and I find myself not able to fully pay my credit card bill this month. Called Chase and they basically said they cant do much because I am at the lowest APR they can possibly do. (been real good with my payments until the job cut) and they referred me to Green Path debt solutions. Has anyone heard or used them before? Is it worth going to see? I have always thought these "debt" places were frauds.

 

[lxskllr]

I don't know anything about them, but I'm immediately distrustful of any kind of "alternate" credit. I'd use something like that as a last resort.

 

[Gibson486]

Most debt places work for the CC companies. It's not so much that they are frauds, but they do not have your best interest in mind. That is atleast what a lawyer told me years ago. Is there any reason why you cannot just pay over time and just not use again until you are financially stable again?

 

[Oyeve]

Most debt places work for the CC companies. It's not so much that they are frauds, but they do not have your best interest in mind. That is atleast what a lawyer told me years ago. Is there any reason why you cannot just pay over time and just not use again until you are financially stable again?

I dont use the card at all anymore. But I work as a consultant now after being laid-off earlier in the year and the thanksgiving day holiday messed me up. I didnt get paid for thursday and friday and that is a big chunk of $$$. I usually am financially sound but I had an accident that required major knee surgery and 5 days before the surgery my job let me go and with that went medical benefits and I had to pay over 12,000 cash for the surgery. Then I landed this consulting gig that paid well, and then they cut my hours in half so for the last 9 months I have literally been living check to check but the holidays kill me as I dont get paid when the office is closed. Looking for a fulltime permanent job but its reall hard in NYC especially this time of the year. Chase didnt offer any solutions and just referred me to Green Path.

 

[blinblue]

Well if you don't have money, you don't have money. Green Path or whoever can't magically make you have money. I highly doubt there is anything they can do, that you can't do yourself and much better (and that's assuming they aren't fraudulent).

If this happened to me I'd let Chase know that they aren't getting paid yet (which you did). Then just not pay them until you have the cash to do so.

Is this something you expect to resolve in a couple months when work/money start coming in? Or will this be something that takes many months?

 

[Oyeve]

Well if you don't have money, you don't have money. Green Path or whoever can't magically make you have money. I highly doubt there is anything they can do, that you can't do yourself and much better (and that's assuming they aren't fraudulent).

If this happened to me I'd let Chase know that they aren't getting paid yet (which you did). Then just not pay them until you have the cash to do so.

Is this something you expect to resolve in a couple months when work/money start coming in? Or will this be something that takes many months?

I was feeling the same way. Pay what I can to Chase, get late fees and penalties and hopefully in a couple of months things pick up, get fulltime work and pay these guys back. Either way my credit rating goes to shit but at least chase gets some $$$.

 

[isekii]

You may just have to take a hit with Chase. If you miss enough payments with Chase i'm sure they'll be more than willing to work with you.
If you continuously make little payments here and there to chase~ your credit's going to take a hit for the late payments and you'll be hit up with late fees/interest etc...
Shit happens especially in this economy, just take a hit for several months and have them offer you a settlement if you're that hard up at the moment and get setup on a payment plan.

 

[isekii]

If your credit is good enough you may be able to get a loan through prosper / lending club.

that's another alternative but no guarantees you'll get the loan since it's funded by the people.

 

[TwiceOver]

I dont use the card at all anymore. But I work as a consultant now after being laid-off earlier in the year and the thanksgiving day holiday messed me up. I didnt get paid for thursday and friday and that is a big chunk of $$$. I usually am financially sound but I had an accident that required major knee surgery and 5 days before the surgery my job let me go and with that went medical benefits and I had to pay over 12,000 cash for the surgery. Then I landed this consulting gig that paid well, and then they cut my hours in half so for the last 9 months I have literally been living check to check but the holidays kill me as I dont get paid when the office is closed. Looking for a fulltime permanent job but its reall hard in NYC especially this time of the year. Chase didnt offer any solutions and just referred me to Green Path.

5 days after you got layed off is when you had the accident? Insurance should still cover it otherwise pay the $600 cobra premium and that will cover it, you have I believe 90 days to make that claim and pay the premium.

 

[Thump553]

Don't ever ever use any commercial debt solution/adjustment firm. They are all sharks. If you must go that route look up and use a NONPROFIT debt counseling agency. They won't bleed you dry and have more pull with the creditors anyway.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Are you close with your family? Can you borrow some money from your parents or something for now?

 

[CRXican]

5 days after you got layed off is when you had the accident? Insurance should still cover it otherwise pay the $600 cobra premium and that will cover it, you have I believe 90 days to make that claim and pay the premium.

I was going to say, that doesn't make sense. It doesn't just STOP.

You had $12,000 laying around and now you're broke?

 

[Oyeve]

5 days after you got layed off is when you had the accident? Insurance should still cover it otherwise pay the $600 cobra premium and that will cover it, you have I believe 90 days to make that claim and pay the premium.

I had the surgery scheduled a month prior to the layoff. They laid me off 5 days before the surgery and only covered my insurance for 1 month. I had to pay for months of PT. Cobra would cost me nearly 900 a month in NYC and did not cover everything. I had to pay out of pocket several thousand dollars.

 

[Oyeve]

I was going to say, that doesn't make sense. It doesn't just STOP.

You had $12,000 laying around and now you're broke?

And yeah, insurance JUST STOPS.

 

[brandonb]

As someone who works for a large collection agency. I will say... Do not use them.

The second a payment comes from them for any bill, your credit rating will drop, likely increase your rates for other cards/loans, and you will get even further behind. Thats why Chase is telling you to use them, so they can jack up your rates to the highest APR they can... All because you took their advice. Using these services ARE reported to the credit reporting agencies.

 

[rudder]

My hours were cut drastically and I find myself not able to fully pay my credit card bill this month. Called Chase and they basically said they cant do much because I am at the lowest APR they can possibly do. (been real good with my payments until the job cut) and they referred me to Green Path debt solutions. Has anyone heard or used them before? Is it worth going to see? I have always thought these "debt" places were frauds.

Call back Chase. Tell them you can pay only $10/month. Tell them due to job issues you cannot pay more than this for 6 months. This will keep you in good standing.

These debt places will look just as bad as a bankruptcy if you use them. They will have you pay them. They will negotiate with creditors to reduce balances. Often times this means they stop paying on those accounts to be able to do that.

I don't know about green path specifically.

 

[Gibson486]

I was going to say, that doesn't make sense. It doesn't just STOP.

You had $12,000 laying around and now you're broke?

It usually lasts until the end of the month, but you should get a letter stating when your premium will end, so it is possible that it could "just stop".

 

[EagleKeeper]

Medical insurance coverage will last until the end of the month you last worked.

Then CORBA should kick in for a min of 3 months

 

[GotIssues]

I had the surgery scheduled a month prior to the layoff. They laid me off 5 days before the surgery and only covered my insurance for 1 month. I had to pay for months of PT. Cobra would cost me nearly 900 a month in NYC and did not cover everything. I had to pay out of pocket several thousand dollars.

So you were laid off 5 days before the surgery, and they gave your insurance coverage for a month? 5 days < 1 month. Disregarding that, you would rather pay a $12,000 surgery than a $900 premium? You are either really bad at math, or there is something you aren't telling us.

Back to the topic at hand, be firm with Chase. Assuming that you truly can't afford the payments, say "This is how it is: You either work with me on this, or I'll have to stop paying you. I can't afford the bill and feed my family, and you are a little lower on my list." They will always take some money over no money and work something out with you. They are going to make it a hassle.

 

[amdhunter]

Just stop paying them and change your phone number.
Done.

 

[Oyeve]

Just stop paying them and change your phone number.
Done.

Ha! I wish!

 

[drebo]

You shouldn't get latefees or penalties if you just pay the minimum every month. Or are you one of those people whose minimum is like $500/mo because you don't normally pay it off every month?

Other possible solutions is a longer term personal loan. Pay the CC off in full with that and then pay monthly on the personal loan over a longer period of time, but with monthly payments you can actually afford.

 

[highland145]

I'd stay away. Doesn't appear to be much on them. Even the BBB only has one review.

Low and behold, two weeks after that conversation our payments had never been sent to the creditors.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/debt_counsel/greenpath.html

The typical scenario is that you pay them and they pay your bills at a reduced rate while taking a cut. The only one that I've ever heard of that wasn't a rip off was consumer credit counseling service, a non profit. Here's the link to the local one. Maybe they have other branches near you.

 

[Oyeve]

I'd stay away. Doesn't appear to be much on them. Even the BBB only has one review.


http://www.consumeraffairs.com/debt_counsel/greenpath.html

The typical scenario is that you pay them and they pay your bills at a reduced rate while taking a cut. The only one that I've ever heard of that wasn't a rip off was consumer credit counseling service, a non profit. Here's the link to the local one. Maybe they have other branches near you.

Wow, pretty grim.

 

[Golgatha]

Make what payments you can realistically make to Chase and tell them what your plan is. Ask them if they can close out the account so you can pay what you owe on a payment plan without racking up large amounts of fees and interest.

When you get back on your feet, never carry a balance again and have a year worth of expenses put back in a liquid account to never feel like a slave to Chase again.

P.S. Any and all debt companies are a worse solution than dealing with your problems on your own by communicating with your creditors. I don't care if they are non-profit or for profit organizations.