Trying to help GF with Debt issues

[BTA]

If her credit is already hosed then she could just stop paying, tell the CC to eat shit and wait 7 years. She already has a car and she obviously isn't gonna be looking to buy a house anytime soon.

 

[CPA]

First, figure out her budget, then cut out all of the crap in the budget and see if there are things that she can cut back on for a short time. Then, take all the remaining money and plow it into her debt (no pun intended). Without knowing what's coming in, going out and managing it properly, she's going to be stuck for a while.

And sorry, I do not agree with the posters that say "stop paying". You made your bed, now you sleep in it. she has a responsibility to pay it off.

 

[Macamus Prime]

Working a second job should help get out of debt. It can be part time waitressing at a restaurant, on the weekends or something. She uses her McD's paycheck to pay for the debt and the waitress cash to live/eat.

 

[Spineshank]

You could try CareOne credit.

 

[Krazy4Real]

Call the credit card company and say that you're serious about paying off the debt and need your interest rate lowered or else you'll need to file bankruptcy. They'll lower it, and as long as you make the payments on time it will stay at that lowered rate.

 

[ShawnD1]

And sorry, I do not agree with the posters that say "stop paying". You made your bed, now you sleep in it. she has a responsibility to pay it off.

Staying in debt for the next 30 years and making minimum credit card payments is the worst possible thing she can do.

That's pretty fucked she has a car when she works at mcdonalds or walmart or whatever. My car costs about $4,000 per year to operate (insurance, gasoline, general maintenance). When I worked shit jobs like McDonalds and Best Buy and Prostitutes R Us, close to 0% of my coworkers had cars for obvious reasons.

 

[TridenT]

Break up with girlfriend. Suggest she works 60hrs/week to pay off the shit and gets rid of the car. Also, how does she have student loans but nothing to show for it? ($20k/yr job is barely above minimum wage)

 

[nick1985]

She seriously works at mcdonalds?

 

[TridenT]

She seriously works at mcdonalds?

Nothing wrong with that if it's a higher up position with good pay, but the pay sounds like that of a grunt... :thumbsdown:

 

[xanis]

Staying in debt for the next 30 years and making minimum credit card payments is the worst possible thing she can do.

That's pretty fucked she has a car when she works at mcdonalds or walmart or whatever. My car costs about $4,000 per year to operate (insurance, gasoline, general maintenance). When I worked shit jobs like McDonalds and Best Buy and Prostitutes R Us, close to 0% of my coworkers had cars for obvious reasons.

Pretty much. Sell the car, lose the payments, start driving a beater.

 

[LookBehindYou]

Ditch her, if she works at mcdonalds she's probably either fat, a whore, a fat whore, or a whore who will eventually be fat.

 

[nick1985]

Ditch her, if she works at mcdonalds she's probably either fat, a whore, a fat whore, or a whore who will eventually be fat.

lulz

:thumbsup:

 

[Scouzer]

She sounds dumber than a bag of hammers with no career/life motivation. Bail.

 

[nick1985]

She sounds dumber than a bag of hammers with no career/life motivation. Bail.

more lulz.

 

[dullard]

I'll use the numbers you posted ($20k in CC debt, ability to pay it off if there were no interest in 24 months) and I'll assume she is pauying 30% interest on those cards. Thus, she can afford to pay $833/month and the interest is $500/month. My conclusion: this isn't a big enough problem to warrant bankruptcy. If she stopped using the credit cards and paid $833/month she'd be CC debt free in 38 months (even at 30% interest rates). By then her car should be mostly or fully paid off. The student loans can be deferred or extended if needed.

The bankruptcy rule-of-thumb is to file if you owe significantly more than you make in a year AND that debt amount is sizable. I think she just misses on both marks. Close, but not quite.

She should try to renegotiate with the CCs. Note though, there are two ways to negotiate: (1) lower the amount owed or (2) lower the interest rates. Option (1) sounds good but there is a big catch: that stays as a bad mark on her credit score for many, many years and she has none of the legal protections of a bankruptcy. Also, (I may be wrong here) but I think debt forgiveness is a taxable event. So, it is the worst of both worlds. Option (2) would be tougher to stomach at first, but it has no bad repercussions and is better than doing nothing. See if she can convince them to cut the interest rate by a factor of 3 if she promisses to pay $833/month.

The best way you can help is to make it easy for her not to use her credit cards. Don't make her feel bad by you paying for everything. Instead just go for cheap dates. Picnics of homemade food are essentially free (you'd be eating anyways). So are walks in the park, renting a $1 movie from a grocery store instead of paying $800/year for cable TV, etc. Give gifts of hand written love notes instead of commercial goods. Most cities have free activities during the summer (farmer's markets, movies/plays/bands in the parks, etc).

 

[LookBehindYou]

The best way you can help is to make it easy for her not to use her credit cards. Don't make her feel bad by you paying everything. Instead just go for cheap dates. Picnics of homemade food are essentially free (you'd be eating anyways). So are walks in the park, renting a $1 movie from a grocery store, etc.

You can take her to McDonalds for a date too, she gets half off, you pay, and now you're both contributing to the date on the cheap. Win. Win.

Do it enough and you'll get just as fat as her (if she is fat, which she probably is because she works at McDonalds and makes 20k). Quadruple Win.

 

[zephyrprime]

You can take her to McDonalds for a date too, she gets half off, you pay, and now you're both contributing to the date on the cheap. Win. Win.

Do it enough and you'll get just as fat as her (if she is fat, which she probably is because she works at McDonalds and makes 20k). Quadruple Win.

Nowhere in this thread has the op said she works at mcdonalds.

 

[TridenT]

Nowhere in this thread has the op said she works at mcdonalds.

He hasn't, but this is how the telephone game works.

 

[LookBehindYou]

Nowhere in this thread has the op said she works at mcdonalds.

killjoy

 

[ShawnD1]

She seriously works at mcdonalds?

It sure beats being unemployed.


Hey speaking of that, my girlfriend announced she was moving out of her current place and in with me. 1 of her 2 room mates responds by quitting her retail job. Now they're totally fucked and probably won't be able to pay rent. What an awesome idea!!!

 

[nick1985]

So does she, or doesn't she work at McDonalds??

 

[IceBergSLiM]

I would find a girl that isn't poor AND in debt. one or the other not both.

But seriously though if I owed 20k and only made 20k I'd be filing bankruptcy. Did her divorce have anything to do with her ineptitude when it came to finance?

Alternately she needs to take on another job to increase income while negotiating better interest rate with CC.

 

[The_Dude8]

Nowhere in this thread has the op said she works at mcdonalds.

i prefer in and out, since they pay their employees well.

 

[nick1985]

i prefer in and out

 

[ShawnD1]

I'll use the numbers you posted ($20k in CC debt, ability to pay it off if there were no interest in 24 months) and I'll assume she is pauying 30% interest on those cards. Thus, she can afford to pay $833/month and the interest is $500/month. My conclusion: this isn't a big enough problem to warrant bankruptcy. If she stopped using the credit cards and paid $833/month she'd be CC debt free in 38 months (even at 30% interest rates).

I don't know man. I live in a relatively inexpensive city and there's still no way this could happen. She has $20,000 debt, simple interest of 30% would be $6000 interest per year. That's about $500 per month just for the interest, as you've already stated. Let's look at the monthly budget.

$20,000 per year is $1,666 per month:
-$700 to rent a studio/bachelor apartment in the ghetto
-$200 for food, soap, toilet paper, etc
-$500 interest payment
-$50 phone bill (good luck living without a telephone)
-$84 bus pass (that's what they cost in my city, but it's cheaper than a car)
=$132 to pay off the debt

Let's just keep it simple and ignore a few factors. $20,000 debt / $132 payment = 151 months. That's 12 years to pay off the debt. Fuck this bullshit. File for bankruptcy and call it a day.