Debt question...

Okay, just looking to see if anyone has doen this before. I have been hanging out with one of my good friends lately…and he just got a new car. He took out a personal loan from his bank, 11% interest. he bought a new living room set, tv, etc. He has like 3 credit cards totaling about 11k. The interest is killing him. As a friend, I though I would look into something that would maybe help him consolidate to a lower interest payment? Anyone has ever done this? Does it hurt your credit rating? Whats out there that people used before?

how much money does he make?

Sounds like instead of consolidation, he should start looking at making a budget and living within his means.

Of course, now that he’s dug himself into a hole, yeah…if he can get a decent rate on a loan to consolidate with, definitely do it.

ballpark of 30k i wanna guess.

what about those consolidation services that cut the interest rate significantly?

Yikes does he live at home? lol.

no, he has his own place.

not for long he doesnt haha

eep. only 30 grand, new car and 11K on the cards?

what kind of car is it? How long has he owned his house for?

$30k/year, $11k of CC debt, new car, new living room set. He financed it at 11%.

It’s not the interest rate that’s killing him, it’s him that’s killing him. Before he does whatever sureshot’s about to post he needs to get a clue about living within his means or he’ll just dig another hole once he gets this straightened out.

he’s done

bankruptcy and start over. call it an expensive lesson learned.

yeah seriously. thats a third of his salary.

some ppl need to learn that just because u can make the payments doesnt mean its a good idea.

Eh, I dunno about bankruptcy. That’s something to pretty much avoid at all costs. It doesn’t sound like it’s at that point yet. It sounds like he needs to have “come to Jesus” meeting with an accountant to get him to realize that he’s living beyond his means and make a 5 year plan to get out of this hole.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/87FOXGT/Picard2.gif

How do people let themselves slip so far?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/87FOXGT/Picard2.gif

i have a plan for myself. and it involves getting a big raise. I better get on that.

:word:

I have mixed feelings on bankruptcy. Depending on the SOL for his loans he might be able to file bankruptcy and make out like a bandit. It gaming nerd terms, bankruptcy can be really ‘broken.’ I don’t have any experience on it, and I haven’t read about it ever, but I know people who have filed, and then a year later had a great credit score and were getting low interest rates on loans. It all depends on the type of loans he has, and if their history will carry over if he files… or if they are still collectible.

He just needs to man up, sell his shit and live within his means. It’s a humbling experience I’m sure, especially with a baller friend who rocks a viper on a daily basis… but most of us have been there at one point or another

Denial. For some people it’s very easy to justify bad fiancial decisions. I’m not criticizing him, I’m one of them so I think I understand his thoughts and situation. I dug myself a nice big hole first year or so out of school telling myself that “oh I’ll get a raise soon” and “my fiance will be working in another year or two.” It just never dawned on me that maybe I should wait until those things happened before I started living as if they had already. Not that I also had $11k in credit card debt. :snky: But I realized the error of my ways and stopped the buy-now-because-I-can-afford-it-later attitude, I got the raise, fiance got a good job, and thank you Future Mother In Law Debt Consolidation Service, so I oughta be in good shape within 2 years.

Been there. Done that. Stop while you can. Just sayin.

you dont know much about filing for it do you?

recent rule changes have made it not as attractive, but its much better than paying out more than 1/2 his take home pay to cover the interest on his loans for his toys.

Apparently not.

then why say its a last resort?

its better than living in your rents basement with a fucked up credit score because you let 10 loans go to collections, lost your house, and so on.

you can recover pretty quickly from a bankruptcy.

i have a friend in the same situation… heres the thing. they are dumb enough to get themselves into these situations, and that usually means they arent smart enough to listen to/understand logic.