Clever Username
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Post by Clever Username on Aug 22, 2011 12:35:41 GMT -5
1. I would put $1K aside for the CPA exam 2. Put another $1K aside for emergencies 3. Make sure you pay your car payment on time every time. 4. When your student loans come due, consolidate them and apply for the income based repayment plan. Make sure you make all of your payments on time . . . . . . . 37. Don't contact the collections ones until you have money to negotiate a payoff and see if they'll settle for 50%. . Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!This is THE plan. I numbered things and reorganized, but this is exactly what to do! Forget about your credit, it'll heal with time. Your ontime payments towards your car and student loan will heal it eventually. But the damage it has suffered is simply the outcome of the choices you've made. Nobody brags about bad credit, but the mirror image of the pride you express with your completed schooling.
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Peace77
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Post by Peace77 on Aug 22, 2011 16:11:01 GMT -5
It's not a charged off car loan. It's a credit card that has been charged off.
The OP said
There could have been more spacing and then it would have read:
CC# 1 6300-----charged off
Car loan 6000 monthly payment 361
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2011 23:00:22 GMT -5
peace, got it! I see now that she stated the car loan is current also. Duh. Thanks for the correction. Did we run nadiya away?
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nogooddeed
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Post by nogooddeed on Aug 23, 2011 7:30:36 GMT -5
You have to reevaluate all your spending. In another thread, you said you use La Mer products. The fluid tint you use is $70 per tube. You have thousands of dollars in collections and charge offs, you've been out of work for 2 years and you have $40,000 in student loans that will go into repayment in less than a year and you use a $70 beauty product? You can't afford those luxuries.
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Firefly
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Post by Firefly on Aug 24, 2011 21:31:18 GMT -5
peace, got it! I see now that she stated the car loan is current also. Duh. Thanks for the correction. Did we run nadiya away? No, I am still here. I have made a budget and a plan to tackle this debt. I will have more than enough money to pay off all the collection accounts and I will let the charge off credit card stay the same until October when I will know all of my expenses after the move. The $1,000 for all four parts of the CPA is more than necessary so I will put that aside. All in all I feel pretty good about my choices for now and I thank you all for your input in helping me prioritize. At first it was all too daunting and I chose not even think about if for almost 2 years. But I am lucky that I will have a paycheck I can count on for now and I will be done with my masters pretty soon so hopefully I will get a better paying job sometime next year.
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haapai
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Post by haapai on Aug 24, 2011 23:28:27 GMT -5
I've got a good feeling about you nadiya. The way that you're getting organized as soon as you got a job reminds me of myself. I'm also impressed by your willingness to use what I presume is your last student loan check to clean up debts.
I've already nagged you about studying your student loan options, so I'll give it a rest for a while. I do wish that you'd do some research in that area, but I'm also aware that the plan that you come up with in on your own is the plan that you are most likely to execute. I'm going to ease up on the prescriptions and start throwing ideas at you instead.
Will you be over the age of 25 on December 31, 2011? If so, you will probably qualify for the earned income tax credit despite not having a qualifying child. It might be a couple of hundred bucks, depending on your income.
The difference between your 2011 and 2012 taxation may make your head spin. You could easily go from a negative or single-digit marginal tax rate to something very frustrating. Be prepared.
You might want to seriously consider spending the last three weeks of 2011 washing dishes for minimum wage while standing in an inch of sewage and working a much more respectable job during the day. Doing so could save you months of anxiety.
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Peace77
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Post by Peace77 on Aug 25, 2011 11:38:20 GMT -5
Taking a 2nd job during the Christmas season is not a bad idea but it does not have to be for minimum wage. And it certainly does not have include standing in sewage. Any establishment that allows that should be shut down by the Health Dept.
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reeneejune
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Post by reeneejune on Aug 25, 2011 13:05:09 GMT -5
peace - I'm almost positive that haapai did not mean that literally. Washing dishes in a restaurant, no matter how sanitary, leaves you feeling dirty all the way through your skin. Kind of like how working in fast food makes you smell like french fries for 6 months after you quit. Just one of those facts of life.
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haapai
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Post by haapai on Aug 25, 2011 16:03:10 GMT -5
I was only half-joking. When money gets tight enough, doing unpleasant things that seriously conflict with your self-image as a white-collar professional can make a huge difference. It's largely a matter of math. If you find yourself in a situation where 95% of your take home pay is already spoken for, getting paid for an extra day of labor can double your discretionary income for that month. Sometimes scuzzy work for rotten pay is what keeps you feeling like you have some choices or room for error.
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Firefly
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Post by Firefly on Sept 3, 2011 13:58:23 GMT -5
Haapai and everyone else thank you for all your suggestions.
Working at a second job is not option for me at this point as I am working full time and going to school full time and need time to prepare for the CPA which I am finding out to be very brutal. I have changed my priorities a little bit and will not send in my application for the CPA until late December. My hope is with no school I can give 100% attention to the exam and take the finance and business section in the first testing window then regulation and audit on the second window.
I have received both the $4,000 check and my first paycheck which by the way was $1,169 only because I didn't sign up for the health care plan and the 401k as I originally planned. I have not made any payments towards debt yet two of the collection agreed to pay for deletion over the phone. However, the problem is that they are not willing to send me a letter stating with a full payment it will removed from the credit bureau report. One of the guy I was talking told me that because it was a debt collecting agency all of the phone calls are recorded and if he didn't hold his end of the bargain I could subpoena the company and that is why he can promise it will be removed within 30 days of payment clearing. I told him I will have to think about it and hang up - I don't want to be told what I want to hear and then nothing happens after I make the payment. Do you guys think I should take their word for it and trust that it will be removed?
PS Moving was so expensive thank God I didn't need to buy furniture or any big ticket items, I had all of my stuff either in a storage or my parents basement.
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Firefly
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Post by Firefly on Sept 3, 2011 15:31:57 GMT -5
I have just re-read the posts here and I noticed that couple of you think I still owe the CC#5 $2112. As I stated in my original post and maybe it wasn't clear, my point was that it was paid off early last year in full but is still showing on my credit as not paid and I was trying to have it updated. I have finally received the PIF letter from the original creditor and faxed it to the collection company and they said they will update the status to show paid off and the date.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2011 23:31:34 GMT -5
nadiya, I may be paranoid, but I wouldn't trust it if it wasn't in writing. Especially if it's a collection agency.
I've had a credit card company remove a late payment from my credit report. I'd moved, the bill didn't get forwarded and I completely forgot about it. Once I paid it they agreed to remove the late payment from my credit report and sent me a letter confirming that they'd done so. But that was a little different from your circumstances because I had very good credit at the time, no prior late payments to anyone and I wasn't dealing with a collection agency. I don't think all collection agencies are underhanded, but I'd prefer to have any agreement I make with them in writing.
I'm not sure what I think you should do. You're going to have to pay it eventually anyway if you plan to work on improving your credit any time soon, whether they actually remove it or not. Just talking to them has reset the clock as far as any statue of limitations that may have applied, I believe.
I really wish I could be more helpful, but I just don't know and I don't want to tell you anything wrong.
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bring in the new year
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Happy Thanksgiving!
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Post by bring in the new year on Sept 4, 2011 0:09:41 GMT -5
Nadiya, I'm with Pink. Collection agencies lie. And but he said... is not going to solve your problem if they take him off the case. Tell him you need any offer in writing. If he's not able to do that, you'll be happy to speak to his supervisor. They may be recording the calls, but that doesn't mean they'll release those tapes to you without a legal battle. And they have a lawyer on staff (or at least a firm on retainer). You don't so any battle will cost YOU more money. If he tells you again, you can take his word because calls are recorded, ask him for his name and phone number and tell him you're going to call the FTC to see if he's correct. www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre18.shtmAlso along with faxing the documents to the collection agency, contact the credit bureaus and submit the documentation and any comments you have directly to them. Sometimes, if you have paperwork, they'll actually pull the disputed entry until the creditor resubmits. And your comments should be visible to anyone checking your report so make sure your comments are professional and unemotional. Again, as long as you're working to clear this up, your credit will eventually recover. Just remember - the problems didn't develop overnight and the solution isn't going to happen that way either. But it will all go faster than you think. Good luck.
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reeneejune
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Post by reeneejune on Sept 4, 2011 14:58:40 GMT -5
nadiya - I just wanted to repeat my suggestion that you talk to someone at a non-profit debt counseling organization like NFCC or Consumer Credit Counseling. A credit counselor knows the rules and standard operating procedures of collections agencies in your state and should be able to ensure that you're treated fairly. The initial consultation should be free, so even if you don't decide to work with them, you can get your questions answered and have a better idea of how to move forward.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Sept 4, 2011 18:25:45 GMT -5
I'm worried that with your bad credit history, you won't be able to get a job even with your degree. Do you already have a job at an accounting firm?
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Firefly
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Post by Firefly on Sept 4, 2011 20:20:37 GMT -5
Reenejune, Thank you for the suggestion.
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HappyCat
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Post by HappyCat on Sept 26, 2011 23:34:51 GMT -5
I haven't read this entire thread but it doesn't cost $1000 to take the cpa exam in November. You do not have to pay for all four parts at the same time. You can take it one section at a time and pay as you go. Also, if you haven't paid for all four NTS as of yet, the exam fees are going down Oct 15 and it will be approximately $750 to take all four parts.
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Firefly
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Post by Firefly on Oct 4, 2011 22:56:08 GMT -5
I haven't read this entire thread but it doesn't cost $1000 to take the cpa exam in November. You do not have to pay for all four parts at the same time. You can take it one section at a time and pay as you go. Also, if you haven't paid for all four NTS as of yet, the exam fees are going down Oct 15 and it will be approximately $750 to take all four parts. WOW that is great news, last I checked few months ago it was $940+ for application fee and the four parts of the exam. I haven't sent in the application yet as I still have one more accounting class to meet the requirement. My undergraduate was in Computer Science so I need the 30 accounting credits to qualify plus the masters degree. I am starting a Becker CPA prep course for regulations in couple of weeks and hope to take it in the January window testing. I read it some where that you were taking the AUD how did that go and did you get your grade back yet?
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mizbear
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Post by mizbear on Oct 12, 2011 15:31:59 GMT -5
Glad to see things are going a bit better now!
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Firefly
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Post by Firefly on Oct 18, 2011 15:27:01 GMT -5
Glad to see things are going a bit better now! Thank you. I think I am on track to pay everything off before I have to start making student loan payments in June. And hopefully by then I will have a better paying job. Man what a difference three months makes in how I feel and think about all of my obligations.
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