Over the past few years, my husband and I have had several financial setbacks. First, he had a severe heart attack which left him unable to return to full time work. Because we were very proud, and I had a good job, we chose not to file for disability for him. Then, I lost my job…. Because of his health, I signed up for Cobra, thinking I’d only be out of work for a few months at most. The monthly payments were 0 more than my unemployment benefits! What little savings we had were eaten up, and then I started charging the Cobra payments. With the credit cards maxed, I was forced to give up Cobra. To top it all off, our ARM skyrocketed last year, and we ended up losing the house. Thankfully, we were able to do a short sale, so we at least didn’t have to foreclose. I am working again, but have no benefits. He suffered Congestive Heart Failure this spring, and now is receiving disability pay. We get our medical services through a community clinic, but make too much to qualify for free services, and of course his lab work is sent to the local hospital which offers no discount. So, we have approximately ,000 in unsecured debt, with a combined income of about ,000. About 15K is credit card, and the rest is medical. We get conflicting advice on how to get out of this mess – bankruptcy or credit counseling?

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy, cobra, congestive heart failure, credit card, credit cards, credit counseling, disability, financial setbacks, full time work, good job, health, heart attack, heart failure, local hospital, medical services, unemployment benefits, unsecured debt

I recently lost my job and had a baby so needless to say i am BROKE! I checked my credit report yesterday and there is a collection on there that i had forgot about from a year ago. I had sent a settlement letter to the company and never heard a response and completely forgot about it and now they have put it on my report and marked it as disputed. I called them and they said the client was not willing to settle so they went ahead and reported it to Trans/Equifax as disputed. Is my only option to pay the account in full and ask them to remove it from my report or should i send ANOTHER settlement letter and wait again to see if they will settle? I DID have excellent credit but not now =(
the debt is from a rental house that we had lived in for a few months then found black mold (after i had been sick for a few months) and sewage in the back yard from the field lines being full and the owner NEVER did anything about either one so we moved for our health and my unborn child’s health. It’s not like it was a credit card or something i just NEVER paid…i pay all of my bills on time job or no job =-) Once i sent the settlement letter and never heard got a response in writing or a call i kinda forgot about it.

Technorati Tags: back yard, black mold, credit card, credit report, equifax, health, rental house, sewage, time job, unborn child

Lives, food, water, livelihoods, the health of others, the economy, the environment–how can a company continue business as usual after an incident costing so much? Millions, billions–even trillions–isn’t enough to cover all that damage that this oil spill has done. So…how does a company like BP last? Is it just going to get a token fine that is a lot less than the real cost of all that has been lost and ruined?
If the average person had a company that had an accident that caused so much devastation, I’m betting that they would have to say goodbye to their business and their wealth.

Technorati Tags: average person, billions, bp, devastation, economy, health, oil spill, trillions

I currently have ,000.00 plus credit card debt and would like to settle and pay them off in the next month. I will have a lump sum to work with and am hoping they will accept 50 to 75 cents on the dollar. I have medical problems and work on commission only. Because of my health, not knowing how much longer I can work with my condition, I can’t consolidate and make monthly payments. My plan would work best for all. I just need some advice on how to communicate best with the creditors.

Technorati Tags: credit card debt, creditors, health, lump sum, medical problems

In the last 6 months the following great things have happened
1. I lost my company
2. I went bankrupt
3. I had to surrender my luxury car
4. I lost my job
5. I had a motorcycle accident and damaged my knee
6. My grandmother died
7. My mother disowned my for attending my fathers wedding
8. My pet rat died
9. My knee surgery from the bike accident went wrong so now I have very limited movement in my knee and constant pain
10. I think I have turned into an alcoholic
11. My partner doesn’t seem to like me anymore, not surprised.
12. Thanks to surgery complications, I cannot ride my bike anymore and now need a car
13. I am a bankrupt unemployed looser that cannot afford to buy a car

So why go on? I don’t know how much more of this I can take.
Please don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining that I have lost my money. My problem here is that I have lost everything. My health, my independence, my self respect, my mobility, my confidence. What else do I have?
The paralysis side effect was a 1 in 1000 issue that I was made aware of and agreed to the risk of. I should have known better considering my recent track record. There is no one to sue as I knew the risks and agreed to them.

Technorati Tags: bike accident, confidence, grandmother, health, job, knee surgery, luxury car, money, motorcycle accident, paralysis, pet rat, risk, self respect, surgery complications

last year my wife changed careers, we risked no insurance for 2 weeks, i had a heart attack in those 2 weeks, almost 0,000 i am doing ok, i have depleted our saving, sold my 57 nomad, and cashed in my life ins., to pay the bills. these "wolves still call everyday wanting me to increase my payment(to over 0 i have 2 different bills wanting this much) i cannot afford this, i haven’t been able to pay my credit cards, they are huge now with all the late fees, i can barely put food on the table. i would like to keep my house. should i file bankruptcy and rid myself of all the stress? for my health’s sake

Technorati Tags: credit cards, food on the table, health, heart attack, ins, insurance, late fees, nomad, quot, sake, should i file bankruptcy, stress, wolves

When one defaults on a loan or does not repay credit card debt…you are stealing….so, why do so many Christians say this along with bankruptcy, etc…is o.k…

Those who fall into bad financial state because of health or unforeseen circumnstances should be helped by the church to repay their debt…should they not?

Therefore, fundamentalist Christians should not default on loans…because stealing is wrong….yet, according to Newsweek, those who file bankruptcy are equally divided between those who label themselves as Christians and those who don’t.

Quite honestly, I am tired of paying for you people who cannot control your spending and live excessive lifestyles…but, yet you somehow justify it as you do all of the sins that affect yourself…while pointing out everyone elses…why is that?

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy, credit card debt, fundamentalist christians, health, lifestyles, loans, newsweek

With the situation that is growing among financial institutions, how can one find out if our bank is going to be the next one to go bankrupt? What is a good website to rate the health of individual financial institutions? I’m very concerned not just of the saving and checking aspect of the banks (FDIC insured aspects) but also of the loan, investment and retirement aspects (2 of which may not be insured by any program).

It’s a huge hassle for most people to switch bank accounts especially when you have very diversified portfolios but if you can save yourself much heartache by knowing if your money MAY be at risk then everyone should have access to these tools/website.

Technorati Tags: bank accounts, banks, diversified portfolios, fdic, financial institutions, hassle, health, loan investment, money, retirement, risk