I've been working on Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps and I am on Step 2, paying off all your debts. I have some questions concerning this step.
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I paid off my main credit card that was still sending me payments. Other than this, and owing my brother money, I owe my car debt and student loan (which I will start working on after I finish college.) This far, I have been planning to only pay off these four debts (brother, credit card, car, student loan) because they are all "active" or current or w/e. ALL my other debts are either thrown onto my credit report / credit bureaus or are things like medical bills that are long since overdue. My mom says to not bother with any of the debts that are on my credit report, and to only worry about the current ones. Is she correct in this?
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For example, I have another credit card that was a much larger amount than the one I just paid off, a much older one, but it's been on my credit report (they have been sending me letters to try to pay off the full amount or part of it for a while now) for a long time. Do I pay this? Do I pay the credit bureau? Or the 3rd party? My mom says not to. Same thing with Verizon. I owed them money, they put it on my report and sold my debt to a 3rd party that's harassing me now. In fact, I just got off the phone with them and told them I don't have money but would call them when I could pay it and she said, "We are going to mark this down as a 'refusal to pay'". Should I be worried?!
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Another example, I have some debts that they didn't throw on my credit report but they are still hounding me, like a medical bill, like one time when I went to the hospital about 2 years ago. They are still calling me about that. My mom says not to pay that either, because it's "medical" and by law medical payments that are overdue are to be expunged or something? IDK. Basically my mom said just to focus on the 4 current/active debts I have and to not even worry about any of the other ones, and I want to know if this is correct.
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Finally, how do I deal with these calls? 1. I got a name change (legally), so should I be telling them my new name when they call? 2. How do I just say, "Hey, I just want to know who you are and how much I owe and I'll discuss payment options later"?, if I should say anything at all? Can I just block these numbers for now, I'm sick of them harassing me, and I want to pay off my current priorities first anyways.
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For my legal name change, do I need to notify the credit bureaus, or will they know through my updated social security # name change card when I went to the SS administration building? I tried calling them but it's impossible to reach customer support, they have options that go nowhere, just directions for freezing your account and stuff.
Submitted January 05, 2017 at 12:02PM by keepcalmandreadabook http://ift.tt/2iMyMOR
