23, female, single, no rent to pay— making ~$2000/mo
Hey everyone. I recently discovered reddit (I’m late to the game, I know!) And I’m beyond happy I found this page. I need your advice on my situation. I’ll give you a summary of my current place & finances/debts. Please give me any advice on how to properly manage my debt.
Specifically, the student loans & how to handle my court order from Capital One! I know the collections I can have paid in about 4 months. Thank you in advance!
So here’s the quick summary: 2012-2014 I had near perfect credit. 775 to be exact. I had a $300 credit card I used for groceries in college and would pay it right away. Come 2015. I bought a car and the dealership took my SSN and ran about 30 hard inquiries on my report. I also now had two more CC, one for $500 (REI/US bank) & $1000 (capital one). I was working 4 PT jobs to pay rent, my car payment & basic necessities. Had a bad rough patch. Lost main source of income. Never paid cards. Accumulated more Student loan debt as well after taking the TERRIBLE advice from an upperclassman to “take out a larger loan for living expenses.
So here’s what happened. From 2015-17 my score dropped to 410. ——————— Here’s what is included in my debts: Currently in collections from T-Mobile, USbank, as well as smaller debts: $3000
Capitol One is taking me to court in March for my debt of $1200. (PLEASE PLEASE tell me how to avoid this, I want to just settle and pay it in full!)
Private and federal student loans: $60k & $27k (went to a private school, another terrible choice)
I was about 10 credits short of graduating & my college wouldn’t let me complete my bachelors because I refuse to take out ANOTHER student loan. So add to the tab, $26k I owe in back tuition for last year.
Finally, my car loan. I owe $10k.
It’s a lot. I’m drowning in it. I couldn’t find employment for over six months and worked any thankless job to pay my monthly bills so I wouldn’t add collections. Doing this, and Selling things on OfferUp allowed me to pay my bills and helped raise it the 100+ points. (Phew)
USAA: $700 breakdown: I was given a bad check for $1000. I put it into savings, but had to spend it for bills. Once it came back a bad check, USAA took the amount of check out and put my accounts on hold. I paid it down to 700 but should also note I need to pay within 40 days and it’s been 12).
—- in meantime opened a credit union account and all paychecks will be deposited here.
So here’s my current bills:
Car payment: $180 (I’ve been paying more when I can) Phone : $100 Car insurance: $140 Gym: $20
I’ve stopped eating out. I don’t buy anything unless it’s car maintenance. And I don’t have to pay rent since I moved back in with my parents. I got a retail job that pays $2000 a month give or take until I can find something more serious.
So please tell me: how do I get a grip on this debt. Everyone jokes about it like “oh we’re all gonna be in car/house/student loan debt forever” and I REFUSE. Goal is to at least pay off my car and all small debts this year. Is it possible?
Last two questions: Can I get the student loans deferred more if I plan to finish up school at a public college if I can qualify for aid?
Also, I don’t have a credit card. At all. I wanted to save and get a $5k limit one from USAA (the kind where you make the initial deposit) is this a good idea?
I know this was long, but hopefully not too confusing. Thank you in advance!!!!’
Submitted December 30, 2017 at 08:01AM by fmhds http://ift.tt/2CrrVBS
