Hi. I will try and keep it as short as I can, any advice is greatly appreciated, and do not hesitate to be direct with me, as I do not know enough of the USA yet in terms of financial stuff.
Since last year October I had a run of bad luck that hasn't ended yet. Mostly medical issues, with the kicker being two ER visits right before the end of 2016 and one right at the start of 2017. My health issues have been mostly resolved since then, and don't expect to come back, but still recovering.
Bills will be coming in any day now, but currently this is my situation:
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Unemployed, difficulty/near impossible finding a job due to PTSD and health issues.
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Married, wife is a teacher. Makes around $2100 a month which we live on. We get by normally fine with around max $300 extra to spare a month after rent, utilities, groceries, etc.
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Have some financial support from in laws, who have been great, but obviously cannot rely on them forever.
Current bills coming up:
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$3800 merged ER medical bill. Insurance got it down from $8000 surprisingly, since they are out of my network. Tomorrow I am calling someone to see if it can be reduced (as I've read about on here before) and to see the lowest minimal monthly payment we can make on this. If anyone has experience with this, love to hear.
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$500 wisdom tooth extraction. This is due next week when it happens.
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$500 from doctors visits - 3 separate bills coming up. Tomorrow we'll be calling to see if we can merge that in one bill and make payments on it. If not we're in trouble - well that's why I am here for advice.
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$600 Green Card. Horrible timing, but by half of April we have to apply for my Green Card which will be out of its 2 year trial period. Has to be paid in full.
Current budget money to spare for this month:
- $180 in general medical.
- $150 in hospital bill I put aside - assuming it's not more than that for our first payment.
Next paycheck by the 15th with $300-$350 freeing up for bills.
We are selling stuff to get some extra cash in.
Taxes haven't been done yet, we might have to pay, money we get usually goes to student debt from my wife - which is being paid back by her parents (which is enormously gracious of them).
Dentist and Green card are the more immediate bills to focus on - if the doctors bills all have to be paid straight away no idea how to do that.
Questions
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This will sound stupid, but how does a creditcard work? We have no creditcard debts and I have no idea where to start. My wife has poor credit score due to a mistake with paying back student loans in the past.
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Can we still apply for one, if so, where? Can I as immigrant get one? How long would it take to use?
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Can we use the credit card to pay for stuff like the doctors visits all in one go and then make payments on credictcard monthly? How does that work, how much are minimum payments?
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Anything else we could try? Any advice would help. It's just the immediate few weeks/months that are of concern so I was wondering if a credit card could help pay stuff off straight away and if this is a smart idea or not.
Thanks in advance!
Submitted February 01, 2017 at 06:58PM by imnotlegolas http://ift.tt/2kXy5je
