This turned out to be a story. I’m looking for advice so if you don’t want to read my story go to the bottom.
I’ve gotten myself in a lot of trouble in the past couple years and racked up quite a bit of legal fines, medical bills and debt in general. I guess I will begin where it all started back in October of 2015, I went to a college town with a few buddies, I was underaged at the time but the local bars didn’t care. Long story short I drank too much and woke up in the hospital. I was completely clueless and as soon as the nurse walked in I asked her where my phone was and told her I’ve got to go right now. My town was 2 hours away and I didn’t want to miss my ride so I called my friends. The nurse told me the doctor hasn’t seen me yet and told me I had to sign for my release and that the insurance may not cover my stay. I was too worried about my parents finding out I woke up in the hospital with no recollection of my night. A month later I get the hospital bill. $5,500 not including the fines I got from that night out. It all totaled out to about $7,000. I’ve got that incident almost completely paid off with a balance of about $600 left to pay. The end of November of 2015 I get clocked going 91 in a 55. The cop lets me go with a ticket, I get it reduced to just under reckless driving and pay a $500 fine. In the process of ruining my driving record.... I’ve had maybe 1 or 2 warnings, 2 speeding tickets, and a suspension before that.
Fast forward to July of 2016. Drinking beers with some buddies decide to drive across town to another friends house. And I get pulled over. I do the field sobriety test, the cop pulls out the breathalyzer and I say no. The cop searches my car with a K-9 unit. He takes me to the detention center. I hire a lawyer the next day, go to court maybe a month later. I keep my license, get a year of court supervision and everything else dropped. Pay my lawyer $3500 and get my fine for dui of $3600 (which I have a little over a month left to pay). Get away almost scot-free besides a big hole in my pocket and another big dent in my driving record. I was only 20 during this incident.
One would have thought I had learned a lesson by now. December of 2016. 2 weeks away from turning 21. Drinking a 12 pack from the popular brewery in my town with a friend watching the snow come down. I get a call from the same friend that was riding in the car with me from the July incident. ( I no longer speak to this guy) I decide to drive across town to pick him up. On my way back into town and the snow is really coming down now. I’m in my front wheel drive Pontiac G6. I lose control and pop the curb, run down a small street lamp and wrap the driver side of my G6 around a tree. I will provide a picture now that I think of it. The police show up. I get an ambulance ride to the ER. Everything’s happening so fast. The cop is asking me all these questions while Im laying in this bed about to go through a cat scan. He scares me into signing the release of my blood to the police. Big mistake. I spend the weekend in the hospital and go home with a fractured pelvis and vertebrae, 5 broken ribs and a stitched chin. The air bag didn’t go off. I only had liability on my car because full coverage was insane from my previous incidents and now I have destroyed my driving record. I hire my lawyer once again and pay $2000 up front with the only guarantee I won’t do any jail time. I do 75 hours of outpatient (3 months of treatment and 2 months of aftercare) which I would be required to do later down the road anyway. My health insurance decides not to cover my last 3 days. Each day is $400 and with the insurance not covering 3 days it amounts to another $1200. I still have yet to pay and another $1800 in medical bills from the accident.
This entire year of 2017 has been continued court dates. Although my license has been valid this entire time I was adjusting to life with no car with knowledge my license would be revoked for 2 years. I have a wonderful girlfriend that has been carting me around this entire year. I also work 45 minutes from home and luckily I’ve been able to get rides with a co-worker who is actually my back door neighbor. 3 court dates ago, walking out of court I give my lawyer a check for $2000 to pay him off and I decided to ask if there was any way possible to keep my license. He told me it’s possible and to schedule an appointment. I go In to talk to him and he tells me he has a good relationship with the states attorney and since my county is broke they would let me keep my license if I agreed to pay max fines. He said they would be no more than $10,000. I go to court again and agree to do another 10 hours of treatment and 20 hours of after care to keep my license which will cost approximately $875 along with max fines which I don’t know what will be until I finish after care and go back to court December 1st. Now that I know I am able to keep my license I took a loan out for about $11,000 with the dealership where I work to buy a car about a month ago. They do not report to the credit bureau.
Here’s where I need help. I’ve had a credit card for about 4 months. I’m 21 now and had no credit previously and the credit card is the only thing building my credit history. I’m preparing for the worst and taking into account that the “max fines” from the second incident will be $10,000. I’ve got around $4000 in medical and treatment bills. I’ve got $3600 yet to pay from the first incident and that is due by the first of January 2018. I will have 45 days after December 1st to pay the “max fines”. I’m paying around $400 a month for my car and insurance. I have around $1,900 net coming in each month with a guaranteed $1300 from salary and the rest depends on how much my commission is, which is normally more than $600. I’ve got about $4,000 saved up right now.
What will be my best bet consolidating all of this and paying it off? Is it possible to get a loan with a decent APR with the little credit history that I have?
Submitted October 25, 2017 at 02:38PM by adcdcdra http://ift.tt/2gBFy7g
