Money troubles

[SteveK87]

Well, let me break it down.  My wife is doing the home hemo, and physically she can't work.  So as of now I took over paying her bills, but I'm getting screwed on interest rates.  What I would like to do is transfer all of her existing debts onto one card so I can pay less interest and just pay 1 bill monthly instead of 5.  The problem is her limit on the card isn't high enough to do this (she has about a 1k limit on the card I'd like to transfer it to, with about 4k total I would like transferred) The thing is when we go to inquire about upping the credit limit it asks for a yearly income, which obviously is no where near what she had 4 years ago when she got the card before the kidney failure.  Her only income is the social security.  I personally cannot get any credit cards because I never built credit, so I pretty much don't exist when it comes to credit reports.  My credit is neither good or bad.  So transferring her balances onto one of my cards isn't possible because, I simply don't have one.  So ultimately my question is, what are my options?  Do I put her actual yearly income from the social security which will definitely ruin the chances of getting a limit increase, or do what I know isn't the right thing and fib about the yearly income?  Or do you think calling and explaining to the credit card company the situation would do any good?  I've been paying her bills for almost a year now, so the company obviously knows the money is being withdrawn from my bank account and not hers for the bills.  I'd assume they don't care how they get the money, just as long as they're getting it.  My intentions are not to get off topic with what this message board is all about, I just figure someone out there has to be in the same or similar scenario.  Thanks in advance.

[SugarBear]

Hey Steve, unfortunately for most patients, money troubles go hand in hand with dialysis.  My suggestion is to check your credit, you will be surprise which companies report to these agencies.  The odds are you do have a credit report and score to your name.  Whether it is a good or bad credit is a different story, but if you have financed anything like a car, appliances, furniture, etc...  If you haven't done any of these things, you'll still have a score. If you have had a steady job for a long period of time with a good income, that will go a long way to getting a credit card with the limit you need. 

Hope this helps,
Nelson

[brenda seal]

Try making an appointment with your bank manager and apply for a personal loan to pay off the cards , the interest rate on a personal loan is less than credit card interest  ( here in Australia anyway ) . If you have a steady job and the manager can see a regular amount coming out of your account to pay your wife's cards it should go in your favour .
At least with a personal loan there is a beginning and an end , whereas credit cards just seem like a dog chasing it's tail ! Good luck .

[jeannea]

If you're married, your credit scores are tied up together. You definitely have a credit score. I agree with going to your bank and talking to them. They will help you understand what you qualify for and maybe help you before it gets worse.

[Deanne]

I mostly follow the advice of the likes of Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman. Ramsey annoys me on a personal level, but they both have common-sense tactics to help people get out of debt and live a debt-free life. Ramsey has a good message board that I lurk in: https://www.mytotalmoneymakeover.com

You have to pay to post. I just lurk.

The basic advice he gives is:

Get on a written budget. Know how much money you have coming in every month and where it's going to be spent. Four walls first: Shelter, food, clothing, transportation.

NEVER use credit again. Not. for. anything. Ever!

Work as hard and as fast as you can to get $1000 in the bank to offset any emergency so you don't need to grab that credit card when life happens.

Work a "snowball" plan to pay off your debt, then increase your savings so you have 3-6 months of expenses in an account, just in case....

If you're able to consolidate your wife's cards to help you along, great, but you need to make sure those cards are cut up at the same time. People often consolidate, then spend up the existing cards again and double their trouble. If you can't consolidate them, don't stress out over it. Pay those that you can, let the rest go for now. They'll kick and scream and try to intimidate you. Worst case is they'll sue, but more likely they'll offer you a settlement first. If you haven't done so already, you can also talk them about being put on a hardship plan where they'll reduce your interest rate and payment amounts to help you make the payments.

[SugarBear]

I forgot about that, married couples do share a credit score so your's is as good or as bad as her's is.

[adairpete]

You might have more luck by going to a bank, but here's what I've done.  I found a consumer credit counseling company online and they were able to consolidate all my credit cards (and lower their interest rates).  I paid the credit counseling company and they paid the credit card companies.  The only negative thing is that while your paying the debt off it negatively impacts your credit.  They make you close your credit accounts so your credit to debt ratio goes way up.  In my case, my credit was already shot so it didn't matter.  However, if you want to keep your credit score intact you should go to your bank fist and see how they work with you. 

Good luck!

[smcd23]

I also support the local bank or credit union if you have one locally that you can join. Tony's only income is his SSDI and when he bought his truck he had no credit and a good job so he got financed... At 20% interest and a $560/month payment. 2 years later kidneys fail, work stops and he's still paying that large truck payment, which was almost half his SSDI check. So I told him to try the credit union and he sat down with the person making the loan decision, showed him proof of his income and his truck payment (all other bills are in my name) and they refinanced him no problem. So it's worth a shot in your case too.

Do you have a 401k or anything you can borrow against or take out? I took a loan on my 401k to pay off my debt. The interest rate was significantly less than the interest on the debt.

Also, just because you are married doesn't make your credit scores joint. The only way her debt will be on your report and vice versa is if you had a joint account or if you were an authorized user on one of her cards. Your credit report will say that you're married but that's it unless you have shared credit accounts. I just found that out recently actually.

Good luck, I know it's tough! We're on a sinking financial ship over here too, barely keeping afloat at times but we will get through. Always do, and I'm sure you will too.

[SteveK87]

I also support the local bank or credit union if you have one locally that you can join. Tony's only income is his SSDI and when he bought his truck he had no credit and a good job so he got financed... At 20% interest and a $560/month payment. 2 years later kidneys fail, work stops and he's still paying that large truck payment, which was almost half his SSDI check. So I told him to try the credit union and he sat down with the person making the loan decision, showed him proof of his income and his truck payment (all other bills are in my name) and they refinanced him no problem. So it's worth a shot in your case too.

Do you have a 401k or anything you can borrow against or take out? I took a loan on my 401k to pay off my debt. The interest rate was significantly less than the interest on the debt.

Also, just because you are married doesn't make your credit scores joint. The only way her debt will be on your report and vice versa is if you had a joint account or if you were an authorized user on one of her cards. Your credit report will say that you're married but that's it unless you have shared credit accounts. I just found that out recently actually.

Good luck, I know it's tough! We're on a sinking financial ship over here too, barely keeping afloat at times but we will get through. Always do, and I'm sure you will too.

I have a decent 401k but I've already loaned against it twice..once to get the house and another time to pay some of my bills (car insurance, cell phone, dental bills)  They only allow 2 loans out at a time..which mine won't be paid until 5 years from now.  I'm not sure what the credit union may do for me but it is an option.  Tomorrow I'm going to go up to my bank and see what they can do for me.

I hope I didn't make it sound like I'm horribly in debt or anything, and need to stop paying on cards, because in reality I don't.  I can afford the monthly payments but when I think about how much interest I'm paying monthly and how long it'll take to pay off with the interest rates it makes my stomach turn...especially when that extra money could be going towards something else like my wifes strict diet that she should be following but we have trouble affording.  One week we had a little extra and bought things specifically for her diet...bill was about $200 and lasted about 2 weeks.    And fortunately my sister works with health care supplies so I'm able to get cases of Nepro for her at cost which is $73..still very expensive for 24 cans but better then the $100 you would pay online with shipping.