Need help!

[Loretta]

We are sick of struggling and barely keeping our heads above water. I'm afraid if something happens to either of us and we can't work we will be screwed!!!

I want to invest a tiny bit of each paycheck into something...but I am clueless about investments.

We have never even had a credit card or loan other than the car so I have no clue how they work(I got screwed on the car, too...I'm paying $300 a month for a used DOdge Neon but we have no credit so it's the best I could find). I wouldn't mind a credit card if it could get us by that extra $50 we seem to be missing each payday to eat and buy gas, but have been turned down each time I apply.

Someone knowledgeable care to tutor me? I'm at the end of my rope! TIA.

[OneSailorsGirl25]

I don't know much about it, but my brother in law is into investing and all. If you'd like I can ask him what a good starter investment would be. My DH and I talk about investing all the time, but one thing or another always comes up. Let me know if you want me to talk to BIL.

[rosebud*]

How many times have you applied in the past 6 months?? that too can lower your credit score, each time you apply it goes on your credit report when people see you have applied too many times then they sometimes will deny you. First you should pull your credit report and your dh's you can each get one free at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp
you can access all three bureaus at one time, I highly recommend printing them out because that way you have a hard copy.

[Loretta]

We have applied for three...one from each of the major card companies. We tried for low-limit cards for people with no credit.

Yeah I did that about a month ago. We have three things in collections right now....and all totalled they equal less than $500, we just don't have $ to pay it off.

Is there anything else I can do? I'd like to consolidate that into one payment and pay it off maybe $20 at a time. That will come out of our $50 per check food budget, but not much I can do about it.

TIA, once again!

I do not recommend getting a CC if you aren't financially stable because it can actually make your finances worse. If you absolutely want one though, I would go through HERE. They require you to put $200 down because it's a secured card. But that goes into an account and I believe it accrues interest? I don't remember. A lot of people use it to repair their credit.

[Loretta]

Originally Posted by RockstarMom I do not recommend getting a CC if you aren't financially stable because it can actually make your finances worse. If you absolutely want one though, I would go through HERE. They require you to put $200 down because it's a secured card. But that goes into an account and I believe it accrues interest? I don't remember. A lot of people use it to repair their credit.

I don't necessarily WANT one, but I need to have a way to pay off everything at once and pay back smaller amounts, and/or actually have food and gas....preferrable while building credit. If there is another way I'd be way more interested in that

ETA-If i had $200 to put down, there wouldn't be a reason to have a card. I KNOW they aren't a great idea but I'm desperate and sick to death of peanut butter.

Originally Posted by Loretta We have applied for three...one from each of the major card companies. We tried for low-limit cards for people with no credit. Yeah I did that about a month ago. We have three things in collections right now....and all totalled they equal less than $500, we just don't have $ to pay it off. Is there anything else I can do? I'd like to consolidate that into one payment and pay it off maybe $20 at a time. That will come out of our $50 per check food budget, but not much I can do about it. TIA, once again!

Care One Credit Counseling

We went through them a while back when we were needing help really badly. I used them until we were able to get back on our feet again (then I canceled it and paid it reg. payments). They negotiate payments with your creditors.

[rosebud*]

Originally Posted by Loretta We have applied for three...one from each of the major card companies. We tried for low-limit cards for people with no credit. Yeah I did that about a month ago. We have three things in collections right now....and all totalled they equal less than $500, we just don't have $ to pay it off. Is there anything else I can do? I'd like to consolidate that into one payment and pay it off maybe $20 at a time. That will come out of our $50 per check food budget, but not much I can do about it. TIA, once again!

what you can do is find out what the max you can pay each month on those bills, and you can either pick the one with the lowest balance and throw all the money at that one, or you can split them evenly. I wouldn't recommend a cc either since the second you can't pay you guys might get even more screwed.

Originally Posted by Loretta I don't necessarily WANT one, but I need to have a way to pay off everything at once and pay back smaller amounts, and/or actually have food and gas....preferrable while building credit. If there is another way I'd be way more interested in that

That's the card I recommend then if you can not get approved anywhere else.

[Loretta]

I've tried credit counseling places, they generally laugh at me because our debt is less than $1000. They don't even help people with debt less than $10,000 most of the time. Is Care One different?

Thanks for the info, ladies!!!