“Dear Steve,
I was making minimum payments on my cards ok, and sometimes a few dollars more, raley being late (less than 30 days) then the cards raised their minimums due, and increased fees. That with the fact that even though I’m working full time, my company didn’t give annnual raises and stopped all overtime as well. Plus I have medical bills on top of it. I’m struggling to make payments of any sort, and have gotten several months behind on almost every card.
Is it better for my credit rating, etc to settle one card (at % of balance), reducing my total debt to about half, or am I better to pay off the full balance of a different one, along with paying down about half of a 2nd, but reducing the toal owed to about a third?
Do You Have a Question You'd Like Help With? Contact Debt Coach Damon Day. Click here to reach Damon.
Thank you for any help/advice you can give me.
DJ”
Dear DJ,
The best possible improvement to your credit is to repay your debt on-time and at least in accordance with the contractual terms. Settling the debt will hurt your credit.
If you can payoff a card, that’s great but I just don’t have enough information to give you any specific advice about which card or strategy will be best in your situation. Either post more information on the cards and balances in the comments or contact my friend and debt coach,
