Would Talking With Money Management International Ruin My Credit? – Shan

“Dear Damon,

I have $30,000 in debt due to my college tuition. Most of it is in Citi bank. My interest rates are really high. Starting from 13% to 29%. I am paying around $1000 towards minimum payments. Due to that I am living pay check to pay check. I am worried that I will be paying minimum payments for the rest of my life and will never be able to pay off my debt. Due to high revolving balance I got rejected for car loan. If my monthly payments can go down to $500 – $600, I will be able to pay some towards the principal. I haven’t tried talking to Money Management International because I don’t what to ruin my credit history. What would you suggest?

Thanks
Shan”

Hello Shan,

What are you using your FICO score for right now and over the next few years? Are you getting any benefit from your FICO while you are carrying this much debt?

Is it more important for you to be a slave to this debt for the next 5 to 10 years and try and maintain a good fico, or is it more important for you to get free of the debt as quickly as possible and move forward in your life, even if you take a hit to your fico for a few years?

Now, that being said, speaking with a CCCS program like MMI and getting a quote from them is not going to damage your FICO score at all. In fact enrolling in a DMP rarely has much of a negative effect on your actual score itself. It will certainly have an effect on your ability to get loans while you are on the DMP though, so what your FICO “number” is, doesn’t really matter.

Of course as you found out, the 30,000 in debt is also having an effect on your ability to get loans, so worrying about your fico seems to be a moot issue at this point.

I would meet with and get quotes from a few CCCS programs and then decide if their solution is something that will have a high likelihood for success. If you don’t think so, or you are not sure, come back and share with me what you found and we will look at other solutions that might better fit your cash flow and overall goals.

Please update me in the comments with your findings.

Damon is a talented independent debt coach that provides in-depth assistance and consultations for people struggling with debt. If you want a personal debt coach to help you through a difficult situation or want assistance to find secret discounts offered by debt settlement companies I think Damon Day is an excellent person to contact for advice and assistance. He can be reached directly at DamonDay.com

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