“Dear Steve, Too much student debt and banks wont help. My son has a few student loans. One of them is from a credit union with an interest rate of 9.5% The payments are $658 for the next 25 years!! We have asked them to lower the rate, so he can make the payments, but they said they can’t. My ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, My husband is the only bread winner in a family. We are both older and we have 3 young teenagers. I am 54 and he is 59. Our son is a junior in High school and our twin girls are 14 and still in middle school. We have about 22 thousand in credit card dead with credit union ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, I took out a car loan with my credit union and i had a hardship and they were able to lower my loan. However it was not lowered enough to satify my ability to afford the monthly payments. Therefore I contact the credit union for further help and they were unable to further lower my paynents. My payments ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, Credit Union who won’t release title of a car because of a credit card that charged off. Thank you for taking questions. My situation is a complicated one. I traded my car in and the dealership called the CU to get the payoff. They gave them the payoff in which they received the check 2 days later. Two ... Read More »

I paid off my car with the credit union they are holding my car title for Visa card payment. The Visa has been turned over to collection agency. For years I have not been able to get my title. I called up the credit union and asked about the title. They sent me a letter on their letterhead releasing the ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, I have a personal loan ( which is 3 months past due) and an auto loan , which is current, with the same credit union. Thay are now saying that the personal (signature) loan is cross-collateralized, and the want to repossess the car. I don’t remember agreeing to cross-collateralization – the loan was made in New York State, ... Read More »

“Dear Damon, I had a car repossessed and the balance after auction is $13,100 Its with A credit Union in IL, I also have a 10,000 credit card with same credit union.. I want to use debt settlement, but heard credit unions are impossible to deal with.. I am recently divorced and was layed off 5 months.. Can you recommend ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, Hi Steve, we are sinking. We have about $54,000 in credit card and personal loan debt as follows: Capital One $14K Discover $14K Bank of America $11K (I call these the Big 3) Credit Union Visa $10K Credit Union Line of Credit $4K Monthly minimums total $1700. The credit union accounts are cross-collateralized with an auto loan we ... Read More »

The National Consumer Law Center has just issued their latest report on payday loans titled Stopping the Payday loan Trap: Alternatives that work, ones that don’t. The report is interesting in that it gives a number of examples of payday loan alternatives that offer small dollar amount loans and lists the corresponding APR. For example: Anheuser-Busch Employees Credit Union – ... Read More »

Terrell “Dear Steve, 2 1/2 years ago my car broke and I made the mistake of charging car rentals to get back and forth to work on my credit card. A $1500 debt climbed to over $4000 within 2 months. Up until January of this year I was able to make the payments. At that point the payments climbed to ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, I am up to date on my car payments but behind on my Visa payments. My credit union in Atlanta, Ga says they can seize my car because the Visa is secured by it and I never new about this, or the fact that they I had a secured Visa card. I do not live in Ga. I ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, I am currently trying to refinance my home through my credit union. According to their appraiser, in the last year and a half, the value of my home has dropped $200,000.00. Our credit is in the 500-600 range so no bank will touch us and we now no even paycheck to paychecjk. My wife and I both work ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, I had a 2006 Honda Accord EX and a signature loan from my credit union. I got laid off and couldn’t make either payment. The CU put both loans together at one point, but I still couldn’t make the payment, so I voluntarily returned the car. They sold the car, and I still owe $22,000, which I cannot ... Read More »

Recently a friend of mine wrote a post Credit Cards – Close ‘em Shred ‘em & Forget ‘em! and it has really got me thinking. In fact for the last two nights I’ve actually dreamed about the post and having conversations about it. I made my points to Matt in the comments but here is the gist of the position. ... Read More »

Garr “Dear Steve, I owe Navy Federal Credit Union $17,000 the account is charge off but they are take legal act to garnishment or civil suit i am not sure they take a settlement. Garr” The Answer   Dear Garr, The issue here that you need to take some action to intervene here instead of just watching the bus hit ... Read More »