Take Charge America
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| Fri, 09-16-2005 - 12:53pm |
Hi! I've been lurking here for awhile but need to ask a question. After foolishly getting in over our heads with credit card debt, it has finally caught up with us. When looking for help I came across Take Charge America. It is similar to CCCS but seems to cost less monthly. Has anyone ever heard of them? Ever used them? I checked out the Better Business Bureau for the state of Maine where I live and didn't find any complaints and did check with licenses for the state of Maine and they are licensed to do business. I'm not sure if I'm just procrastinating waiting to talk to them but feel that the bunch of you might have heard of them.
When I lurk here, I don't feel so all alone. I have to go back to work as lunch time is over. Any info or advice would be helpful. We'd like to be out of debt before my husband retires in 16 years. Thanks!

I lurk here as well. This board has really been an encouragement! We have been using Take Charge America for 2 years now. We started out with almost $38,000 in credit card debt and we now owe just below $18,000. They were able to get 1 credit card down to 0%, 2 credit cards down to 1%, and 2 down to 9.99% interest. For us, entering into a debt management program was a relief. We kept putting off using debt management thinking we could do it without help. Now, after 2 years and over half our debt paid off I am so glad we made the choice we did. We have been very satisfied with using this particular company. It was actually one of my credit card companies that told us about this company. If you have anymore specific questions, I will try my best to answer.
Jabby
Thanks, Jabby. We've been doing the same putting off doing what we need to do to take care of this problem. We've juggled bills and everything in the last year since my husband lost his job then took one at less pay. We figure he's making about 6-7000 less this year. We were just making it before. I'm calling TakeChargeAmerica ASAP. I'm tired of having these financial problems over my head as I am the one that pays the bills. I think like a lot of the financial experts do that the credit card companies just make it too easy to have credit and we live in a "buy now, pay later" world. I wasn't brought up that way as my parents were children of the depression (I'm a later in life baby) and didn't even have a checking account until they were retired! They bought everything with cash.
I do have a couple questions. What are the approximate charges per month? And do you get real paper copies of any agreements you do with them? Were the customer service reps easy to talk too?
Thanks again!
I am a stay at home mom and my husband is self employed. We got in debt using credit cards to make ends meet. It was horrible. The stress was unbearable. We were paying almost $500 a month just in finance charges. We weren't making a dent in our debt at all. Our debt was almost equal to our income at the time. We have had to make MAJOR changes in our lifestyle. We basically spend only on true necessities and live with a strict budget. Take Charge America makes you close all of your credit card accounts (they let me keep my gas card but I agreed I would pay it off each month).
To answer your questions, my Take Charge America monthly maint. fee is $35. Yes, they did send me real paper copies of my agreement. The customer service is very, very good.
Like anything in life there have been a few glitches but they were easily and quickly resolved. For example, I sent in extra money one month and the extra amount wasn't sent to my credit card. I called and they electronically sent it right away. Since that happened I check my account online a few days after I mail off my payment, something I should have been doing anyway.
It has been 2 years since we started the program but I do also remember things were kind of hectic at first when we started the program. It did take several months for things to seem like they were "running smoothly". I remember sending my payment to TCA but my payment was late to the credit card company. While the credit card company didn't charge us a late fee, I knew it was negatively affecting my credit. Basically, what it took was for me to send in my payment the same day each month which is about 10 days before my credit card payments are due. Also, I was able to change a few of the credit card due dates so that all my credit card payments were due around the same time. For example, I send in my payment on the 15th day of the month and my credit card payments are due around the 25th. TCA will not take personal checks so I get a Cashier's check from my bank (they do not charge me for it) or TCA will draft from your checking account (I think there may be a 2or 3$ charge for this). I hope I have not confused you to much!
Would be glad to answer any more questions! Jabby
I agree major lifestyle habits need to be changed. I am actually the one that doesn't like to charge alot but have had to or rather chose to at Christmas and birthdays but only about half of my Christmas budget. DH is the one that would say yes, let's charge it etc. Same as you, over the last year, we had to use the credit cards just to keep up. Killed me the first time I put groceries on it. Besides losing his job, at his new job his hours were cut from Jan until about August plus he was laid off the month of April for 5 weeks. I work at school so I get a full time job from Sept to June with 3 weeks of unpaid vacations and any snow days. This year the snow days equaled out to a full weeks pay. We just never seemed to have enough money to pay what we did last year at the same time.
I work a per diem job to make ends meet during vacations and in the summer but I don't take as many hours as I need to rest also. I am not a teacher, but an ed tech or as we used to be called teacher's aide. I keep saying I need to get a real job but I like the school schedule so I'm available for my last at home child who is a jr. I feel at this age he needs to know Mom's still watching plus as he hasn't got his license yet I'm his wheels for football practice, etc.Plus I have really good health insurance with the school system at a reasonable rate. They take it out of my paycheck over the school year and so I don't have to pay for July and August. It'll be about 170 every 2 weeks for 18 pay periods this year. $85 a week but that's only for 8 months.
Anyway, I blabbered on enough. I do have another question. Did get you payments down to a very reasonable amount like down by half? You did not confuse me but I want to know i can afford to do this. I think it'll be okay but I tend to worry. Thank you again, Jabby. Nice to know I have someone to talk to!
I have heard of people getting there monthly payment cut in half when they entered into debt management but that was not the case for us. Our monthly payments are very much close to what we were already paying. The difference is most of the money now pays down the principle whereas before we were mostly paying finance charges. I don't know how much debt you have but ours was high and it has to be paid off within 5 years. That caused our monthly payment to be high. They ask you a detailed list of monthly income/expense questions to make sure you can afford debt management. We came just a few dollars within range to qualify. I don't know what we would have done if we had not qualified.
Thankfully, my husband is "on board" with debt reduction. I used to be the one who paid bills and "juggled" money around. He was aware of the fact that we were taking cash advances on credit cards to make ends meet but he is much more involved now. Really, he has to be since he is the one who bears the burden of coming up with the money. We have a strict budget and we both stick to it. I am always trying to "tweak" it to squeeze more money out for debt reduction. I think all the sacrifice, stress, and hard work over the past 2 years has caused both of us not to want to EVER go through this again. We both in different ways have felt the burden of getting this debt paid off.
I am hoping the best for you!!! I am interested in hearing if you do decide to call TCA and how things work out!