Has anyone consolidated and it worked?

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-06-2008
Has anyone consolidated and it worked?
3
Mon, 02-01-2010 - 5:10am

I'm just wondering who has had any luck doing this?

How about consumer credit counseling?

I know about the horror stories. Has anybody been successful?

I've been paying down a monster debt for 2 years. But my interest rate on one account went up due to a stupidly missed payment. I also had to charge over 6K to fix my only vehicle in 2008 which raised me to more debt than when I joined. But I just found out my landlord wants me out of the house in 3months because her daughter is getting married and needs my place. I only signed a 12 month lease when I first moved in a few years ago. There was no lease agreement after that. I don't know if I'll be able to find a safe and "as" cheap place around here to keep my daughter in the same school without having to pay ALOT more. Like 200 more.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-04-2008
Mon, 02-01-2010 - 10:13am

No one here posting in the last two years has seen consolidation or debt counseling actually work positively for them.


What has worked are the steps we are all doing:




iVillage Member
Registered: 11-17-2007
Mon, 02-01-2010 - 1:09pm

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-25-2006
Mon, 02-01-2010 - 9:26pm

I am not advocating that consolidation is the way to go but I did have a good experience with a credit counseling agency 10 years ago. They were professional, and my representative was actually nice!

The only draw back was that the accounts I consolidated did show up on my credit report with the following note: "account under agency agreement" and I am sure this somehow affected my credit score but it was temporary. I was renting at the time and changed apartments after it happened.

I have bought a house and have credit cards with decent rates since then. For me it was the right thing to do - the temporary credit impact was worth it to have one payment and know that I had someone I could call with questions.

Again, I too have heard horror stories but I wanted to note one instance where it did help - even with the drawbacks.