Kara and William - Success Story 3

A Wedding that Grew out of Control

Kara and William did something that is very common among young American couples in love: they got married on credit. Both had exceptional credit scores when they were married as a result of having stable jobs and years of proactive, responsible use of credit and credit cards. So when the engagement was made and the time came to start planning their wedding, they felt as though they would be able to finance the wedding of their dreams on credit cards and continue to balance the expense after the dust settled.
When Life Takes a Turn

Their wedding and honeymoon quickly grew in size and scope and strained the limits of the credit cards that they currently had. Not really phased, they took out new credit cards and continued their plans. In short order they had financed the wedding of their dreams at a price tag of nearly $60,000, most of that on credit cards and putting a significant strain on their creditworthiness and debt to income ratio. The wedding went off without a hitch though, as did the honeymoon that followed, but when the two of them returned home their new life was waiting for them, along with their new debt as well.

Shortly after the honeymoon, the world economy took a dive and when that happened, Kara lost her job. It didn't take very long for them to fall behind in all of their credit card payments, and William's chief complaint was the sheer number of them.
Debt Relief Counseling Lends a Hand

William suggested the two of them look into debt relief services and contacted a qualified counselor to help with their problem. After evaluating their situation, their counselor had one key suggestion for them; debt negotiation.

Once he'd explained the process of debt negotiation to William and Kara, their counselor gave the two of them time to think it over and discuss it and the ramifications for their credit score. Their counselor had been up front in telling them that while he may be able to negotiate their debt down for them, their credit score would probably suffer some damage as a result of the process. The only other alternative recommended to them since they had no home for equity and were stretched beyond their credit limit, was bankruptcy counseling, and they knew that would be far worse.

They agreed to the debt negotiation and worked with their counselor over the next few weeks as he contacted their various credit card companies and negotiated on their behalf to lower their interest rates, payment amounts or set up a settlement payment. By the time he was finished, their $60,000 in debt had become just over $35,000, and their monthly payments were reduced to a fraction of what they had been. Kara found a part-time job, and between the two of them, they were able to manage their new payment schedule as promised, and together the two of them began the process of rebuilding their credit scores, repairing the damage that the negotiations had caused.
Continued Counseling

Kara and William continued to work with their counselor on and off even after their negotiations were complete. He assisted them with setting up a budget to live on, taught them more about credit than they already knew, and helped them to understand their finances better so as to avoid ending up over-extended in the future. Now Kara and William have only a few credit cards, and they only use them in emergencies or when their budget allows for paying them off at the end of every month. They are financially stable and saving up for the next big adventure to follow their wedding - the birth of their first child.



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