“Thank you so much Netiva, just get off the phone with capital one they waived all the late fees and setup me up in a special department; Comcast, and Macy's did too!”
Now ya'll probably think I did some amazing work on her credit, right? I didn't LOL.
This young lady came to me the other day thinking she needed credit repair when I saw all of her accounts were up to date until January 2015. What does this tell you.
Something happened right? She didn't need repair her credit history was perfect up until this point. She needed to start communicating.
I merely informed her of hardship programs that most lenders have, particularly for those that have never used them before.
Car companies will put some payments to the back of the loan, allowing you to have a month off from payments to apply those funds to more pressing expenses.
Credit card companies offer a slew of different programs; from skipping a payment, interest only payments, freezing the payment so that they don't vary per month, freezing the interest so that it doesn't keep increasing our balance each month, to split payments. You won't know until you ask.
Utility companies will place you on a budget
Cable companies will offer special incentives as well.
Now, you can't call saying “I can't pay it”
You have to give them a reason: I”m having surgery, getting 60% of my regular pay, I can't afford this payment” OR an illness, brief unemployment or reduction in pay.
The key thing they want to hear is TEMPORARY.
Meaning you'll be up and running some time in the near future.
Some of the hardships are for a decent amount of time; up to a year even.
So, when tough times arise, communicate with your creditors. Before the due date is better; but using the above example she saw amazing results 60 days after the due date.
Yes, her credit has suffered with the late payments; but I've always said: MY budget is waaaaay more important than my credit score. The latter is much easier to rebuild. Plus, with timely payments her credit will bounce back anyway.
Hope this helps
