or Credit card debt or debt consolidation?
Putting myself through medic school has been a costly investment, obviously i saved money before i went in but only earning pennies riding a private EMT car i unfortunatly had to rely on my credit cards to keep my head above water. My question is...im very nearly done and am wondering if having 3 credit cards (not maxed out)with balances on them will hurt me in a background? or would going to a debt consolidation be a better option, getting all debt consolidated down to 1 monthly payment rather than having 3 differant payments. Any light shed on this rather dark situation would be well recieved.
Thanks for any advice.
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Community Forum
Credit card debt....?
Debt consolidation is not a bad idea, but don't CLOSE the accounts either. Keep them open, because closed accounts will lower your Credit FICO score. If you are able to consolidate all of these debts into one creditor with a lower overall interest rate, then do so, that will definitely lower your monthly payments. But don't go out and charge up those empty cards again either. Put them in a shoebox somewhere where you only use them in an extreme emergency. The biggest thing is to keep up your payments.
Do your best to keep your credit clean. Bad credit will affect your ability to get a job. I don't know enough about debt consolidation. If it involves not paying back all of the money that you owe, I would not recomend it. If it is one of these programs that you make a deal with the credit card company to pay them back a portion of the money I would advise not doing it.
Your situation is completely explainable in a background intervuew. My last rookie had 20K in debt from paramedic school. Once he got hired on the FD he was able to pay off his loans in a flash. Within a year he purchased a home. In effect what you are doing is taking out a student loan. You're just paying higher interest. You are investing in the future. With your medic cert you should be able to land a job in no time.
Good luck
Paul Lepore
Captain
Just a clarification of the terminology. Debt consolidation is simply applying for and taking out 1 large lower interest loan in order to pay off multiple smaller loans with more or equal interest. For example say you owe 3000 to Credit Company A, 4000 to Credit Company B, and 12,000 to Credit Company C, each with different interest rates. You could simplify and lower your monthly payments by "consolidating" them into 1 loan of 19,000. But it keeps you in good standing with everyone.
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Posted on 12/21/2002
by fierengen
In my opinion and speaking from past experience (backgound investigations), having debt is not nearly as big of a deal as not paying your bills in a timely manner. I would highly recommend obtaining a copy of your credit report from one, or all three of the credit reporting agencies (Trans Union, Experian, and Equifax). Sure this will cost you a few dollars, but these reports are what your future background investigator will be looking at! This is one of the few areas that you can have some control over. If the report shows that you were delinquent on a payment in the past, you can be prepared to properly respond. Or if it is innacurrate, you can have it corrected. I would recommend that you do this on an annual basis to ensure continued accuracy. Hope this helps.
Keith