Well, like everyone else, I agree with much of what has been said but of course, as humans, we can't leave it at that and have to put our own 2 cents in :) You need to figure out a few things about your debt. Is it a matter of you currently have 35k debt that you need to pay off and you aren't adding anything to that debt? If so, then that is great! Work on ways to save every penny you can from your monthly budget to put towards debt. If you are still adding to the debt, you need to figure out why. Have you been paying for your kid's education or any of their bills? Like someone said earlier, if this is the case, they need to pay those things themselves. If they can't get a student loan, then they can cut back on their school hours, find a job full time, and pay their way through. They can also learn to take own their own insurance and phone bills if they don't already. And, if you still can't get your head above water, tell them that they will need to start pitching in on the food budget, or even pay you rent if they wish to live at home. Some may say that is harsh, but what is the best way to prepare a child to grow up and be apart of the real world? The parent pay for everything and bail them out of every problem, then suddenly graduate college and realize they don't know how to budget their own money and end up getting stuck with debt problems or unable to save for anything they want? Or having them pay for the things they want and need while under the protection and guidance of their parents so that when they graduate and/or get married and start their own family, they know how to budget and save money. So this could be a major thing to look at. You obviously don't want to just kick your kids away and make them think you don't love them, but if they aren't responsible for their own things, you need to start holding them responsible for them. Also look at other things you could save on. If you have Cable or Dish, perhaps drop them. Most shows can now be watched online, even if it means going to youtube and seeing if anyone put it up. Perhaps revise the food budget? That's one thing my husband and I have really been working on. I have cut ours in half! I am unsure of your living conditions or what type of disease you have, but if you are able to, perhaps there are things you could do for a little extra money. Clean the homes of family and friends? Host a garage sale and have all the profit go towards your debt? Are there crafts you can sell (they usually don't bring much money in, but every little bit can help). Perhaps you have a skill or talent you can train people in? If you can find something you can do that will create extra income, do it and discipline yourself that all of that extra income will go towards your debt and can't be spent elsewhere. If you haven't already, check out various sites about cutting the budget and frugal living and as you apply those tips, use the money saved toward debt. I have 2 things left to say. The first is a tip I read about paying off debt. Write down all the various debts you owe. (To whom, who much the debt for each is, and their minimum payment). Next, order them from smallest debt to the largest. Each month, pay the minimum towards each debt, but for the smallest debt, the one listed on the top of your list, pay more. I'll give an example on a small scale. We'll say you owe $ to 3 creditors. Vista debt: 300 Min: 20 American Express debt: 1000 Min: 50 Master Card debt: 2500 Min: 100 So, you pay the 50 and the 100 to AE and MC, but for Vista, we'll say you managed to get enough extra income to pay 100 a month on it. So, for the next 3 months you get it paid off (Note, I am not calculating interest, it is not needed to get the basic concept of this). Once you paid off that Vista, that gives you $100 extra each month that you can then apply to the AE card. So, rather than paying the min 50, you are able to put 150 towards it. Once the AE is paid off, you now have 150 extra in the budget so you add that to the minimum payment you were paying on the MC which means you'll be paying 250 on it each month. With this method, you can quickly pay off debt and reduce the number of creditors you are paying because rather than spending forever trying to pay off the largest amount, or slowly paying off all at the same time, little by little, you free up money as you finish paying off creditors so you can apply more to other debt. I hope that tip helps. The last thing I have to say is short. If you already have bad credit, do not fret about it. You don't want to do anything stupid, obviously, but do not fret about past mistakes. After 7 years, bad records are taken off your credit record. I could be wrong on the 7, it may be slightly more or less, but I believe it is 7 years. I know for bankruptcies, it is 10 years before it is taken off. (But please don't go bankrupt if avoidable because we, the tax payers, as well as yourself assuming you work and pay taxes, end up paying for it through our taxes). I hope the advise I gave was helpful.

Definitely see a credit counsellor, but first check with your local consumer protection agency (here it's through the Attorney Generals Office) to make sure they're legit. Nothing could be worse than signing up with a shady credit counsellor and finding yourself worse off than before. Don't fall for payday loans or other quick-relief schemes. And tell your friend you're handling it. My in-laws listened to a 'friend' and filed bankruptcy even though their credit was sterling. The only deal was that they couldn't make their car payment and credit card payments and still have enough to get by every month comfortably. Meaning there was no cushion. They didn't even have their cards charged up to the max, and were not behind on payments, EVER. Their total debt less than $10,000...most of that being the car loan. Some shyster got them to file bankruptcy using scare tactics and the same baloney logic you seem to be getting from your friend. Later, after it was discharged, they financed another car, but because of the bankruptcy they had a very high interest rate. Then those payments got too high for their comfort, so they traded in that car and got the balance added to the new loan (negative equity) so now they drive a car worth no more than $3000 that they owe $17,000 on and their payments were lowered only $20/mo, but spread out for 7 years. All because some one told them to file bankruptcy. How far out on your car loan are you? Can you sell it and get out from under it with any equity? Any way to unload the other party? Or at least make them start contributing? Best of luck, I feel for you!

Oakley: Was it a debit card? I wonder if debit cards have tighter rules. But then again, my ATM won't dispense more than a few hundred at a time. I'm sure the bank would say they don't want big spenders emptying them out and keeping other patrons from getting money. BLFenton: I get your point about building a credit record. But people can -- and do -- overdraft their accounts. Some people are responsible using them; others try to game the system. Banks have built-in mechanisms that allow them to permit the overdraft and then charge the user high fees to cover it. Some users don't even notice the charge part in their card agreement. (How can they not know they don't have enough funds to cover a purchase? One situation: similar to writing a check and thinking the bank has deposited your paycheck already when really it's on hold and hasn't 100% cleared.) Bank of America, not too long ago, settled a case about debit-card overdraft fees for $400million. Card issuers need to make money somehow on these debit cards, which are typically given to you for free with your bank account. Credit-card issuers, at least, can charge an annual fee. That's why Bank of America tried to start that $5 debit card fee.

Cynic >This one has me confused though: "...my cell phone provider gouged me for 4 consecutive months of payments even though I was paying cash at their store." If you have auto-pay, why are you paying cash at the store? Something's missing or I'm not following something. I was paying my bill in cash at their store. I had already called the (cell phone provider) ahead of time and told them I would be doing this. Each month my bill would arrive, each month it kept reflecting an overpayment. I would call them and they said it would be corrected. This happened FOUR months in a row. I contacted the credit card company and told them to cancel the card. Same thing happened with them. They would say it would be canceled. The following month I would get a bill for the same incorrect amount. I finally spoke to someone at the CC co. who said until the cell phone provider notified them, I would continue to be responsible for the charges whether they were right or wrong. They never said ANYTHING about having to have a cancellation number. BOTH the cell phone provider and CC company neglected to inform me of this necessary requirement. I wonder why? Well the reason why, is because THEY were MAKING MONEY and didn't want it to stop. These companies do not make it easy. They don't fully inform you when you sign up, and they don't tell you what you really need to do in order to cancel this type of payment. I finally contacted a consumer newspaper reporter. She said she doesn't care for automatic payments for the same reason and gets many calls regarding this. She contacted the cell phone provider's publicity relations department. That worked. They must have called my CC company because everything was taken care of within the month and I didn't receive any more credit card bills. My cell phone bills are what they are supposed to be. I still pay in cash. I no longer have the credit card. They send me solicitations all the time. Thanks, but no thanks. Contacting the AG's office is a good idea. dadoes >dreamgarden probably thought if he/she paid cash, the autopay wouldn't trigger. That's not necessarily the case. I wonder what IS the case? Who at EITHER company, was supposed to tell me I needed a cancellation number in order to stop the autopay? Out of a total of seven calls, 4 to the cell phone provider and 3 to the CC company, not ONE person mentioned this. Don't they teach customer service reps this information? I no longer wanted auto-pay and told them this. I said I would be paying in cash from now on and to cancel auto-pay. I don't understand how I could have been any clearer. >I recall a couple cases where I work of customers having autopay set up through CheckFree. One fellow died, his wife had NO CLUE about any of their finances and the auto-pay kept coming, for MONTHS. She no longer wanted the service, but she didn't contact us or was even aware the service existed, so how are we to know that? "How are we to know that?". How did you find out that her husband died? How do you know the wife no longer wanted the service if she was never contacted? Was she on the account too? Doesn't your company have some policy regarding taking money from a deceased person's account? > The other case, the fellow changed his account services, but didn't change the monthly autopay amount. We contacted him, he still didn't change the amount. Built up a large credit that had to be refunded when he eventually closed the service. When the fellow called to change his account services, was he asked if the present autopay amount was ok? If he was changing his account services, this would seem to be a logical question to ask a customer. Was he notified by telephone or in writing? This is why I like to receive paper billing. Sometimes when a credit card company calls (and leaves a message), they don't always state the nature of their business. When I have called back, they try to sell me some service or item I'm not interested in. Now I don't return calls unless they leave a message telling me something is wrong, or needs to be corrected. I had them put this in my file. I don't want to be bothered with solicitations or irrelevant matters that aren't directly related to some kind of problem with my account. In my opinion the above examples are just more reason to pay as you go and not allow company's to have recurring access to your bank account.