Debt Consolidation Assistance and Advice Needed

Markeyvius Cathey 3 שנים

Background: My partner recently came to me to discuss her financial situation, which up until recently I had thought wasn't in a great place, but I definitely knew she had large amounts of debt split between 9 or so lines of credit. The reason she came to me is she wanted to let me know that she had enrolled in Beyond Finance to consolidate her debt into one, smaller, payment for a shorter period of time. After reading through what these debt collectors do, I told her to unenroll, to start making her monthly payments again, and dont sign anything more.

She has only missed 3 payments (2 for BestEgg and 1 for a different lender)

Finances: I am currently in grad school for accounting, with a job lined up in early or late summer (65k). I work for my university and bartend for supplimental income. I do have some growing cc debt, but nothing that concerned me until we started having these conversations.

My partner made ~95k last year before taxes. Her debt is:

Amex: $23k @ 26% [$468/month] - card is no longer being used

We have enrolled her in the payment plan

BestEgg $20k @ 16% [$544/month]

After speaking to their customer service department we applied for a 2-month payment extension to avoid them reporting the negligent payments

They also said her loan qualified for a lower interest rate, but we needed to call back today. The new rate would be 5.6% [$400/month].

Upstart $9.4k @ 29% [$272/month]

After calling them, it did not seem they would offer any real assistance.

The loan was started last November, there is no fee to pay it off in full or minimum contract length

Synchrony Bank (financing company) $2k fixed ($111/month)

CitiBank $3.8k @ 24% [$130/month]

Credit Union CC $7.6k @ 13% [$160/month] - occasionally used

We opened a checking and savings account for her at US Bank, as the city we will be moving to has a local branch and I have a 27y.o account with them. Unfortunately our co-borrowed loan application for $32k was denied without a counter-offer. We were hoping between her (~655) income and my credit score (734) and account history we would be able to get a higher amount, unfortunatley my new student loans didnt give us any favors.

Speaking with my parents, they did offer to co-sign for us or to borrow it themselves and then create a private contract to help us out, but I want to see if there is anything else I could be missing before I get them more involved.

The 32k would go to consolidate the Amex and Upstart. Using the monthly 'savings' from this consolidation and the potential 'savings' from the BestEgg, we would pay down CitiBank->Synchony->BestEgg.

Any recommendations or additional insights for us?