In 1998 I got pregnant with my son, I made the right choice and we started our family. We got married in 4/99, my son was born in 7/99. Well, in 8/99, my husband’s ex decided she no longer felt like raising their 3 year old, packed him up and shipped him out to us. I had quit college due to a very bad pregnancy…I was sick and on bed rest for 6 months. We lived soley on my husband’s income, which wasn’t much. We lived in NJ and struggled just to make ends meet. Many times we had no choice but to rely on credit cards just to put food on the table. 5 years ago, we closed all the credit card accounts, in order to not accumulate any further debt, but the damage was already done. We wanted to pay it back, but we couldn’t even afford food, let alone pay off debts.

2 years ago, we moved out here to PA, where my husband makes the same money, but our rent is 1/4 of what it was out in NJ. We’re much better off financially. However, after being here for 6 months, I was diagnosed with cancer. Thankfully, after surgery and treatment, I am cancer free. After the scare, we decided that if we were going to have another child, it needed to be done now, or we may not be blessed again with the opportunity. We had our daughter in February of this year. Financially we are okay, but we really would like to buy a house at this point. God forbid I get sick again, I need to know if I’m gone, my husband and my children have a place to call home!

Well, our credit is AWFUL, I know it’s our fault, but I just don’t know where to start to fix it. I can’t afford to do the whole debt consolidation thing. Most of the credit cards are listed as charge offs, and I know that even if I pay them, it won’t lift our credit scores. On top of that, there are charges listed from doctors that should have been paid by medicaid, I know that I sent the right numbers back to all these doctors numerous times and advised them that my oldest son was on medicaid , due to a disability and they should not be billing us, yet still, there the charges remain, and at this point, what do I do?

Please help me!
I should add, everything on our reports is from 2006 and earlier, aside from an electric bill from 2 years ago that went into collection, which I have made an arrangement to pay off with the collection agency. We have one more payment, and they have sent me a written agreement that when it is paid, it will be deleted from my report. Other than that, there has been no history (negative or positive)since 2006.
Excuse me, but we are eligible for a loan thru the USDA, but we were advised that our credit score needs to go up 76 points to qualify! I didn’t say we were broke, I said I don’t have 00 to pay someone to screw up my credit more!

I know what we can/cannot afford!
And total debt doesn’t exceed ,000! Why would I declare bankruptcy for ,000? I could just pay off the charged off accts, but if it isn’t going to improve our score, what is the point?
For those who don’t know about the USDA direct loan, they will not approve us for more than we can afford! We’re not looking at houses for 0,000! We’re looking at houses for ,000. Mortgage payments won’t cost us much more than what our rent is now!
We have a secured credit card, I use it to pay my electric and cable bills every month, and immediately reload the card with the money for the bills the following month. We don’t use it for ANYTHING else.

Related posts:

1. Should I be required to share money gifted to me by my father with my husband? Recenty, I received ,000 from the sale of my father’s...