I Can Breathe Now.

Early in 2006, I hit rock bottom. I was drowning in over $40,000 of credit card debt. I had balances on 8 cards, ranging from $300 to $13,000. I was having major problems keeping my head above the water. Late fees, over the limit fees - it was too much for me to handle. Looking for answers on the internet, I found something called a DMP, or debt management plan, that I immediately enrolled in. The DMP folks negotiated APRs that were 1/3 or less than what I was currently paying,. Also, they presented monthly payments amount that the creditors were happy with.

The point of this site is to show folks drowning in debt - particularly credit card debt, that there are ways to breathe easily again. However, it will take patience, diligence, discipline, and determination. Come up with some goals for yourself and stick to them. It may take a few years, but you will soon be living within your means again.

Lots of folks do not know that credit card fees can be wiped out fairly easily. If you have had a good record of paying your credit card bills on time, you’ll be in a better position than those who have been late one or two times in the past year. Most credit card companies will give you one “free pass”. You simply call, say it was a mistake, and that it won’t happen again. Almost always, they will take the late fee off. However, the second time around can be a bit more tricky - especially if your last late fee removal request was recent. Sandeep in Bangalore will see that you called last month or the month prior asking to have a late fee removed. He will say, “No kind sir/ma’am.. I see you have had a recent delinquency removed. I cannot kindly remove the appropriately-earned late fee .”

Here are some ideas on how to get the late fees removed from your credit card statement.

1. Tell the truth. This will work the first time, or maybe a second time if you had not had a late fee recently.
2. Lie. There are a whole plethora of lies that the credit card call centers have heard. Some may work, some may not. Here are some examples:
   1. “I tried to set up auto-pay on my account online, but it’s not there now.”
   2. “I was out of the country the last few weeks, but I paid over twice than the minimum the last statement, thinking that would cover my account for a while.”
   3. “I submitted payment for this month’s statement online a few months ago… why did it disappear?”
   4. “I thought this account was already paid off.” (This plea will only seldom work if you have a low balance)

What excuses have worked for you?