How can someone with a new job but no credit history get a loan to settle another debt?
"The more I think about this the more I think you are actually better off letting it go to collections. At least then you would be able to agree an affordable repayment schedule based on your real budget, and having a big dent in your credit score because it's gone to collections doesn't actually put you in any worse position (in terms of acquiring credit in the future) than you are now.  Whoever is the creditor on your original loan is (IMO) quite unreasonable demanding a payment in full on a given date, especially given that you say you've only been made aware of this debt recently. The courts are usually much more reasonable about this sort of thing and recognise that a payment plan over several years with an affordable monthly payment is MUCH more likely to actually get the creditor their money back than any other strategy. They will also recognise and appreciate that you have made significant efforts to obtain the money. I'm also worried about your statement about how panicked and ""ready to give up"" you are. Is there someone you can talk to? Around here (UK) we have debt counselling bureaus - they can't help with money for the actual debt itself, but they can help you with strategies for dealing with debt and will explain all parts of the process to you, what your rights and responsibilities are if it does go to court, etc. If you have something similar I suggest you contact them, even just to speak to someone and find out that this isn't the end of the world. It's a sucky situation but in a few years you'll be able to look back and at least laugh wryly at it." I believe the best way to go about it is to approach a good friend or relative to borrow the money, interest free. Do discuss with them the repayment schedule. If you have any assets such as house / stocks, you can pledge them in exchange for $5000 cash. I believe the banks would be more than happy to lend to you. You could try one of these Peer to Peer lending sites where you could borrow money from other people instead of banks.
This can mean a few things to me.  Some of which has been mentioned already. It can mean one (or all) of the following to me: You take out a new credit card and transfer ALL other credit balances to it. (Only good if you destroy the others, this is a 0% offer, AND you plan on paying this card off furiously.) You do the loan thing mentioned earlier. You go to a credit consolidation service who will handle your paying your payments and you send them one payment each month.  (Highly discourage using them.  A majority of them are shady, and won't get do what they say they will do.  Check Better Business Bureau if you find yourself considering them as an option.) In the first two cases, you are just reducing the number of hands reaching into your bank account.  But keep in mind, doing this is not the same as paying off debt.  You can't borrow your way out.  You can do this as part of your plan, but do so CAREFULLY. Genius answer: Don't spend more than you make. Pay off your outstanding debts. Put plenty away towards savings so that you don't need to rely on credit more than necessary. Guaranteed to work every time.  Answer more tailored to your question: What you're asking for is not realistic, practical, logical, or reasonable. You're asking banks to take a risk on you, knowing based on your credit history that you're bad at managing debt and funds, solely based on how much cash you happen to have on hand at the moment you ask for credit or a loan or based on your salary which isn't guaranteed (except in cases like professional athletes where long-term contracts are in play).  You can qualify for lower rates for mortgages with a larger down-payment, but you're still going to get higher rate offers than someone with good credit.  If you plan on having enough cash around that you think banks would consider making you credit worthy, why bother using credit at all and not just pay for things with cash?  The reason banks offer credit or low interest on loans is because people have proven themselves to be trustworthy of repaying that debt. Based on the information you have provided, the bank wouldn't consider you trustworthy yet. Even if you have $100,000 in cash, they don't know that you're not just going to spend it tomorrow and not have the ability to repay a long-term loan. You could use that $100,000 to buy something and then use that as collateral, but the banks will still consider you a default risk until you've established a credit history to prove them otherwise. "You have a lack of credit history.  Lending is still tight since the recession and companies aren't as willing to take a gamble on people with no history. The secured credit card is the most direct route to building credit right now. I don't think you're going to be applicable for a department store card (pointless anyways and encourages wasteful spending) nor the gas card. Gas cards are credit cards, funded through a bank just like any ordinary credit card, only you are limited to gas purchases at a particular retailer. Although gas cards, department store cards and other limited usage types of credit cards have less requirements, in this post-financial crisis economy, credit is still stringent and a ""no history"" file is too risky for banks to take on. Having multiple hard inquiries won't help either. You do have a full-time job that pays well so the $500 deposit shouldn't be a problem for the secured credit card. After 6 months you'll get it back anyways. Just remember to pay off in full every month. After 6 months you'll be upgraded to a regular credit card and you will have established credit history." "Your use of the term ""loan"" is confusing, what you're proposing is to open a new card and take advantage of the 0% APR by carrying a balance.  The effects to your credit history / score will be the following:" "My answer is similar to Ben Miller's, but let me make some slightly different points: There is one excellent reason to get a consolidation loan: You can often get a lower interest rate. If you are presently paying 19% on a credit card and you can roll that into a personal loan at 13.89%, you'll be saving over 5%, which can add up. I would definitely not consolidate a loan at 12.99% into a loan at 13.89%. Then you're just adding 1% to your interest rate. What's the benefit in this? Another good reasons for a consolidation loan is psychological. A consolidation loan with fixed payments forces you to pay that amount every month. You say you have trouble with credit cards. It's very easy to say to yourself, ""Oh, just this month I'm going to pay just the minimum so I can use my cash for this other Very Important Thing that I need to buy."" And then next month you find something else that you just absolutely have to buy. And again the next month, and the next, and your determination to seriously pay down your debt keeps getting pushed off. If you have a fixed monthly payment, you can't. You're committed. Also, if you have many credit cards, juggling payments on all of them can get complex and confusing. It's easy to lose track of how much you owe and to budget for payments. At worst, when there are many bills to pay you may forget one. (Personally I now have 3 bank cards, an airline card, and 2 store cards, and managing them is getting out of hand. I have good reasons for having so many cards: the airline card and the store cards give me special discounts. But it's confusing to keep track of.) As to adding $3,000 to the consolidation loan: Very, very bad idea. You are basically saying, ""I have to start seriously paying down my debt ... tomorrow. Today I need a some extra cash so I'm going to borrow just a little bit more, but I'm going to get started paying it off next month."" This is a trap, and the sort of trap that leads people into spiraling debt. Start paying off debt NOW, not at some vague time in the future that never seems to come." Some lenders will work with you if you contact them early and openly discuss your situation.  They are not required to do so.  The larger and more corporate the lender, the less likely you'll find one that will work with you. My experience is that your success in working out repayment plan for missed payments depends on the duration of your reduced income.  If this is a period of unemployment and you will be able to pay again in a number of months, you may be able to work out a plan on some debts. If you're permanently unable to pay in full, or the duration is too long, you may have to file bankruptcy to save your domicile and transportation.  The ethics of this go beyond this forum, as do the specifics of when it is advisable to file bankruptcy. Research your area, find debt counselling.  They can really help with specifics.  Speak with your lenders, they may be able to refer you to local non-profit services.  Be sure that you find one of those, not one of the predatory lenders posing as credit counselling services.  There's even some that take the money you can afford to pay, divide it up over your creditors, allowing you to keep accruing late/partial payment fees, and charge you a fee on top of it.  To me this is fraudulent and should be cause for criminal charges. The key is open communication with your lenders with disclosure to the level that they need to know.  If you're disabled, long term, they need to know that.  They do not need to know the specific symptoms or causes or discomforts.  They need to know whether the Social Security Administration has declared you disabled and are paying you a disability check.  (If this is the case, you probably have a case worker who can find you resources to help negotiate with your creditors). I’ve been in the mortgage business for nearly 15 years.  Your question is sort of multi-faceted and I’m surprised by some of these answers I’ve read! Anyway, I digress.   Yes, you can be denied even if you have money for a down payment.  One of the BIGGEST factors lenders are now required to take into account when approving mortgages now is a person’s “Ability to Repay.”   Whether your traditional mortgages like Conventional, FHA, USDA, or VA loans, or even an “in-house” mortgage from a local bank —either way, the lender MUST be able to verify someone’s ability to repay.   Your issue is that you won’t have any verifiable income until May.  A couple people have answered correctly in that 1) if you have a firm offer letter that can be verified with the employer, and 2) you can use your education/college to substitute for a two year work history as long as you’re graduating with and working in the same line of work. Some programs require proof of 30 days of pay history once you actually start earning paychecks; some programs will use the offer letter as long as you will start earning paychecks within a certain number of days after the note date (basically when the payments start). Also I’m making the assumption that there is some sort of credit history that can be verified.  Most lenders want at least a couple of accounts reporting a history just to show good use of credit and showing that you can manage your finances over a longer period of time. Just about every lender has some sort of minimum FICO score requirement.  I hope this helps. If you have questions, just reply in a comment. If you've never had a credit card before a likely reason can be due to lack of credit history. You can apply for a department store card. Nordstroms, Macy's, Target will often grant a small line of credit even with no history. Target would be my first attempt as they have a wide selection of every day items, improving your usage on the card. If you've been denied due to too many applications, then you need to wait 18-24 months for the hard pulls to drop off your credit report before you apply again. "is your credit history ruined, or merely dinged? Is the blow   recoverable? Any bad credit rating event is recoverable given enough time / money to solve the problem.  As far as ""Ruined"" vs"" ""Dinged"", well, that's a matter of opinion; some people think that one bad item is the end of the world, others not so much.  You will have an unpaid debt listed on your report.  This will drop your score.  The amount it impacts the score will depend on other factors in your report. Can the carrier try to get the money back in court? I assume you'll   wind up dealing with a debt collector.  Yes they could go to court, but that's unlikely at least in the short term.  Far more likely is that the debt ends up sold to a debt collection agency for pennies on the dollar.  The debt collection agency will harass you until you pay and they might file in court if they think the debt is more than enough to cover the court costs. Will this affect any other relationships you have? Possibly.  A bad rating may make it more difficult to get credit in the future.  However that depends on numerous other factors such as your entire history.  It could even prevent you from being hired from certain jobs - not many of them, but some.   Is it criminal? Read this: http://www.startribune.com/investigators/95692619.html  The US does NOT have a debtors prison.  However if the company decides to file a court case and you fail to appear or fail to abide by the court ruling then, in some states, you could be committing a crime and may be thrown in jail.  At which point you are on the hook not just for the original fee but potentially a plethora of other costs.  Never mind the loss of reputation when your friends, family and coworkers find out that you are sitting in jail. At the end of the day, just pay the debt.  If you agreed to the plan and the plan has an early cancellation fee then the moral and ethical thing to do is pay it.  Trying to see how bad it would be to ignore it isn't the right way to live." "Sometimes when you are trying to qualify for a loan, the lender will ask for proof of your account balances and costs. Your scheme here could be cause for some questions: ""why are you paying $20-30k to your credit card each month, is there a large debt you haven't disclosed?"". Or perhaps ""if you lost your job, would you be able to afford to continue to pay $20-30k"". Of course this isn't a real expense and you can stop whenever you want, but still as a lender I would want to understand this fully before loaning to someone who really does need to pay $20-30k per month. Who knows this might hiding some troublesome issues, like perhaps a side business is failing and you're trying to keep it afloat." You might also want to talk directly to a bank. If your credit report is clean, they may have some discretion in making the loan.  Note - the 'normal' fully qualified loan has two thresholds, 28% (of monthly income) for housing costs, 36% for all debt servicing. A personal, disclosed loan from a friend/family which is not secured against the house, would count as part of the other debt, as would a credit card. While I don't recommend using a credit card for this purpose, the debt fits in that 28-36 gap.  As Kevin points out below, not all paths are equally advisable. Nor are rules of thumb always true. Not having the OP's full details, income, assets, price of house, etc, this is just a list of things to consider. The use of a 401(k) loan in the US can be a great idea for some, bad mistake for others. This format doesn't make it easy to go into great detail, and I'm sure the 401(k) loan issue has been asked and answered in other questions. With respect to Kevin, if he wrote 'usually', I'd agree, but never say 'never.' I have a car loan paid in full and even paid off early, and 2 personal loans paid in full from my credit union that don't seem to reflect in a positive way and all 3 were in good standing. But you also  My credit card utilization is 95%. I have a total of 4 store credit cards, a car loan, 2 personal loans. So assuming no overlap, you've paid off three of your ten loans (30%).  And you still have 95% utilization.   What would you do if you were laid off for six months?  Regardless of payment history, you would most likely stop making payments on your loans.  This is why your credit score is bad.  You are in fact a credit risk.  Not due to payment history.  If your payment history was bad, you'd likely rank worse.  But simple fiscal reality is that you are an adverse event away from serious fiscal problems.   For that matter, the very point that you are considering bankruptcy says that they are right to give you a poor score.  Bankruptcy has adverse effects on you, but for your creditors it means that many of them will never get paid or get paid less than what they loaned.   The hard advice that we can give is to reduce your expenses.  Stop going to restaurants.  Prepare breakfast and supper from scratch and bag your lunch.  Don't put new expenses on your credit cards unless you can pay them this month.  Cut up your store cards and don't shop for anything but necessities.  Whatever durables (furniture, appliances, clothes, shoes, etc.) you have now should be enough for the next year or so.   Cut your expenses.  Have premium channels on your cable or the extra fast internet?  Drop back to the minimum instead.  Turn the heat down and the A/C temperature up (so it cools less).  Turn off the lights if you aren't using them.  If you move, move to a cheaper apartment.  Nothing to do?  Get a second job.  That will not only keep you from being bored, it will help with your financial issues.   Bankruptcy will not itself fix the problems you describe.  You are living beyond your means.  Bankruptcy might make you stop living beyond your means.  But it won't fix the problem that you make less money than you want to spend.  Only you can do that.  Better to stop the spending now rather than waiting until bankruptcy makes your credit even worse and forces you to cut spending.   If you have extra money at the end of the month, pick the worst loan and pay as much of it as you can.  By worst, I mean the one with the worst terms going forward.  Highest interest rate, etc.  If two loans have the same rate, pay the smaller one first.  Once you pay off that loan, it will increase the amount of money you have left to pay off your other loans.  This is called the debt snowball (snowball effect).   After you finish paying off your debt, save up six months worth of expenses or income.  These will be your emergency savings.   Once you have your emergency fund, write out a budget and stick to it.  You can buy anything you want, so long as it fits in your budget.  Avoid borrowing unless absolutely necessary.  Instead, save your money for bigger purchases.  With savings, you not only avoid paying interest, you may actually get paid interest.  Even if it's a low rate, paid to you is better than paying someone else.   One of the largest effects of bankruptcy is that it forces you to act like this.  They offer you even less credit at worse terms.  You won't be able to shop on credit anymore.  No new car loan.  No mortgage.  No nice clothes on credit.  So why declare bankruptcy?  Take charge of your spending now rather than waiting until you can't do anything else. I would like to establish credit history - have heard it's useful to   gain employment and makes it easy to rent an apartment? Higher credit scores will make it easier with landlords, that's true. As to employment - they do background checks, which means that they usually won't like bad things, but won't care about the good things or no things (they'll know you're a foreigner anyway). Is it safe to assume that this implies I have no history whatsoever? Probably, but you can verify pulling through AnnualCreditReport, don't go around giving your personal information everywhere. Is taking out a secured loan the only way for me? No, but it's one of the easiest. Better would be getting a secured Credit Card, not loan. For loan you'll have to pay interest, for a credit card (assuming you pay off all your purchases immediately) you will only pay the credit card fees (for secured credit cards they charge ~$20-100 yearly fees, so do shop around, the prices vary a lot!). If you're using it wisely, after a year it will be converted to a regular credit card and the collateral will be returned to you with interest (which is actually very competitive, last I heard it was around 2%, twice as much as the online savings accounts). As to a secured loan - you'll be paying 4% to CU for your own money. Doesn't make any sense at all for me. For credit cards you'll at least get some value for your money - convenience, additional fraud protection, etc. The end result will be the same. Usually the credit starts to build up after ~6-12 months (that's why after a year your secured CC will be converted to a regular one). Make sure to have the statement balance in the range of 10-30% of your credit limit, to get the best results. Would it make much better sense to wait till I get a job (then I would   have a fixed monthly salary and can apply for a regular CC directly) You can apply, but you'll probably be rejected. As I mentioned in another answer elsewhere, the system in the US is such that you're unable to get credit if you don't already have credit. Which is kindof a magic circle, which you can break with the secured credit card as the least costly solution. Apart from the reasons currently given (which have to do with personal relations), wouldn't a good reason to take the loan from the bank be to build up a credit history and/or improve your credit score? "With the scenario that you laid out (ie. 5% and 10% loans), it makes no sense at all. The problem is, when you're in trouble the rates are never 5% or 10%. Getting behind on credit cards sucks and is really hard to recover from. The problem with multiple accounts is that as the banks tack on fees and raise your interest rate to the default rate (usually 30%) when you give them any excuse (late payment, over the limit, etc). The banks will also cut your credit lines as you make payments, making it more likely that you will bump over the limit and be back in ""default"" status. One payment, even at a slightly higher rate is preferable when you're deep in the hole because you can actually pay enough to hit principal. If you have assets like a house, you'll get a much better rate as well. In a scenario where you're paying 22-25% interest, your minimum payment will be $150-200 a month, and that is mostly interest and penalty. ""One big loan"" will usually result in a smaller payment, and you don't end up in a situation where the banks are jockeying for position so they get paid first. The danger of consolidation is that you'll stop triggering defaults and keep making your payments, so your credit score will improve. Then the vultures will start circling and offering you more credit cards. EDIT: Mea Culpa.  I wrote this based on experiences of close friends whom I've helped out over the years, not realizing how the law changed in 2009.  Back around 2004, a single late payment would trigger universal default on most cards, jacking all rates up to 30% and slashing credit lines, resulting in over the limit and other fees. Credit card banks generally apply payments (in order, to interest on penalties, penalties, interest on principal, principal) in a way that makes it very difficult to pay down principal for people deep in debt. They would also offer ""payment plans"" to entice you to pay Bank B vs. Bank A, which would trigger overlimit fees from Bank A. Another change is that minimum payments were generally 2% of statement balance, which often didn't cover the monthly finance charge. The new law changed that, resulting in a payment of 1% of balance + accrued interest. Under the old regime, consolidation made it less likely that various circumstances would trigger default, and gave the struggling debtor one throat to choke. With the new rules, there are definitely a smaller number of scenarios where consolidation actually makes sense."