![]() Housing and electricity are essential to your health and safety. BILLS YOU HAVE TO PAY MONTHLY HOW TOHere is one way to think about how to prioritize your payments: Once you know what breaks your creditors will give you, you will have a better sense of how much money you will have to pay across all your monthly bills. Most utility providers, for instance, will not cut off your service for at least a few months and if they report to the credit bureau (not all do) they won’t do so until you’re more than 30 days late, although they may charge late fees, said certified financial planner Linda Robertson, director of financial coaching at Financial Finesse. (But to be sure, ask your creditors at what point might they take punitive actions, such as cutting off service or sending an account to a collections agency.) “There is a mutual interest in helping you keep things on track.”Īlso, if you’re only going to be in a tight spot for month or two, there’s a good chance you won’t have your account closed, your insurance policy terminated or your credit hurt. Generally speaking, your creditors would ultimately rather keep you as a customer in good standing than have to go through the process of closing out your account and sending it to collections, McClary said. There are two bits of good news in your favor. ![]() They also may direct you to lower-cost company offerings or outside programs that provide financial assistance if you qualify (e.g., Low-income Home Energy Assistance Program ( LIHEAP). ![]() The reason, he said: “If you’re honest about it and willing to have a conversation, that can lead to solutions you otherwise would not have known about.”įor example, companies to which you owe money may offer to let you skip a payment without penalty for a month or two, or only require you to make partial payments until your financial situation improves. Americans' debt surpasses $17 trillion for the first time ![]()
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