When You Can't Pay All Your Bills

 August 18, 2009

Interview with Mitch Allen, author of A Survival Guide to Debt: How to Overcome Tough Times & Restore Your Financial Health
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Mike Carruthers:
The economy and the high rate of unemployment have left a lot of people with a lot of bills and not enough money to pay them. And when that happens perhaps the best advice is…

Mitch Allen:
Communicate, communicate, communicate - banks don't want your house, car dealerships don't want your car back, they lose money when they do those things.

Mitch Allen, author of the book A Survival Guide to Debt …

There was a study done that lenders typically lose about fifty thousand dollars or more every time they foreclose on a house. They would much rather work something out.

The key, says Mitch, is you have to do what you say and say what you do. You can't promise to send in a payment and then not send it. And in a financial crisis…

You have to prioritize your debts; this is a very, very important thing. Your credit cards (even though they're calling you every single day) are not the most important debt that you have - it's your house, it's your car - those secured debts that if you don't pay you're going to lose something. Then you have student loans, child support things that you can also get into some serious trouble for, followed by your credit card debts ( the unsecured debts) - do not pay those if you're not able to make your house payment.

Millions of people are having trouble paying their bills and there is help out there.

And this actually came from Freddie Mae - sixty percent of all homeowners who are delinquent on their mortgage payments are not even aware of the services that their lenders offer them when they're in trouble.

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here.