Digging out of Debt Saugerties NY

By Steve Bucci • Bankrate.com

Digging out of debt from a foxhole

Dear Debt Adviser,
My wife and I are in debt up to our eyeballs and beyond. I am deployed in Kuwait with the U.S. Army and have been drawing two salaries. Since my employer has been so generous, we have been able to pay off a good deal of debt. However, I just noticed on my credit report that those closed accounts indicate that we had been late on our payments prior to closing. We just received a tremendous windfall gain, which we intend to use to pay off all our debts and still maintain an emergency fund of roughly 6-8 months. How do we get our creditors to re-age our accounts or use some other procedure to give us a clean credit report? I want to use the leverage of paying them completely off if they will clean our credit report. Should I hire someone to assist or can I do it myself? Please help!
Sam

Dear Sam,
Thank you for the letter, and thank you for helping to keep America, and that includes me, safe from terrorists. Your situation is a bit unique. Most servicemen and women who are activated end up with half a paycheck, not two!

The last thing you need is to be worrying about finances back home at a time like this. I will assume that the debt and credit issues predated your call-up. Even if they didn't, the Soldiers and Sailors Act might be helpful.

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