So be me, twenty something whos spent most his life high instead

>>1066055
I would look into a consumer proposal or bankruptcy. You will only attract debt consolidation vultures in your position. They might consolidate your debt but only to own you lock stock and barrel.

In this day and age I doubt you will ever get your credit back, stuff like this is the new foundation for economic slavery like the criminal record has been used so don't worry about it.

Declare bankruptcy, be a server, save cash until credit clears, restart life

Or something, I dunno

>>1066055

With a student debt of 1.4 trillion, I don't think anyone actually cares for debt.

Your best bet is to file bankruptcy.

Unless you're trying to prove something to yourself, than that's your doing. You'd want to seek out a consolidation plan of some sort.

Ignore the poor fag shit.

Do not declare bankruptcy over 20k.

It's actually a good thing that the debt is this old now. It means that it has been sold to collections and you can negotiate with them.

First, you need to get some cash, roughly ~50% of what you owe for each debt.

Call up each collection company and tell them that you'll give them 30% of what you owe them. Tell them that's literally all you have and if they don't accept it (they won't the first three times), then tell them to call back if they change their minds and then hang up. Make sure to get it in writing and never give them electronic access to your bank accounts. They will lie and clean out your accounts.

Repeat this with all the debts and you can probably knock all of this out for ~8k in all.

This takes a long time to do, because the creditors won't work with you at first. You have to really annoy the fuck out of them to get them to bend. The good news about this is that since your credit is already fucked, it's more of their problem than it is yours.

Yes, your credit is gonna be fucked for a long time, but that's unavoidable now.

>>1066077
I get that the debt consolidation route I will end up paying back even more, but at this point as long as it one source to pay back, and my family members stop getting harassed, I'm ok with it. One of the collectors has literally started calling distant family members, whos number I don't even have, claiming to be a company looking to interview me asking for information on my whereabouts.

>>1066134
"I dunno" appreciate your honest bud.

>>1066136
I guess I am trying to prove something to myself. I want to pay back what I owe, and call it my way of repenting for being a stupid fucking druggy.

>>1066169
So far this is the route I'm thinking. I've already had some of the collectors say they would settle for half as long as it was one payment. But I guess I was hoping for a solution that could have my credit back above poor in the next 5 years. I'd honestly say fuck these guys, some of the debt is from retarded shit, like Verizon deciding my bill needed to have an extra grand of charges on it all the sudden. But I want to go back to school. And I know that the point I become a student, debt become a lot more dire.

>>1066187

That's the path you choose, you're being to generous only offering half.

>>1066187
Look into a consumer proposal, you will still owe one entity some money - usually about half of what is owed is offered up - and chances are the creditors will accept that these days, if not you negotiate a bit. Look at it like a half a bankruptcy. It still goes on your file but once it is done with you are free and clear. Like the debt consolidation people, you can't fuck that up or you will lose everything for a long time.

>>1066187

You're not going to get your credit back anytime soon, so just forget about your credit. It's gone and you're going to have to live life without it for awhile.

You don't really "declare" bankruptcy, you have to apply for it and it has to be approved. They won't even let you do it until you've proven that you've at least attempted to negotiate with all of the collectors. Even then, they won't approve you since you have a job and they assume you'll only pay half the total, which is just a measly 10k

I get that you're mad about the debt, but you did willingly borrow it and even if you don't pay the full amount back, you are morally obligated to at least settle this. If not for that, then to at least let your start moving forward with your life and put this shit behind you.

All of those added fees are going to disappear when you start negotiating the debt with them.

If someone offers you 50%, then take it. Don't fight it anymore than you have to. Knock it out and move on.

Student loan debt is worse because it is private debt. You can't negotiate your way out of that. Look into cash flowing school at a community college until you get the consumer debt taken care of.

If you get get this taken care of this year and keep working on saving and learning personal finance, then you'll be in a position where this will be completely erased by the time you're 30. So you've still got lots of time and this is just a bump in your road.

>>1066201
>If someone offers you 50%, then take it. Don't fight it anymore than you have to. Knock it out and move on.

To clarify this, I'd prefer you get 25%-30%, but you're going to have to decide how long you want this to drag out. The lower the percentage you pay back, the longer it takes before the creditor will cave in.

>>1066055
I went through exactly this situation. Stuff I had been running from for years caught up and I was tired of running. My debt was a little higher but same boat.

You've got two options.

What this guy said: >>1066169

OR

File bankruptcy.

I filed bankruptcy. I had no intention of throwing good money after bad.

Went and saw an attorney with a free consultation. Decided on chapter 7. Spent a good week pulling all my credit reports, calling each creditor and got the exact balance for each one and account number. Also caught up on old tax returns (required if there's tax debt eligible for discharge). Handed it over to my attorney along with $1200 to file. Court hearing a month later where they questioned me under oath. That's the hardest part - basically you admit to being a financial retard. Discharged in two months later (meaning you don't owe it anymore).

I got approved for a car loan two months later. A credit card four months after the car. Paid off the car and keep the credit card balance in check.

Now I've got a credit score of 680 and climbing and legally I owe nothing to a soul. I filed Aug of 2014. If I had to choose again with hindsight, I'd do exactly the same thing.

That's my experience with it anyway.

>>1066212
wow, good job. How much debt did you have? And did you make a decent living at that time?

>>1066443
Around $80,000 all told. A little over half of that was from a failed business. The rest was from being a general idiot for 8-9 years.

Beforehand I made a decent living. $80,000/year. All of that was from the business though. Once it failed I had no income. Started selling what assets the business had left to live off of. G/f helped support me too. Picked up a part time job while filing to help support myself.

It sucked but one thing he said that's incorrect: >>1066201
>morally obligated
As noble as that may be, it's not realistic sometimes and you've got to look out for #1. If we lived in a moral world we wouldn't have laws and courts.

I know OP is looking to pay it off but limiting your options based on 'feels' is never a good idea. Nice guys really do finish last.

>>1066055
dude your young, 20k is shit loads compared to what you can concievably hope to earn

just file bankruptcy and live in rentals for 7 years