I have too much credit card debt but good credit, what should I do? Please help!?

I've always paid my creditors on time, never late, I work in finance myself. However this year I went through a divorce and in the last year I've paid for gas, food, even child support with my credit cards and have paid for my car payment and mortgage plus other credit card bills with the income I make from work. In all I have about $30,000 in credit card debt...I own a home with negative equity...I just found out my property taxes went up so my mortgage payment is going up another $300...so now I'm at my ends in which I need to make a big decision on how to keep my home and make the mortgage + car payments + child support and whatever's left apply towards credit cards...I am asking for educated advice on what I should do? should I file for bankruptcy..should I call the two largest credit cards I have (citi & chase) and ask them if they can work out a settlement? should I do cccs? please help with some advice.

I know no one else that has posted will agree with me, but it sounds to me like Chapter 7 is your best option. I went through exactly what you are going through and you did the best you could. Even if the companies will lower your rates, your monthly payments are not going to drop too much.
We had 2 job losses this year, our taxes went up on our house $425 a month, yet the value of our home decreased $30,000 so there was no money to refi and pay off our debt. We had NEVER been late on one payment to credit cards, house, or cars EVER. We sold everything we could on ebay and through the newspaper and still were barely making a dent in our debt.

We filed several months ago. You need a good attorney that only deals with bankruptcies. It will give you peace of mind and you won't have the stress of worrying how you are going to make your payments next week or month. The attorney will probably tell you to stop making payments immediately. He/she may wait several months before filing if you've racked up more than $500 in the last 90 days on any luxury items such as Christmas giflts, vacations, etc. Stop using them because it will be counted against you that you kept spending knowing you couldn't make the monthly payments.

My heart goes out to you. Good luck. Just remember that even going through a credit counseling/debt consolidation place will ruin your credit as well, so just file the BK!!

Happy holidays~

you do not want to file bankruptcy. You can try to call the credit card companies and ask them to lower your rate, since you do pay your bills on time. Lowering your interest rate will slightly lower your payments. You can try to refinance your car also to see if you can get a lower rate. Or if time permits get a part time job.
Hope this helps. I feel your pain my mortgage payment just went up.

Bankruptcy is the very last source...In your case is better to workout a hardship plan with your highest creditors for a non interest low monthly payment agreement for a year. It help me. They will do it.
Also stop using the rest of your credit cards...

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Let me say this first, what ever you do make sure you make your house payment BEFORE you pay your credit cards. I have dealt with to many clients that choose to pay there credit cards and then found themselves in trouble with there home loan.

I have found for clients in your situation that the best option is a for profit debt settlement or debt management company. The reason i say for profit is that a firm like Consumer Credit Counseling Services is very limited as far as there programs go do to there relationship with the credit card companies and the banks. After all they were created by the financial institutions as a last measure to collect there money.

There are good firms out there that charge a fair price for there service and can get you the best deal. You need to make sure you talk with a few and ask a lot of questions.

The best companies are connected with consumer law firms that look for violations with the companies as well as seek the best settlement.

In closing, although this is a tough situation and your credit scores will be effected it is a recoverable situation and the lessor of two evils.

Mark Bustamonte