There’s a distinct possibility that I just might be able to get out of debt within the next month. A somewhat staggering prospect, really — I’ve had a credit report that’s ranged from shaky to just plain bad for so long that I’d more or less written it off, figuring that I’d get it all paid off “eventually.” Well, eventualities do come around occasionally, I guess.
I saw an ad somewhere on the ‘net for ConsumerInfo.com offering a free credit report, so I figured what the heck, and signed up. It turns out that you do have to sign up for a pay service to get the report, but you can cancel out of that before you ever get charged if you don’t want to continue with the service.
I got my credit report today, and whaddaya know — I’m only in debt $2984. A big number, admittedly, but not nearly as bad as it could be. So, now I just need to figure out the best way to get that taken care of — I’d really like to get to a point where I don’t have any more outstanding debts hanging over my head. Tonight after work I’m going to wander by Washington Mutual, the bank I’m using down here, to see if they can do a debt consolidation loan (and if they can, whether they’ll give me one), and if not, if they can recommend me to a company that might. I figure if I can get the debt consolidation loan, then I should be able to afford payments on that — and the PFD and other money owed me will help me get the loan paid off as soon as they come through.
In theory, I could be down to a single payment pretty soon — and if I can afford to devote all of the PFD to that loan and pay the rest off as fast as possible, I could be completely debt-free by early 2002. Not bad — not bad at all. Time to cross my fingers again, I think.