What do you do when you fall behind on payments? You may have been out of work for a short time, and you got behind on all of your bills. You have enough to move forward, but are having a difficult time catching up. If you consistently do not have enough money to meet your obligations then you will need to find ways to increase your income. You will need to take several steps to fix your situation.
First you will need to prioritize your bills. It is important that you keep a roof over your head, food on the table and your power and heat on. After you have figured how much this will cost, you need to apply all of your extra money towards getting caught up. You can talk to your mortgage company, and power company to figure out a repayment plan. You may end up sending in an extra twenty-five dollars per month on your power bill until you have your mortgage caught up and so on down the list.
Once you have taken care of the necessities, it is important to begin to catch up on your other bills. Many creditors are willing to work with you, if you have been out of work for a short time. They may allow you to make smaller payments for a short period of time, and increase the length of your loan. If you continue to pay as much as you can, they are also more likely to work with you.
Once you have become totally caught up, you need to take the steps that you need to prevent this from happening again. This would include saving up for an emergency fund. You should also cancel all the extra services that you can, as soon as you lose your job. This would include cable television, cell phones or land line (you want one working phone number as your pursue your job hunt), monthly subscriptions (such as Netflix) and eating out.
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