As far as the cell phone goes, you may have to settle for pre-paid or pay-as-you-go, which have no contracts and therefore, no credit checks.

Try and look for ways to pay down your debts as quickly as possible. I know you’re still in school, and paying attention to your studies is very, very important, but if there’s any way you can make some extra money, you might try to look into it. Do you have anything you can sell on ebay? Do you have a part-time job? If you do, can you pick up extra hours?

When you come close to paying off one of the cards, call the credit card company and tell them you have the money to completely pay it off, and ask if they’ll remove the mark from your credit report if you send them the check today (obviously, you actually have to have the money for this). It might work, it might not, but you won’t know until you ask. Do this for each card.

You’ll lose control once you get those cards in your hands.

Some are lucky to get credit cards with low interest rates tho’. =)

Here’s a list of credit card reviews that will sure help you find the best card with lowest interest rate.

Got credit problems already? You can check out the list of lenders who approves bad credit credit cards

However, you are also in a position where credit card companies believe you to be their ideal customer, one who has a lot of debt and is still paying it off.

Be on the lookout for CC deals that will allow you to transfer your debt for free at a lower rate. Another consolidation method is to check out Prosper.com.

They allow lending between individuals, and many people are there to consolidate their CC debt, at usually a lower interest rate.

But to reiterate Stephanie’s point, the only tried and true way to get out of debt, it to stop using it. Buy only what you have the cash to pay for.

- It’s a legitimate debt, so you’d probably just get hosed in court.
- On the moral side of things, this is simply escaping money that you legitimately owe. Like bankruptcy, this just raises rates for everyone, including yourself if you ever get another credit card.
- It ruins your credit, and like I said in the post, you might want to get an apartment soon. This also applies to car loans and even employment. Yes, some employers will pull your credit report during the interview process. Who wants to get denied for a job or an apartment just because they ran away from credit card debt?

Please do not abuse the legal system for this!

just let them stay closed and delinquent until you have saved up some money. This took him about 4 years.

after that, sue them for $100 in the local court. He claimed that because they had sent the money to collections and both the original credit card holder and the collection agency were reportting it, it ruined his credit, he couldn’t buy a house.

Their lawyer called him up and said that was ridiculous and that he should drop the case coz he’d lose. he said his aim to keep bugging them. finally they settled for 10 cents on the dollar and got it off his credit!