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I Lost My Job and Can't Pay My Credit Card Bill. What Do I Do in the Next 30 Days? · Becoming Financially Confident

• 0:00
  He lost his job on Friday.
• 0:01
  The credit card statement showed up the following Monday.
• 0:05
  If that's where you are right now, take a breath.
• 0:07
  You've got more room than it feels like you have.
• 0:09
  Here's exactly what to do in the next 30 days.
• 0:12
  And make sure you stay to the end because I've got a special announcement to make.
• 0:25
  Hey, friend.
• 0:25
  Ralph Estepp Jr.
• 0:27
  Here.
• 0:27
  Welcome to Financially Confident Christian.
• 0:30
  This is the show where we break that cycle of financial shame and give you confidence.
• 0:35
  And today we're going to talk about a job loss and a credit card bill landing in the same week and what to do the next 30 days.
• 0:43
  So if you're scared right now, I want to tell you right now that's not weakness.
• 0:47
  That's what's caring about your family feels like.
• 0:50
  And I've got answers for you today.
• 0:52
  But if you've got a question for this show, I would love to hear your question.
• 0:55
  That's what drives this entire show.
• 0:57
  You can go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com?
• 1:02
  We'll put a link in the show notes.
• 1:03
  But again, that's financially confidentchristian.com?
• 1:09
  Well, let's get into today's question.
• 1:11
  Listener wrote this.
• 1:12
  Ralph, I lost my job three days ago and my credit card statement is due in about two weeks.
• 1:18
  I don't have enough saved to cover it, and I'm terrified of what happens if I just can't pay it this month.
• 1:24
  I don't want to ignore it, but I also don't know what my actual options are right now.
• 1:30
  What do I do in the next 30 days?
• 1:33
  Thank you so much for sharing it.
• 1:34
  I am so sorry to hear about your job loss.
• 1:37
  I wish you well.
• 1:38
  I hope it works out for you.
• 1:40
  But here's the big idea for today.
• 1:42
  In a job loss, the credit card is the loudest voice in the room.
• 1:47
  But it's not the first priority.
• 1:50
  You gotta protect your essentials.
• 1:52
  Make a call before the due date and start the income machinery this week.
• 1:56
  And I'm gonna give you five moves because you've asked me for them.
• 1:59
  Five moves for the next 30 days.
• 2:01
  Here's move number one.
• 2:03
  You gotta protect the essentials first in order.
• 2:07
  And it's so important that we land here.
• 2:09
  The essentials have to come first.
• 2:11
  Food, housing, utilities, transportation to work, and insurance.
• 2:16
  They come first and every single time.
• 2:19
  To be blunt, a credit card is an unsecured debt.
• 2:23
  Nobody can take away your home or your car if you don't make your credit card payment.
• 2:27
  That's just the truth.
• 2:29
  But if you miss a mortgage payment or you miss a rent payment or a car payment, that does a different category of damage than missing a credit card payment.
• 2:39
  And I know you're not choosing to be irresponsible.
• 2:41
  You got to put your family in front of a balance.
• 2:45
  So write down that order now before the panic and that, because that can help that make that decision for you.
• 2:52
  Yes, a missed credit card payment hurts your credit, but a missed housing payment hurts your life.
• 2:57
  And they're not the same emergency.
• 2:59
  So that's number one.
• 3:00
  Number two, call the credit card company before the due date, not after.
• 3:06
  I worked for a long time in the credit union and banking industry.
• 3:10
  Almost every single card issuer has a hardship program.
• 3:15
  Those hardship programs will reduce your payments, they'll put a pause on collections, they'll waive late fees, and some of them even lower your rate for a set period of time.
• 3:25
  They don't get offered, they get requested.
• 3:28
  So get your card right now, call the number on the back of the card and say these words.
• 3:32
  I want you to write these down.
• 3:33
  I've lost my job.
• 3:35
  What hardship options do you have?
• 3:38
  Again, it's I've lost my job.
• 3:40
  What hardship options do you have?
• 3:43
  Call before the due date.
• 3:44
  Because that carries more weight than calling after you've already become behind.
• 3:49
  So write down the date.
• 3:51
  Write down the name of the rep you talked to and what they told you and get any agreement in writing.
• 3:57
  Call them before the due date.
• 3:58
  I can't pay.
• 3:59
  Sounds completely different before it happens, after the fact.
• 4:02
  So that's the second thing.
• 4:04
  Call them and ask them what their hardship policies are and do that number three thing.
• 4:10
  Start the income machinery this week.
• 4:12
  A lot of people forget about this one.
• 4:14
  As soon as you're made aware that you're losing your job, file for unemployment.
• 4:19
  Now.
• 4:20
  Those benefits generally run from when you file, not from when you lost your job.
• 4:24
  So if you wait, it's going to take a while.
• 4:27
  And every week you wait is usually a week that you don't get paid back.
• 4:32
  So as you're losing your job, and it's a terrible thing, I get it.
• 4:35
  Ask your employer about the final paycheck if you're going to get paid for any unused paid time off and any severance packages they may be offering.
• 4:44
  Another thing a lot of people don't think about is you've got to sort out your health coverage.
• 4:48
  You got to understand the difference between COBRA and a marketplace plan.
• 4:53
  Job loss typically opens a special enrollment window, and a lot of people don't think about it at the Time.
• 4:57
  There's so many things going on.
• 4:59
  This is the step that changes the math.
• 5:01
  Everyone else just buys time.
• 5:04
  So file for unemployment this week.
• 5:06
  In most states, the clock starts when you file, not when you lost your job.
• 5:11
  So that's number three.
• 5:12
  File for unemployment.
• 5:13
  Take a look at your insurance options.
• 5:15
  Here's number four.
• 5:17
  Build a bare bones 30 day number from actual cash.
• 5:22
  You got to count what's really there.
• 5:24
  So right now, go look at your checking account, go look at your savings balance, anything that's owed to you, anything already scheduled, scheduled to hit.
• 5:32
  And then I'm going to encourage you to do a special budget.
• 5:35
  Not your old budget, but what I'll call an emergency one, a survival cost for 30 days.
• 5:41
  What are my survival things?
• 5:43
  And you may have to make some tough decisions.
• 5:46
  You might have to cancel some subscriptions.
• 5:48
  You may have to remove those automatic payments that aren't for survival.
• 5:53
  Once you do that, you can see the actual gap.
• 5:55
  You're going to see the real number, not the one you've been fearing that was shouting at you.
• 5:59
  And a real number is something you can make decisions against.
• 6:03
  You can't plan around a number you haven't looked at.
• 6:06
  So that's number four, is put together your survival budget.
• 6:11
  And then I want you to be honest with yourself.
• 6:13
  You gotta know what a missed payment actually does and what it doesn't do.
• 6:17
  So many people get so fearful of this.
• 6:20
  A missed payment typically means a late fee first.
• 6:25
  The credit bureaus generally aren't notified until you're 30 days past due.
• 6:28
  A lot of people don't know that.
• 6:29
  Like if you miss your payment, the credit bureau isn't going to get notified.
• 6:32
  Your bank isn't going to send them and say, hey Joe, forgot to pay.
• 6:35
  Usually it's after 30 days.
• 6:38
  So that gap is a real time to work with it.
• 6:41
  And it's why that phone call that I mentioned in the other step is so important.
• 6:47
  Don't fix a one month gap with a payday loan.
• 6:49
  A lot of people say, oh, at this point I'm gonna go get one of those payday loans or a cash advance.
• 6:54
  A lot of people drain their retire.
• 6:57
  Those type of decisions are going to turn a rough month into a rough decade.
• 7:01
  Hear me on this.
• 7:02
  It will not be a wise thing to do.
• 7:05
  And if your balance on that credit card is genuinely unmanageable, one of the things you can consider is a nonprofit credit counseling agency may be a good call.
• 7:14
  Not a debt settlement ad.
• 7:16
  I'm talking about a non profit credit counseling agency.
• 7:20
  One missed payment is a setback you can recover from.
• 7:24
  A payday loan is a loan that keeps getting harder and harder to do.
• 7:28
  Yes, missing one payment is a setback, but it's not a catastrophe.
• 7:34
  The ways people try to avoid it are usually the real catastrophe.
• 7:37
  By doing that payday loan or taking the money out of their retirement.
• 7:40
  Don't do those things.
• 7:42
  But now I want to go a little deeper.
• 7:44
  There's a particular kind of fear that shows up two in the morning when you've lost your income and a bill is sitting on the counter with your name on it.
• 7:52
  And it really isn't about the balance, is it?
• 7:54
  It's about whether you're still the person your family can count on.
• 7:58
  You were the breadwinner.
• 7:59
  You were always bringing in that income.
• 8:02
  And that fear is honest, but that fear is not the truth about you.
• 8:07
  Losing a job is something that happened to you.
• 8:10
  It's not a verdict of who you are.
• 8:13
  And faith doesn't promise us.
• 8:15
  I wish it did.
• 8:15
  But faith doesn't promise us that that next job is going to arrive before the next due date.
• 8:19
  It might not.
• 8:21
  It doesn't promise us that this month isn't going to be hard.
• 8:24
  It's going to be hard.
• 8:26
  But I love what Isaiah 41:10 tells.
• 8:28
  It says, do not fear, for I am with you.
• 8:32
  Notice what God promises there.
• 8:35
  God doesn't tell us there isn't going to be hard things.
• 8:37
  He doesn't promise us the absence of a hard thing, but he promises us his presence inside of it.
• 8:44
  The strength to help and being upheld.
• 8:48
  That's the promise.
• 8:50
  And that promise is enough for 30 days at a time.
• 8:53
  God doesn't promise it.
• 8:55
  You're never going to face a month like this one.
• 8:57
  But he does promise us that he'll never leave us alone inside of it.
• 9:02
  You're not being punished.
• 9:04
  You're being carried one day at a time through something hard.
• 9:08
  So I want you to hear this, and I want you to hear this loud and clear.
• 9:10
  Losing a job is not a moral failure.
• 9:14
  It's a hard month.
• 9:15
  It might be several hard months, but it's not a permanent condition.
• 9:20
  And I know you're not ignoring your bill.
• 9:21
  You're handled in the right order.
• 9:23
  Thirty days from now, this is going to look different than it does tonight.
• 9:28
  So here's your win for today.
• 9:29
  If you're facing the same situation, maybe you got a little bit of headway.
• 9:33
  Call the number on the back of the car before the due date and ask what hardship options there are.
• 9:39
  Even if you haven't lost your job.
• 9:40
  Maybe you lost your hours or maybe something happened.
• 9:44
  Call them.
• 9:46
  Ask them what their hardship options are and if you have lost your job, go file for unemployment the same day.
• 9:53
  A lot of times you can do it right online.
• 9:56
  You got to stop being a bill that's happening to you and start becoming someone working with the plan.
• 10:01
  Let's get to our Bible verse.
• 10:03
  I've already mentioned it.
• 10:03
  It's Isaiah 41:10.
• 10:05
  It says, do not fear, for I am with you.
• 10:09
  Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
• 10:11
  I will strengthen you and help you.
• 10:14
  I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
• 10:17
  For so many of us, fear is the loudest voice in a moment like this.
• 10:23
  And this verse from the Lord is God's direct answer to that fear.
• 10:27
  It's not some vague promise, but it's a specific one.
• 10:31
  He'll be with you.
• 10:32
  How about we pray right now together?
• 10:33
  Heavenly Father, I just want to thank you for this listener and I want to thank you for the work that he's done to provide for the people he loves.
• 10:41
  And he's scared right now and you know that Lord.
• 10:44
  So I would just ask that you would quiet that fear that's keeping him up and give him a clear mind for the calls he needs to make, Lord.
• 10:51
  Give him favor with the people on the other end of the phone this week.
• 10:55
  Provide work, Lord, and provide it soon.
• 10:58
  Meet those needs that his own hands can't cover right now and remind him that his worth was never his paycheck.
• 11:04
  Uphold him Lord, exactly as you promised.
• 11:08
  One day at a time.
• 11:08
  And we ask this in Jesus name.
• 11:11
  Amen friend.
• 11:14
  The card is the loudest bill in the house right now, but it's not the first one.
• 11:19
  Focus on the essentials.
• 11:21
  Focus on that phone call.
• 11:22
  Get that unemployment file this week and really live in that 30 day number of what you have to spend.
• 11:29
  And realize that missed payment isn't your whole plan.
• 11:32
  So protect food, clothing, housing, utilities, transportation, insurance.
• 11:36
  Call the credit card issuer file for unemployment.
• 11:39
  Build that bare bones survival budget.
• 11:42
  Skip those payday loans, those cash advantages.
• 11:44
  Don't raid your retirement.
• 11:46
  And if you've got a question for this show, go to our website@financiallyconfidentchristian.com voicemail Again, we'll put a link in the show notes, but that's financially confidentchristian.com voicemail now before I go, I mentioned I have something new to tell
• 12:03
  you about this show is going to change its name starting Monday, August 31st and it's going to be called Becoming Financially Confident.
• 12:11
  I hope you like that name?
• 12:12
  We spent a lot of time looking at that.
• 12:14
  It's going to be a live show.
• 12:15
  Yes, live every weekday at 11:30am Eastern Time for a full hour, not just a short one anymore.
• 12:22
  It's going to be me and a co host, two voices, no lectures.
• 12:26
  We're going to talk about real bills, real numbers, no jargon, and of course, no shame.
• 12:31
  And live chat is part of the show.
• 12:33
  You can get your questions answered right on the air.
• 12:36
  But the podcast isn't going anywhere.
• 12:38
  The live show is where we go deeper in real time.
• 12:41
  And listen, if 11:30am doesn't work for you, don't worry about it.
• 12:44
  We're going to go live at 11:30 Eastern and then the whole show is going to get released as a podcast episode later that same day.
• 12:51
  So you can choose to be with us live or you can catch it on your drive home.
• 12:55
  And it all starts Monday, August 31st at 11:30am Eastern Time.
• 13:00
  So come join us at becoming financially confident.com again.
• 13:04
  That's becoming financiallyconfident.com I would love to see you there.
• 13:09
  Thank you so much for joining me today.
• 13:11
  I want to encourage you to stay financially savvy.
• 13:13
  May God bless you.
• 13:15
  And you have a great day today.