THE Cambridge Connection - Episode 14

This is Gordon Oliver. I’m here with my co-pilot, Tina Marie, and we’re going to jump into some success stories. Tina Marie, what do you got for us today? Well, today I want to talk about Jeffrey and Ann from Maryland. They had initially contacted Cambridge Credit Counseling in December of 2017 with $106,000 in credit card debt.

Well, things happen, you know, financial hardships. They helped their daughter and their granddaughter out with schooling, tuition, food, everyday living expenses, and they simply took out credit cards, cash advances to help them offset their expenses. They ended up having to borrow against their 401k just to keep current, but they couldn’t keep doing that. Downward spiral. So they contacted our organization.

Originally they were paying $2,940 a month just in credit card debt. Oh my goodness. Right. More than a lot of people’s mortgage payment. More than a mortgage.

And with our plan, we were able to reduce it down to $2,467, and that would have been for 52 payments. However, since they were able to develop a savings throughout the duration of the program, they were actually able to pay it off a bit earlier. They paid it off within 47 payments with their savings. They saved $473 a month. Interest rates as high as 26% on average on our plan was 5%.

I’d like to share a letter that we received from them if you don’t mind. Absolutely. Okay. So we received this letter from them, and it starts off by saying, good morning. Thanks to your help, a forced primary job change, a good economy, a part-time job, and COVID, we were able to finish paying off all our credit card debt this past week.

We are now well on our way to financial security and retirement within a couple of years. Thanks to Cambridge Credit Counseling. That’s incredible. Just for our listeners, for this first success story, the sponsor of the show, Cambridge Credit Counseling, people ask a lot, what do you do when you counsel somebody? So can you break down these benefits?

How does it work? Sure. Well, what we are is a nonprofit credit counseling agency. We’re located in Agawam, Massachusetts. And what we do is help people get to a better place financially.

So we go through a budget with them. We would touch on their income, expenses, assets, debts, get a better understanding of exactly what’s going on, and then simply look into options to help. There are so many options out there that these consumers are not even aware of, and they don’t know where to go. And again, being nonprofit, nobody works off commission. There’s no sales tactics.

We’re here to genuinely help a consumer in financial stress. Worst case scenario, whether there’s this situation that these consumers had as a solution through Cambridge, worst case scenario, a consumer or their family is getting information on the options they have to walk away with so that they’re not making mistakes while they’re in tough times. Absolutely. And we encourage the consumer to look into every option. We want them to do what’s best for them.

What a debt management program may do for one consumer, it may not be the solution for another. So we can direct you in other ways, maybe bankruptcy. Maybe you just need help on budgeting. Maybe you just need suggestions on where you can cut back. Or for instance, recently, I had a woman who talked about her last week.

She had a gambling addiction, and we were able to point her in the right direction where to get help for her gambling addiction. And then once she started with that, now she’s on her path to recovery as far as her financial situation as well. In the spirit of positive and holidays, we’ve talked to representatives from the Mental Health Association. When you talk to a consumer and a family like this, they’re stressed out. They don’t have answers.

Now you look at this success story. Not only did they have a plan, but they were out of debt faster than even what was provided to them at the beginning. Exactly. They expedited their own repayment term just by their own savings. And $106,000 in debt at $2,900 a month.

The amount of interest that would have been paid if they didn’t do something like that is just- Oh, we’re talking 30 years repayment term at least. At least. That’s awesome. Okay. What do we got for the next story?

South Carolina client success story

So our next success story comes from Shirley, who resides in South Carolina. And Shirley reached out to Cambridge Credit Counseling in January of 2018. At that time, she had been in a car accident three years prior to her reaching out. And she lost her job and had to go on disability. Her income decreased by about $1,000 per month because of this.

And at the time, her mother was living with her and sharing household expenses. Unfortunately, her mother passed away and Shirley was forced to pay all the household expenses on her own. She began to use her credit cards for everyday living expenses like a lot of people will do when they’re feeling a little bit desperate, pull out the plastic. So she found herself extremely overextended. Things were beginning to spiral, once again, out of control for her.

So she was concerned about upcoming home repairs as well. After conducting a complete financial assessment, we determined that the debt management program was a great fit for her actually. At the time, she owed $23,000 in credit cards. And her original overall payment was $716 a month. Interest rates, once again, as high as around 29%.

After working with her, going through her budget, we were able to reduce her overall payments to $459. savings of $257, interest rates as low as 8%, one creditor actually eliminated interest entirely, allowing her to pay off her debts within 58 months. And she was able to keep a credit card active for the home repairs that she was so concerned about. And again, can I share another letter with you? Absolutely.

This is fabulous. This letter starts off by saying, Hi, I am canceling the program. As just this morning, I have paid off all my accounts with the exception of one. The August 2021 payment of $48 has not posted yet. But as soon as it does, I’ll be able to say I am paid in full.

I want to give a big shout out to Karen for helping me in becoming debt free. I was in a desperate situation in need of financial help. I also want to thank Cambridge Credit as a whole for all the calls and information. This is a wonderful program. So you’re telling me there’s another rock star credit counselor at Cambridge Credit Counseling?

They all are, Gordon. They all are. That’s awesome. So an important distinction in a situation. Number one, first success story, Maryland.

Second success story, South Carolina. So you provide services at Cambridge? Nationwide. A sponsor of the show, Cambridge Credit Counseling operates in all 50 states nationwide. Correct.

So a lot of these stories are from different areas. Correct. So what I heard was tight budget, automatic savings on a monthly outgo. So it freed up money to make things not so tight. Exactly.

Exactly. And in stories like this, when you hear that you’ve read two letters of appreciation, you’ve taken someone from feeling like they have no alternatives and then they have solutions. They get to the end of the road and they’re grateful. Absolutely. And it’s just so rewarding because they do come to us and some of them are in a very desperate situation.

And it’s just so rewarding to be able to receive these letters of completion, to know that these people are now financially stable and debt free. When you’re in that situation, you don’t see a way out to be able to say, oh, I don’t have a credit card payment. Can you imagine what that would feel like? Oh, what a feeling that is, right? Exactly.

And again, for our listeners, life does happen. And this is a perfect situation where there was a health issue. We had to use credit cards because we didn’t have money to spend or to cover expenses. And that happens. I’m sure in your counseling career, you’ve seen that time and time again.

Absolutely. Helping family members, medical expenses, home repairs. New roof, boiler goes bad. Exactly. Exactly.

It’s in the middle of the winter. And there’s no savings. So pull out the credit card. Well, now these two consumers here were able to even develop a savings, which is even more rewarding that we can guide them through that. That’s incredible.

Break and cohost banter

We’re going to take a short break, and I just want to take a minute. It’s incredible to hear these success stories in a time of year where people are writing cards and letters of gratitude and hear Cambridge Credit Counseling for all the work that they do to help consumers with financial difficulty. It’s really excellent to hear these types of stories. Really, really heartwarming. You know, Gordy, I was thinking now that it’s just you and me hosting the Cambridge Connection each week, we’re sort of like, I don’t know, one of those famous radio teams.

You know who I mean. You mean like Bonnie and Clyde? We aren’t that famous yet, but what we get to share every week with our listeners is expert knowledge from a community of people who are making a difference every day by helping others achieve financial independence and freedom. And that includes your day job as a rockstar counselor at Cambridge Credit Counseling. One of the reasons I love being a part of the Cambridge Connection is that we have the opportunity to share real stories of people and organizations that make a difference across all aspects of financial wellness.

And we also get to share stories of real people with real financial problems and offer possible options they can follow to turn a negative financial situation into a positive one, because everyone’s situation is different. So folks, join myself, Tina Marie, and our special guests and experts each and every week right here on The Cambridge Connection on WHMP. Welcome back. This is Gordon Oliver with The Cambridge Connection here sharing some holiday success stories with my co-pilot, Tina Marie. And obviously the first two were incredible, Tina Marie.

Massachusetts couple bankruptcy and reverse mortgage

Thank you for sharing those. My pleasure. All right. I know you have some more to share, so let’s do it. We certainly do.

So the next success story I would like to share is a couple from Massachusetts who recently reached out to us. The wife has been out of work for the last six months. She had a series of surgeries and now on disability. And the husband unfortunately lost his business due to COVID. They also lost rental income, which really took a hard hit on their financial situation.

So the total loss of revenue came to about $3,600 a month, and that’s pretty significant. That would pretty much affect anybody. Absolutely. They’re both disabled now, and obviously they’re on a fixed income behind on their credit card debt, which totaled approximately $50,000. And again, that’s a significant amount of credit card debt and a significant amount of a reduction in income.

They feared at that time they were going to lose their home, starting to fall behind on their mortgage, as you can imagine. Total net income was $4,155 a month, but yet their expenses were $4,803. So they’re upside down. Absolutely. Already in the hole coming to us, $648 a month.

No matter what we did, we crunched numbers and they had a very modest budget, I must say. So what we did is we advised them to look into some legal advice, look into the bankruptcy option. It’s not the end of the world. And we were able to give them a consultation on a reverse mortgage, because we do have a reverse mortgage department as well. So not only did they get the help as far as guidance, as far as their financial situation, we were also able to point them in a direction on possibly taking out a reverse mortgage to help their situation as well.

So let’s talk about why this is an amazing success story. It’s because Cambridge provides so many options and resources in many different ways. And one hears the term bankruptcy and they feel that it’s the end of the world. It’s not. And bankruptcy laws were written with the knowledge that people reach a point that it is impossible.

It’s for the attorney, obviously, to decide. They came to us in a desperate situation and I had to explain, it’s again, it’s not the end of the world and they’re breathing better now. How did this client learn about Cambridge Credit Counseling? It was actually through a CPA at BNI. They saw the situation and decided that their best option was to talk to us before making any permanent decisions.

BNI is a networking group? Absolutely, that we work with, yes. So the CPA referred the client over because they were going through their information probably and their tax situation because they’re disabled. Correct. And the client probably indicated that we’ve got some problems here.

Yes, that’s exactly what happened. So then they come to Cambridge. Exactly, to weigh out all their options. We dig a little bit deeper into the budget. And again, like I mentioned, it was a modest budget.

There wasn’t any crazy spending. It was simply all a loss of income that they did not predict. So summarizing the success here, getting referred over to get counseled, they’re not going to make mistakes because now the options have been narrowed down. And they learned that reverse mortgage is potentially an option. And they’re going to have to go through some certification and learning about that to see if that’s a fit for them as well.

Absolutely. And then they were also recommended to speak to an attorney to get some legal advice. And a lot of attorneys in the area do give a free consultation. So they were able to weigh out all of their options. And they were able to have a clearer vision of what their options actually are.

Which is important because if they didn’t see the CPA and they kept going behind on their bills, eventually the mortgage probably would start to not get paid. And then they’re in trouble. They’re disabled. Right. There’s just so many reasons why.

There could have been liens on their property. There could have been a lot of things. You know, at least with getting legal advice, they know exactly what they have behind them to back them up as a consumer. And lastly, for listeners, that bankruptcy has a place. Absolutely.

That’s why it’s available. That’s why it’s there. Exactly. A situation like this, it could... Medical issues, disabled, all of the things that are for consumer protection.

Some people look at bankruptcy like it’s a terrible way to go, but it actually has a purpose for people that need it. It’s a tool. It’s a tool to get you in a better situation, and there’s nothing embarrassing about it. And now this couple can live a quality of life once they figure out how they’re going to manage moving forward. And breathe.

Sleep at night. Sleep at night. Success. That’s what it sounds like. Absolutely.

Florida client debt story

All right. What do you got next? Next, I’d like to talk about Gigi from Florida. Originally contacted Cambridge Credit in November of 2017. At that time, she was actually helping family members who were in the Philippines.

So her sister needed to have a surgical procedure, and Gigi was determined to help, obviously. So she resorted to using her credit cards, and she took out cash advances and able to send to the Philippines to help her sister. Before she realized it, over $11,000 in credit cards. Very overextended. She was overwhelmed.

We were able to reduce her overall monthly payment from $465 down to $333, a savings of $132 per month. 9%, allowing her to pay off her debt completely within 47 months. And can I share another letter? Absolutely. Tis the season for letters.

Here we go. Hello. I just want to thank you for taking care of everything for my debt. And I just want you to know that all of you were so nice and pleasant to speak with. Very professional.

Very helpful. Keep up the good work. So blessed, happy Thanksgiving to you all. And she actually goes on to say, yay, I’m grateful and debt-free. Thanks once again.

The graduation process from being in debt and overwhelmed to actually being debt-free. And you know what’s even more pleasant about this is we actually follow up with them. Even though they’re debt-free, we close out the account, but we do follow up. And just to see how the consumer is doing once they’re paid in full. We want to make sure that the tools that we provide them, they’ve instilled in themselves where they continue to work at it.

So they’re not coming back to us in another three years from now owing about the same amount that they paid off. Because that does happen. That does happen. But there we are again to help if that’s the situation. I actually have a quick letter.

Oh, you do? Dear Santa, please steer all consumers that may be struggling financially to our sponsor Cambridge Credit Counseling so that they can stop being stressed and have a path to being debt-free. With love and respect, Gordon Oliver. What a great holiday gift. What’s up?

Absolutely. We’re going to take another short break. So grab your eggnog and we’ll be right back with another amazing success story with my co-pilot, Tina Marie. Hi, everyone. Christopher Viale here.

Sponsor message and empathy discussion

As president of Cambridge Credit Counseling, I’m excited to share that we’ve just celebrated our 25th anniversary. And through two major recessions and the pandemic, we’ve helped millions of consumers and families like yours regain control of their finances and pay down your debt safely and responsibly. My dedicated staff works so hard for our clients. Remember, the call is free. 1-800-CAMBRIDGE.

Welcome back. This is Gordon Oliver here with my co-pilot, Tina Marie. And this is really just an amazing show where we’re talking about success stories of people that had financial difficulties and found solutions through counseling. Doesn’t it feel so good? It’s amazing.

Again, heartwarming, just incredibly wonderful to hear letters that were written in with gratitude and just a totally different approach and attitude at where they’re going with life. So it’s really, really incredible. It’s just nice because a lot of people spend a lot of time complaining. You know, they’re dissatisfied with the service. They go on Google and they talk about all the negativity.

It’s just so nice to know that there are people out there that acknowledge the good in this world and good services, and it’s really rewarding to be acknowledged like that. Yeah, we have to appreciate that people are, when you talk to them, are not really in a good place. You have to be empathetic. You have to understand the person’s situation that they’re in. Obviously, it’s nonjudgmental.

You’ve been doing this forever as a rock star, and you’ve learned. You’ve got to just listen and instruct people on what the options are. It’s really incredible. When they initially contact us, they’re in distress, and when they leave, this is the attitude we get. It’s fabulous.

Yeah, and a distinction, too. It is actually immediate relief because there’s a plan. A lot of people will go down the path and not take action because they’re afraid. They don’t know that there’s options. They don’t necessarily know where to turn.

They don’t want the worst, which is bankruptcy, which can be necessary, like we’ve discussed, but it is about having a plan immediately, and then it takes time, but it’s a plan. And bankruptcy can turn into positive things. It’ll get you on the path if that is the right solution. Can’t continue to go down the road one way or the other, right? Correct.

North Carolina family and debt settlement comparison

All right. What do you got? All right. So we’re going to talk about Angela and Ayo from North Carolina. They originally contacted us in June of 2019.

They were doing fine until their child had a medical expense, and they began to fall behind on their credit cards. It’s hard. What do you choose, medical bills for your kids or your credit card payments? Well, that’s really a no-brainer, but anyway. So they went ahead and obviously took care of their child’s medical expenses.

They needed a restructured budget to be able to afford out-of-pocket medical expenses and pay their credit card debt. So at the time, they owed about $8,000 on just one credit card. 15% interest. We were able to reduce the monthly payment down to $176, which was a $120 reduction. 9%.

The repayment term was calculated 54 months. The creditor even brought their account back to a current status after the third consecutive payment. So we were able to get their credit back on track, save them money, and they were ultimately able to pay their child’s medical costs out-of-pocket. Once they were done with all the additional medical expenses, they began to apply their additional funds to their credit card payment, paying it in full in 29 months rather than the 54, which was originally calculated at. Tremendous savings.

And one more letter? Do we have time? Absolutely. All right. Here we go.

Spread the cheer. Hello. First of all, we would like to thank you all for working with us. It has been a great pleasure, and you have been very helpful and a big part of our financial journey. You and I just signed for our mortgage, all thanks to you.

We have paid off the rest of our debt, and I attached a copy of our current balance. We will definitely recommend your company to family and friends who have been or in the same financial boat as we were. We thank you wholeheartedly. Okay. I want to back up the success story for a minute because there were a couple of things that were uncovered here that I think we need to explain to the listener.

So this couple was behind on that credit card. When someone comes behind, explain the process of why it’s a benefit. What happens when a consumer comes to us past due on their debt is a lot of times the credit card companies are willing to bring their accounts to a current status or, as they say, re-age the accounts. A lot of them will do this within one to three on-time consecutive payments. The consumer doesn’t have to make up the past due amount.

Future fees are eliminated. They’re able to get back on track where, on their own, they would be paying back. So much more in fees and interest. I love hearing the story, and this is why I brought that up to make sure we can make it clear. We have brought up on the show how debt settlement is a terrible direction for a consumer to take for many reasons.

One being their credit’s trashed in 18, 24 months because they’re not making any payments. Right. Here, this client, by getting counseled, got current, paid their bill off, and now is on the path to get a mortgage, where if they were going down a settlement route, two years later that, what was it, 27 months, you said? Yeah, exactly. So in 27 months, they would have not been paying their bills, they would settle their debt set, 50 cents on the dollar, meaning they’re not paying the credit to earn full, and they’d be trashed credit-wise.

Their credit rating pummels, exactly. And all of that activity would be on their credit for seven years. Absolutely. Completely different approach. That’s why Cambridge Credit Counseling gets success letters, because it is a positive approach at dealing with being in debt and getting out of it.

In this situation, it actually improved their credit rating. A lot of people think it’s going to hurt their credit rating, but you don’t understand if you’re in debt, the amount of debt you owe is definitely a factor in your score. So by reducing your rates and paying your debt down faster, ultimately you’re improving the situation. More lenders are apt to look at you in a more positive situation, because you don’t owe as much money as you would have had you have kept going with the interest rates so high. And here’s the great part of the success that I’m hearing.

Now they’re getting themselves into a mortgage without that burden of debt, and they learn through the process to try to avoid getting involved in credit cards and not being able to pay them month to month. And actually were able to establish a budget that they could stick to, a realistic budget. Totally different to be a homeowner when you have less debt than being a homeowner when you’re burdened with debt. You don’t have to be in boatloads of debt to get counseled on it. This was a couple that had one credit card with one big balance.

So we’ve had a couple different success stories. One couple had $106,000 before they started with us. This couple has only $8,000 on one card. So it’s important to understand if you are tight and you are feeling burdened. It’s everyone’s situation’s different, and that’s how we approach it.

There are people that just come to us for advice. And we’d be happy to give them free advice. So whether they’re in $100,000 of debt, whether it’s $100 worth of debt, we’re here to give you the best options out there. Tina Marie, I want to thank you so much for sharing these success stories. In the holiday season, to hear just the warm, wonderful stories of people that were struggling and through the process of counseling, got answers and changed the direction that they were going.

Absolutely. So rewarding. All right. We’re going to take a quick break. I’m going to be right back.

Closing notes and student loan news

We have some special information to share that just came through the news. This is Gordon Oliver, The Cambridge Connection, right here on WHMP. Hey, everyone, Gordon Oliver here, and you probably know me as the host of the Saturday morning show, The Cambridge Connection, here on WHMP. 30 AM, we spend 28 minutes together that will empower and educate you about financial wellness and connecting with organizations that are available to help you through any financial challenge. So please join me next Saturday right here on The Cambridge Connection on WHMP.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and who better to share holiday cheer with Gordie and Tina Marie than Christopher Vialli, president of Cambridge Credit Counseling. 30 AM here on WHMP. Welcome back. This is Gordon Oliver with The Cambridge Connection right here on WHMP, and a huge thank you to my co-pilot, Tina Marie, for sharing some really amazing, heartwarming stories that gives people hope if they are struggling financially, that help is available. This just in in the news, the Biden administration is not going to extend the moratorium on student loan payments, which means 48 million plus people are going to need to prepare to start getting student loan payments back into their budget.

This is something that we’re going to be talking about with experts on future shows, but it’s an important headline, and I wanted to share it so that people start to get aware that they’re going to have to start planning for that. com, SoundCloud, or anywhere you can listen to your favorite podcasts. org, or if you’d like to talk to someone about your situation, feel free to call 1-800-CAMBRIDGE.