So let me give a little more information. I have 10 accounts in a debt consolidation program. If which the program has settled 6 accounts (2 completely paid of the amount that was settled, 2 will be completely paid of the settled amount by end of this month, and 2 that have just been starting to be paid). These payments are coming from the debt consolidation program. The other 4 accounts, that are in the program as well have yet to be touched by the consolidation program. I am paying the consolidation program $465.50 biweekly and once there is enough money in there the debt consolidation program will start trying to settle the accounts that have yet to be settled. I do not have 30K to give the debt consolidation program the money out front to settle right away. Plus, All the accounts will be over a year delinquent. Which means the amount of money I do have saved would not even bring the accounts, the 4 unsettled, to good standing at all.
What I thought was the fact that these accounts are in the debt consolidation program, meaning the debt consolidation program will eventually handle them, this would like favorable. What some of you are saying is that when my situation is brought up to adjudication, it will not be favorable still. However, I thought that as long as I am in the program and showing that I am making payments, which the debt consolidation program takes out directly, I would be fine to get a secret clearance.
Everything that I read thought that this was a favorable, thought for even to get the interim clearance right away. But I am wrong. Any advise is good advise. And do thank you all for your advise. My certain (or better question, since this a dream job of mine, is that with this being accurate (and the potential reasoning that this is what stopped me from getting an interim), would this how I stand in the debt consolidation with the 4 accounts that are in the program that the program has yet to settle keep me from getting a clearance?
I have all the documentation and the proof of payments. Plus I have documentation from the debt relief program. Please give your advise as you see fit. Thanks in advance!
I believe that, since you have entered into the program and those accounts are in the program, you have shown that you are not ignoring them. Youâre not going to get an interim in this case but, particularly because of the extra time before adjudication, you should have a good chance of getting your final.
But . . . These arenât hard and fast rules. Nobody here can tell you what it actually going to happen.
Hi, your doing what is needed to mitigate these issues, your in a payment plan through debt consolidation company. You will not get your interim and your clearance may take a year or so to be finalized, you will pass unless something else is discovered during the course of the investigation. I have seen people with all kinds of issues, financial that have passed Top Secret and secret investigations and re investigations. Honesty, remorse, and time will be in your favor. Good luck.
Merlin touched on a key point I agree with. Addressing the debt. Moving it from unaddressed to addressed has enormous impact. I have too many deny credit issues and claim everything is caught up. Some say I just got a car loan! What they donât say is it is costing them 18% interest due to severely challenged credit. After 45 minutes they will own up to overdue medical bills as if they do not count as debt. They do. But addressing debt is key. It shows responsibility and that is key.
Thank you all for your comments. Let me say first by saying I am still in the process (meet with investigator in the beginning of Nov). All realtive documents and paperwork have been sent to the adjuncator (that I know of). As for my debt, as I stated before I had 10 accounts that I could have paid the monthly payments of but was not getting anywhere. So I decide to use the National Debt Relief (NDR) program and in the program. They tell you to stop paying the debts so they can consolidate them. The amount in the program was $76000. They have settled about half of which 4 have been successful paid the settlement amount, 2 have been settled and NDR is paying them. I pay NDR $465.50 every two weeks. They one of the two that NDR is paying will be paid the full settled amount on March 28, other one would be paid the settlement amount on July 28. The other four have yet to be settled. And two of those four are my biggest debts. All the debts are credit card debts. I have already been denied my internim clearance back in September of 2018, however I am still in the process (no final decision as of yet). My questions to you all are:
1.) How likely would I be able to obtain the final clearance?
2.) Is the adjuncator waiting for all the debt to be settled to make a decision? If so I start the program Feb 2017 and was suppose to take 52 months (so a little over 4 yes) (So about 2 yrs from now).
3.) Would the adjuncator deny me for allowing this to happen?
4.). I have said that we the sell of my house I would make about 120K of which I would pay NDR the money (most likely $31000) to settle the rest of the debt. Is this favorable?
5.) I do have other debts (mortgage, car loan, other credit cards and student loans) all of which are in good status. I am also able to pay off the credits that I use now every month. Is this favorable?
Sorry for the long backstory even though some of this was mentioned before. I am just really nervous and been calling OPM hotline to get my status on my clearance once a week now. The job I s my dream job so I am hoping I get this clearance so I can start the work. Any advice and knowledge of others similar to my situation will be helpful. Thank you in advance.
I suspect that you still have a bit of a job ahead of you. I would expect you to be denied but you have a chance on appeal. As for selling your house: Paying off the debts will certainly help and taking this step will help to show how serious you are. But, I think that you will still end up at the same place - a denial and appeal.
They are NOT going to wait until the debt is paid. Yes, the adjudicator is going to take your failure to control your debt into account.
I would only be selling my house if I have to move to take this job. I thought that being in the program is favorable and that the judicator would show this is a great thing and say this is ok. I have no other issues on my record (no marijuana, no criminal history, no other issues, etc). So this item should just be a hiccup and over time they know that it is being looked into already and that it is being handled.
Being in the program is all that is needed, as long as you are paying down the debt, not incurring any new debts. It is like doing a Chapter 13. Your mitigating the issue.
I am not sure if that is true. Being in the program, itself, is not sufficient. One of the mitigating factors that may be applicable to this: the person has received or is receiving counseling for the problem and/or there are clear indications that the problem is being resolved or is under control
While @dude01 meets the first of two parts of the factor, I donât think he has met the second part with unaddressed debts, which I believe totaling 4. These four need to be taken care of and I wouldnât advise you to wait or address these four at a later date.
Merlin and I disagree on this point on several threads. Perhaps he speaks of his client experience and I speak to mine. Meaning both of us are correct in the environment we each are in. Debt in and of itself is not the issue. It is the behavior leading to and following that matters more. So getting into a payment plan is a plusâŚbut until you can show you made enough payments to move it from unaddressed debt to addressed debtâŚit doesnât show any mitigation other than intentâŚand the road to Hades is paved with good intentions.
So through the National Debt Relief Program (NDRP) they are settling the debts. I pay (NDRP) $465.50 biweekly (so 26 payment a year). As the money sits in an accoun,t that NDRP uses to pay my debtors, NDRP tries to settle the accounts with a payment plan. Currently the two that they are Paying now was settled and they been paying these two debtors since August 2018. With one getting the last payment on 3/28/2019 and the other one getting the past payment on July 21 of 2019. There are currently 4 debtors that NDRP has yet to start paying anything to as NDRP is waiting for money to get into the account the aggressively and swiftly pay them down. These accounts are in the program but NDRP has yet to touch or put any funds towards as of yet. But the other accounts can be seen that they are paid off and I showed my investigator the website of the accounts that are on the program.
The OP here IS addressing ALL of the debts if all of the debts are in the program. Some of them may not be receiving any payments yet but all are in the plan. The OP is following the advice of counselors who are advising on the best way to get everything paid off the quickest. Splitting a $500 payment across the smaller bills each month, until they are paid off, then allows the larger accounts to be paid off with larger amounts out of that $500 a little down the road. This is standard practice and is even backed up mathematically.
@AWoodhull . . . The contract with the credit repair agency should show that their plan is addressing the entire debt AND show that the OP is receiving financial advise and counseling that says to defer payments on those debts.
Yes, all my delinquent bdebts are in the program. Ally other debts are paid off monthly (other credit cards not in the program) except for student loans and mortgage. I am also considering trying to borrow the equity in the home to pay for it. The problem is with my current bank my credit, which has increased over the year, is still below 630 (TransUnion says 615, Equifax says 609). So I have also opened secured credit so my credit can start to improve. Which it is over the last year. I currently make good money (two jobs paying about 170k total). But I do have a 16 month old son that I pay for and conduct personal research. Some day, if this job does not go through, my research my make enough money in about 10 months or so to pay this off.
âI often field phone calls from bankruptcy or consumer debt attorneys incredulous that their client has been denied a clearance for following their advice on matters like a âstrategic defaultâ or other leveraged negotiations with creditors.â
Ultimately, I would advise @dude01 to run this by a security clearance attorney.
Ed, I do not believe that having a contract and a plan in place will suffice. Maybe if there is a written agreement in which the debtors agree to the plan, then that will be better. It doesnât sound like that to me. This is why I strongly urge @dude01 to proactively take care of the unaddressed debts rather than being a passive participant in the process.
Unaddressed and unpaid debts arenât going to sit well with the adjudicators.
I am with Awood on this. I lost a few employees on the very same slippery slope. One was to a fly by night credit repair company and the other, a legit agency not too savvy with credit impact on clearance eligibility. Hence why I will always diagree that simply having a payment plan makes it all better. In this case the company allowed some bills to âstrategically marinateâ before they paid on them. This left the employee up the creek without a paddle. DoD denial rates show once you go below a 650, the rate of approval begins dropping. Go below 630âŚodds are not in your favor, roughly 67% denial. Drop below 600 and the approval rate plummets. Keep in mind they are not simply looking at having a bill and showing it was paid. It is much more about trends, behavior leading to the debt, and post debt.
So post debt I have shown that I am making payments to debt relief company. The company has handled about half of the debt which can be tracked back to February of 2017. The plan at the time caused for 52 months. Plus I paid some extra towards it over the last two years (part of current company bonus check and part of tax refund check). The other things so that once my house is sold the extra money is going to go repaying off the debt. Also prior to entering the program, I was leaving paycheck to paycheck with a son on the way. After entering the program this has allowed me to save about $11500 over the two years for my sonâs education (down the road) and put away $3500 for myself while paying $2300 student loan debt per month and a mortgage of $1800 a month plus about $931 payment a month to Debt Relief (sometime 3x$465.50 depending on when I get paid), and finally a car payment of $400 which will paid off by the end of the year, as well as $395 a month renovation project that was done on my house. So yes I have debt but I am now in a situation if something happens I am able to take care of it. I really do not want to take my sonâs money to pay off this debt. But like I said the job I am going to is my ultimate dream job that I really want to have and it will be the last job that I have most likely being that I am 29. I will work here probably for the rest of my career done teach in retirement.
This may have been addressed and I missed it. It is a long thread. What was the reason for the high debt? Excessive spending? Medical debt? Unusual circumstances? I believe that is also a mitigating factor. Again, if this was explained, I apologize.
So it was bad spending habits back in college but has grown out of it. I could never get ahead in life until being in the National Debt relief program which is saving me about $780 a month in money I am not spending.