I wanted to tell everyone of this great Chicago company called Mortgage-Help-Center. These guys helped me so much and I want to share my story with the public. I gave them permission to use this story but they did not ask me to do it. I wanted to do it.

I was behind in my payments. I was actually about to go 3 months behind and I was getting non-stop calls from the bank. I kept asking them if they would help me and maybe push the payments back but they were not even the least bit interested in helping me. All they cared about is telling me that they would have to take action soon which I figured was they were going to foreclose on me.

So I got an email from Mortgage Help Center and to be honest, I was a bit nervous. The ad said they could stop a foreclosure and that was enough for me to go to their web site. I filled out the few questions they asked for on the site and in about 10 minutes someone called. A nice gentleman named Fred. Anyway, I explained the deal to Fred and he said that there was a couple things they could do for me which I never thought was possible. First, they could get me a fixed rate instead of an adjustable. Big news because my adjustable just went up 2 points. He also said they could get my past due payments forgiven. Finally they could even lower my principal a bit and get a longer term on my loan.

I checked and sure enough they have an attorney on board that is pretty well known so I did it. In less than a week it was done. Now get this, I dont have to make a payment for 3 more months on TOP of all the things Fred told me about. I figured this saved me tens of thousands of dollars and most importantly stopped the foreclosure form happening.

Thanks guys and for all you readers out there.. use them. Just click that link I put in above. They can help stop a foreclosure in Chicago and do a lot more with their loan modification program.

By the way Chicago is near, Des Plaines, Hoffman Estates, Naperville, Orland Park, and Oak Park.

Carelessly planned projects take three times longer to complete than expected. Carefully planned projects take four times longer to complete than expected, mostly because the planners expect their planning to reduce the time it takes. And sometimes your plan is about as useful as toilet paper.

I should know, I’m a planner.  And the best laid plans … well, you know. I had our family finances all planned out. My husband works full time, I work part time since the kids are in school.  We take two vacations a year.  We would replace our old 1970s kitchen within five years of buying our house.

What screwed that up was this Bush economy. My husband lost his job at Motorola. I had trouble finding work at the payscale I was used to. Our daughter is a prodigy and they tell us she needs to go to a special “genius camp” in North Carolina next summer that costs $8000 for a month ($5000 after a scholarship).

So the question is, can I forget the kitchen until things turn around, and send my daughter to this camp? Her heart is set on it, so we looked into borrowing the $5000.  Forget banks, they’ll take your home away from you if you’re not careful. I found a car title loan company online, Schaumburg Title Loans, that valued our Escalade at worth $7000 in a loan. OK, not in the plan, but we did it. And I’ll do it again if the “plan” calls for it.

By the way Schaumburg is near Des Plaines, Elgin, Hoffman Estates, Rolling Meadows, and Roselle.

Because I am a man, when one of our appliances stops working I will insist on taking it apart, despite evidence that this will just cost me twice as much once the repair person gets here and has to put it back together.

And on that one, I got into a lot of hot water trying to fix the water heater last year. We had to go without hot water for six days, which is pretty hard to do with three daughters, a wife and all their showers and clothes to wash.

This did not come at a good time. We’re not the Inverness gazillionaires every assumes in this part of the north shore. Our house was built about 100 years before everyone else arrived with their McMansions, so I don’t have a wad of home equity cash to fall back on when I need money. The new hot water heater with installation was going to cost about $1000, and I didn’t know where I’d find the cash.

So my daughter went on the Internet and found this for me: a car title loans company that values my Chevy Van for collateral. I went on the computer at work and filled out the forms at Inverness Title Loans, and the money arrived the next day. Whew — a relief. And hot water for the girls (to get me OUT of the hot water).

By the way Inverness is near Barrington, South Barrington, Palatine, Lake Zurich, and Hoffman Estates.

We have enough youth: how about a fountain of “smart”?

That thought struck me when I was breaking the news to my kids, both in their 20s, that it was time to move out or start paying rent. Both graduated from the College of DuPage with good grades. Both spend hours and hours on their computers. Both eat food like there isn’t an obesity crisis in this country. And neither of them has had a job other than as clerks in video stores.

Then my genius son managed to rack up a bunch of bills on my credit card buying some electronic Wii thing that I don’t really understand. And my brilliant daughter, his partner in crime, also bought some computer stuff that makes me wonder if she’s operating some international computer scam. I ask questions and they blizzard me with techno speak that completely baffles me.

So I presented them both with a total of $2300 in charges that I was not going to cover. I was trying to get them to get their keysters in gear and go find jobs. Guess what they did: they figured out the cars their father gave them when they graduated college (it was in the divorce settlement) could get them car title loans. They showed me how they did it. They went to Hoffman Estates Title Loans and were able to cover those debts with this loan.

I’m not a big one on borrowing money when you don’t have a plan to actually pay it back (to their credit, they’ve both gone back to working part time at Blockbuster while they look for full time work, just to pay off this loan). But I have to hand it to them, they do seem to understand assets and collateral. They should go to work as mortgage bankers.

By the way Hoffman Estates is near Streamwood, Hanover Park, Roselle, Schaumburg, and Bartlett.

I’m one bad relationship away from having 30 cats.  My last boyfriend, Xavier, left me because he decided recently he should be dating latinas.  This just occurred to him?

That wasn’t the only thing he left me.  I got stuck paying for my apartment by myself, and in the three months it took for me to get a new roommate, I got behind by $900.  I don’t have credit cards anymore, so that meant I couldn’t pay rent one month and other bills too.  I didn’t know what to do, so I went on the Internet and looked for ways of getting loans.  My friend said it would be impossible in this economy, especially since I have bad credit.  But I found out about car title loans – loans you can get if your car is paid for.  That’s me! I bought my Saturn used, for cash, three years ago.

So I decided to go with Hanover Park Title Loans, a car title loan company that works online.  You just fill out the forms, get approved almost instantly, and the cash is sent electronically, so you don’t even have to wait for a check to clear.

Meanwhile, the new roommate and I are talking about getting a cat.  The first cat.

By the way Hanover Park is near Schaumburg, Bloomingdale, Addison, Elmhurst, and Hoffman Estates.

What’s the difference between ‘fat chance’ and ‘slim chance’? My ex-husband, a frequent visitor to the Grand Victoria Casion, thinks that “fat” version means he will get lucky and win.

Then he went and gambled away the house. So divorcing him was a little less complicated that what other couples do — the only fight we had was over cars. I got the older, paid-for Passat, and he kept the new Tourig (size issues, ahem). Which turned out to be fortuitous in the end for me. Because when I ran up against some money problems related to the divorce, I needed some collateral to fall back on to get a loan. Viola, the Passat was it – I discovered that a car title loan on a paid for car is relatively easy to get. I went to Elgin Title Loans, where they lent me about $2000 I needed to cover some necessary expenses. It was fast, easy and I got my money the next day. Now when I see older cars on the road, assuming they are paid for I think, “there goes a smart person.”

By the way Elgin is near West Dundee, Bartlett, Streamwood, Hoffman Estates, and Carpentersville.

I know I’m addicted to coffee. In the mornings, I truly am not able to wait to get to the Starbucks over in Schaumburg, where I work. I make the instant stuff at home. And sometimes I think that takes too long.

But this coffee habit gets the best of me sometimes. Like one day I was shopping at Woodfield Mall. I only had a half hour, and there were all these crazy recessionary economy sales going on. I shopped like a thoroughbred at Arlington Park. And Christmas was coming. So between bedding and linens, clothes for me, clothes for my husband, clothes for the kids and a crock pot I really didn’t need, I built up a sizable Visa bill that, unfortunately, I am not able to pay.

With my credit cards maxed and a house rule to no longer tap into the home equity, I wasn’t sure where I’d find the cash. Then I heard about Arlington Heights Title Loans, where I was able to get an advance from the value of my old Saturn. It was the perfect answer: I could apply online from my computer (coffee at my side), get the approval in an hour and money from my car title loan in 24 hours. I just joined a gym now, so that’s how I’m putting that caffeine to work instead.

By the way Arlington Heights is near Rolling Meadows, Mt Prospect, Buffalo Grove, Palatine, and Hoffman Estates.