A hardship letter of this type is written to a bank and other financial institutions for debt consolidation. This letter is used as a platform to let the creditors know about your bad financial state. You can discuss the financial problems in detail and how that has affected your credit history. The letter has to give all the necessary details about the finances and required documents should be attached to make the situation clear.
The tone has to be soft and polite while writing such a letter. Be honest and give the exact picture so that the financial company or broker can help you. This letter at times gets too lengthy; make sure that only the relevant facts feature in the letter.
A short and precise letter is reader friendly and helps the cause. The letter should close with a thank you note for giving an opportunity to express and ready to help you in tackling the grim financial situation. At the end, you request the authority to consolidate your debts.
A Sample Hardship Letter for Debt Consolidation Sarah Carter Date: July 20, 2008 Steven Young Dear Mr. Young: I am customer of your bank for the last fifteen years. I am writing this letter to request you to help me in my difficult financial period. I lost my job as a Financial Consultant four years ago. This was due to downsizing in the financial sector caused by recession. After that I started my own Financial Consulting Services based on my twenty years experience and expertise. I used my personal savings of $ 20,000 and pension fund of $ 25, 000 to start the business. Initially, there were no clients and my business did not take off well. In the need of hour, I used my credit cards for personal and business expenses. I had good credit record; therefore I had qualified for number of credit cards. But with passage of time, the outstanding amount kept on increasing to reach at $ 90,000 and the interest rate touched the figure of 25%. These days, I am paying around $ 1000 per month as interest on the cards. This expense is not affordable as I have to take care of my sick mother who is a chronic patient recovering in a rehabilitation center. I have to pay $ 1500 per month to the center where she is recuperating. The only good news is that my business is getting better by every passing day and I am gaining some profits out of it. �I can see a successful future. This can be done only if I keep on adding funds to the initial investment. I cannot do that right now due to my mother's medical expense and credit card payment. After describing the situation, I request you to help me in consolidating the amount of credit cards. I did not take any sort of loan to start my business. I took all the risks on my own. If the bank helps me in getting a consolidation loan at the interest rate of 9 - 10 % then I will be able to support my mother as well as give me an opportunity to grow my business. This will help me in reducing the interest payments in half. I hope you will give kind consideration and look into this matter. You can contact me on phone if you have additional queries. Yours truly, Sarah Carter |