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Kaliko -> RE: What is the worst credit card companies can do if you default on your account and won't pay? (1/24/2013 4:36:32 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: MariaB
quote:
ORIGINAL: absolutchocolat
Unless you specifically breached a contract, they cannot sue you or take your property, unless your debt is secured -- meaning you had to put up collateral to get it. Most credit card debt is unsecured. They will call to harass you for a while, fuck up your credit score, but they won't sue. The debt will be erased from your credit after seven years, or you can file bankruptcy to discharge what you owe. (Student loan debt, child support, and IRS tax penalties cannot be discharged, and secured debts may have to be paid off, or you'll have to give up the collateral you used to secure the debt.)
Payday advance companies can and WILL sue, since you often promise to pay them on a specific day, with interest.
ETA: if you need help looking into bankruptcy and/or debt counseling, let me know. been there, done that.
Well said
Im from the UK where unsecured unpaid credit card debt is sold on to chaser companies every six months. The debt is sold on for a lot less than what you owe. e.g if you owe them 5,000 the debt will be sold on for 3,000 and six months later will be sold on for 1,000. Eventually companies will be buying your 5,000 dollar debt for 100 dollars but they will be chasing you for the 5,000.
What I would strongly suggest you do is, sit tight. Don't answer your phone to them and don't reply to mail.
If your debt is more than 50,000 its likely they will take you to court but before it gets that far you can go into voluntary bancrupsy.... like absolutechocolat says.
If its around 10-15 thousand the debt is only worth chasing by phone calls and letters. Taking you to court, especially when the likelihood of you not being able to repay is high, is just not something these credit companies do, they simply can't afford to. Remember you are not alone. More people are not paying their credit cards than ever before.
Your phone will ring continuously. They have people sitting round the clock making these phone calls and these people are on huge commissions, I know, I ashamedly used to work for a company that did this.
After about 3 months its going to go quiet because you are going further and further down the pile and you are no longer considered as a 'hot debtor'.
Once the phone calls and threatening mail becomes active again, that is when your debt is in new hands
You can then write to the company and ask them if they have purchased your debt and if so how much did they purchase it for?
They won't tell you because they want to collect what you originally owe even though they may of only paid 1 thousand dollars for the 5 thousand they are trying to collect. The problem now is, they are not allowed to lie and so put in this quandary they will once again sell your debt off at rock bottom price.
Each time it gets busy again re-write with that same question. Tell them you are willing to negotiate with them but the negotiations will be what they paid for the debt.
Get rid of the white knights because its going to cause you nothing but grief. Whatever you do, don't allow any of your family to countersign anything on your behalf. These companies often negotiate with creditors on the basis of turning an escapable unsecured debt into a un-escapable secured one.
Another thing you should be aware of is about interest charges. Once an account is turned over for collection the interest stops but once your debt is sold on the account is re-opened and growing interest rates are re-triggered. Now when someone buys your debt they also purchase the interest owing and any penalties on the account. Having the interest frozen on an account is only good until that account is sold.. worth keeping in mind.
Wow. Very informative post. :) Thank you!
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