Termyn8or
Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
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There are some pieces of this puzzle missing.
Could've been Steed's ex who ran up the debt. When you put someone on your credit card they are jointly and severally liable for the debt, all the debt. As such the only way you can get them off of it is to close the account, which means to pay it off. If you are unable to pay it off your choices are limited.
Lam, they just recently passed legislation that will indeed allow private collection companies to collect for the IRS.
Now if you know anything about the IRS, it's not hard to figure out they are only going to commission these next party collectors for debts that are seen as uncollectable. The ones they figure they might find some hidden assets or something, they will most likely keep them to themselves.
Now I have mentioned elsewhere that there are legal things you can do to become a non-taxpayer. I don't want to go into that right now, but one thing to consider it to offer to pay the original tax and explicitly refuse to pay any interest or penalties. This has been done, and the good thing about it is you don't have to go to court. The agent usually just has to talk with the supervisor and it can happen right there. I'm not saying it'll work every time, especially if you have considerable assets or if you attempted tax fraud or borderline tax fraud. If they are convinced that your non-payment was due to inability you can do this without a lawyer. At least you could in the past, I see no reason for it to have changed.
See there is a basis in Law for refusing to pay interest and penalties to the IRS. Again, not right now. I'll give you this one little tidbit of advice though, if you owe them and cannot pay, do not file. If anyone expresses an interest in the subject I'll start a thread on it.
Now, we hve banks. So you owe them say $5,000 on a credit card and can't pay. You are not costing society. Let's take a trip back in time. Remember Silverado ? The President's brother screwed that bank big by loaning all that money out to his friends. They knew they were going to default, but they also knew that they would have control of the money long enough to make a bundle.
What I'm going to do pales in comparison.
Why would I screw banks ? To return the favor of course.
Now, I get a big laugh out of people sometimes. Things they do.
Look at the TV commercials. First come the lawyers. They ask if you been hurt whatever and "Call the law offices of . . . ". Then they allow their clients to take an annuity or structured settlement as payment for whatever tort.
Then comes a company like JG Wentworth. "Are you recieving a structured settlement or annuity and need cash now ?"
Let me get this straight, you win say $1,000,000 but then you take about $5,000 a month for 20 years. They tout that you are actually getting more money this way, but that is a misstatement in their favor. It at least qualifies partly as an out and out lie. Indeed you are getting a greater number of dollars in that period, but you are not getting more money. By the time the annuity runs out $5,000 per month will probably be the poverty level for a family of three. You might get food stamps, probably over $1,000 per month by then.
So now you need cash because being on a fixed income you did pretty much nothing. You blew it but then those payments will keep rolling in for X months. You go down to the nice man on TV and he's going to give you a lump sum. Let's say you have 100 months left at $5,000 each. Do you think your getting $500,000 ? Hell no, YOU are paying for the TV commercials and the chair the guy was sitting in, among a whole lot of other things. A simple reverse amortisation tells him how much to give you.
Now you have been screwed three times. First of all I would fire a lawyer who recommended a structured settlement. I want all my money now so I can spend it. Now. It only goes down in value, with $1,000,000 I could have real estate that is paid off, real assets, tools, machinery, collectables. I could easily make money with that kind of money.
The second time you are screwed is by the defendant, who really doesn't have to pay the money. They might lose control of it for the 20 years but they get it all back, albeit at a lower value in most cases. You think because the money is out of their control your payments will be secure as the solvency of the entity that lost is not an issue. Thing is, these things are sold like mortgages and other debts, sometimes they do it to raise cash for expansion or who knows. In this country though, there is quite a bit of foreign currency speculation going on.
You did not get that, neither did you get full protection from loss from the FDIC if you had actually been payed in a lump sum after winning the lawsuit. You think it says up to $100,000 so alot of people would think, hell, I'll just open ten seperate accounts. Doesn't work like that, even at different banks. Each depositor is limited in total compensation.
It may be unlikely that more than one bank would become insolvent, I mean to qualify for FDIC coverage. Truth is all banks are technically insolvent anyway, but that is a subject for another time. But really, it could happen. With the trends in the economy I can see the possibility. But then that could happen to a company that is administering your settlement. Money you don't yet have is of course not yet insured anyway.
The FDIC is a wonderful thing, it allows banks to loan out all kind of money they don't have, and if they get caught really short, the taxpayers bail them out.
This government should've been overthrown when they demanded the Citizens turn in all their gold. I am not kidding. If I had been alive at the time I would've certainly tried. And I certainly wouldn't have traded my gold for their useless paper.
But now comes today. I can see various collection methods, I mean by phone. One is the threatening almost, the rude etc., that might get them to get a caller ID or change their number. If you are collecting by phone this is obviously not productive. Your job is done at that point, unsuccessfully I might add.
I don't know about you, but I would try to get them to talk to me by telling them that I want to help them restore, repair or maintain their credit rating. I would explain to them that they don't have to pay it, but everytime you you go to buy a house or a nice car you will pay more for it. It behooves them not to let it go to court for a garnishment or or other later stages of collection.
After the mini miranda "What is it that's killing you financially if I may ask ? You used to be able to pay, what happened ?. . Did some unexpected expenses befall you, or did part of your income disappear ? Don't answer if you don't want to, but I am trying to help. If we succeed, everything you buy on credit in the future, like a house, boat or a nice car even, will cost you a bit less "
You are then gathering information. First of all you can update their employment info if needed. You might also find some problems. Do they have 7 cellphones for a family of four ? Is their cable bill like $300 a month ?
You still must operate in the best interests of your employer, but actually reasoning with people and being nice is really doing just that. If they won't talk to you and just cuss you out and hang up, how far will you get ?
However, if you can convince someone to stop buying their kids $150 tennis shoes and a $75 video game every week, you might make some progress. Cut down the cable, why are you paying for TV when you are not home ? Go to Blockbuster, take the kids. Get out of the house.
Who else is on their ass for money ? If it's tuition or prescriptions don't fuck with it. store bills etc., but suggesting that they pay everybody, I must make the case to pay us first.
"Take it one at a time. If you could send us $___ a month I can help you out. None of this goes further, you will be on the path to repairing your credit and saving countless dollars on interest in the future".
And you know they rake you over the coals if you got bad credit. I know someone who had to pay $1,000 a month for a $100,000 house. Average round here is more like $700. Principal, Insurance and Taxes didn't eat up that $300 a month. Interest did.
A thirty year note is 360 months, 300 X 360 = 108,000. That's $108,000 on a $100,000 purchase. Is that wise ?
Now, is good credit an asset ? Yes.
Is good credit expendable if you can make it worth your while ? Yes.
There's the acid test. Do it or don't. Would I ?
Would you ?
T
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RE: I'm Not Paying - 
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