Re: Charge-off?

Posted by Linda on October 27, 2001 at 19:29:18:

In Reply to: Re: Charge-off? posted by Pete on October 27, 2001 at 11:50:46:

Well, bad news - since one of them is discover you better pay it all, or file bk because they are bulldogs. They have no sympathy even for people who have become totally disabled and lost everything.

Chase may or may not depending on the situation - if it was illness or unemployment, they might.

Once you stoppaying completely, the SOL starts (usually). So if you stop paying now, if the Card company decides to sue you they can get a judgment and take you money in your bank account, garnish your pay, put a lien against your house (so if you sell it they get their money). Judgments have their own SOL's and can be renewed.
Once the 6 years is up, if they have not sued you, you are really home free. Someone may still sue you, but if you go to court and tell the judge the SOL is up, it will be dismissed - no judgment. If you do not show up and defend yourself, they get a judgment by default.

Most people who manage to dodge a creditor for six years do not own a home, and have things inother people's names, etc so that they cannot be found. If you leave a state (in some cases) the SOL is suspended and begins again when you return. If you do not return, some states do not recognize the SOL - then you have laws in the new state that may or may not protect you, depending on the state. A lawyer would do a much better job of explaining this.

I have never negotiated a settlement, so my knowledge about this is from hearing the experiences of others. Basically, you contact the company directly, and tell them your situation. Figure out what you can live with first so you don't agree to something you can't do, making things worse. Really, you are asking them for help, and that is the attitude I would take. Ask them to stop the over limit and late fees, fix the interest, perhaps treat it as an installment loan rather than a revolving account. The accounts are closed with balances, and then you make the agreed on payments.

If you want to settle for less than you owe, it usually has to be a lump sum, but who knows? It never hurts to ask. Perhaps they would rather get something than nothing. But again, from what I hear, Discover is a bitch to deal with once you default. Keeo the collection agencies in mind if you try this - you will be dealing with it for a long long time.

bk doesn't have the stigma it used to have. The system is horrible. By attempting to pay and do the honorable thing, you will have years and years of bad credit and collection agencies. If you take bk it is over. You can almost immediately begin rebuilding your credit and within 3 years have cards with decent (not prime) terms, buy cars, get mortgages - anything. In 10 years it goes off your report, and that's it.

By choosing to try to pay you are choosing the difficult road. I don't think people should just not pay their debts, but they need to fix this lousy system where those who bk their debts get off easier than those who pay them.

Incidentally, bk laws have not changed yet.

Hope this helps.

Linda

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