Re: Impending Discover Card Judgement question

Posted by TooMuchFun (192.138.150.250) on March 04, 2004 at 20:04:30:

In Reply to: Re: Impending Discover Card Judgement question posted by pat on March 04, 2004 at 12:36:55:

I believe that's what WhyChat would advise, once things have reached that state. If your account is with an attorney or collection agency, you basically have several options:

1) Pay it.
2) Wait out the SOL (statute of limitations) so that they can no longer sue your on it. SOL on credit card debt varies from state to state.
3) Declare BK and have this debt included on the list of debts to be eliminated.

Be careful of debt negotiation and credit counseling; most are scams. A lot of times they just signal that you have money and this is a red flag to CAs. They may sue if they think you have money. Credit counseling only works if you can afford to pay the minimum to all creditors, and even then there's nothing stopping the creditor or CA from sueing. Keep in mind that CCCS is "not-for-profit" and get some of their money from the creditors themselves. They essentially work for the creditors, not you. Most lenders see credit counseling as one step from BK anyways, so why not jsut declare BK? If you do, I've heard chapter 7 is preferable to just wipe the slate clean and not spend years re-paying it like chapter 13.

So, unless you win the lottery or something and have more than enough money to resolve all your debts to clean up your credit report, then you have to either lay low or declare BK. This is just my opinion based on what I've read here and other places. I'm not saying one should not pay ones debts, but with the laws in this country re debt, one has to do what one has to do to protect oneself from creditors.

Creditors never lend someone money to be helpful; they lend money to make a nice, fat profit. Don't ever lose sight of the fact that it's "all about the money" for them. Even with record bankruptcies last year, they still made a lot of money. Ironically, I think creditors do things which force debtors to not pay them (like charging off debts in 6 months and then sueing). Paying a creditor back is not like paying a best friend back. Your first responsibility is to yourself and your family. Bankruptcy is legal protection for a consumers to shred the stress of huge, onerous debt and to make a fresh start. Let's just hope it's a learning experience and no one has to declare BK a second time.

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