Re: Credit card mess

Posted by J Kelly (151.197.46.2) on May 07, 2004 at 23:36:18:

In Reply to: Re: Credit card mess posted by hmdot on May 07, 2004 at 23:08:04:

http://www.bankruptcyinformation.com/TN_exemp.htm
TN. is a Tenants by the entirety state. Property exempt against debt of one spouse. Since it is individual debt, they won't be able to touch your house. I have you a link for bk exemptions because judgement exemptions are the same as bk exemptions.
What will happen. I take it that this is a recent breakup, and that the debt you are worried about is in reasonably good standing right now. So, if you guys don't make up and get back together.........pay your secured debt first. House and vehicle. Credit cards are unsecured debt, so they can't touch your home, vehicle or anything else unless they sue you and get a judgement against. you. Since you are in a T&E state, with little equity in your house, they can't touch your house. Your vehicle is probably safe unless it is very expensive and paid for. They can garnish your salary, if they know where you work. They can seize bank accoutns. BUT THEY HAVE TO SUE AND GET A JUDGEMENT BEFORE THEY CAN DO ANYTHING. Look at your exemptions (what they can't touch) If you have a lot of debt, you might want to consider filing bk. You might try to negoiate lower payment with your creditors, but honestly, creditors are not usually willing to consider your problems. This is my story. You can go from there. I had an accident. 13 non secured cards. I tried unsucessfully to negoiate with my creditors, but to no avail. Paid minimum for about a year. Could not pay anymore. Stopped paying. Started to get phone calls from my creditors. I COULD NOT PAY. I put my phone on fax and ignored them during the worst of it. My accounts were charged off (after 180 days). I continued to ignore mail and phone calls from CAs. My accounts were sold to 3rd party CAs. I continued to ignore CAs. I knew that they could do nothing to me. I am also in a T& E state. With few exceptions, I did not talk to CAs. There were a few times when I did talk with them. Never admitted to being me. Told them I was out of the country. Told them I was my daughter. They are not allowed to discuss debt with anyone other than you since this is individual debt. ( I knew that). Mostly, I just laid low and ignored them. SOL in my state is 4 years. The phone calls and letters were far and few between near the end. I did have a problem with one CA who continued to call, and I continued to ignore, and who eventually sued me. I was sued very close to the SOL on the debt (nearly 4 years after I had stopped paying) At that time I filed bk. My state exemptions protected my assets. My circumstances changed over the years, but I protected my assets long before I was sued. This is the thing, if you can't pay, and your accounts go into collection, you might be sued. So, the best thing you can do is protect your assets now. Don't wait to be sued, don't wait until you think you are going to be sued. Do it now. Do what you can, and relax. You can't change it, so don't let the situation stress you out. Don't let a CA get your banking info. Close your current bank accounts, go to a different bank. If they don't have your current employment, don't tell them where you work. CAs like to threaten, mostly they are doing just that.......they lie and threaten, that is the way they do business. You have a long road ahead of you, but with a little luck, and precautions, you can come out of this without loosing your shirt. Good Luck.

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