Re: bankruptsy

Posted by Linda on July 20, 2001 at 19:08:33:

In Reply to: bankruptsy posted by steven kotsonis on July 20, 2001 at 09:55:31:

You said it. bk. or, if you are capable of dealing with it, just walk away. Call the credit card companies, tell them your situation, honestly. Some of them have assistance programs for folks in your situation. - the good ones will change your account to an installment account at a reasonable rate, and let you make the payments and pay it off. The sleazy ones will refuse, and tell you you have to keep paying them. YOU DON'T. If they are hard-a$$ about it, tell them fine, you intend to stop paying them immediately, thanks, goodbye. Then do it. Credit card debt is unsecured debt, and they cannot touch your ssi check, it is protected. They can't really take anything of yours. But it will be a nightmare of collection calls, collection agencies, etc etc.

If you choose the "walk away" route, get an answering machine and screen all your calls. Send out "cease communications" letters to anyone who starts calling trying to collect, and tell them in the letter that you are on SSI, there is nothing they can get, so they don't bother with taking you to court. They will go away fast, I believe. Your credit will be screwed for 7 years. Then it will pretty much be over.

If you choose bk, take ch 7 - and get everything!! Leave nothing outstanding that can come back and bite you later. It costs money up front - varies with your location. Get a good bk lawyer, not one of those clinics that advertise all over - they are sloppy. There are probably some legal resources available if you cannot pay a lawyer. Let me know where you are and I will find them for you, if you like.

Don't refinance your house, or anything like that, to pay this, no matter what anyone tells you. Then you take a chance on losing your house.

The bk will be on the record forever, but on your credit report for 10 yrs. Some people manage to dispute them off, but it is hard.

Consumer credit counseling probably won't take you, but it is as bad as a bk on your credit report, and you are dealing with it a lot longer than the bk or just "walking."

If it were me, I would call and negotiate terms I could live with, if they wouldn't help me out of the mess, I would just stop paying them.

hope this helps

Linda

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