Need some advise. I have some credit card debt about 40 K . the economy stinks and I cannot make payments. I am self employed. I am married. My wife owns everything except the business. she even owns the business property. My name is own nothing except a business checking account, which she is not on this account and is under a different Number EIN than my SS #. I am not even on her personal checking. the CC are in my name only and under my SS# only and mailed to my bus address not my home address ( they are personal not Bus CC). We have done this to protect our personal property in case of a law suit ( never had any problems) now the bus. is in trouble and I am going to have to default on these cards. is the realestate and cars safe from judgement? I know that my credit score is going to be trashed. but is there any other pitfalls . I never wanted to do something like this but I don't have any choices left. have I insulated myself from my property well enough ?? Please don't think I am some kind of trash. Just trying to survive now.
LOOK IT , many of us here have been in your shoes, and NO we do not consider you as trash. All that said IF you never acquired ANY of these cards with your wife signing and or included her income in any of the applications then you are safe. Of course I AM NOT A LAWYER, but I had a similar situation. Lots of credit cards in my name, applied for by me and me alone, and they all were charged off and I was sued and me alone. They could not touch my husband. They could not touch the vehicles either as they were in hubby's name and house well we had a Homestead on it and it was in both of our names, so while they might have been able to put a lien they would not have been able to make me sell. Are your vehicles in your name or both? If just yours of course they can attach. If both they still can attach. In just your wife's NOPE. Now what state are you in? Be prepared for lots of phone calls and being bothered by letters... Get a phone that shows ID and also consider number blocking so you are not bothered. Y0u may get lucky if you want to learn and keep a journal as to how any violations you can get against the JDB's who will be calling you. If you can't pay, you really do have to start knowing what the whole thing is about as even though they can't get any money from you most likely they can make it extremely stressful. Read and learn and do not talk to any of the CA's and or JDB that call you. DO ALL CONTACT IN SNAIL MAIL Good luck! and Welcome! Woofer
I am in PA . everything is in her name alone /only. I never had her name on any of these card s and I stated my income accuratly without hers on the applications. My income has recently dropped off allot with the economy. What is JDB. and what violations are you talking about? Finally I am thinking about going to see a lawyer for some type of bankruptcy. In another post I read there is no debtors prison. is that completely correct?? these may sound like simple Questions but I have never been in this shape before. thanks for the replies.
You are self employed have no money and or anything in your name. You probably won't even get sued at least not now, as you have nothing and there are more people that at laeast have a job where a salary can be attached. One thing don't do is go to a credit counseling place and give them money and also a consultation with a lawyer should be free... Don''t do anything fast and or drastic... Read and learn and then be in formed more to make a good decision. Woofer
Thank You Woofer. I am going to move very slowly. I didn't know if there was any big pros or con's to this. I have had very good credit in the past and I am probably over thinking because this is unframiliar to me. I will be scowering the post on this site and doing all I can to get loss of this situation.
I believe SOL in Penn. is 4 years but others will tune in to let you know. Your credit report is going to have negatives on it for 7 years from Charge off or delinquency, HOWEVER sometimes you can get thing deleted. I always had great credit until after 9/11 and then business went off (I live in a tourist area) and have several businesses. I decided to sell a lot of things and sent them off to an auction to have cash flow. The guy left town with about 300K of my stuff, and filed bankruptcy. I then fell behind, as I was counting on that money from the art work to keep us afloat, and well when the scoundrel took off I had no money.. I had a lot of high credit card limits to keep things going, that I was using. I then could not pay the monthly payments as the bills were being late the interest rates sky rocketed and I just could not keep up so I took a deep breath and let it go.. The original creditors that wanted to work with got paid eventually,the original creditors that didn't and sold to JDB never got paid. : ) Like I said get a phone with caller ID, better yet, have your wife get a new phone number and have it just in her name and they should not be able to call you, so keep everything documented. Don't get bummed as so many of us have been where you are now, and we have gotten through it. In fact I a not so sure that many are being sued as of late. Read up on your rights and also the laws in your state. There are many people that can help you here. Take care and it will be allright... Just remember don't get stressed, keep a record of each and every phone call do not talk to them and also anything you send off make sure if it return receipt requested and keep copies of everything you send out! If you get sued, hire a good consumer lawyer, or you maybe by that time will be able to take care of it yourself and go pro se with a little help form your friends : ) Woofer
Not all consults with attorney's are free. We have to eat too you know. No offense meant but, it seems that a lot of people think we should work for nothing and take cases on contingencies that won't even pay our bills. I'm not directing that at anyone rather, this is just a general opinion of mine. If you have to pay a professional $150.00 to tell you what to do and their license is on the line if the misinform you, it's worth it.
Apex I've always called and explained the problem and asked if they can help,but ive never asked a legal question if they can help fine if they can't then you know its not worth the money to defend it.I think by not taking your case they more or less giving you advise that you can't win it.
Have to say anytime I have spoken to a lawyer about my problem it has always been free, but then again I hired them after my visit if I thought they could help me. I think that a short consultation gratis is the way to go for both the client and a lawyer- this way you decide if you and he/she can work together. A short consultation of 15 minutes or so should not be a problem for the lawyer, and if the client hires you you can always add the minutes in ; ) I don't however think a person should think they can go to a lawyer and tie up the time by an hour for free and then move on. Will tell you that I have never got a consumer lawyer to do contingency always they have wanted a retainer say 1K at the very least. Anytime I have gone for me or with friends or family to a lawyer no real advice is given just a scenario of what might or might not happen. Basically though it is just a *meet* with some general info, and then you hire or you don't. Woofer
Okay . . . we're all in Agreement here. I run my firm just like Apex, we won't take "any" money unless we've weighed in and think we can assist. I just don't care for those that want to talk for an hour then balk at a 33% contingency. Sorry, but, I think I should retain at least a consult fee. And, then there are the no shows . . .
Time is money nor do i think it's wrong to mark up an item your selling to a customer after all you have to pay freight and ad's upfront.I talked to a guy in ca. that wanted $500 upfront and $40 a letter to repair my credit about a year ago with no proof of results so i did bulk on that because of the number of accounts that would need a letter.So a fee is not unreasonble to charge.Now with that fee would that include tea and crumpets?
One thing that hasn't been asked here--what type of business do you have? Proprietorship? C Corp? S Corp? Did you have to give a personal guarantee on these accounts?
Another question. The business you have that is not doing so good, is this a trade and or retail business that you will go back to when things improve? So to get it straight for me, you applied for credit and had credit cards with just your name on them and not the business name, right? LIke I wrote before , you almost seem judgment proof. : ) May I ask why your home and vehicles etc are not in both you and your wife's name? Was there a reason for this? Is this a new marriage? She had her home and has her money and you have whatever you have? Woofer
Woofer My business is both sales and service related. the service work is on boiler systems and if something should ever go wrong and someone would be injured or killed I didn't want to lose everything( thats never happened and I do carry a large Liability policy). so my wife and i tried to insulate our personal from business for these reasons . I never thought this insulation would be so important now. I am working very hard now to get some new clients. but this is a very tough buss. atmosphere. the CC were in my name only and not even the business's cards. My accountant told me that I should be judgment proof. my wife and i have been together for 28 years and we both grew up poor and we have done well. till now. My worries have many prongs. I may be judgment proof . but will my name end up in the news paper for a suite filed against me from the cc ? will the other cc I have revoke my credit? I use 1 cc for gas purchases only. and another one for eq purchases that earn points toward stuff . I pay these off ever month and never have finance charges on them. how long will the phone calls go on? my accountant told me that if these cc declare these account uncollectable and forgive the amounts then that amount is taxable. Which the tax would be less than the cc amount. how likly is this to happen? thank you for the input. Jerry
OK NO you will not have your name in the paper UNLESS you do not pay your taxes ,or the home gets foreclosed on,and or you file bankruptcy. Of course none of this will happen as you have nothing in your name.. If you had the house in your name, and were sued for non payment and a default was entered against you then they could put a lien on your home and perhaps even make you sell. NONE of that appears to be a problem for you so if you have faith in your accountant listen to him or her. Filing bankruptcy YOU WILL GET YOUR NAME IN THE PAPER ON COURT RECORDS ETC...IT WILL FOLLOW YOU FOR A LONG LONG LONG time if not forever, BUT many many good people have had to file bankruptcy so yo should not be ashamed if it happens, but I don't think you need to do so, BUT AGAIN I AM NOT A LAWYER and this is just my novice opinion ; ) As for your other Credit cards, YES they can revoke your card and YES they can lower your credit line or hike up your interest rate, without letting you know before they do such, and this is the kicker, say you had a credit line of 3K and you owed 1800, well they reduce it to 1K and now they will tell you that you owe penalties for going over!!!!! Now this may not happen, and hope it doesn't, What credit cards are we writing of??? Some pull the plug wicked fast! Don't know what eq is??? The phone calls can keep on going for years, unless you make sure they cannot call you without violations racking up. This is why you have to learn what violations are, such as they cannot call you more than twice weekly and only between 8AM and 9PM and cannot leave messages on your machine that they are a debt collector yada yada.. YOu also have to dv them with certified return receipt requested. All these things though you are going to have to read up on if you want to help yourself. Usually in order for them to give you a forgiveness of debt it is a lot longer than a year after charge off. Usually it doesn't happen unless you owe 5K you settle for 2K and then the forgiveness of debt which is really INCOME for you you pay taxes on the difference. This is why sometimes it is not so good to settle, as then you owe the IRS and this of course,if the creditor issues a 1099C .not a good thing as to me . Oh and one more thing, just because I creditor does a c harge off does not mean the debt is dead as there will be vultures wanting to buy this debt and it can go on for a long time until SOL is over and then of course they still try. I would get another phone number, change your business name, as I guess you just used your own name right, and no incorporation,right? So if you were under your name, ie BIG JERRY JONES, why not change it to BJJ Boiler Works , or Mr. J Jones and get another checking account NOW out of town so you have an extra account or you can get one on line and others can chime in what one is a good one to have. YOu need to tell us who the creditors are and when was the last time there was a payment. DO NOT BE SPECIFIC as to amounts and or dates on here. IE if you owe 10,422 to Citi and last payment was 2/02/08 for $356..YOu would write you owe 10K to Citi and last payment was 01/09/08, OK??? Don't get too specific. Also what phone calls have you had and what letters? Okay we are here to try to help WOofer
