I'm stunned. I've been really struggling to make ends meet for the last year or so. I keep using my credit cards to pay bills, buy groceries etc... I'm due to lose my child support in a year. The plan had always been to sell my house when that happens and buy a small condo. Well now my house is worth less than half than I owe on it. So after getting yet another letter from a credit card company telling me they are raising my rates and lowering my limit (although I'm not a minute late on anything) I decided I better come up with a plan. I write out all my bills, balances, monthly payments etc. I'm over 122,000.00 in debt with credit cards and loans. NOT counting my house and car payment. I really don't want to file BK. I started looking into CCCS but I don't think I could even qualify for that. I know the bankruptcy laws have changed. They now require you to pay off part of your debt right. UGH I'm just in shock. I can't believe it ever got this out of control. Has anybody been in a similar situation? Any advice? ANYTHING????
OMG...YOU'RE stunned? You=in debt The government=You on steroids You make it sound like you just found out yesterday you'd be losing the child support...And STILL you kept using credit cards? Struggling to make ends meet for over a year...And STILL you kept using credit cards? House worth less than you owe on it. That didn't happen overnight...And STILL you kept using credit cards? Plan A was to sell your house. Plan B was to determine how much you were in debt. Either were, or still are, in denial. Why stop and ask for help now when what you've been doing has worked so well for you? You'll find lots of advice here. Something might hit your fancy.
Oh I knew it was getting bad. I'm just shocked at the number. I'm not making any excuses. I was stupid as hell and I guess in denial. I've obviously known the child support was ending. I had planned not to have a big house payment but I can't get out of my house now. I hoped I would be able to pay off many of my credit cards so I could afford to live without it. I've been trying to find a part time job since December. Found one but then they had a hiring freeze.... Then all my credit cards started raising their rates so it is becoming less likely I will be able to pay off any significant amount. jjgross...how long did it take you? Do the new rules make it that much more difficult?
WOW! Here YOU are posting off an arrogant reply to this poster. Geesh... Don't take ANY of my advice as obviously it did not *fancy* you! I am DONE WITH YOU! Woofer
I filed in July 2007 did the credit counseling had the 341 meeting no creditors showed up,discharged in DEC,2007.My suggestion is to save the house,now the judge may try to work out a payment plan with the lender to make it easier on you.But i don't know if they have started that yet.I would consult with an attorney.Some people don't understand the stress your under to provide for your family and the ends you go through to try to insure that it lives a decent life.yes you got in to deep you know that and the last thing you needed was to hear what you heard,you came here for help and you know what you did.But believe me this will pass it will take time but things will get better.
Ok, get a paper and write down your assets and your debts . So you don't have a job... Look around your home and see what you can sell. Put an ad on craigslist..Have a yard sale, consign to a shop.Stocks? Car paid off? Land? Sometimes you have to file for bankruptcy to get a clean start. MAny of us have had to use credit to get buy and now the credit is gone. Have you spoken to your bank about reducing the interest? What state are you in? Do they have Homestead laws there where your home cannot be attached if there is a judgement against you? Do you owe more on your home than you can sell it for? MAny people have walked away and maybe this is the time to do so if noone can help you. Go though to a bankruptcy lawyer and see what is what, but also remember a bankruptcy lawyer DOES PUSH the issue of bankruptcy but in your case I do think it is a viable auction. Soon you wil start getting letters and phone calls and the stress can be a lot for a single Mom. Don't let this all go to judgements,PLAN ahead like you didn't do when you were using all the credit cards. Oh one more thing FORGET ABOUT PAYING FOR CREDIT COUNSELING! All good thoughts. Woofer
Woofer credit counseling is part of bankruptcy you have to go through in order to file,that's what i meant .Cost 35 dollars.
Oh, no I was not posting to what you wrote about credit counseling, I was posting to her as I thought she meant that was thinking of going to a credit repair place. Sorry 'bout that : ) Update Just checked out what CCCS is and it looks to me like it is what I thought it was. ??; ) Woofer
Thank you jjgross & Woofer...I almost cried when I saw what you wrote. I feel like an absolute fool that I didn't know how bad things were getting. I do have a good job. However there is talk that we will likely be furloughed 2 days a month in the very near future. I was trying to find an additional part time job and that is who had the hiring freeze. I was going to go to CCCS. Once I actually put everything on paper I realized I was too far gone to even go that route. It's something I should have done a couple of years ago. I would like to keep my house. I have a 1st and 2nd on it and I am WAY underwater. Almost 200,000. I read there have been a couple of cases where the 2nd gets taken away during bk but it sounds pretty tough. I am not late on my house payments at all. I do have an ARM however I always paid the full 30 year payment, not the minimum so I don't have to worry about it recasting or whatever that is called. I have a prepaid legal service through my work and they cover 100% of bankruptcy so I will get an attorney. I'm sure they just do basics though and won't take on any extraordinary fights (like to get rid of my 2nd) I literally spent the whole night researching bankruptcy. I do have a few questions I just couldn't find the answers to though. 1. I have a gas card with a balance of a couple hundred dollars. My kids are authorized users on the account. Would I be allowed to pay it off in the hopes that they won't close the account (I know they very well may once they see on my credit report that I filed but just on the chance that they don't....) Also, will it show up on my kids credit reports (assuming it even reports on theirs)? 2. I have a lease on a car which I intend to keep. I also have a loan out on a car for my daughter. She makes half the payment and I pay the other half. Will they allow me to keep 2 cars? Oh, her name is also on the loan. I really don't want this affecting her credit in the least. For that matter, I would prefer my kids not even find out I'm doing this. 3. I read that I am not allowed to make any preferential payments or whatever (that is why I was asking about the gas card). Is there a limit as to what they think is preferential? I owe my mother 350.00 for something that she purchased on my behalf 2 weeks ago. I was going to pay her out of my paycheck that I received today. Will they flag that if they see 350.00 taken out of my account or transferred to her. She is somebody else I don't want to know about this obviously. 4. You had mentioned selling things. I do have a scooter I could sell but then I read that I'm not allowed to sell off my property unless I turn the money over to the court. Again, is there a certain amount that they flag? 5. Do they go over your bank statements and question every withdrawl or tranfer? Thank you so much for your kind words and understanding. It's nice to know people understand how I could have got myself into this mess
You haven't filed so you could sell your scooter,you can pay your mother back,as for the lease when you see your attorney you can go through those things with him,my bk was cut and dry i had already sold most of my stuff to pay my medical about $150,000 after insurance had paid 350,000,so until i filed bk i just told ca's to stick it,i was quite hostile to them,so they quit calling,my husband was so hostile to them they complain to me about him.But he's mellow now they gave him some happy pills and smooth him right out.He has copd and all the stress was killing him.But he's doing pretty good now.Anyway you just need to take a deep breath and settle down and do what's best for you and your family you can only hold on so long.Don't let anyone call you a deadbeat because your not.Nobody on here is
Hey Maer, I'm in a similar situation and I feel for you. I just kept doing it to survive and now its finally hit home. Unfortunately, I also realized that all this caused a downward spiral in my life and attitude and was affecting my job negatively. Keep positive and know that no matter what happens (bankruptcy or not), you're a good person and will eventually work your way out of it. Millions are going through the same thing right now, especially now. Lots of great advice here. I just had some luck contacting the credit card companies directly, and without going into any sob stories, asked if they could lower my interest rate. I have been with most of them for years and never paid pate. I was very nice and some of them cut my rates in half. Its worth a shot, especially with the amount you have on the cards (I have $150k). Craigslist is amazing. If you've never used it, you'll be amazed how easy it is to get things sold and much better price than having a yard sale. Its crazy what people will pay for stuff you don't need. As for bankruptcy, I'm still considering it, just remember when the attorney is giving you advice, they make money on your bankruptcy and sometimes push people in that direction. It still might be the right thing for you, just be careful. I'll be sending good thoughts your way Maer.
What I fail to understand is why someone would even dream of filing BK. Why do I say that? I participated in a conference call last night (as I do every Friday night) and listened to the story told by Mark M. of Rhode Island. He won two judgments yesterday. One was against Bank of America/FIA card services for $85,420.00 and another against some other debt collector for $1,000. He won the $1,000 without ever filing any papers in court. He sent them an intent to sue with his case all ready to go to federal court and they didn't even want to go there so they just up and paid him. In his first federal case against a very well known law firm/Capital One. Mark won over $3800, got a judgment vacated in lower court and all negatives removed from his credit reports. Mike M. from New Mexico has won 6 consecutive federal lawsuits against debt collectors in two different federal courts. I know Mike and his wife personally. We had supper together one evening and I asked Mike how much he had won so far in his 6 cases and he thought about it for a moment and replied that he had won about $38,000. He currently has one going against a nationally known mortgage lender which will run well over a million in damages. They don't stand a chance of presenting a successful defense. Mike M. was on that call last night as he usually is. Then there is Larry R. from Florida. He has also won several federal cases against debt collectors and credit bureaus. He has had one going with a major mortgage lender for the last several years. No telling how much he will finally come out with but with a long string of federal wins under his belt he will win that one too. There are many more who have been on that call from time to time over the years who have won cases in federal courts and none of them have ever had any law school training at all. These people aren't just bragging. Their cases are all recorded on Pacer and anyone can see them. They aren't the only ones either. There is a well known data base out there for debt collectors only. The owners of that data base recently came out on a debt collector's forum and said that there are over 500 federal cases filed against debt collectors and attorneys every month and the average settlement is about $3800. They sell a service to debt collectors which uses the data base to scrub the debtor's lists of people that the debt collector is trying to collect from looking for the names of people who have filed cases against debt collectors in the past. The purpose of the list scrubbing is to alert the debt collectors that their victim has filed at least one lawsuit against another debt collector so that litigious type of persons can be avoided. I can't help wondering why anyone would want to file BK when all they have to do is learn how to spot the violations and how to file federal cases against their tormentors and win without ever seeing the inside of a federal courtroom. The logic and the results are obvious. Either stand up, fight back and win or lay down and let them bleed you to death, ruin your credit and your life. You don't need to run to lawyers to get the job done either. None of the people I have spoken about here have ever hired any lawyers nor paid anyone anything. They just decided they weren't going to take it anymore and did what they had to do to fight and win. Please don't ask me to give you the info to get you into that conference call. If I gave it to you I'd be accused of advertising and I'm not going to go there. I'm not advertising anything. I'm just telling you that you really don't have to take a beating in BK or any other court.
It is true that if you are one to be tenacious and thorough and study a lot you will win. I don't want to brag but I have won quite a few myself. I am amazed though at someone winning 80K plus from BoA. How they do that? Or are you saying they were sued for that amount and won the case and dismissed with prejudice? THAT I can see. Woofer
No, Mark M. sued BOA/FIA card services in federal court. Mark was the plaintiff and the complaint was for FCRA violations. Judgment for the plaintiff, Mark M. (Yes, I know his full name but I won't post that) won his case.I have an audio recording of Mark telling his story.
I don't see HOW he got so many violations, and they paid him? This is very hard to believe, UNLESS it was a class action suit and then you get a lot more as you were the plaintiff and you get awarded a percentage up front...(I know about that as I have been there, done that) ; ) I went to Pacer found one Mark M in Rhode ISland as plaintiff against BoA but the case was filed in March 09, and seems nothing has come of it as of yet. I do hope it is true but just don't see it as such. Woofer... Skeptical as ever...
Cap one you don't seem to realize that the poster was a single mom who did do some study into file or not file,and does have a good job and was looking for a part time job.She doesn't have time to engage in a fight at this time.Just like my opinion should be taken as my opinion,yours is taken as yours.I've been on conference calls before,and i quite simply don't trust the content of some of them.So i don't do them anymore.One thing i do know is lawyers don't win every case,so their resume shows the wins and not the losses.
I have to say that it is not as easy as it seems. It took me over a year to win an NAF award and about 12inches in paperwork, and I worked on that case sometimes 10 hours a day. I had the time and the tenacity to do so, and also the temperament and confidence to do so. Just looking at friends and family that have been in situations NOT one of them out of say 25 could even manage to write a letter as they prefer either to hide their head in the sand or bend over.. The new people that come here may have a bit more confidence in standing up for themselves, but I sincerely do not think that most have what it takes to fight. We here that have fought are a VERY VERY small minority but it seems to others looking in...Well this is easy, a piece of cake... I will tell you it isn't. This is why many times I suggest getting a good lawyer as it will save you a lot of stress and money. Woofer
How do you know that? When the people on the call will give you their names, email addresses and case numbers so you can actually look them up on Pacer and see for yourself whether they are telling the truth or not then that's about as reliable as it gets. That's why one should check the court records to see what their records are and what they are good at before hiring or even consulting them. That's not hard to do these days. You can do it at the local court house, often on line and you can check out their federal records on Pacer too. You can get a complete record of every case any lawyer has ever been involved in. What the case was about, who were the plaintiffs, who were the defendants and the outcome of the case. Once you do that you have a very good idea of whether that lawyer is one you want to hire for the particular job at hand or not. It is no longer necessary to hunt lawyers in the dark.
I know it to be a fact she doesn't. Yes some are reliable which is what i said and some are not. Most people get lawyers through word of mouth. Myself I'm retired so i would have time to to fight the fight. A Lot of people would rather get it over with then miss there favorite TV show. And yes I've been cited for contempt before,I called the attorney a boot-licking lackey and satan's child.
