Hey folks. I am in a world of trouble after a job loss and divorce about two years ago. I managed to stay employed after the main job loss (I am in IT Support) but it took me some time to get another job in the IT Field. This came right after losing my ex through a divorce and put me in a REALLY bad spot. Long story shout (And without any more whining) I am now in a position that I can start undoing whats done. The catch in all of this. Because I was flat broke, not making enough to support myself and in "Ultra-panic" mode (so no shock I was making terrible judgement calls) I wound myself into about $50,000 of debt which has been in collections now for quite a while. SO... I have now gotten into a position of having a fairly decent and very stable job, I have reduced all of my bills and expenses to a miniumum. Gave up the fancy sports car that was costing me a fortune, moved out of the beautiful apartmrnt I was living in after the divorce and now I just want to get this mess behind me. Where do i start? I have been looking for about 3 weeks now at different options and companies that offer their "help" to people in my position, but I just don't trust them. I read thier sites and they make all kinds of unbelievable promises, but they seem to be just that. Unbelievable. I really DON'T want to file bankruptcy and know there has to be a better way. can anyone suggest maybe some literature, websites, or companied that actuall DO help people in my position? I know I'm in trouble.... I'm here for help. I asked these questions at another board and basically got kicked in the teeth and told "You should just get it overwith and file bankruptcy because that is what you are going to do anyway." Nice huh? Hope I get better results here.
I ended up with about $77K in debt after a divorce, so I know where you're coming from. You're in a tougher spot than I was. None of my accounts were ever charged off and sold or assigned to a collection agency. I think you've made a wise decision to stay away from many of these companies that say they can get you out of debt. Many of them are ripoffs and charge way too much in fees. While bankruptcy is an option, you may have more options than that. I never filed bankruptcy. As I said, my case was different because all of my accounts were still with the original creditor. Are all of your accounts charged off and with collection agencies, or are they still being collected by the OC? How long has it been since you've made payments? What state are you in, and do you know the SOL for your state?
Thanks for the quick reply. I recently moved from Dallas to Virginia as part of my expense reduction effort. I think (if I remember what I read) the SOL is 5 years here. All of my accounts have been charged off. I am somewhat broken hearted about all of this because my Credit rating was a 740 before this went down. It is a 605 now. I feel like I was pretty much sitting on top of the world and now... well lets just say I am trying to tidy up the bottom of the barrel. Like I said, I really DON'T want to file bankruptcy. That is an avenue I don't even want to look at.
I don't know how low my scores were, but I couldn't get a mortgage to refi at less than 11%. I'm in the high 700s now, so you will come back. When is the last time you paid on these accounts?
I was in debt to the tune of 300K about 4 years ago. Now all my debts are done with : ) I decided not to go the bankruptcy route and basically declared a self bankruptcy and wait and see attitude. When the charge offs were sold to the JDB's I dealt with the calls by blocking the numbers and getting caller ID and phone answering service. When I got sued I dealt with it, and guess what? I either settled for a LOT less then charge offs or I WON and got money! I learned a lot as to how to defend myself and in the last 4 years,and while it is not easy, and it can be stressful, I have found that some of your debts will go the wayside and or you will be able to settle and sometimes even get the tradelines deleted from your credit reports. I also should say that when times got rough I tried to make payments and or negotiations with the OC's and the ones that worked with me got paid, the ones that didn't didn't : ) Have you gotten any dunning letters yet? If so make sure you DV. Have you gotten sued yet? Woofer
Hi Woofer. Pardon my lack of term knowledge here. Some of it makes sense, some of it still doesn't. JDB, DV and Dunning are all unframiliar terms to me. Think you can throw me a bone on them? To answer your other question, at this time I have NOT been sued. My highest outstanding credit card balance is about $16,000, then there is a $13,000 an $10,000 and a $9,000 Balance on the others. (These are rough numbers of course). The debt that you had was significantly higher than what I have and I may be in complete denial here (Or just plain don't know what I am talking about) but I would think that larger debts than mine would get more attention than smaller debts or it may not be worth it to the collectors to go through the troble of a lawsuit on them because they are considered to be "Small fish". To me they are frighteningly high, but to a billion dollar industry... The only number I have is a Cell phone number so I do have caller ID and voice mail and I do still get maybe one call every day or two from numbers I don't recognize. Hedwig: The last time I paid was probably about a year ago or more. My balances started getting close to thier limits and suddenly the interest rates jumped from 13% to 30%. Pretty sneaky of the CC companies as they all boosted my limits a few months before that. Once that happened I was up against the wall. Fortunately I managed to find the job I currently hold as I was about to end up living in my car. The only thing I have been keeping up on is my car payment as I have to have a car and I can't afford to lose it and need reliable transportation. I traded in the Corvette I had that I was paying $549 a month on (through a balloon payment) and got a used F150 pickup truck for $195/mo. Not sure what other info I can give that would be helpful. Can you guys suggest any good reading or websites I can visit that offer good reliable information. As I said I have been looking for several weeks now and to be honest I think I am more confused now then when I started.
I'm sure some of the regulars here can give better advice than I can but I wanted to wish you luck. And a side note, my hubby was sued by Capital One for less than $700. Seems its a hit or miss.
OK, JDB is junk debt buyer. I doubt that you're there yet, you are probably still with CAs (collection agencies). DV is debt validation (also called a validation letter), and dunning is just another term for billing. You might want to contact the original creditors and see if you can still negotiate with them. Explain what has happened, and say that since you have a better job, you'd like to pay off your debts but you can't under the present conditions. Say that you really don't want to declare bankruptcy, and see if they're willing to work out payment plans, perhaps reducing the interest for a period of time. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. If they've sold the debts instead of just assigning for collections, you may not be able to negotiate with them.
Hedwig has told given you the info. : ) Well I did have several large credit lines, but I also had major credit cars that had credit lines of 10 or 15K and as low as 5K and the OC's (original credits} that would work with me ie, no interest,or a reduced interest and some money off the debt well they got paid...The ones that would not work with me, didn't..They sold off to a JDB who bought my account of say 10K for maybe a few hundred dollars. Looking back at things, I wouldn't have changed my strategy as I feel that the way I did it was the right way for me. I must have had a sense of how to do things a bit as I didn't know ANYTHING about credit problems, reporting agencies, collectors, etc., until there was a problem. I think that if you can negotiate with the OC's who will work with you then go for it, BUT only if you can keep to what you said you can pay monthly. If not you can do a wait and see. As for being sued, I think I got sued as I had assets. I know others that have had charge cards with charge offs of 25K and they did not get sued. So you really never know,,as you could get sued and I have been sued for a debt of only 80 bucks.(I managed to get 1K off of that alleged debt) HAHHAHAHAHA I believe it is a violation to have a creditor call you on your cell phone. I am not 100 percent sure on this so ask this question so you will know. [/quote] Hedwig: The last time I paid was probably about a year ago or more. My balances started getting close to thier limits and suddenly the interest rates jumped from 13% to 30%. Pretty sneaky of the CC companies as they all boosted my limits a few months before that. Once that happened I was up against the wall. [/quote]Yes this is what is known as UNIVERSAL DEFAULT : ( I hear ya. If I were you AND I am NOT a lawyer, I would do a wait and see. You have not much, and who knows some debts may slip thru and be out of SOL. Whats state are you in? If you do decide to pay remember just because yo do this is not going to help your credit. Also if you do decide to pay some be prepared that others are going to come out of the woodwork wanting their share of your bones. ; ) If you decide NOT to pay them you need to be the type of person that does not get stressed,keeps their head, as you will get letters and phone calls and or a visit from a sheriff to go to court. Then the fun begins : ) Bottom line if it were me and IMO I would forget about old debts and take care of living expenses now. I M NOT A LAWYER either so this is just my opinion. Woofer
If you want to try to wait it out, go ahead. And double-check that SOL. I thought Virginia was three years. If it is, you may be closer than you thought and you may be able to wait it out. It partly depends on how much you can get together to pay, since paying one will probably make the others start popping up, as Woofer said. It also depends on how soon you're going to need new credit. If it's soon, it may be more important to attack them and settle. If you're not making any major purchases in the near future, time is on your side. You can wait and try to get more money together to settle, or hope it goes past SOL.
"Need" is really a relative term. I can't see my needing a line of credit for anything right now or in the near future. I have a reliable car, I live with my girlfriend nere in VA and her credit is in very good shape. If I absolutely needed something I am SURE she would be there to help me out. The statute of limitations in VA is indeed 3 years. After some more thought I want to say that I started missing payments on some of these cards almost a year and a half to 2 years ago. These negative items are gonig to be on my credit report for the next 7 to 10 years now, right? Regardless of whether I pay or not, I will have those black marks. My question here is... If I was to NOT pay them, would it be possible to rebuild my credit score back at all? Or would it be a situation of my credit being royally screwed for the next 7-10 years? As I said I don't have a need for credit right now. But I am sure eventually there is gong to come a point in time where it is going to matter. If my girlfriend and I decide we want to get married, I don't want to ruin her good credit standings by her getting married to a guy that got himself into a pickle with his credit. Ugh.
So you are over the half way mark. Here it is SIX years... Negative info is SEVEN years, bankruptcy I think is TEN. There IS a possibility that you will be able to get some deleted before that time though : ) Well I feel that if you don't pay them, you can try to save some money, and or get yourself a secure card at first to rebuild your credit, so to me,I think you would do better not paying then paying as your credit is already bad. AND if they have not charged off, then if you pay then it is going to restart the clock.Of course this IJMO and I am not a lawyer. Do you mean bankruptcy? As I have said I have not done it but your situation may warrant it. I do think that you are in a state with a short SOL that I would not do the B and go for it wait it out and gamble... Well I told you what I would do and now you have to decide what the best course of action is for you. Woofer
Hey Woofer. No not bankruptcy. I just mean that there will eventually be a time that my credit score IS going to come into play. Buying a house, when it comes time to replace a vehicle etc. I was contemplating a secured credit card just to try and counter some of the damage that has already been done. Thanks so much for the replies.
I agree. If you're that close to SOL, see if you can sit it out. Save the money in case they do bring a suit, you'll have some money to offer a settlement. I believe that that BoA secured card doesn't report as secured. That might be a good one to try.
Well right now your credit is sunk and eventually it will be much better,if you do not get into any more debt.I say start saving what ou would have given to the debts, and have it just in case. Another thing is your girlfriend if she has good credit can perhaps be the one to get a mortgage on her own instead of you if needed. Also when you owe a lot, and then start paying it will awaken the monsters.. I say wait it out, save money and if sued and you want to settle you can and FOR A LOT LESS to JDB that you just may have violations on ... Start now keeping a FILE on ALL your correspondence with your creditors including a telephone log. This will come in handy should you be sued as you can counter... : ) Woofer
I have two comments to offer. First, the running of a SOL from a judgement is extendable, in most states, by application to the court for a motion to extend the judgment, which will set a new SOL. So it is not absolute. Most provide for at least one extension, and some provide for multiple. So dont bank on the SOL as a concrete date. Second, all of the statutory time limits under the FCRA for continued reporting of derogs have an exemption under Section 605(b) of the FCRA. Those exemptions apply to any application for credit or life insurance for $150,000 or more, which makes almost all mortgage applications susceptible to reproting of any prior derogs indefinately, if still encapsulated in the CRA files. If you are tinking about waiting it out in the hope that the menevolent system will just make it go away soon, then you need competent legal advice ASAP. Get a lawyer.
I agree, that it is close, save up what you can for a rainy day account in case you get sue. But do nothing for now, just wait for SOL to expire. Once the SOL expires then come back in filing a dispute with the credit reporting agencies to try to get them items removed. If they contact you then send them a debt validation letter, if they verify it is up to you if you pay them since the SOL is up. But you can offer payment for deletion, if you want them removed sooner. The negative items can show on the report 7 years except if you go for a loan exceeding 150,000 or employment paying over 75,000 or insurance exceeding 150,000. Not many people will have this problem. But just in case you want to dispute with the credit reporting agencies and try to get these items deleted so they don't show up on the long report. Best of luck with this matter,
He said he hasn't been sued. That means his accounts are with CAs or JDBs, not judgments. If he had judgments against him, that would be a whole different ball game. But from what he posted, he doesn't have any judgments. We're talking about waiting out the collections SOL. If the creditor doesn't enter suit within the SOL, then if he's sued he has an affirmative defense.
