Hey, all, my sister devised the strategy where she would simply run away from creditors - sets her eyes on a town across the river in a diff. state, live with a friend (no phone bills, etc.) and just stay there for 6 yrs until the statute of limitations runs off on her debts. While dumbastic and a biut radical - do you think this strategy may work? And many thanks in advance! Good night! Eppy
All personal integrity comments aside, it may work if she plans to use cash for everything and not need any type of credit line.
As a former run-away, I gotta say, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Problem is, bad credit follows you forever, with the way debts get sold and resold and inadvertantly and illegally reaged. Deal with the problems today and they won't haunt you for the many tomorrows to come.
thanks all! Actually, I was sort of saying the same, nice to know I was not alone. She hopes to start making really good money next year (we all hope that she will, she's a great gal!) The question she and I (she's my only sibling) are debating is this: G. (my sis): - I will just get rid of the harrassment for a while, and then, when I have TIME and MONEY (she works 60 hrs a week and has a kid) - I will deal with it. Myself: It's hard to deal with now, but will be even harder later on when you have a "bad rep". G: Yeah, but I would be able to do the same then as I can do now. Myself: Not really, you will be in a worse position from legal and reputation points of view. Am I right or wrong? Again, many-many thanks to all of you! Igor
It also depends on the specific laws. In some states, if you leave the state, the SOL is more or less suspended until you come back. So she could return to lawsuits, judgments, garnishments, etc and not be able to claim that the debt is out of SOL. So she needs to check the state laws. Then the judgment will be on her reports for another seven years!!!
I think Hedwig makes a good point. If she goes undercover, what's to prevent the CAs from obtaining default judgments on her, since clearly, they have been unable to find her? And they can be re-newed. Of course, if depends on the amounts in question here. Now, that being said, if she REALLY is just putting them off for a year or so, and considering the previous advice given, that's probably not a devastating thing to do since the DOLA won't change anywho. 7 years is 7 years.
Thanks a lot for the fast reply. I guess she has a point then... All she is saying is - leave me alone, let me get the money and the time - and I will do it. I am saying: you will get in trouble with the law fro running away,,, Many thanks! Eppy
Rich, but I am telling her - they might get the court to find her and punsh her. Am I being a bit Orwellian? Many thanks to you all! Eppy
In some states judgements are renewable pretty much forever. What about filing BK as an alternative - or going into Consumer Credit Counseling?
basically as long as all debts were un-secured, it may take more than 7 years, 7 years from charge off. but yeah, this works, i did it. I'm not proud of it but life had its bad turns. i now have over $225K in limits and i hope to god i am never in the position (health) that i was in then. the IRS is one thing you DO NOT diss. They will hunt you down for life. Thats the advice i can give you. 7 years is not true. They may hold the account for a while open, but eventually. more like 9 years for me, everything is gone. Also on big loans they can see some of the dropped off info for 10 years according to some FCRA readings, and on job apps > 75K and of course any high profile gubment jobs i'm guessing too. yeah it works... if i had to do it to keep my family fed would i do it again? yeah. Would i feel good about it? no. if you had a car, and didn't give it back, that would be criminal fraud, like any other secured loans. Thats one thing you don't want her doing... if they don't know where you work, or live, or bank accounts, theres no way they will collect, period.
CCC cant do anything she can't do herself. I wouldnt file BK unless I was going to lose my home. but that's just me. she needs to find out her state laws and SOLs. who knows...she may have relatively short SOLs. has she called her creditors and inquired about hardship programs? does she have an income tax return coming? she could stop paying and wait about 179 days and then offer a settlement. i did that with sears and they agreed to 50%. however, they wouldnt remove the TL (along w all its late pays). I told them I had no incentive to pay them if they wouldnt agree to delete. didnt work. they sold it to a CA and now i have a chargeoff and a new collection on my reports. if i had it to do over, i'd have paid them. i think. either way i was screwed. and so is your sis. she just needs to decide which is the lesser of several evils... sounds like she thinks she can run away and then come back and fix everything when she's got money. doesnt work that way. i know. same thing happened to me and DH. we were dirt poor, stopped paying everything, lost our home, moved into a tiny house my grandmother owned in a crappy part of town, i started school, dh worked for his uncle, and we got on our feet in 2 yrs. then, DH got a really great job (great to us anyway--$88,000/yr) but the hours were longgggg so i had to quit school to stay home w 4 kids under 6. DH got a commission check for $30,000. it was like we won the lottery. we (STUPIDLY) called all our creditors and tried to make good on all our debts. we paid everything we owed and then some. do you think it helped our credit? not a bit. there were so many judgements, chargeoffs, and collections... even tho we 'fixed' everything (ie paid our debts) our credit still sucked. your sis has some major decisions to make. how much does she owe? who are her creditors? if she has large debt with some of the 'tough' companies (sears, mbna, citibank, etc.) she may want to consider paying the minimums on just those accounts and let the rest go. does she have a car? is it paid for? there are so many directions she can go in a situation like this. i would advise that she research how difficult each creditor will be on her in the future by doing some searches on each company here.
