I have a question for you all.... I have about 20K in credit card debt, that has been charged off. Should I use any equity that I have in my home, before CA's put a lien on it, or get a judgement, or garnish wages? and if so, do you recommend anyone to refinance my home loan through? I live in NY. Thank You in advance, Amy
Have you done validations on all of these? Don't go paying them until you've made the CA validate. Then see if you can settle for a lesser amount. Have you actually been sued by any of them yet? If not, you're a long way from liens and garnishments.
Hedwig~ No, I have not been sued yet, no judgements, liens, or garnishment orders, but have been threatened. They have been charged off no for 1-2 years. I have not validated, because with the 1st CA letters, i had thrown away(stupid). Hopeing they would go away. I just cannot afford garnishments, we are barely making it as it is. I know we have the equity in our house because the whole town had to have a re-assesment, and ours went up $15, 600. We also had siding, roof and windows put on. (free, though, from my dad...he is one of those electrical contractors whom is owed favors) so he gave me the stuff for the house. Please any help, letters would be great. I am not good at this stuff at all....I am willing to pay for your help...I am desparate. Amy
Many CAs make threats they won't carry through. Depending on the threat, that may itself be a violation! Even if you threw the letters away, you can get the addresses and contact them to request validation. But, the FIRST thing to do is to see what the Statute of Limitations (SOL) is for your state. After that period of time, even if they take you to court, you can assert that it's past the SOL and they will not be successful. Before they can garnish your wages, they will have to sue you and get a court order. If you read a lot of posts here, you'll find that even if they sue you, they might not be successful. You may make it so painful for them that they will settle. In the meantime, you will be documenting their actions and possible violations. Instead of paying out, there are many here who have been paid by the CA. So, don't offer to pay anything and don't contact them yet. Find out what the SOL is. If they are not actively pursuing you, it might be a good idea to just let it be until the SOL expires. If they contact you, then post here and we'll deal with it. DO NOT, under any circumstances, talk to them on the phone. If any CAs call, just tell them you want all contact to be in writing, and that they should send you any information they need to convey. DO NOT admit it is your debt. DO NOT agree to any payment plans. This can restart the SOL, that's why you don't want to talk to them. Just tell them that you want all correspondence in writing and hang up. Then post here who it is and what they did, and we'll figure out a plan of attack. But at this point, don't even think about taking the equity out of your house to pay these CAs.
Hedwig... You are so very helpful, and kind thank you for all of your words of wisdom coming from a mom of 2(well actually 3-my baby died in Oct. 2002 of SIDS), whom really doesn't understand all this stuff, nor do I have the time with 2 active children, and doing research on SIDS to help others. I live in NY, and the SOL is 6 years(sucks). As of yesterday I ran my credit report from Experian. It is BAD! As Follows: Exxonmobile/MBGA date open April 1998 Balance date Feb. 24 2004 bal$ 718 acct transferred to another office First USA Bank date open Nov 1995 Bal- $6767 Bal. date- April 2002 Past due $ 1050 Charge off**** they have not attempted to contact at all Home Depot/MBGA Bal. date July 2 2003 high bal-$ 892 acct. transferred to another office Kauffmans bal. $699 Bal. date April 6, 2004 charge off JP Penney Bal. date sept. 30 2003 bal.$ 1014 acct. transferred to another office WFNNB/service merchandise Bal. date Aug. 28, 2003 Paid, was charge off **** I never paid this? Whom has been making payments??? Gateway Bal. Date Apr. 3, 2004?? bal 1928 Charge-off *** I have not paid on this in over 1-2 years, why is the bal. date april 2004? ****** Arrow Financial Service Collection agency date open March 2003 bal-$ 1815 bal date-Nov. 24 2003 Lowes bal-$ 1460 acct. transferred to another office I also found on my credit report another WFNNB/Steinbach acct. It said it was opened in July of 1976 I was only 1 year old! anyway it was paid as agreed, never late so should I just leave that on there? ****another question...they have my name on there 5 times some with my maiden name, some with my last name not spelled right same with addresses 5 different addresses all with similarities, but not right what should I do about that **** 1 more(sorry)- under notices it says that with the SS# I gave them, shows credit was established before the # was issued.(what the heck does that mean?) Thanks Hedwig! Amy
i think one thing you haven't mentioned is if you would even qualify for a home equity loan. most companies are not going to want to have your LTV at 100% to pay off charge offs. have you considered settling and working out a payment arrangement?
another thing ive felt made sense is that you don't want to trade 'unsecured'(your credit card) debt to 'secured'(your home) debt. there are homestead laws and so forth you should look into. in addition, the garnishment regulations. best bet tho is as hedwig said is to make the CA's jump thru hoops, document their mistakes and use it as leverage. you are short on time. but, this has to be dealt with. its not going away---unless you take action.. your in a good position, there is no REALLY adverse info against you yet. it will take management and time but it is manageable! Ill help as I can but its up to you. good luck bugman.
how much equity do you have in your home ? if you refi to pay off CC debt may be hard to get a good rate because of what your CR looks like, when you refi bank will want to pay off CC first. there are some on this board that say, you should never substitute secured debt (your house) for unsecured (CC) debt. if the only asset you have is your house and you have no savings, other real estate, stocks/bonds, maybe you should look at BK to get rid of all the debts that you haven't been paying (by the way, why did you stop paying ? not being judgmental but if you just don't have the funds then BK is the way to go). with BK they can't make you sell your house so nothing really changes except your CR will look better in time. also, if the CC go after a judgment they will attempt to get wage garnishment. this is extremely bad because not only are they taking money from your take-home pay (i assume you need as much take-home pay for those crazy things like food, milk (get a loan for milk alone) roof over your head, and utilities). in addition, your employer will not be too happy with wage garnishment and if you are in a small firm this info will get out (which will effect your work life).
