Just stop paying (creditors, collections, sell, sue)

[emilybh]

Originally Posted by SpeedyAZ

That's the same thing I thought! $5,000 isn't that much money and should take you terribly long to pay off as long as you WORK AT IT and not sluff off. Make some sacrifices in your life and have any extra cash go towards that debt and eventually you'll get out and FEEL GOOD about yourself.

REALLY! Get a part time job and put all of the wages towards paying off the cc account. It should be paid off in a matter of months! NO BIGGIE!

[bbguy05]

Originally Posted by loose cannon

Im seriously considering calling my cc companies and telling them that Im no longer paying my 5,000 debt as I can no longer afford it and I was drunk anyway when I accumulated the debt. Im literally going to stop making payments. What can they do to me legally? Im just tire of living paycheck to paycheck.. There was a time I could save money and fly the friendly skies! Now, Im stuck. Im just not doing iot anymore. If they want money they will have to come to my house and personally take it from me. Im even going to change my account so they cannot garnish my wages! The heck with them! Any advice or encouragement?

What can they do legally?
They can sue you.
They can get a judgment against you, that will go on your credit report and you STILL have to pay them back
They can garnish you
They can garnish your bank (checking & savings account)
They can garnish your wages
They can put a lien against you and/or your property

Any advice or encouragement?
I would suggest you contact them and explain your current situation. Get on a payment plan. Trust me, they will work with you and come to some sort of agreement where you can pay the debt back and not have to worry about any futher legal action. By just giving up and not paying, you will only make matters worse.

[whatever565656565]

So...up until now I have been diligent in paying my credit cards on time, as well as all my other bills. As a matter of fact I have never had ANY lates and a credit score of 750. Well, I made a bad real estate investment, got caught with my pants down with the market turning and can't afford the $6000/month mortgage. So I had a choice, pay the mortgage and on an investment that would take more time to come around than I have money to keep feeding it. Or, pay my primary residence, cars, and credit card bills. I choose not to pay the mortgage in order to maintain everything else.

Well here's what I get in return. I just received 4 letters from credit card companies telling me that my credit cards have been canceled. Keep in mind, I have never been late, not even a day late. I had just paid one of them, a $9000 (nine-thousand) balance off. They canceled that one to.

So, as if the foreclosure didn't screw my credit enough...the credit card companies take an isolated incident a choose to screw my credit up even more because of it. Now I have 4 cards that show up as a "creditor canceled" which is not good.

This pisses me off enough not to pay them. Why should I? I was paying them and they slapped me in the face by screwing my credit up even more. Thanks alot. For me, this justifies not paying them back. I have morals and ethics, and was upholding them. What did I get for it?

[Bill Keegan]

Originally Posted by whatever565656565

<SNIP>
I choose not to pay the mortgage in order to maintain everything else.

Well here's what I get in return. I just received 4 letters from credit card companies telling me that my credit cards have been canceled. Keep in mind, I have never been late, not even a day late. I had just paid one of them, a $9000 (nine-thousand) balance off. They canceled that one to.

So, as if the foreclosure didn't screw my credit enough...the credit card companies take an isolated incident a choose to screw my credit up even more because of it. Now I have 4 cards that show up as a "creditor canceled" which is not good.

This pisses me off enough not to pay them. Why should I? I was paying them and they slapped me in the face by screwing my credit up even more. Thanks alot. For me, this justifies not paying them back. I have morals and ethics, and was upholding them. What did I get for it?

What did you want them to do? The credit card companies extend credit to people with the expectation that they will get paid back. You just demonstrated that you don't pay your bills. Why should they take any further risk & give you any more money? It's a rather simple formula. If they have reason to believe you won't be paying them, they stop offering credit. You screwed up your credit, they didn't.

[whatever565656565]

I don't have a problem with them "thinking" I wouldn't pay them. However, they could have gone about it a different way. For instance, instead of canceling my cards, they could have lowered the limit to say $50 on the 2 that had a zero balance. With the one that has a balance they could have lowered the limit to what I owed. Instead they made my credit worse by closing the accounts. I never said they ruined my credit. I said they made it worse....AND REMEMBER I HAVE NEVER BEEN LATE AND EVEN PAID A $9000 BALANCE OFF! Where's the logic, or common sense in this? There is none. They apply a generality that says "People who are late on one bill will be late on all of them" Unfortunately, for them, they generalized with the wrong person. I had EVERY intention on paying my debts, as I was, long after my first late on the bad investment. Now, I figure I will return the favor. There is no incentive to pay them back. They made a bad, isolated situation worse.

[quote=You just demonstrated that you don't pay your bills. [/quote]

I demonstrated that I didn't pay a mortgage on a bad investment that was costing $6000/month to carry. I did not demonstrate that I don't pay my credit cards, primary residence, 5 other investments, my 2 cars, utilities, etc. I have paid all of them, not a day late, to this very day.

[Bill Keegan]

Originally Posted by whatever565656565

I don't have a problem with them "thinking" I wouldn't pay them. However, they could have gone about it a different way. For instance, instead of canceling my cards, they could have lowered the limit to say $50 on the 2 that had a zero balance. With the one that has a balance they could have lowered the limit to what I owed. Instead they made my credit worse by closing the accounts. I never said they ruined my credit. I said they made it worse....AND REMEMBER I HAVE NEVER BEEN LATE AND EVEN PAID A $9000 BALANCE OFF! Where's the logic, or common sense in this? There is none. They apply a generality that says "People who are late on one bill will be late on all of them" Unfortunately, for them, they generalized with the wrong person. I had EVERY intention on paying my debts, as I was, long after my first late on the bad investment. Now, I figure I will return the favor. There is no incentive to pay them back. They made a bad, isolated situation worse.



I demonstrated that I didn't pay a mortgage on a bad investment that was costing $6000/month to carry. I did not demonstrate that I don't pay my credit cards, primary residence, 5 other investments, my 2 cars, utilities, etc. I have paid all of them, not a day late, to this very day.

You had every intention of paying your bills, except the one you didn't pay. The credit card company has no way of knowing why you suddenly switched from being a bill paying good risk to a defaulting bad risk. But in fact you did just that. Your decision, not theirs.
And you have no incentive to pay them back? How about the fact that you entered into an agreement that said you would pay them back? How about the fact that they can come after you to collect every penny you owe them, plus the fees, penalties & expenses that are going to pile up? How's that for incentive?
You know, credit isn't one of the inalienable rights. It's a privelege. And it's offered to those that those offering it feel are worty of it. No company has any obligation to offer it to you on terms you like. Someone made an offer to lend you money as you needed it, so long as they believe you are likely to pay it back. They made a business decision that you are no longer likely enough that they want to take the chance. Stop trying to foist your error off as someone elses mistake. Visa, or Mastercard, or discover, or whatever credit card company it is, doesn't care whether you have the ability to buy something. They care about getting paid as agreed.

[whatever565656565]

To the original poster:

Most of the responses I've read sound like they're coming straight from a debt collector. They're intimidating. This is the bottom line...credit cards are UNSECURED debt. That's why the interest is higher than secured debt. There's more risk. They know it better than anyone else. As a matter of fact they would rather you have SOME trouble paying. If they really gave a damn about you they wouldn't jack your rate up to 25% for being 1 day late.

Call the cc company and tell them you'll pay a percentage of the debt 20-50%. Make them send you a letter stating that the debt is paid in full prior to sending them the money you agreed upon. Send them the money and you're done.

I suspect your credit is screwed up anyway so this likely won't hurt it much more than it already is. You can expect it to fall off in 7 years.

BTW, you can have the worst credit in the world, but if you keep it clean for 1 year you can buy a house through FHA. So...regardless of what these people say, it's really not that bad.

If you are doing this "just because" then it's pretty ****ty of you. However, if you really can't pay the full amount, you have options.

[whatever565656565]

Originally Posted by Bill Keegan

You had every intention of paying your bills, except the one you didn't pay. The credit card company has no way of knowing why you suddenly switched from being a bill paying good risk to a defaulting bad risk. But in fact you did just that. Your decision, not theirs.
And you have no incentive to pay them back? How about the fact that you entered into an agreement that said you would pay them back? How about the fact that they can come after you to collect every penny you owe them, plus the fees, penalties & expenses that are going to pile up? How's that for incentive?
You know, credit isn't one of the inalienable rights. It's a privelege. And it's offered to those that those offering it feel are worty of it. No company has any obligation to offer it to you on terms you like. Someone made an offer to lend you money as you needed it, so long as they believe you are likely to pay it back. They made a business decision that you are no longer likely enough that they want to take the chance. Stop trying to foist your error off as someone elses mistake. Visa, or Mastercard, or discover, or whatever credit card company it is, doesn't care whether you have the ability to buy something. They care about getting paid as agreed.

They should have no reason to suspect I wouldn't pay them until I don't pay them! I paid them, not a day late! You must not get it. Apparently you didn't read my last post or you just have trouble agreeing with people. Would the option of reducing my credit limits be a more reasonable solution?

Do you think that a cc company should have the right to negatively affect your credit because they "assume" you won't pay them sometime in the future? I'm sure you've heard the expression..."when you assume..."

I wonder how this would go over...let's say a high percentage of a certain race was delinquent on their cc payment...the cc company cancels everyone's credit card that is associated with that race (assuming they knew the races of cc users) because "hey they might not pay either"

You'd probably subscribe to that logic as well, wouldn't you?

[Bill Keegan]

Originally Posted by whatever565656565

You're officially an idiot and are lacking in reason. They should have no reason to suspect I wouldn't pay them until I don't pay them! I paid them, not a day late! You must not get it. Apparently you didn't read my last post or you just have trouble agreeing with people. Would the option of reducing my credit limits be a more reasonable solution?

Do you think that a cc company should have the right to negatively affect your credit because they "assume" you won't pay them sometime in the future? I'm sure you've heard the expression..."when you assume..."

I wonder how this would go over...let's say a high percentage of a certain race was delinquent on their cc payment...the cc company cancels everyone's credit card that is associated with that race (assuming they knew the races of cc users) because "hey they might not pay either"

You'd probably subscribe to that logic as well, wouldn't you?

No, I'm not an idiot (and I do wonder why such a statement would not be stricken as a pathetic personal attack) nor am I lacking in reason. You seem to have some difficulties there however. It wasn't some OTHER member of your race that chose to not pay a debt. It was YOU. The credit card companies saw that YOU had stopped paying at least somne of yyour debt, and they decided that they didn't want to risk giving you more money, as they had no way to know what yor NEXT "uninportant debt" might be. How anyone might try to turn this into a racial issue is beyond me. They DO have reason to think you might not pay, and that's what you seem to be missing. A credit report is used because it shows how you deal with yrou bills, with your credit obligations. You demonstrated that you were no longer the great bill paying consumer you used to be. How is it you can't see this?

[Daddys///M3]

Originally Posted by whatever565656565

BTW, you can have the worst credit in the world, but if you keep it clean for 1 year you can buy a house through FHA. So...regardless of what these people say, it's really not that bad.

Not necessarily true, especially if you have a BK or a foreclosure on your report. FHA is not the new subprime. It's not a free for all loan program. It has more lenient guidelines than conventional loan programs, but FHA and FHA lenders are not in the business of making loans to people that don't like to pay their bills.