What's the worst that can happen if you do not pay your debts?

Question

How long does it take before they try to take you to court and how can you get judgements of your history

Answer 1

PAY YOUR DEBTS as much as you can. Bad credit can ruin everything nowadays from your potential for employment to availiblity of insurance, health care & any myriad of things. Any kind of insurance is going to be higher if you have bad credit & bad credit can follow you forever & you will pay a higher price all the way around no matter when you need to utilize it. Not to mention that you're passing on the cost to the rest of us. Someone has to pay for those losses.
The only way to get rid of a judgement is to either pay it or get rid of it in a bankruptcy & you'll still be required to pay some portion of it off unless they don't show up to verify the claim. Most will so, think long & hard whether or not you want to bilk the system. In the end, you'll hurt yourself & your entire future more than anything.
People are under the impression that if they simply wait 7-8 years, the debt can be wiped out. Not true, if the company you owe money to, passes that on to a collection agency, & they try to collect & then they sell it to another & so on, each time it is reported it is considered a "new debt" & this could go on & on for years.
As for how long to court, depends on the company. Usually what happens is the creditor sells the debt to a collection agency who believes they can collect, i.e., let's say your original debt was 700.00 & they add on late fees of 50.00 per month & they try for 3 months to catch up to you, now you're at 850.00 & they bought it for 500.00 & the original creditor marked it off as a P & L write off, the new collection agency can collect 600.00 from you & they've made a profit. If they don't they'll sell it to another & now you have two bad marks on your credit & it just goes on & on.
Go to a credit counseling service that doesn't charge for their services or go see a bankruptcy attorney or call your creditors & work it out on your own, start as low as 10 cents on the dollar & go from there. Tell them you are prepared to file BK on the whole thing or you can send them xx now for a complete payoff, no profit & loss write offs, coz that's the same as not paying it.
Good Luck & hang in there friend.

Answer 2

You CAN'T get the judgements out of your credit history, even if you pay them off eventually they will stay for a long time, if they take you to court unless you declare bankruptcy and wait a lot of years.

Bankruptcy might not seem like a big deal but you may wish in the future to buy a home, get a loan, buy a car, buy into a business... many things that people like to do.

Ever consider making good on your debts? It's called doing the right thing.

Answer 3

They can leave the fact on your credit report for as long as they want and not take you to court Most companies will sell your debt to a collection agency and that is when interest starts to accumulate on your debt.No other lender will allow you to borrow money from them so long as you have collections on your report,so what started out as a debt of 500.00$ can quite easily rise to over 2000.00$ in a couple of years and the collection agency will allow this for 7 years and 30 days before the seven years is up they will then take it to court and have a judgement put on your record for the full amount(interest included)next they then greenish your wages for that ful amount.It is best to make a deal with the collection agency before this happens as you can save some of that interest that has accrued because the agency then gets a commission from that debt being settled,they do not if your wages are garnisheed.Make life simple for yourself pay what you owe,you did borrow the money right.

Answer 4

60-90 days to get in the court system/calendar. You can get your credit history free from trans union, & 2 other of the credit bureas & can call their 800 # & give mailing address for it to be mailed to you.

In the USA when we don't pay our debts (our responsibility if in our name),if we don't start paying debts when we have a certain date that it's due, it starts going on our credit report as a bad mark. The time frame for court depends on whether its a large ticket item / yet smaller amounts will send you to magistrate court (smaller court).
When this pattern of ignoring our bills,not caring if they are paid or not is continued its near impossible to get a loan or a low interest rate when we truly need to purchase a place to live,buy an auto,get utilities turned on,etc. You can still have those things but have to have a co signer, a co-buyer (in someone else's name).
I recently had to turn down a loan application on a house and this person had no outstanding bills & a great work record, but due to fact he hadn't established a record of credit, (applied for credit cards,bought nothing on credit, or opened a checking account at a bank), was turned down unless someone was willing to be the co-buyer, sign their name on document, meaning that name went on the mortgage loan 1st & was responsible that the monthly payment was paid.

All we have in the world to prove our character is our name-identified by a number-social security number. Guard it like all the gold at Fort Know, let nothing cause a blemish on this #,it makes life hard for years & years & years,

Answer 5

It depends on the company. Some companies can go after you after just one year of deliquent payments. Others wait more than three years to take legal action. Of course, it damages your credit and can prevent you from owning a home, getting loans, credit cards, renting an apartment, and much more because no one will trust your (or your credit history) enough to loan you more money or take a chance that you will not pay what you owe. Try to get connected with a credit counseling service. They help with consolidating all payments into low monthly payments so that you can better manage your debt.

Answer 6

If you honestly can't pay your debts then you should file for chapter 7 bankruptcy. Any major assets will be sold to pay the debts off, but usually people in that situation don't have anything that isn't protected - so you'll most likely just get the debts discharged and pay nothing.

Otherwise you could be sued and your wages could be garnished... that's the worst that could happen.

Answer 7

The worst thing that can happen is your wages can be garnished (only in some states), property can be attached & sold to satisfy the debts, and your credit report will reflect the fact you haven't paid your debts.

Insurance rates will also be increased by companies that use credit rating to determine risk. Employment opportunities can be affected.

Credit reports usually only extend for 7 years but can be renewed to 14 years in some cases.

Bad credit is not necessarily a bad thing, but it should be avoided if possible.

Answer 8

Most of the time it depends on why you could not pay your debts. I have a hunch you did it deliberately. Not at first but kept buying things on time that you did not need. If so then you may spend the rest of your life paying one way or another. Prison is one place you may live for some time. It probably will be something less drastic than that but you did it you you should pay.

Answer 9

if you go like a year or two without paying your debts the court can garnish you pay straight out of your paychecks. So no matter where you work or what state your in they'll takemoney out of your check until its payed off.

Answer 10

It depends on the amount. The worse thing that can happen is they can garnish your wages. Laws regarding this are different for every state. The general rule is 7 years but there are other ways to get them off of your credit report. You can dispute them and write letters to the different credit reporting agencies.