what happens if i don't pay my credit card bills.?

Question

I have bills of 30K which are mine but partley ran up by ex wife in my name when we were still together.

Answer 1

You get bad credit which will prevent you from getting more credit in the future, ie: Loans, overdrafts, hire purchase cars and electronic equipment ect., other credit cards and even stop you from being able to get a mortgage!

So it is very important that you pay all your bills. If you are having problems making the payments, all you need to do is contact the companies and work out a payment plan. they are suprisingly helpful and lenient, as long as you can show that you are attempting to pay the bills, they wil be more than hapy to help you by working out a payment plan that suits your budget, so dont worry!

But the absolutely worst thing you can do is ignore the letters and requests sent to you. Just contact the companies and discuss your options, they dont want you to stay in debt and they will help you pay them off with a feasible payment plan.

Answer 2

The credit card company will eventually take you to court for non-payment and if you don't make an arrangement to pay the debt off or you can't afford to pay the debt off the bailiff will be sent in.

If you have a property the company can even ask the court for the debt to be secured on it which means that if you don't pay up after this they can apply for a possession order and re-possess your house.

My advice would be to contact them and try and arrange a payment plan, the more you keep them informed of what's happening the more helpful they will be. I would also seek legal advice to see if you can get any of the money back from your ex-wife. You'll probably only be able to do this though if you've got proof that she spent the money i.e. receipts etc. Put it down to experience and never trust anyone with an additional card again.

Answer 3

since the account is under your name, you are still directly responsible for the bills. in short, the unpaid bills will affect your credit rating. what you can do is to file a letter of dispute stating that you have no idea of the purchases made on the card and accompany it with a divorce letter as proof that you were not the one making the purchases. if your ex-wife's name also appears on the account which means her credit rating is also affected. this is good news as you will have more grounds to sort out the issue with her. if this is so, you can both try to pay off the debt and close the account.

i suggest that if you could, try to pay the amount past due on or before your payment due date to make your account current instead of making minimum payments as this will be cause for you to incur late fees and overlimit fees thus increasing the balance.

Answer 4

You would recieve some letters first of all.
Bank would slap intrest on it and debt would be even more.
You will get a court order and possible ccj
You will get bad credit rating and not be able to get credit any where until debt paid and clear for 5 years!
You can by the way seek advise from a solicitor as the debt was run up when married and so she must have been able to use and sign on your card so you have proof.
Go to a debt agency and they will help you find a way to pay much easier they can freeze it so you dont have any more intrest slapped on.

Answer 5

first the credit card companies will report late payments to the credit bureaus and send your accounts to their internal collections department, if you still are unable to pay then they may sell the debt to an external collection agency (those guys can be REAL big a$$holes). If the bill is large enough, they may take you to court over it and in some instances can garnish wages.

You may want to try to contact the credit companies and work with them to reduce your interest rates. If that doesnt work, look into a local consumer credit counseling organization. If the credit card companies are unwilling to work with you, they will almost always work with a credit counselor to reduce interest rates, minimum payment amounts, and I've even heard of them reducing the balance due (that was not my personal experience though).

www.cccsintl.org

Answer 6

You can go and ask Citizens advice bureau who will give you the best advice for free! Other than that, contact the card company and get an agreement set up. They are not as bad as you think afterall, they want the moeny back so are generally happy to help.

Answer 7

The credit card companies will sue both you and your ex-wife.

After they add a few thousand more dollars in penalites and court fees, they will offer to set up a payment plan.

If you don't pay they will go back to court and garnish both your & your ex's paychecks.

Call your cc companies and try to get interest stopped and set up repayment plans now, before they sue.

Good luck

Answer 8

You are responsible for all credit card bills in your name unless there is something stipulated in your divorce decree stating otherwise and still the credit card companies will come after you and you will have to go after her. They can garnish you and/or take you to court.

Answer 9

The interest will keep mounting up and you will be in a bigger hole than you are now.
If you can't make payments just now then you should visit your local citizens advice office which have a debt helping service and they could help you get the payments brought down and could also get the interest frozen.
DO NOT IGNORE IT............... IT WON'T GO AWAY

Answer 10

you will need to pay them or you'll end up with a bad credit record. get financial advice either from your bank or a mortgage adviser, it may be worthwhile consolidating your debts onto your mortgage (if you have one). don't go phoning these companies that advertise on TV you're better off getting independent advice.