What now??

Question

I had a card that total $14,000+/-. I haven't paid anything on it in 4 years. I was contacted a number of times from the collection agencies but I couldn't do a payment of $3,000 over the phone and then three monthly payments of $3,000. The first of those three payments would have been due two weeks after the over the phone payment.I offered them what I could afford to pay on a monthly basis but they refused. I live check to check so what do I do now?

Answer 1

You should check to see if you are still within the collecting SOL for your state.

Never do a check by phone. Never send a payment by personal check.
You may find your bank account drained if you do. (is that legal - no, do they do that - yes)

Send them a debt validation letter before even thinking of talking about paying.
Make sure that the amount they are requesting is the true amount and has not been illegally inflated, that they are licensed and/or bonded in your state if your state requires it, that they even have a legal right to collect on the account.

Send everything certified mail return receipt.

You might check my profile and do some reading in the links I have provided - to the FDCPA, FCRA, there is a link where you can find the SOL for your state, etc.

Answer 2

4 years is a long time to not pay. Ok..first find out if they can still sue you for the debt and eventually throw your butt in jail. You can go to http://www.debt-elimination-program-reviews.com/debt-statute-of-limitation.html
to find out. If they cant sue you over it, you really dont have anything to worry about except harrassing phone calls & letters and a bad credit report for the rest of your life. If you claim bankruptcy, it will be off your report in 10 years, not to mention you can start building credit again after like 2 or 3 years after declaring BK. You can also choose to pay it, but if its like you said, the interest rate alone is probably killing you. I imagine they are now charging the maximum interest rate of 29.9% which is like 350 per month in interest alone. I dont know how much money you can come up with, but keep in mind that after this amount of time, your debt was probably bought by another corporation for 10 cents on the dollar (if they stopped charging interest then this is most likely the case. So knowing that they paid 1400 dollars so they can collect 14,000 off you gives you some bargining power. You could try offering them a one time payment of 3,000 dollars or so to erase the whole debt or you will declare bankruptcy and never pay them. If they agree to do this, you MUST make sure you get it in writing before you send the money, or they will f*** you...trust me on this. But chances are, you will never get to talk to someone that actually has the power to make that decision, so BK is probably what you will end up doing.

Answer 3

This happened to me before. I scraped all the money I could together and called the creditor with an offer. I tried to get it down below 50% of what I owed. Something is better than nothing.. If you get the deal, you will need to ask the creditor to send you a letter accepting the amount and keep it always because you may need to prove to others that you did make a deal. Unfortunately you will have a charge off showing on your credit report for some years.

Answer 4

If you are a homeowner, check out

www.totaldebtsolutionsllc.com