Advantages/disdavantages for letting credit card agency about your situation

[improvent363]

Suppose you are unemployed and you recieve a threating letter by credit card agency that they might take legal action against me and get an attorney to obtain a judgement against me for not paying my credit card debt.

And you tell them the reason is because you are unemployed for almost a year and cannot make any payment. And didn't even pay your electricity/internet bill for this month and don't even have money to pay this month house rental or the next month. What do you think the advantages and disdavantages to let credit card agency know about this?

Do you think they will still sue me for letting them know about my bad situation?

[llecs]

IME, I always buried my head in the sand. I figured they are going to do what they are going to do and I have no say in the matter. If you are looking for employment actively, then your situation is temporary. In that case it might be worth it to delay them just a few months while you get a new job. I'm all about minimizing damage and a new judgment will report for another 7 years and that's in addition to the CO (and CA if they have the debt). If you can delay them with just a few dollars here and there then it might be worth it to avoid worse reporting.

In my not-so-good credit days creditors carpooled to my house. I just told them to sue because I didn't have any income or any assets for them to take. So they did (I probably shouldn't have told them that).

[improvent363]

bump

[bear812c]

You know that comment at the bottom of the bill that says, "The is an attempt to collect a debt. Any information obtained will be used for that purpose." That means everything you tell them is documented and used to their advantage against you.

I think the less information you give them the better. If they are threating to sue you then they've made the decision to do it. Don't give them any amo to shoot you with. They are going to do whatever they want to do regardless of if you tell them your situation or not. But if you make your situation sound hopeless for them, meaning they're never going to get their money from you, then they may be even more inclined to sue you just for the inconvience.

I was sued after they called me and demanded payment in full. I couldn't come up the whole balance but offered to pay $300 a month (which they refused) and I even mailed them a payment but they sued me anyway, and they won the judgement against me. I think I would've been better off holding on to that $300 to pay off the judgement and saving myself the humiliation of pleading with the hateful rep who enjoyed tormenting me over the phone. Just my opinion from my own experience.

[improvent363]

bump

[tmkeehn]

I think it depends on the situation...for example I had someone threaten to sue my wife for a collection cc that was 5 yes old. This debt was pretty marriage and my wife no longer works. She has no assets to her name. This makes her 'judgment fee' so to speak. Say they did sue and they won....there are still no wages to garnish or assets to take.

I used this as leverage. I offered them a settlement for 40% plus a deletion from the cra's in cash. They took this and deleted it because since her assets weren't tied to mine yet and she had no ACCTS to freeze/garnish it was better than nothing. In this case it worked out.

That being said, each situation is different and the laws of each state vary. I'd recommend legal counsel for anyone approaching lawsuit!

[HiLine]

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@tmkeehn wrote:
I think it depends on the situation...for example I had someone threaten to sue my wife for a collection cc that was 5 yes old. This debt was pretty marriage and my wife no longer works. She has no assets to her name. This makes her 'judgment fee' so to speak. Say they did sue and they won....there are still no wages to garnish or assets to take.

I used this as leverage. I offered them a settlement for 40% plus a deletion from the cra's in cash. They took this and deleted it because since her assets weren't tied to mine yet and she had no ACCTS to freeze/garnish it was better than nothing. In this case it worked out.

That being said, each situation is different and the laws of each state vary. I'd recommend legal counsel for anyone approaching lawsuit!

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Another reason to not open joint accounts! That was a very thoughtful strategy. Kudos!