@Anonymous wrote:Hello friends. I need advice. So when I graduated from high school, I went to the bank near me and got a credit card against mother's permission. I was 18 and stupid and had a $1200 limit and maxed it out and ended up not beong able to pay it back. It was a mistake I regret to this day. However, **bleep** happens. Anyway, the debt was charged off by Wells Fargo in May of 2013. I didn't know that, though. I didn't know what a charge off was or anything. I just ignored their calls hoping they'd go away and when they stopped calling, I thought I was in the clear. Fastforward and I'm now 21 going on 22 and about to graduate from college. I have started to become financially literate and learn about credit and stuff and after being denied for student loans and other credit cards and things, I joined myfico and realized that I had that now $1500 delinquency that was charged off 2 years ago that was damaging my credit. That's the ONLY bad thing on my credit besides some hard inquiries. I am still in my last semester of college and I can't count on making money money until 2016 when I get a career. Anyway, I did research and planned to see if I can discuss my case and get a pay for deletion or something. I mean, I was young when I made the error, and now I'm graduating college and with this on my report, it'll be hard to get a car or an apartment and stuff so I thought they'd understand and help. I spoke to multiple people and they refused to do anything. Like they were real **bleep** (well they were nice but **bleep** because they really did not help). The manager was telling me "oh we all make mistakes and you'll learn next time". Ugh. So I told them whatever and I'd pay it by the end of the month. But then I thought about it. I don't think I should pay it. They were about to sell my debt and I know people say a paid charge off is better than unpaid but this was 2 year old debt and it's my only delinquency and I can easily build credit with secure card and just move on with my life until I have enough money lying around where paying this debt is nothing. But right now I'm struggling and paying this debt is a lot and if they refuse to remove it, I don't think it's even worth it. I really can't believe they are treating me like this knowing that I'm about to leave college and need this off so that I can start my life. But yeah, I figure if I'm **bleep** out of luck either way, I might as well just pay it when I get my career and can easily spare the money, but not right now. What do you think?
I pretty much agree with you; I am one of those people that believes in paying something if it's owed. However, I am not going to judge those with collections or BKs as that is not my place and I do not know the circumstances. Sometimes people who have collections don't even know (either it's not their debt or they never got a bill because they moved, etc.), people can get totally burdened with medical bills (which to be fair, the cost of medicine/healthcare in the US is ridiculous and anyone who files BK on medical bills alone always gets my complete sympathy), and other things can happen in life.
I agree with TRC_WA that BK laws for BK13 filers aren't fair (I think that after the agreed amount is repaid, it should just disappear from your reports) and sometimes it *seems* like BK7'ers get off scott-free (which in reality, I think *most* people who file BK7 are desperate and have truly thought it out; I don't think there are as many people who got out, spend a ton of money for the sake of it, and then file BK7 to get out of it as some might think).
However, I do think it's wrong to just ignore CC bills for the sake of it -- my fiance has a friend who has had several charged-off CCs because he just didn't want to pay them. He still buys things with his debit card/cash all the time (I mean frivolous things). I think that's horrible since he could pay, he just doesn't want to because he feel he doesn't have to. (Of course karma is going to get him since he apparently applied at my fiance's company for an accountant position; the interview went well but then the company pulled his credit as it's for an accounting position and they are not going to hire him on that alone).
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