| What will happen if I stop paying my credit card bills? |
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deliciasimon
First Time Poster
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| What will happen if I stop paying my credit card bills? |
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I can bearly keep a roof over my head. My credit is as bad as it's going to get. What's will happen if I stop paying my credit card bills? 
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Wed May 25, 2011 8:21 pm |
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oldguy
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Location: arizona
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It depends on your situation and your wealth. Obviously, the banks that you borrowed the money from will attempt to get it back, after all, they are responsible to take care of their customers savings accounts.
If you have a job, they will probably get a judgment against you and garnish your wages to recover their money. But if you have no job, don't own your house, don't have money in the bank, you may be judgment proof. If they know that the money cannot be repaid, they won't waste more money trying to recover.
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Wed May 25, 2011 9:19 pm |
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littleroc02us
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If you stop paying your cc's, you will start receiving tons of phone calls from collectors who either purchased the debt or are the companies attempting to collect. If you cannot pay and don't have a job there's not much you can do except not to and you will be judgement proof. If you do have a job then I would advise telling them how much you are willing to settle with them and get it in writing. A lot of these cases never get to the point of suing, so I would start piling up some money if you can over the next year and when you have something to give them, then call them and try to make an offer. This won't be easy and you will meet a lot of terrible people who will try every tactic in the book to collect from you, but don't let it get you down. You have to be persistent for them to make a deal with you. Also, if you have caller ID on your phone then don't answer if its the collector. Good luck!
Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing. (Warren Buffet)
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Wed May 25, 2011 9:29 pm |
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dthomas
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A myriad of really not good things will happen if you just up and stop paying your credit card bills.
There are always options, you just have to take a second and figure out what they are. You can talk to your creditors, talk to family members who can help, talk to a banker...anything except just...stopping payments.
The debt will not go away...so you will still remain responsible for the money you owe and stopping payments will only earn you more interest and late fees that you will still be responsible for paying off.
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Thu May 26, 2011 11:03 pm |
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eastmn
Senior Member
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If they can find where you work or where you do banking, they'll typically sue you to garnish wages and seize bank accounts. They may also try to lien personal property. If they can't find a job, bank, or property (money trail), then they typically wont spend the money to sue (pointless). The statute of limitations (for suits) is typically 2 to 5 years...
Bankruptcy typically writes down your debts (principal) to something affordable. You might be able to do this on your own, without bankruptcy, by telling them what you can afford and ask them to reduce principal to that amount.
Example: 3% monthly bill on 5K credit card is $150 monthly bill. Affordable?
The reduction in principal is normally taxable income, but you can try to avoid this by "disputing that portion" as abusive and improper, which would then mean that it's not taxable. If you can get that agreed in writing, then you can avoid the 1099 taxable income form from them at the end of the year.
A, B, or C?
I'd go for C [dispute the balance (as abusive/predatory), and ask for affordable reduction]; and pay only if/when they agree that it's disputed (not taxable 1099 income).
I hope it all works out for you.
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Fri May 27, 2011 10:43 pm |
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ttammie98
Member
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Joined: 23 May 2011
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If you completely stop making payments, then eventually the companies can sue you. However, they will probably try to settle with you first. If you are in a tight crunch, then it is definitely more feasible for you to take care of your basic needs first like food and shelter. And then for you to try to make the minimum payments on everything else.
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Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:51 am |
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misaelwade
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Location: london
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I think credit rating will get very bad, very fast. Your creditors will be phoning you and hassling you for payments. Not much more than that will happen for a year or so, when they will start to come after your assets through the legal system.
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Wed Jun 08, 2011 8:45 am |
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