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Hey I received I guess you would call it a credit card judgement for a debt I owe of $1700. Plus $ 750.00 Attorney fee for them , I guess.... I have a 4 yr old, 5 month old, pregnant again with #3, and unemployed. Just recently got laid off from my previous job of 8 yrs. My husband is the only worker and head of household. However, this is MY Credit Card Debt under my name only. I know that I have to go to the pretrial, but what is going to happen or what can I do.. We ( I ) don't have the money to pay them back... I did in fact however, went to a debt counseling service and added my debts with them.. But the one that is suing me , declined my claim (settlement).. Which I saw that it would have been the best for us and the collector to pay off this debt... Now they are suing me.... I still dont have the money.. That was our only way out, safely... What do I do? How do I handle this.... I live in FLORIDA.... I dont want to have to claim Chapter 7 just for me not to get sued....
You owe the debt. The only way to get it discharged is to declare bankruptcy. If you don't, you can try to negotiate with the creditor, but it sounds like you can't pay anything. If so, that won't work. So you will get sued, they will obtain a judgement and they will use it to attach any assets you have.
I've been sued, screwed and tattooed - and lived to tell about it. You will to. Relax. It ain’t no big deal to be sued.
If they didn't take your settlement offer THEN, they surly might take it now - or next week, or next year. What I'm saying is, it ain't over, till it's over, and this is a long way from being over.
Plus, you CAN'T file for chapter 7, and I wouldn't even if I could. Why? The only reason you file for bk is to SAVE some of your assets. Uhhh, what assets do you have????
So, you're judgment proof! That's better than being bankrupt, and you didn't have to file a thing. Take that last step that Mr. Yet suggested. Close your account and use your husbands. It's a GOOD thing that you have separate accounts.
Frankly, when you're judgment proof, you're in the driver’s seat in terms of negotiating with your creditors. They get what you offer - or they get nothing.
So, get yourself out of your jam. Then you can resurrect your life. And, you won't have a bankruptcy on your credit record.
I will agree with excon, back in the day, I had some of the best come after me for money, wait till those amount have alot more 00000 after them and you can see mean and lying collection people.
first some game rules, collection people lie, the bigger the lie the better, they will try to scare you that they will take your house, your car, lock you up in jail and worst.
So they sue you, I have been sued, excon has been sued and all it means is that the court agrees you owe the money, heck I could have told them that.
Now they can attach your bank accounts, and garnish you pay, If you aint working ( or if you own your own business) there is nothing they can do.
If you don't have a bank account in your name there is nothing they can do.
So you write them and inform them not to call you any more, ( stops alot of those phone calls) and if they sell it, you tell them not to call you.
You don't even agree on the phone that you even owe the debt. ( the Statue of limitation often runs from date of last action, so the last time you agree you owe the debt or pay on it, is the date used.
Let them send you lots of silly papers.
Now latter if and when you start back to work, they can garnish you pay, just expect that to be able to happen.
So take a deep breath and remember there are most likley 15 or more cases just like yours being heard that same day in court,
Actually, claiming Chapter 7 may be your only way out. The only other possible option is to document that you made a good faith effort with the credit counseling service to settle with the creditor in question but they refused (I gather from the tone of your post that this is what happened.) That might make the courts have less sympathy for the creditor. But, chapter 7 is your best way out.
I am 80 years old and disable. My son used my credit card and charged $8000 on it and has not made payments. Now its been turned over to collection and they called and are threatening to take me to court and take all my assets which is just my social security check. Can this be done?