I am possibly facing judgements on 3 credit cards. I am a senior on a fixed income. When I made these debts, I was gainfully employed. Now I am just receiving ss, and disability pension. I would have to choose between paying my rent, buying food, or giving up my car in order to pay these debts. If I get a judgement, can they sue my income, take my car, or attach my bank accounts, (I have a small savings acct. for emergencies)?

Hello pittwalk
While I believe everyone should pay what they owe I know that life throws us a curve and sometimes things happen especially in these hard economic times.If your only source of income is ss then that would be exempt meaning a judgement creditor could not touch that. As far as your saving account goes that may be up for grabs if it is not ss money. Some creditors judgement might put a lien on your car title but acutally taking the car I doubt it

I am 43 years old and have been on Social Security SSI disability insurance in California since I was 25. I have credit card judgements from around 4-5 years ago. I have been told by folks that they can't garnish Social Security, and in my experience that has been true. It might vary from state to state. When I was working a couple of years ago as a substitute teacher, indeed, I had my wages garnished. I was told by the payroll person that the garnishment was calculated by a computer program that she did not understand, but no garnishment was possible for wages less than $400 in a two week period, or $800 a month. I didn't put in too many days because I am working on a second master's degree as well. I have a friend who is on disability who made sure not to get direct deposit, because he claimed that they could get to your bank account. In my experience, no garnishments ever happened from my bank account, although I never have much balance at all and my most valuable assets are two $1000 music amplifiers and a $400 guitar. Garnishments in my experience happened directly though employers and were taken out of my paycheck, as noted on paycheck documentation.

My collection agency letters transformed to legal letters a number of years before the garnishments began. It is my understanding this constitutes "judgement." I was served a summons, failed to appear, and was sent letters of judgement rendered. Probably the best thing is to appear in court, but I don't think I would believe everything everyone says. If somebody is in a debt consolidation business, they are going to tell you the best thing to do is to become a client of them so they can take your money. I think a person you could believe would be a government employee at the Social Security office. You should go there and find out what they say about the matter. Assuming you don't live in California, you would get the pertinent information for your state in this manner.

I am wondering about that pension. I bet there are some folk who take care of the business of sending you that pension check. Look on your pension documentation for websites and/or contact information. If there is only website information go there and look for "Contact Us" links. Like the person at the school district payroll, those folks would have no conflict of interest, and in the case that their payments to you are garnishible, they should be aware of it happening, and at least could give you a ballpark, even if they didn't understand the formula.

Are you asking a question or are you trying to answer a question?
Your 3 above post are a little confusing