[jlm0826]

My mother at the age of 52 had a massive stroke. It has left her paralyzed on her right side. She has been placed on disability. Her disability check is not even enough to make her house payment, utilities, medicine, etc. We have stopped paying her credit card bills because it takes every bit of her check just to survive each month. She has about 8 credit cards total with the most on one card being about $3,500.00 and all eight combined is about $15,000.00 worth of credit card debt. Prior to her stroke she was working with a debt consolidation company and she had made every payment but a stroke at 52 is something we never thougt we would be facing. My question is what all can unsecured credit card debt do. Many people have said that more than likely it will be wrote off. I just need some opinions.

[ScottGem]

Whoever told you they would be written off isn't telliing you the whole story. Writing off a debt simply means that the creditor is taking a tax loss on the debt. It doesn't affect the debtor at all. Usually written off debt is then sold to third parties for a fraction of the balance and these third parties speculate they will be able to collect.

They can and will file suit against your mother and probably obtain judgements against her. But that's where the situation gets rough for them. It sounds like your mother may be judgement proof. This means that, even though a judgement is awarded against her, there is no way to collect. SSI payments are exempt from garnishment. A primary residence is usually exempt from unsecured debt. So there is nothing for them to collect unless she has other assets like savings or investments.

If a creditor does file for a judgement against her she should file a letter with her bank (I'm assuming the SSI check is direct deposited) stating that the only funds in the account are from SSI and therefore exempt from garnishment. This will prevent them from freezing her account.

[jlm0826]

I have debated on if getting my mother to file for bankruptcy would be the best solution. I don't know I am just making myself sick worried about all this. Also this past Friday the vice president of the bank my mother and I use wrote a letter to each credit card holder explaining the situaiton just so they would know what was going on. They may not care at all but at least they will know the circumstances.

[ScottGem]

You can't get blood from a stone. Since the bank is aware of your mother's situation I doubt if they will accept a garnishment. So your mom is judgement proof. The only reason to declare bankruptcy is to protect her house AFTER she dies.

As it stands now, when she dies, the debts can be collected against her estate. I imagine the only asset of the estate is the house. So it will need to be sold to pay off the debts.