Not paying CC bills????

[gottalottabills]

I am now a housewife that used to work a fulltime job. My husband works and we get by, but money is tight. We have small children and getting another job is pretty much impossible. I have a credit card from BOA with a balance of around $5500 from years past. My husband has been helping me pay the minimum for about a year, but we are getting nowhere on it. BOA will be raising my minimum payment at the end of the 12 month "set payment" they agreed to help me with. If I stop paying the BOA, what can happen? My credit is already "not so good". Our house is in my husbands name only and the only thing I have in mine is my car (worth about $4000). Can they take my car? Will they sue me and if so for what? Can they take our income tax return because we file jointly? I need to know so that I can talk to him about this. Please help me if you have any information about this type of situation.

[no_it_all]

I would sell the car, take two grand and buy a clunker to get to the store and back, and use the other two grand to pay down the credit card bill. That would lower you monthly payment to about ninety dollars a month. Get rid of the internet and cable TV and BINGO! you are there!

If you don't pay the credit card, yes they can sue you, and yes they can take your car or anything else when they get a judgement. They can sue you for the balance owed, collection costs and reasonable attorney fees. Not likely for such a small balance, but possible.

[miss puff]

Another thing you could do is not do anything at all. If the credit card is only in your name, you could stop paying it all together. They will more than likely try to sue you (get a judgement) but you have no income in which to pay it back and they can't come after your personal property if it is exempt which most stuff is. If your car is more than the exemption allowed, they would have to make sure that it is enough of an assett to cover the debt, seizure and sale.

However, this is not the best route to take. A judgement can last many many years and if you ever do get a job or come into some money, they will probably find out and get the money in the end along with their legal fees and interest tacked on it would probably be close to double the debt.

In the end it probably wouldn't be worth it. No it all has some excellent advice. I would try to sell the car, pay down the debt and keep plugging away at it. I know it's a very long process and doesn't seem like it will ever go away, but if you pay just $10.00 above the minimum every month it will get their. And, if you and hubby get tax refunds, you could apply that to it as well. Good luck!

[SinkingFast]

We owed Uncle Sam $8100 for taxes for '05. That's on top of all the other debt we had/have. I didn't blink an eyelash.

I went and sold my truck the easiest, fastest way I could. I went around to car lots and took the best offer. Selling the truck paid off the IRS.

Took the Extended Warranty policy to a Dealer and cashed it out. The proration money paid our attny's fee.

Yeah I've lost some independence and freedom of mobility. Yes we have to juggle who gets where when sometimes. But I'm glad we don't have the IRS looming over us, on top of all the other debt.