Chase threatening to sue -- what do I tell them?

[ssmdem]

Yeah the not was a typo. Sorry OP. In FL most wages usually can not be garnished if you are HOH (you have to file out a form claiming HOH).

I believe anything after $500 (weekly) can be garnished up to 25% even if HOH.

That's what they told me at court a few weeks ago.

Well, everything I find online says the same, so I guess in reality, his wages can be garnished as he makes more than that. I guess we'll just go with the our only income is from the HOH and "our attorney has advised us" that HOH wages can't be garnished in Florida and just try to skirt the issue of actually how much that is.

We can file sooner if we must -- it's just gonna cost us $1200 due to an insider payment that was made way back before bankruptcy was even a thought. Our income is where we need it to be in October --- but I was hoping if we got that far that we could hold out two more months to save the $1200. I guess paying it back to the trustee might be the lesser of two evils is this gets too close for comfort.

[Freddy03]

Only 25% of the difference after you minus $500 can be garnished.

Good Luck! I'm trying to fight off a garnishment myself before I file.

[DG1966]

Exemption - Head of Household
Florida Statutes protect the head of household from wage garnishment. Unless the head of household makes more than $500 a week and has not consented in writing to have their wages garnished, he is exempt.

AND HAS NOT CONSENTED IN WRITING is the key part of this as far as I can tell.

[ssmdem]

Well, after talking further to my husband about the conversation, I think they're still just fishing. He said the guy wasn't pushy -- just offered the 35% reduction and said that our balance was in the "range for when they usually try to sue and go after a garnishment." ?????? Whatever -- that statement just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And when my husband asked for an extension to reach him back directly, he said he didn't have a direct extension. So I don't believe it was anybody with any "real authority" anyway.

Just going to give my husband the new "spiel" to give them the next time they call. Both accounts still can be pulled up online -- just show a $0 availability - so I think we're still good for right now.

Hopefully reminding them that we're close to foreclosure with our house and bringing up the HOH issue and FL statutes with garnishments combined with "on the advice of our attorney" will be enough to put us on the backburner anyway.

[keptdigging]

The insider payment (I'm assuming it's a preferential payment to an insider) may not be as much a sure thing as you think. The trustee has to file suit (against the person receiving the payment not you) and there are costs involved. (Though from what I've read here, FL trustees chase much smaller amounts than TTs here in California do.)

Sounds like your best strategy is to have your BK ready... if they get close to actually being able to garnish/seize pull the trigger and file.

My experience with Chase is that they do follow through with their threat to sue, but it doesn't happen overnight.

[ssmdem]

My attorney is a trustee as well, and when she saw that I had a loan with a family member, that was the first question she asked and said, "Expect that to be asked for back." Ticks me off, as I was current on EVERYTHING at the time -- so don't get how it's preferential, but do get the insider part. Guess it just is what it is. I'm prepared for it -- just kicking myself as I wish I had started looking into bankruptcy before I did as we made all the classic mistakes -- this payment and a HUGE 401K withdrawal that we'll now be paying back for the next 5 years!! Keep trying to comfort myself with the fact that we won't have to pay back the credit cards though -- just hard.

She works as a consumer debt attorney as well, and she wasn't entirely sure we'd make it through without getting sued with our balances. Two cards with $25K each and will be 7 months late at the time of filing. I think I'm going to go ahead and retain her now just to have her there. She did tell me my first step should we get sued would be to request proof and said "that alone should buy you enough time." So, at least if I have her retained, I can get her advice on throwing enough red tape into this to buy us the time we need.

[ryan]

I was in same situation with Chase much earlier in the year (and with CITI!)....

Chase, as I learned will sue at as little as 5 months (I was sued at 7 months) BUT, there was a few months of 'talking' about settlements. I would say it would probably be worth it to keep communication open with them. You may be able to hold off legal for 2 months or so just by remaining in contact. Thats what I realize now, as I look back.

Then if you're still not ready to BK, and they sue, you'll answer, and with clogged court dockets you'll probably get a first court hearing date 2 months out or more...so there's 4 months additional time already just by following a plan.....Good Luck!

[ssmdem]

Well - they called back today -- apparently, this IS Citibank we're talking about - not CHASE. SIGH! My husband's lack of attention to detail scares me sometimes! Anyway, they want to know by Sept 10th if we're willing to do 0% interest for a year, slashes the minimum payment in half. My husband told them everything I told him to say - the guy did notate that we were operating "under the advice of an attorney." So, we've at least put them off until the 10th anyway. He did say that he was open to giving us a couple of months to get the foreclosure issue solved. That would get us to October/early November anyway. And at that point, I won't worry as we'd be close to 30 days from filing then.

So, guess it's Chase we haven't heard from then. Don't know if us trying to get a modification with them for the mortgage has helped any with them or not on the credit card.

[ryan]

So, guess it's Chase we haven't heard from then. Don't know if us trying to get a modification with them for the mortgage has helped any with them or not on the credit card.

I doubt the credit card part of Chase even communicates with the mortgage part.. just my opinion.

[ssmdem]

I doubt they do either......just know they've always been easier to get off the phone in the past when we say we're working with Chase on a modification right now than Citibank has been. Usually they've responded with, "Oh okay, we'll check back later and see how that's going."


Citibank's last comment yesterday was, "I see that's you've been an excellent customer for many years who was never late, and we're just trying to keep this from elevating to a 90 day late status account." Hoping all of that will work in my favor enough to get me to December.

[daytona]

You should be fine, chase seems to sue right at 6mo, the rest longer..If they do sue its not the end of the world because if you answer the suit you can usually F around for another 6mo+ before you even get close to judgement stage..you should make Dec easy.. With Citi even if you make 1pmt at their 0% offer the clock will probably reset, they want auto deductions, but you can cancel and/or close account.

[dealingsdone]

I doubt the credit card part of Chase even communicates with the mortgage part.. just my opinion.

I recently went to Chase bank because I wanted to get my accts on a list for myself, including the kids accts. They gave me a printout and it showed all my bank accts with them and it showed my delinquient credit cards that I BK'ed on. I wouldn't have been surprised if they were able to pull mortgages too, if I had any with them.

[koppd1]

I was sued by Chase. My atty worked out a deal that we would accept a guilty plea if they gave us 60 days to file. We went past the 60 days Chase had to spend more money to receive a garnishment but that quickly with the automatic stay.

[ryan]

You should be fine, chase seems to sue right at 6mo, the rest longer..If they do sue its not the end of the world because if you answer the suit you can usually F around for another 6mo+ before you even get close to judgement stage..you should make Dec easy.. With Citi even if you make 1pmt at their 0% offer the clock will probably reset, they want auto deductions, but you can cancel and/or close account.

True but only to a point...I wouldn't automatically count on an additional 6 months, for instance if they are suing in Small Claims Court, which they prefer, it will go much faster....so really depends on the amount as well.

[ssmdem]

True but only to a point...I wouldn't automatically count on an additional 6 months, for instance if they are suing in Small Claims Court, which they prefer, it will go much faster....so really depends on the amount as well.

I think we are WAY past the small claims court amount -- we're at 25K and then some based on whatever late fees they've added on.

However, it's a moot point now. We actually retained our attorney while this forum was down -- I was going through withdrawals. - but she told me to give them her info and stop worrying about talking to them. I asked if it could make them sue faster, and she assured me that at this point in the ballgame, it didn't matter. So, that's what we've done. We gave both Ctiibank and Chase the information yesterday. Citibank was fine -- said we would receive no more phone calls for 30 days to give us time to get the paperwork prepared. Chase was little more snippy -- left a number that we needed to call back "when we have more information to provide." We did receive a letter from the legal department stating asking for payment of the entire balance (yeh, right!) or they COULD proceed with litigation. I'm going to send an email to my attorney and just ask how to respond or whether to ignore.

But we did decide to go ahead and file in November (other issues complicating the matter now), so we'll just have to suck it up and deal with the insider payment and pay it back if necessary -- so now we're only looking at two months before filing. So ready to be done!