Has anyone ever ...

Discussion in 'More Serious Topics' started by Reizvolles, Dec 4, 2004.

  1. Reizvolles

    Reizvolles Active Member

    Messages:
    2,487
    Has anyone ever been in so much finacial shit that they don't know fi they can face the next day? I am there right now and it's got to be one of the most painful mental stress you can have.
     
  2. Dubya 2.0

    Dubya 2.0 New Member

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    751
    I have been. There's 2 ways of dealing with this.

    1. Sign up with a insolvency support agency, who will basically deal with all of the people that you owe money too directly, you will not receive any calls or mail etc from the people you owe money to as they will handle all of this.

    You will be asked to pay a monthly figure that is comfortable for you and they will distribute this money to ALL the companies, credit cards etc involved. They make their money with a surcharge of between 5 - 10%. Do not pay any more than this! Search around for established, proven agencies.

    2. Run away

    Move house, ensure your mail is not forwarded, leave no forwarding address with landlords etc, avoid the electoral roll (i.e. don't register to vote) and generallytry not to borrow any more money ever again.

    You will be registered as a nad credit risk, and will struggle to get credit for a few years, but it's remarkably easy to do. After 5 years, as long as they haven't found you, the debts are no longer legally able to be pursued.

    I chose option 2 after trying option 1.
     
  3. Reizvolles

    Reizvolles Active Member

    Messages:
    2,487
    There's a debt consolidation agency here called Fox Symes and Associates but they require you have more than $5,000 in debts, where as mine add up to about $4,100.
     
  4. Ressurection

    Ressurection New Member

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    8
    Are you judgement proof? In most states the bankruptcy exemption is quite high. In some states like FL or TX its a goldmine. Thats why OJ and the ex Enron Cheif make thier residences there, no creditors can ever touch your home regardless of the value of the home. What state are you in?
     
  5. Schmed

    Schmed New Member

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    4,009
    Bankruptcy wont take care of a lot of things acutally, like hospital bills, fines, college loans etc etc, Rez I feel your pain, even more so to be honest, chin up though, life sucks get a fucking helmet :wink: . I'm out of town and at a friends house with no IM shit, but get ahold of me sometime, I would love to exchange debt bitching storys with ya some time.
     
  6. Dr.Roboto

    Dr.Roboto New Member

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    979
    i dont know about that creditor thing cause this old lady missed one payment and they proptly put her house up for sale. if i can find a link ill post it.

    but yea Reiz i know what you mean, we are in a world of shit at the moment.
    just to give you an idea, some how my mom missed 6 house payments in a row plus 2 $500 truck notes. how that happened it is beyond me considering the money was given to her. so shit happens. i have 2400 dollar debt comming my way to pay for a rebuilt transmission, more shit to deal with. all i can tell you is good luck and dont get so stressed out cause it could be worse, alot worse.
     
  7. Lomotil

    Lomotil Active Member

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    10,267
    So... Rack up another nine bills in debt and you should be home free, eh? ;)
     
  8. Reizvolles

    Reizvolles Active Member

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    2,487
    Well OK thanks for the advice, folks but I wasn't really fishing for legal advise because the law in Kangaroo Country is quite different to USA or UK.

    Here, debts last for 7 years, not 1.
    Here, they can't touch you if you have any assets to seaze
    Here, they can't touch you if you make an arrangement to pay a dollar a day
    Here, running away doesn't really help, they can find you via the electal role
    Here, voting is compulsary for anyone over the age of 18
     
  9. Reizvolles

    Reizvolles Active Member

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    2,487
    Sorry I mean debts last for 7 years, not 5.
     
  10. Reizvolles

    Reizvolles Active Member

    Messages:
    2,487
    Fuck me drunk, I missed the point.

    I was just asking people to relate maybe any stories they have had with debt collecting scum?
     
  11. Schmed

    Schmed New Member

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    4,009
    Well for dealing with collector scum, back when I had a land lijne and anyone and everyone had access to my number I owuld just answer the phone in spanish and pretend I didn't speak english, that worked everytime but once when the person called back with an interpertur...I felt dumb that day....
     
  12. sickem

    sickem New Member

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    62
    Riez, I don't mean to diminish whatever your particular situation is, but $4k is nowhere near an amount of debt significant enough that you should be seriously stressing over it. And quite far from any level where bankruptcy should be considered.

    I'm talking about debt (loan or credit line payable over time), not unexpected big-ticket expenses like a blown car engine or a judgment. From which of the 2 are you suffering?
     
  13. Reizvolles

    Reizvolles Active Member

    Messages:
    2,487
    I wasn't about to declare backruptcy, sick. But it's not nice coming home to find 10 messages on your answering machine abusing you. I know 4.1K might not be much to some, but to me that's a tuck load of money.

    Most of them are just bills left by my former friend and flat mate, running up everything from a grand in telephone bills, $500 in cable television, $700 in gas, $900 in electricity $1,800 in rent $860 in bond ... The list goes on.
     
  14. Reizvolles

    Reizvolles Active Member

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    2,487
    And for those of you that think I can't add, I have already payed off about $600 worth.
     
  15. unlimited-time

    unlimited-time Active Member

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    3,352
    Reiz i can understand that it's stressful.Have you phoned up all the people you owe money to and made arrangements to pay them an amount you can afford each month?All they wanna know is that they are going to get their money and they'll stop phoning you as long as your keep repayments up.Either that or try and get a loan out to cover all your debts so you only have one to keep track of.
     
  16. sickem

    sickem New Member

    Messages:
    62
    Former roomie stiffed you, then. File suit on 'em. Even if the likelihood of immediate collection on a judgment is slim, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing it'll bollox up their credit record until/unless they settle up, and possibly affect their future employment prospects.

    Revenge is also good. If you know where they are, and they own a vehicle, sugar their gas tank. Hire a needy lowlife for $100 or so to kneecap 'em. Whatever floats your boat and makes you smile when you picture it.

    UT is right in suggesting you deal with the phone maggots. Get the situational details on record, negotiate a monthly payment plan that both you can afford & they can accept that'll start whittling the balances. They just want to know your intent. If you're in a cash-flow way that you just can't reliably project a monthly plan, tell 'em that, then ignore the ph. msgs. Or chg to a nonpublished#.
     
  17. Dr.Roboto

    Dr.Roboto New Member

    Messages:
    979
    just holding this makes me fill a little richer




    good ole ben, its ashame that i have to loose it all tomarrow to pay for a transmission. i did get one fun bit out of it tho, now my buddy dave can say that he was slapped with 1700 bucks. after this ill be broke yet again.

    Reiz i hope you straiten things out, things may get worse but it will get better.
     
  18. Fugly

    Fugly Administrator Staff Member Fugly Staff

    Messages:
    1,143
    I racked up about $100,000 in debt after starting this site. Hard to believe but true. We paid over $4000 per month when we first started in bandwidth alone. I got it in my head that I would sink 15K in some shitty stock scheme and promptly lost that too.

    I’ve been digging out from under it for years now and am almost free. The hardest part about it is, once you’re in debt, it seems to be the goal of your creditors to keep you there. You get hit with higher fees and penalties. You get inundated with offers for high-interest credit cards and get-rich-quick schemes. The phone calls and letters are enough to drive you insane.

    The very WORST thing to do is to ignore it and think it will go away. You have to plan. Make a spreadsheet with all of your debts and the associated interest rates. Figure out how much you have coming in every month and make a budget. Figure out how much you can pay to each of your creditors each month without sacrificing the necessities. Necessities include food, shelter, health insurance and transportation (if you need it to get to work). Everything else in life is a luxury and if you’re serious about getting out of this hole you’ve dug, you’ll have to sacrifice things for a while.

    Call each of your creditors and tell them what you can pay and make arrangements. Stick to them until the debt is satisfied. If they say you will have to pay more, simply tell them that you can’t and send them what you have.

    If what you can pay is less that what is being added to the debt every month, you’re never going to dig out, so you might have to get a second or even a third job. If that’s still not enough, and you’re doing everything you can do and you’re still falling behind, the only option is bankruptcy. Bankruptcy should be a last resort, not a first.

    Work hard, be smart, and be honest with your creditors and you will get out of it. $4000 is not that much money. With the right planning and even the most meager of incomes, you can get out of that in a few months.

    This book helped me a lot to clean up my credit too.
     
  19. Nauseous

    Nauseous Active Member

    Messages:
    10,885
    I just found out that I have been doing my taxes wrong for 2 years and I get to do them again wrong this year.

    I've been claiming 2 and I should be claiming 0.

    No wonder I only got 30 bucks back last time.
     

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