$16K, they may sue if all three accounts are now owned by one collection agency. Let's say they paid $4K-$5K to get the accounts, (they probably paid a lot less). That means they have an account worth about $11K. They will need $3-$4K to get an attorney to sue, and then give that attorney a percentage if he wins. So that leaves the account worth $7K minus whatever bonus goes to the attorney. If I owed $16K to one collection agency, I would expect a possible suit. Things to consider is the size of the collection agency. It it is a large one, then they have much bigger fish to fry and wouldn't bother suing. A smaller one man shop would definitely sue.
<B>Debt Settlement.</B> If you are currently insolvent, this may be the answer. My ex business partner is now in this business and he is killing it. Some very sobering notes according to him. -BofA was taking 25 cents on the dollar to write down and settle with borrowers. -For the last few weeks, they have gone down to 10 cents on the dollar. They have been the MOST aggressive of all the companies thus far. OK. What happened a few weeks ago? Signals were made that the Treasury was looking to help Student Loan and Credit Card debt markets. Banks have been ballooning their Level 2 and Level 3 assets as fast as they can in hopes of getting to unload it on the Gov. So if you owe 25k right now, you can call a debt settlement company and get the facts. Like I said why not take it now at 10 cents on the dollar and take the FICO hit (not BK!) before the Gov sticks it to the tax payers for the impending bailouts.
No, I doubt if personal BKs will get that high again. In 05 I think there were a little more than 2M filings, in 07 there was 822K filings. I don't remember how many have been filed already this year, but I doubt if it's approaching that 2M mark.
I think the junk bond default rate can provide an analogy for my suspicion we test the highs. in 2007 junk bond default rates were lower than 1%(0.58% I believe), they are projected to peak at 8%, the market is actually pricing in something much worse I dont think its a strech to think personal fillings will triple from here
I'm heading out the door here to get my errands started. I just wanted to interject on the moral issue of filing BK. Most of us have been taught to pay your debts. We've been taught that not paying debts is dishonorable. But we were never taught that moneylenders can be scumbags. BK is a two way street. It takes a lender and a borrower to create a mess. Most of the time, I believe the mess was created by greedy moneylenders. An exception of course would be the deadbeat mentioned in this thread that fled to India to avoid paying back his debts. he knew he wasn't going to pay it back at the time he borrowed it. Debtors prison is a perfect place for him. Some people say we should bring back debtors prison. OK, then what about creditors prison. There are a helluva lot more scumbag moneylenders then there is debtors. Filing BK is a business decision, not a moral decision. If you can't pay, then consider BK, that's what it's there for. If you "WON'T" pay however, that's another story. But I don't think there are many people in that situation. There are far more predatory lenders then there are deadbeats.
actually moody's projection is a 10% default rate for high yield bonds, some private projections are running at 12%.
there are three citi bank cards and they are handles by 2 different collectors. UCB and CBE Group. UCB is united credit bure and CBE Group is just cbe group. average is 6k per card.
I doubt if a collector would sue for $6K, but it's possible. How long has it been delinquent? In California, the statute of limitations on consumer debt is four years, I think. I don't know what it is in NY. I googled for it but couldn't get a quick clear answer. That's an option, wait for the statute to expire, but the longer you wait, the more likely the collector is to sue. Once he sees the statute coming up, he will start considering it more and more carefully.
Exactly right. CC debt is great if you have a top shelf credit rating. I have a BAC card with 16k on it that costs me 1.9% per year. In the meantime, I have that 16k in the market earning about 50% per year. Am I gonna pay off that 1.9%? Hell no! Plus, keeping at least one credit card active keeps your credit history active. Lenders aren't looking for people who have dead credit histories. Debt is a very powerful yet very dangerous thing but if you can manage your debt wisely then it really works in your favor. Nice work huh!
and....if BAC pulls one of those, "we're raising your interest rate to 28% because we want to" then I'll be on the phone to cancel the card and pay it off immediately.