Can they make us sell the house? Or other items?

[lilyfairy]

What is the name of your state? ID (I live there now, But I was living In Oregon when I opened the account.I closed it in Idaho)

HI,
I recently cancelled my verizon bill and now owe $955 total, I called them to make monthly payments and they told me it had already been sent to a collection agency. I called up this collection agency and told them I could send $50 a month for 3 months and then $100, and then eventually $150 and so on,it would have been paid off in less than a year. They told me that it was too late, I either pay the full amount or 3 payments of $318.33 or they were filing a suit against me next week and I would have to attend an arbitration. They also told me that if that took place I would also be paying for their court fees and if it all was not paid in full within 30 days after that, then they would start taking a look at my assets and want me to sell them for money to give to them..........
I have been married for almost 3 years with a 2 year old daughter, I have not worked through any part of our marriage, and therefore my husband is the sole provider, we do own our own home(paid $4500 for a 1972 manufactured home),and the van is only worth $1200 and we owe $1600, ....................Now my question is since this debt is only in my name not my husbands, can they come into our home and take things away to be sold to pay off this debt? I do not have anything in my name worth of any value, my bank account has $5 in it, and we own nothing other than the house or car of value. What steps can they take to make me pay in full instead of monthly payments?
I am worried that we might be forced to sell our home, or they come in and hold an auction to sell our couches and table and beds and chairs and tv and other such things......
Any advice would be great, thanks

Alicia


P.S.
My other concern is if we do decide to take out bankruptcy(we have a total debt of $21000) Will they or can they make us sell our home or other items in home to pay off seom of this debt?
I really don't want to have to file bankruptcy, I am on good terms with every other collection agency or person we owe money too, it is only verizon that now won't take payments, and is now basically forcing me to take out bankruptcy.
Any advice would be great....

 

[Ladynred]

They're not forcing you into anything, they're telling you big, fat, hairy LIES !
You're not dealing with Verizon anymore, you're most likely dealing only with the collection agency - and what they're telling you is 90% crap.

They told me that it was too late, I either pay the full amount or 3 payments of $318.33 or they were filing a suit against me next week and I would have to attend an arbitration.

Too late my eye.. typical collection agency (CA) tactic to make you pay up. It is also highly unlikely they could sue you 'next week' - they would have to have a lawyer in ID sue you to be able to do anything.

A lawsuit is NOT arbitration, those are 2 different things. An arbitration award, by itself, is worthless.

They also told me that if that took place I would also be paying for their court fees and if it all was not paid in full within 30 days after that, then they would start taking a look at my assets and want me to sell them for money to give to them..........

More horsehockey ! Yes, IF they sue you and IF they win a JUDGMENT, they would have the legal right to go after your assets. However, there are exemptions from judgments that would probably keep PREVENT them from being able to take anything, your stuff is protected BY LAWS. They cannot MAKE you sell anything !

Now my question is since this debt is only in my name not my husbands, can they come into our home and take things away to be sold to pay off this debt?

THEY can NOT come into your home AT ALL ! IF they sue and win a judgment and you have NON-EXEMPT assets, a SHERIFF would show up with a court order to sieze your non-exempt assets.

It doesn't really matter whether this debt is in your name only or not, you live in a community property state. If this debt was incurred while you were married, then your DH is just as liable for this debt as you are.

I am worried that we might be forced to sell our home, or they come in and hold an auction to sell our couches and table and beds and chairs and tv and other such things......

Don't be gullible and don't listen to their ILLEGAL threats ! They are threatening you with things they cannot legally do and THAT is a violation of the law - the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) and all CA's are bound by this law. You need to read it and understand your rights and their limitations. For the small amount that you owe this company, they can NOT take your home, and they can NOT come take your stuff to sell !

In general, these would be your EXEMPTIONS from judgment - and bankruptcy - IF you were sued. This is the stuff they can NOT TAKE from you.

http://www.bankruptcyaction.com/idexemptions.htm

Stop listening to these lying morons, stop talking to them on the phone. Their sole purpose is to pressure you to pay up as quickly as possible and by talking ot them on the phone you are LETTING them abuse you and your rights. HANG UP ! If you want to negotiate payments, DO IT IN WRITING ONLY - and send your letters cerfied mail, RRR, so you have a paper trail.

 

[lilyfairy]

What should my next step be?

So what should I do now? Should I try to send them a $50 payment anyways, or wait for them to sue me or whatever it is they were planning on doing.
If I take that chance to wait to see what they will do, I am afraid that since my husband and I have a joint account in which his paycheck is direct deposit into it, that they will be able to freeze the account and take out money in it..........can they do this? And about how long does it take them to do something like this?
I am just debating about taking out bankruptcy and I wanted to know about how much time I have to decide before anything major happens.

Another question..........After filing for bankruptcy, If you pay ontime to any new credit card debts and car payments and such, how long would it take to be able to get approved for a home loan? Or how long will it take to start haveing good credit again?

I was also told by my friend who filed for bankruptcy a year ago, that there were some things she chose not to be filed for bankrupt, like sears credit card and a bon marcy credit card, ....now the bon marcys card said ok fine just continue paying as usual, but the sears card(which she only owed at that time $70 and was never late) said no, file this for bankruptcy too we don't want to have this account opened for you anymore if you are filing for bankruptcy.
I don't understand why they would choose not to have her continue making her payments like she always has, it seems to me that they would WANT the money rather than none. Why do they elect this option?

I have some credit cards that I have never been late on and want to keep them, But i am afraid they might say no like sears did.

PLease help, any advice would be great........

 

[Ladynred]

You certainly can send them payments of what you can afford, they'll take your money. Their insistence that it be paid in 3 months or in full is because the collection agencies want to get their money and get out of it as soon as possible. They don't want a long, drawn-out payment plan. Send them a letter first notifying them of your intent to pay $$xx a month on whatever schedule you offered before. If they refuse you payments.. screw 'em. You don't owe that much money, its not that likely that this collection agency will sue. Since your cancellation of this account is fairly recent, its even more unlikely that they'll sue any time soon. They would rather not go to the expense of a lawsuit without first trying to scare you into paying. There's no way to tell how long it would take before they sue or if they even will.

NO ONE can freeze your bank account without suing you and winning a judgment FIRST. If they sued you, you'd know it, and then you could do whatever you felt necessary to keep your bank account from being siezed. They can NOT simply just go take what they want without a judgment and a court order. Since you haven't been sued, you don't need to worry about it.

How long it takes you to recover and rebuild your credit after bankruptcy is mostly up to you. After discharge, you MUST start the credit repair process and your reports will be a mess. Once you have all the inaccuracies cleared off your report, you can start rebuilding. Many people do that with secured credit cards, making small charges that you pay off every month. There are numerous ways and its possible to be in a position to get an FHA mortgage with 2 years of squeaky clean credit, at a reasonable interest rate. It takes work and diligence, you can't be late on anything and you can't over-use credit.

Lots of people want to keep a card or 2 to rebuild after bankrutpcy. The truth of the matter is that most creditors will NOT keep your account open after bankruptcy, they WILL close the account and cancel your card. Even if you don't have their card discharged, they do not want the risk of having you with a credit card.

As I said before, you can NOT leave any debts off your bankruptcy, you MUST include all debts, that is the law. It MAY be possible to ask the judge if you can keep a small balance card, my sister did and they let her. However, most people still find themselves with useless plastic in their wallets because the creditors cancelled their cards. Just include them and forget about them, start over. You will be inundated with credit card offers after bankruptcy.. most of them will be BAD NEWS. What I'm saying is that you can let the old ones go and start over clean.

Your problem is still that you think you need credit to get by. Believe me, you DON'T, not on a daily basis. The biggest problem I know of is renting a car, car rental agencies will NOT accept a debit card to rent a car. If you're not going to need to rent a car, then why worry about it ?