What should I do???

[Jon99]

I was one of those young bucks who ran up a ton of credit card debt in college... Over the last few years have got a lot of it paid off, but there was a Citibank card that I always tried to ignore because of the $11K balance.. Tonight I get court papers that I am to appear next week in court.. Don't have $11K obviously, once I stop shaking, what should I be doing??

 

[Lessa of Pern]

call the attorney representing Citibank. try to negotiate settlement -- do you have $5,000 to pay this off? or try for a payment plan -- how much can you pay every month?

if you don't work something out with them, they can attach your bank account and/or a % of your salary, maybe seize some property to pay off the debt. so working out a settlement is a better choice.

 

[Pugdog007]

I would cancel the Dec trip and reallocate those funds to this debt.

 

[lizanne]

Call! Call! Call! The worse thing you can do is continue to ignore. If you can't make a significant payment now, work out a payment plan. Don't promise to make larger payments than you can afford. They may be difficult at first but stick to what you can afford and they will probably agree. Ask for a supervisor if whoever you're talking to won't agree.

Don't wait any longer. You'll feel much better once you work something out.

I have children who made mistakes too.

I'm not sure but you may make out better dealing with Citibank directly, however they may say it's out of their hands but no harm trying.

 

[tiggersmom2]

I would cancel the Dec trip and reallocate those funds to this debt.

I agree....take Lessa of Pern's advice and then take Pugdog's and cancel your trip. You should be able to nip it in the bud...so to speak....if you can negotiate them down to 5 grand.....I'm sure the WDW trip would be close to that anyway.


Goodluck!!!!!

 

[Rowena]

Would you rather use the current laws and have seven years worth of hits maybe longer on your credit report....or pay it off...


You owe the debts...pay them off. Even if it's a bit per month...if you owe...pay it off and don't abuse the system.

 

[Jon99]

Thanks guys.. This trip coming up is a gift from my parents, they gave us accomodations, MYM tickets and $1000 in Disney dollars.. Not going won't save us much... Last time they did this for us we spent an extra $350..

Ok, will call this morning and see what they offer.. I started a business 2 years ago, gave up a lot of income and savings to get this started, just now starting to see a profit..

 

[JPN4265]

Thanks guys.. This trip coming up is a gift from my parents, they gave us accomodations, MYM tickets and $1000 in Disney dollars.. Not going won't save us much... Last time they did this for us we spent an extra $350..

Ok, will call this morning and see what they offer.. I started a business 2 years ago, gave up a lot of income and savings to get this started, just now starting to see a profit..

Sounds like my friend next door. His parents gave his wife and him a trip to the beach. They went instead of paying their bills, when they returned, all their furniture was on the front lawn. I would cancel the trip and pay your bills.

 

[LindsayDunn228]

As JPN said, cancel the trip and pay your bills. Even though you may only spend an extra $350, that's money that could be used to pay off debt. Set some priorities.

 

[Alicnwondrln]

You are gonna do what you are gonna do
it was nice to get your trip as a gift

its hard posting these kinda topics they usually go bad and quickly as mnay become upset that others are going on trips if they arent paying their bills
even if those trips were gifts

there was a real brutal one about bankruptcy last year and the OP had tons of trips in her sig line
people started attacking her her and badly
she said most of her trips were gifts
people didnt care

maybe you could save a chunk of money and put it towards the bill that way you will be putting some serious $$ towards it and then can still feel good about your trip

good luck no judgements here

 

[Jon99]

Canceling the trip isn't going to put extra cash in our pockets and will only hurt my mother, based on the gift we have $1000 to spend, my goal is to plan the trip budget so thats all we will need.. If we spent $1350 last time without trying to cut corners, $1000 this time with effort seems very realistic..

 

[JPN4265]

Canceling the trip isn't going to put extra cash in our pockets and will only hurt my mother, based on the gift we have $1000 to spend, my goal is to plan the trip budget so thats all we will need.. If we spent $1350 last time without trying to cut corners, $1000 this time with effort seems very realistic..

Now I understand why you have credit problems.

 

[SDFgirl]

Can either you or your wife get a second part time job at night/weekends? Even if it's working at a conviencence mart or a bookstore - work an extra 10/15 hours per week and allocate the entire amount to your debt. It might suck for a year or two, but you'll be doing something proactive to get this debt down. And it won't take a big chunk out of your budget.

 

[phorsenuf]

Call the credit card company first and see what you can work out. If they say its out of their hands, call the Atty handling it. I'm sure they will work something out with you. Don't cancel your trip just yet, I'm sure it can be worked out where you can do both.

Also, I'm not sure why people are jumping on you about filing bankruptcy, I didn't see you mention it anywhere.

Good luck, I'm sure everything will work out in the long run.

 

[sweet angel]

Have to comment here...

OP, go on your trip as long as it really was a gift and won't cost you anything extra. I'm not sure if these people expect you to cancel and ask mom for the money that would've been spent, but what good does cancelling the trip do?

Next, either call Citibank directly, call the credit agency, or call an attorney and have him contact them. I work for an attorney and know that sometimes an attorney will get more accomplished than the average person.

Not sure why you would just ignore a card with a high balance, rather than paying something toward it each month, but I guess that's a lesson learned.

I personally would call and set up a plan to pay the ENTIRE thing off, not just a settlement -- because from what I've seen from DBF's credit report, that counts negatively as well on your credit report. Yup, you'll be paying a minimal amount forever, but you'll have the satisfaction of not having taken the easy way out.

 

[Tigger_Magic]

Canceling the trip isn't going to put extra cash in our pockets and will only hurt my mother, based on the gift we have $1000 to spend, my goal is to plan the trip budget so thats all we will need.. If we spent $1350 last time without trying to cut corners, $1000 this time with effort seems very realistic..

No, cancelling your trip would give you at least $1,000 to start paying off the debt you ran up -- exchange those Disney dollars for real ones. You could ask your parents to use the money for this trip to help you pay down your legal debts. Running off to Disney when you owe $11K is not a responsible way to behave.

 

[Jon99]

So when I get other Christmas gifts, we should return them as well for cash and pay that amount towards this debt???

Yes, we have both been looking for part time jobs that fit our schedules, but its only been within the last couple of days, haven't heard anything yet... Even if we both work 15 hours a week at $8/hour, thats right around $200 per week and we should be able to send that entire amount to pay this off, by next Christmas we would be done..

 

[sweet angel]

So when I get other Christmas gifts, we should return them as well for cash and pay that amount towards this debt???

Yes, we have both been looking for part time jobs that fit our schedules, but its only been within the last couple of days, haven't heard anything yet... Even if we both work 15 hours a week at $8/hour, thats right around $200 per week and we should be able to send that entire amount to pay this off, by next Christmas we would be done..

I personally think cancelling a trip that you didn't pay for an don't expect to spend anything extra on is ridiculous and adding insult to injury. You know you screwed up...your mom doesn't need to know it too...IF you behave like a grown-up and take steps to fix it.

The part time jobs is a great idea, but I don't see how you'll be done with $11k by next Christmas unless you have low, low interest, in which case, why didn't you just pay the damn thing in the first place? Even if next Christmas isn't realistic, you'll still have paid quite a bit down on it -- and behaved in a grown-up manner.

Good luck and don't let the high and mighty get you down.

 

[Jon99]

Well I got something in the mail from them about 9 months ago and what I rec'd on Tuesday said we owed the same exact amount, read somewhere that once this goes to collections they stop adding on interest, looks like they are doing this.. No???

Just very frustrating... Got my business loan paid off, truck loan will be paid off in about 6 weeks, student loan about gone and the business is slowly doing better.. Stupid things as a college kid are biting me in the butt 5 years later..

 

[Alicnwondrln]

stop beating yourself up
just try to fix it thats all you can do
do not cancel your trip
that wont really do anything
i was wondering where you would trade in disney dollars i thought you could not do that anymore as disney doesnt own disney and there stores werent selling htem anymore

good luck