Question about paying a CC card, see my attroney on the 23rd

[jb300]

I have a CC payment due today. One of the 2 cards I am current on. I owe 305. 00 on this account. My minumum payment is 38.05. I was going to pay this today and then I decided to call them and see if they would reduce or eliminate my 22% interest.

They said since I was current they couldn't. I told them I was getting ready to file BK and that I was trying to do what I could with this account. It was within reach to pay it off but I needed to get the interest lowered.

They said they couldn't. I said you mean to tell me that before when I have had no interest on much larger purchases you could do it and if I would have a Chapter 13 and the judge told you to do it you would, but I will have a 7 and you will have nothing and you still would rather get nothing than reducing my interest to give me a few more months to get this one paid off, and he said he couldn't do anything. He appreciated me trying to take care of this, understood what I was saying but that was it.

So now here is my question. Should I go ahead and pay the minumum tonight or just add it to the BK? He also told me whether I was current or not as soon as they were told I was filing BK they would close my account which I don't care about anyway.

[lrprn]

Should I go ahead and pay the minumum tonight or just add it to the BK?

Add it to the bk. Take the $38 and put it aside for a rainy day dinner out on the cc. You'll be smiling the whole night

[downsized]

We had pretty much the same conversations with all of our credit card accts. I still find it amazing that they'd rather risk us filing ch 7 than giving us lower interest rates or a few months of slashed payments until my dh finds employment. We basically said "whateva". They currently aren't getting anything from us. It's like they WANT us to file. The calls have started coming in. We haven't answered. We have a meeting with an attorney on Tuesday. If we retain him, I'll start answering calls and passing on the attorney's info.

[pa308]

So now here is my question. Should I go ahead and pay the minumum tonight or just add it to the BK? He also told me whether I was current or not as soon as they were told I was filing BK they would close my account which I don't care about anyway.

If you're definitely going to file 7, I dont see any reason to throw that $ away.

It's great that you tried to get them to work something out, most of us here have. Most of the cc companies dont want to try and work with you til its too late though.

[kathy4530050]

I have a CC payment due today. One of the 2 cards I am current on. I owe 305. 00 on this account. My minumum payment is 38.05. I was going to pay this today and then I decided to call them and see if they would reduce or eliminate my 22% interest.

They said since I was current they couldn't. I told them I was getting ready to file BK and that I was trying to do what I could with this account. It was within reach to pay it off but I needed to get the interest lowered.

They said they couldn't. I said you mean to tell me that before when I have had no interest on much larger purchases you could do it and if I would have a Chapter 13 and the judge told you to do it you would, but I will have a 7 and you will have nothing and you still would rather get nothing than reducing my interest to give me a few more months to get this one paid off, and he said he couldn't do anything. He appreciated me trying to take care of this, understood what I was saying but that was it.

So now here is my question. Should I go ahead and pay the minumum tonight or just add it to the BK? He also told me whether I was current or not as soon as they were told I was filing BK they would close my account which I don't care about anyway.

I am sure that LOTS of us have had this situation. I used to be proud of my credit score and did EVERYTHING to try to avoid this bk. My interest rates jumped from -5% to 29% overnight, with no late payments, and I was never over the limit. I was told that my interest rates increased because my debt to income ratio wasn't looking very good. I explained that if the interest rate remained what it had been before, I could likely continue making payments. But at 29%, they were going to force me into bk. They absolutely, positively DID NOT CARE. I spoke to, I think, 4 banks and had this same conversation. Screw those stupid banks. File your ch 7 and let them eat the whole d**n total. You did your best.

[pa308]

I am sure that LOTS of us have had this situation. I used to be proud of my credit score and did EVERYTHING to try to avoid this bk. My interest rates jumped from -5% to 29% overnight, with no late payments, and I was never over the limit. I was told that my interest rates increased because my debt to income ratio wasn't looking very good. I explained that if the interest rate remained what it had been before, I could likely continue making payments. But at 29%, they were going to force me into bk. They absolutely, positively DID NOT CARE. I spoke to, I think, 4 banks and had this same conversation. Screw those stupid banks. File your ch 7 and let them eat the whole d**n total. You did your best.

Kathy, yours played out the exact same as mine. Never late and then jacked up. Its crazy how they actually push people into BK... The funny thing is that raise and their explanation was the slap in the face I needed to realize we had to file bk. Some people feel bad about filing and their are times that I do as well, but I have no regrets.

And I thank you BofA for the slap that made me see the light

[jb300]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I still can't believe that they do this to people. I have asked the CC companies to send me what they could offer me so I could sit down and see what I could do... none of them would so then everything started to multiply.

I just had these 2 cards that I could have handled but now I don't feel any guilt. I tried and tried. For 4 months I have tried to come up with a solution other than BK. I have my appt. set for the 23rd and my attroney takes 2 hours and we do the petition then and it will probably be filed then following Thur. unless he sees something when we get together that would cause me to have to wait awhile.

[queenfluff]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I still can't believe that they do this to people. I have asked the CC companies to send me what they could offer me so I could sit down and see what I could do... none of them would so then everything started to multiply.

I just had these 2 cards that I could have handled but now I don't feel any guilt. I tried and tried. For 4 months I have tried to come up with a solution other than BK. I have my appt. set for the 23rd and my attroney takes 2 hours and we do the petition then and it will probably be filed then following Thur. unless he sees something when we get together that would cause me to have to wait awhile.

Yeah, don't pay the CC. Once you know you are going to do the BK, stop paying your bills. That is what my lawyer told me - stop using your cards too. Save your $$ for your lawyer fees, etc and for your neccessities like food.

Don't feel guilty. Sounds like you tried your best. I had been doing the same. I have been paying for as long as I could - using what ever avenue I could do - but I am on Plan Z right now and at the end of the line lies BK. I am out of Plans so this this it.

I am in the same boat with the CC's. My rate went up 3% on one of my cards in Jan which drove my minimum monthly up another $100. You should see my credit report - it is like perfect. It is glowing. I have never not paid a cc nor paid late. Same with loans too. The one I had that raised my apr 3% (ok, I will just say it - it is the evil Citibank) I have had that card for 20 years and always carried a balance and was perfect on my payments.

One time I paid off the whole Citi card and called them and asked them to reduce my line because it was too big and I get in trouble that way. They did reduce it to what I asked (this was 5 yrs ago) but over the years they kept increasing it back without my knowledge. They are the only card I have had that has done that. Proof that they want you to be in debt to them.

The basic story right now is that Credit Card companies don't care about their customers anymore (did they ever? not really sure - but it was never this bad in my lifetime) all they care about is covering their butts. So, it doesn't matter anymore if you never pay your cc bills or are the ideal angel customer anymore - they will jack up your rates regardless. You are just a number to them.

Don't even try calling to get your rates reduced right now. It is like talking to a brick wall.

I remember one time I had paid off a cc (Discover) and wanted to close my account because I had too many cc's and the customer service dude wouldn't close it for me - he gave me some big psych lecture about learning to budget myself - it was ridiculous. I was insulted a bit because I could tell from talking to him that he didn't know what he was doing and was talking a bunch of nonsense (My guess is that he wasn't older than 20).

I had a zero balance and I should been able to close it - no questions asked. He wouldn't shut up and I actually hung up on him and called back to talk to a manager to get my account closed. See? They don't care about you. They know if you have that account open to use and you will use it (esp. if you have a hard time with cc's like I do) which is why they WANT you to be miserable and in debt to them. They love it.

Here is a reaffirming article I read recently - made me not feel so bad about doing bk and "stiffing" my creditors:

http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/your-money/2009/04/03/suze-orman-and-the-new-rules-of-credit-card-debt.html

They don't care about me than I don't care about them anymore. Besides, they have made plenty of $$ of off me in the many years that I have had credit cards. I figure if they really wanted me to pay off my bill they would be a little more accomadating and work something out with me but they won't. So, BK here I come.

Maybe it isn't the best way to think but it helps me get through this whole thing without feeling a mound of guilt about not being able to pay my way for the first time in my whole life. I know it is my debt (well, half of it is finance charges - not really money I spent) and I want to pay it off but can't anymore. If the rules were a little more flexible, maybe something could be done but they aren't so I have to do this.

Hang in there!