Chapter 7, How to keep CareCredit card?

[Lovesgirl]

HI, I have a CareCredit card that I got several years ago maybe 5 or 6 years ago. I got it ONLY for emergency vet care. Got a $4000 limit. Have only had maybe $300-$400 on there at a time and pay it off fast each time. Right now only owe $125 on it and have set up on their site to pay $25 each month til it's paid off. The minimum payment is only like $13.

3 years ago I put all my cards into a DMP with CCCS. CareCredit was not one of them, and the card stayed intact and has not been closed or the credit line dropped.

Hubby and I are filing chapter 7 soon. What is my best bet to keep this card?

1. Send them a letter telling them we will chap 7 but ask them to consider my record and that I only use it for vet stuff and ask them to keep it open?

2. Pay it off so I don't have to enter it in the bk and hope for the best? hope they won't close it.

3. Leave some balance on there like $50, keep making the payments, and tell the bk court I want to reaffirm it?

Any suggestions appreciated. My yorkie is my life. and after bk and having no credit cards or savings, if anything happened this card is his only life line. Please advise.

[shabam]

* No matter how big or small, you have to list all debts in your petition.

* Even if you pay them off, the will probably close the card anyway.

* Very very few cards if any survive ch 7. Even the cards with zero balance that do survive, they are usually closed shortly after.

Now being that it is a carecredit card, it may have a extremely small chance of surviving. However, GE closed all of my cards with them and I did not even owe them any money.

[want2save]

I understand as my dogs are my life too. If you have been with your vet for a long time and have any kind of relationship, I would bet he/she would allow you to make payments for future care. Suggest you would make regular payments, no billing required, and that paying interest is not a problem. Discuss it now so that you have peace of mind for care for your Yorkie. Good luck!!!

[Lovesgirl]

Vet suggestion

We have used our vet for 12-13 years for one pet or another. They do NOT do payments of any kind from my understanding and if they did it for anybody it would be us. So I doubt that is an option. I'm hoping since they didn't close it after the DMP (which most consider same as chapter 13) maybe they still won't. If I pay it off, I do not have to include it in the bk.

[Chowder]

Zero balance or not. Listed or not. Eventually they will learn of the BK.

Very, very few posters have made mention of a card surviving BK. Those few that have mentioned it note that the limits are set to ridiculously small amounts in the $100 range, with interest rates as high as possible.

Of course, YMMV.

[shabam]

Hey boa closed my wife' account and she didn't even file. They queried me about her accounts and by that evening, her accounts with them were shutdown. Then she received the standards bs letter of after reviewing your accounts yada yada yada

[NoMoreCards]

I also have a carecredit card with a zero balance that was not listed in the BK filing. Less than a week after filing, I put 200 on the card (with my attorneys permission) because I needed some emergency dental work and did not have enough cash. In any case, It has only been a few weeks since I filed, and my account is still open. Many of the other zero balance cards have already closed. (Sears, Victoria Secret, etc...) Of course I made the minimum payment on the card once the statement was sent. I will keep them happy with early payments, and pay them off quickly.

I am hopefull I can keep this card open as well, but I am not intending it to be used unless absolutely necessary. I am glad it can only be used for medical (animal or critter) type of expenses and not as a regular CC. I refuse to allow a credit card debt to build again. :-)

As of today, the account is still open although that could change tomorrow.

I am keeping my fingers crossed.

[want2save]

I have a card with Chase that had a $15,000 limit with a 0 balance. They lowered my line to $1,600 and it is still open with my discharge due in less than 3 weeks. (Hopefully :-) Chase was listed as a creditor so I am astonished that it is open. Of course I have not used it. The card was formerly Washington Mutual so maybe that is why!

[mike258]

GEMB closed all my $0 balance accounts when I filed, but I had other GEMB accounts that I included in my petition.

Do you have any GEMB accounts that you are including in your petition? If so, forget about keeping it open.

If you don't have any other GEMB accounts, I would do this:

2. Pay it off so I don't have to enter it in the bk and hope for the best? hope they won't close it.

I have 2 accounts that survived so far - Bill Me Later and Newegg.com store account. Funny thing is, neither one of these accounts show up on any of my credit reports.

[OhioFiler]

My concern is the OP is wanting to continue using credit as a safety net going forward. As part of the bk process I think it's important to create a budget that covers expenses including emergency vet care. Using cards for expenses we can't cover is what got many people in front of a trustee to begin with.

I suggest the OP start setting aside $20(or other reasonable amount) each pay period into an emergency vet fund. After awhile this fund may well equal the $4,000 credit limit on the existing CareCredit card.

[LSUTiger32]

My concern is the OP is wanting to continue using credit as a safety net going forward. As part of the bk process I think it's important to create a budget that covers expenses including emergency vet care. Using cards for expenses we can't cover is what got many people in front of a trustee to begin with.

I suggest the OP start setting aside $20(or other reasonable amount) each pay period into an emergency vet fund. After awhile this fund may well equal the $4,000 credit limit on the existing CareCredit card.

DING DING DING.....what do we have for him Johnny?

You are filing BK. Get rid of the credit cards and LIVE WITHOUT THEM. As my good friend stated, you need to be building up an emergency fund for things like this. Use cash, don't rely on a credit card to bail you out. That's how you get into a mess. Vet expenses get charged and life expenses come up that make it hard to get it paid off. Don't get caught in that again.

I understand your fears but you have to break away from the credit right now.

[Lovesgirl]

You are right . . . but

We are done with this credit card madness. Later down the road, we have made a pact with each other and our CPA that we will have 1 card for personal and 1 card for business only to keep expenses separate. and we will only have limits of $1000 each. To be paid off by the company or personal in full each month. We will need to do that at some point to rebuild our credit.

This carecredit card is only used twice a year at vet appts that are necessary and it is paid off within 2 months. It is more of an insurance policy in case tonight he gets a chicken bone in his throat and has to have emergency surgery costing $5000, $6000. The card would cover most of it and we have started an emergency fund.

They say when you DMP with CCCS that creditors look at it like you went chapter 13. So I can only assume when I did that 3 years ago that Care credit left my account open cause I owed less than $100 on it, and paid it well, and I did not have any other accounts sent to DMP by GE Money who handles the Care Credit card.

So I realize I may lose it no matter what. But I am trying to plan the best strategy to keep it. That's what I need help with. Do you guys think I should:

1.Contact the company up front and ask them to keep it open? and hope for the best.
2. Pay it off pre bk and hope they don't close it.
3. Leave less than 100 balance on it at bk, make a payment immediately upon filing, and hope they keep it open?
4. Do one or more of the above as a combo strategy?

Advice to get rid of it cause i will get me in trouble is really not a problem. It can't be used anywhere else. The most I've ever had on it at one time was about $300. Our cards we are in trouble with are $10K to $20K range. A care credit with a $4000 limit would be easy to deal with and I'd very quickly pay it off even if we had to use up the limit, cause I'd want it available for the next emergency.

So any advice on the strategy you'd use? of 1-4?

[NoMoreCards]

1.Contact the company up front and ask them to keep it open? and hope for the best.
2. Pay it off pre bk and hope they don't close it.
3. Leave less than 100 balance on it at bk, make a payment immediately upon filing, and hope they keep it open?
4. Do one or more of the above as a combo strategy?

So any advice on the strategy you'd use? of 1-4?

#1. I don't see where it would do much good.
#2. I would pay if off pre-bk, assuming it has a small balance as anything over 600 can cause a problem (if I understand this correctly)
#3. If the card has any balance when you file (even .01) , it MUST be included in the BK and it will be closed as "included in BK".

[Chowder]

It is more of an insurance policy......

You might get to keep the card, who knows. But in the event it's not an option, pet insurance is available.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=pet+health+insurance+companies&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

[Lovesgirl]

for NoMoreCards & Chowder

the balance right now is only about $125, so I wil pay it down all the way to 0, that way I don't have to include it and just hope for the best

good suggestion Chowder I already have a policy on him, but the pet policies are not accepted by vets. You have to pay them, and then get reimbursed for whatever your coverage is. So you see if we are bk, no credit cards, and no CareCredit and he needs $4000 emergecy surgery, we have no way to get it so we can be reimbursed by the pet policy.

What I do now is charge it to the carecredit and then when a check comes back I cash it and write that check back to carecredit, and then some