CC Hardship questions

[Tryingtokeep]

I was offered 0% for 12 months by one of my CC's however they want account info to set up automatic payments. I am a little reluctant to give them this info. I am going to try to convince them to continue to send paper statements since I do pay bills from a couple of different accounts and sometimes go to branch and pay with cash.

Any thoughts???

[BigJohn]

Open up a new bank account and have them withdraw the money from that bank account.

[treehugger1]

Tell them to "pound sand" as BB puts it. I've been down this road many times. In the end, if they are really interested in working with you, they'll probably take money orders and/or western union payments. What they really want is any bank account number. Screw 'em! Start anew with a bank account and NEVER use the account to pay creditors, CA's etc. There is no giant database out there that ties your SSN to bank accounts. At least there is no database available to private corporations. Start today by protecting your own identity and sharing NO personal account information with ANYONE! In my opinion, you will be far better off. I can now always tell folks that I HAVE NO CHECKING ACCOUNT. I've returned to the days-of-yore, where I pay all my bills with MO's and/or prepaid debit cards; essentially cash. When folks tell you they can only work with you if they have a checking account number, tell them to keep reading down there script until they get to,"Customer does not have a checking or bank account." They have contingenicies for this. If not, then they deserve to fail and be owned by the federal government, which is you and I, by the way. LOL

[peacesoon]

Well, I just did this with Citi and I gave them one of my checking acct numbers. I do not have a problem with it now since I plan on paying them for the next year AND I do not keep much money in this account at a time. They are not allowed to garnish without a court order and they would get an NSF if they withdrew more than the agreement.

[junker]

peacesoon, i did the same thing, only if you happen to have not enough money in the acct, the bank sometimes WILL pay the payment, and will not reverse the payment, so you are stuck with nsf fees, plus payment. this happened to me with wachovia. i argued and argued with them, they say if you set up auto payment its your problem..and all i did was set up a one time payment... i suspected they would try and take it out the next month, so i made sure i only had a couple of bucks in the acct, Wachovia paid the 100 buck bill and said i owed them...i never did paythe overdraft or nsf fees, they finally closed my acct.

[treehugger1]

Peacesoon, If you set up payments in advance and you don't have the money in your account, and authorized Citi to deduct a specific amount at a specific time every month and you don't have the money in the account YOU will be charged the OD fees. You are the responsible party to the account, not citi and not the bank. It sounds as if you are "certain" there will be no problem on your end, so perhaps it will all work out. I'll keep an eye out for any future posts that suggest things have changed in your world. Best to you.

[peacesoon]

Hi Treehugger1!

Peacesoon, If you set up payments in advance and you don't have the money in your account, and authorized Citi to deduct a specific amount at a specific time every month and you don't have the money in the account YOU will be charged the OD fees. You are the responsible party to the account, not citi and not the bank. It sounds as if you are "certain" there will be no problem on your end, so perhaps it will all work out. I'll keep an eye out for any future posts that suggest things have changed in your world. Best to you.

I do understand that if I do not have the money in the account that I will be responsible. I guess that I was alluding that if they took out more than what was agreed - yes, it would bounce(or maybe not) depending how much I have in there at the time. If they did take out more than agreed(in a month), I would immediately close that account and open a new one. I can make these payments as scheduled at this amount(and she told me to call her 3 days before if I can't and she will change the payment date - they were being awfully nice) provided my husband doesn't get a paycut or another job loss. If it happens, I will notify them immediately. BTW, our income has dropped to half beginning of 08. We made good $ before but were obviously stupid, didn't save enough to weather through hard times, etc. Family is following a strict budget now - which actually feels good.

My Husband is coming back today on business and he will be calling Citi and Chase tomorrow on his accounts. Hoping for the best. If they won't reconsider for him, then we will not pay those until they change their mind.
The minimums as they are put us over our monthly income.

I have to delay BK for a number of reasons. One, we might be forced into a Chapter 13 and 2) Who knows what the future holds regarding job security...and others...this would then force into a BK7.

I hope we can work this out and get the creditors to work a deal out with us because I have major anxiety(even under normal circumstances, unfortunately) and I have a really hard time living in fear of the creditors seeking a judgement, calls on family, etc. I am borderline OCD. It would consume me.

Best of luck to you,also,my friend!

[peacesoon]

Well, my husband must be better than I am! He got Citi to do 0% interest for 12 months and a lower minimum(.07) payment per month - I am doing at .01. So, I am thilled about that. His balance is higher than mine.

We left messages with some higher ups at Chase and hoping to hear back Monday. I am hoping they will do a repayment of 0% interest over 60 months to be Paid in full. Crossing my fingers on these accounts.

BTW, it's probably been posted but the NFCC.org posted a new memo(end of April) that Debt Management programs have worked with all banks to offer hardship programs vs the standard DMP programs. So, I am hopeful we can do this on our own. I think the OC would prefer that too.

This will get us by for another year and if I happen to also find a job(I hope) then we can save up that money and settle early. This is a better option for us than BK13...still keeping our options open but this buys us time and makes it manageable. Unless something happens - like another job loss .