I've gotten so used to the idea that I was headed for bankruptcy (and feeling like I deserved it for my transgressions) that I missed the obvious.
What CC companies are now doing is: NEWS.
Forget me and my sins. Take an honest, typical working family raising their kids. Bad economy, lose income, can't pay their CCs. Now in a mere 90 days that CC company is suing, for the entire balance, and 30 days later can have a judgment for that entire balance and use it to seize that family's entire savings. While 75% of wages are protected, 100% of savings, of emergency funds ARE NOT.
(And the wave is happening so hard... good luck finding an attorney!)
The lowest hanging fruit for banks is the savings this desperate family is surviving on to eat. In a 12+% (California) unemployment economy.
Yes those of us here are fighting back. But our own battles are distracting ourselves from the fact is THIS IS NEWS. (By contrast here the foreclosure process is quite slow.)
If anybody is a good poster child for this, you should contact a reporter or two. And we should all take a moment to write our legislators. The image of banks seizing the savings of the already desperate and unemployed WILL CAUSE LAWS TO BE CHANGED.
And while they've always had this right legally, their aggressiveness in the worst economy in most of our lifetimes is very very new. Families need their savings and they need to eat!
People don't know this is going on (yet.)
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And if you're filing an answer to a creditor suit, throw in "beyond legislative intent" and "unconscionable" and such (even better find a lawyer or law student to help you write it.) Some liberal judge somewhere will take the bait.
I've let the fact that it took me years of bad decisions to get here distract me from the fact that it could have happened with just a couple of CCs and one job loss.
What CC companies are now doing is: NEWS.
Forget me and my sins. Take an honest, typical working family raising their kids. Bad economy, lose income, can't pay their CCs. Now in a mere 90 days that CC company is suing, for the entire balance, and 30 days later can have a judgment for that entire balance and use it to seize that family's entire savings. While 75% of wages are protected, 100% of savings, of emergency funds ARE NOT.
(And the wave is happening so hard... good luck finding an attorney!)
The lowest hanging fruit for banks is the savings this desperate family is surviving on to eat. In a 12+% (California) unemployment economy.
Yes those of us here are fighting back. But our own battles are distracting ourselves from the fact is THIS IS NEWS. (By contrast here the foreclosure process is quite slow.)
If anybody is a good poster child for this, you should contact a reporter or two. And we should all take a moment to write our legislators. The image of banks seizing the savings of the already desperate and unemployed WILL CAUSE LAWS TO BE CHANGED.
And while they've always had this right legally, their aggressiveness in the worst economy in most of our lifetimes is very very new. Families need their savings and they need to eat!
People don't know this is going on (yet.)
====
And if you're filing an answer to a creditor suit, throw in "beyond legislative intent" and "unconscionable" and such (even better find a lawyer or law student to help you write it.) Some liberal judge somewhere will take the bait.
I've let the fact that it took me years of bad decisions to get here distract me from the fact that it could have happened with just a couple of CCs and one job loss.
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