Finally stopped!

[CCsSuck]

Like many others probably about a year and a half ago I got letters from my credit card companies telling me that they were slashing my limits and raising my interest rates. The worst was BofA who raised my interest to just under 18%, which made my monthly payment essentially double. Unfortunately, I wasn't in a position to close down the card at the lower interest rate (I wish I had been), since I was basically using it and other cards to live off of. I now owe BofA just over $14k.

About 6 months ago I called them and told them I was having trouble making my payments (they were in the $325/month range). They asked for all of my financial information, and the man I spoke to said it appeared I qualified for a repayment program that would shut off my card, lower the interest rate to around 2%, and after 5 years of about $200 a month it would be paid off. I said okay. He told me to call back in a week just to make sure everything was ok. I did. After many, many calls, I found out they denied me because I needed to make at least $100 more a month (and they wondered why I was having trouble making the $325/month payment!). They suggested I enroll in a third party DMP. I've looked into this before and it basically comes down to not making enough money to pay my mortgage, car, utilities, their negotiated payment, and still have enough money left over to live off of without any credit. I'm not talking about living a luxorious lifestyle, but not being able to afford groceries and gas.

So I struggled and basically robbed Peter to pay Paul, or however the saying goes. Finally I realized I couldn't live like this anymore, so my payment for $350 due January 1st, 2011, didn't get paid. This is the first time in my life that I've ever missed a payment or been late on anything (kind of shocking when you take into account the 32k in debt I have, lol). It's kind of scary feeling, but its also kind of liberating at the same time. With the money I "saved" I bought sneakers and jeans (neither were fancy and both were on xmas sale) for the first time in forever, and have been able to live without charging anything the last month. It feels amazing!

This morning I checked BofA and they've ever so kindly added a late fee to the account. I'm sure in a few days they'll start with the phone calls. I'm not looking forward to this (and neither is my blood pressure), but hopefully now that the account is in default they will be more willing to work with me. I am hopeful that they will allow me into some sort of a repayment plan around the $200/month mark. This will make money really tight, but I'd still be able to get by until I figure out how I'm finally going to get out of this entire mess with all of my creditors. Bankruptcy, perhaps -- but I'd have to wait a while, and this might buy me the time I would need.

If they refuse to work with me then I may have just shot myself in the foot, because quite frankly if I were them, I'd sue me, too, lol.

I'm not interested in a reduced payment for a short period of time; they'd need to agree to a reduced payment/reduced interest rate for the long haul.

Has anyone had any luck with this before with BofA? Them being more reasonable to work out a realistic solution after you default than before?

Thanks,
Mike

[brokeinnj201]

Back when I thought I could pull out of this financial nightmare (about 26 months ago) , I called BOA/FIA and asked for a help. In turn, they cancelled my cards. So I stopped paying and just before 180 days past due, settled for 20% of the inflated balance (late fee/higher interest rates) I had to borrow money to do so which in turn only prolonged the downward spiral. I found them easy to deal with but in some ways I wish I had just stopped the stop gap borrowing and went to a cccs and considered bankruptcy two years ago

[CCsSuck]

do you mind if i ask how much you owed them?

[brokeinnj201]

it started out around 36k but was about 40 by the time I settled

[CCsSuck]

And they let you off for only 20%? That's pretty incredible!

[pikaroth]

It really does feel good to have that extra money. I won't go into extreme detail about my situation (I did that when I first started posting here), like you, I had never, ever missed or been late on a payment, not ever. Finally in October of last year I realized that I could simply no longer do this. It was time to admit that something needed to give. I decided on chapter 7 due to being below the median state income with no assets, etc. Not paying my first statement killed me. Again, some of my previous posts from that time will reflect that. To say I felt sick to my stomach is an understatement. Nevertheless, it got easier as the days and weeks went on, and oddly enough, just last week I finally purchased a new pair of shoes (running shoes), something I had not done in five years (really). I had enough money for Christmas gifts for friends and family, I have been able to go out to eat from time to time, see some movies every other week, etc., and still have money for rent, electric, car, insurance, phone, water, etc. True, I'm not rich, not by a long shot, but it's nice to look at my bank account and have actual money in there. I had not had that in well over a decade. My bank account quite literally averaged no more than $50 due to credit card debt alone. That's all gone now.

And to know that in about two weeks my attorney can finally (finally!) file is just an awesome feeling. If you eventually decide to go the BK route, stop paying entirely, as I'm sure you know. For me it was really scary at first, but it's gotten so much better.

[flyinbroke]

Same sitch...BoA raised me to 28 percent from 12 and 14 respectively. I preferred cash, bit the bullet, had the sick feeling in my stomach and pulled the no pay trigger. Cash is nice to have so the bad feeling did not last long. Of course I bought a cheapy disposable cell phone before I did this, and changed my numbers to this so my home phone is largely silent.

BoA has thus far refused to deal. They offered to knock my amount from 16k to 15k. I told them no thanks.

I think they are hunting for law firms to sue, but these accounts have been dormant for several years. I had not used one of them since 2006 or so; the other has been dead since 2008. There have been a lot of soft pulls from law firms but no one acts...maybe because I look awful on paper and appear to be teetering on the brink of BK if I want to hit that button.

One lawsuit mill took them up on it, but failed to validate within 30 days (state requirement) so they are no longer allowed to collect....I also elected arbitration which they hate because they cannot sue. The other was with NCO and a subsidiary. NCO dropped and the subsidiary never validated in time either.

I think they hired Brachfeld at some point because they did a hard pull last summer and only made a few calls that I missed. I sued them in small claims for impermissible pull (they never sent a letter so they have no biz IMO) and they blew it off. Awaiting my hearing for default judgment, then I am after their bond or their payroll bank. I am sure they will show up to appeal...

But no, I got zero love from BoA and defaulted in 2009. And I actually care less and less.

[CCsSuck]

I wish my card had been dormant that long/I lived in TX, lol. I still have other cards that I intend on paying for the time being -- I don't want to, but theoretically I am "able" to, and since I'm not anywhere near ready to file a BK case if I wanted to, I'd like to keep as many sharks out of the water as possible for as long as possible -- even if this approach will likely end up hurting me in the longrun. Sigh.

[flyinbroke]

Sounds like we have similar approaches...when it came down to brass tacks, I owed $$ for 25 accounts, but stopped paying 5. This has worked and just stopping those 5 freed up 1500 a month in minimum payments!

It also meant BK was not really an option. I am not going to nuke my disposable income for five years over 5 accounts. The worst your credit can get is when it hits chargeoff, from what I understand, and I passed that already...the newest one is 6 months old.

I go after the offending CAs and the OCs if necessary...settled with two CAs, in active suits against two more CAs, and arbitrating the rest. (They hate arbitration now that their NAF scam is off the table, btw. And the lawyers know very little about how it works. One thought she should get an SJ for her counterclaim for debt...no worky that way.) Yes, living here helps, as does having a young pitbull atty who is willing to learn all the ins and outs of his craft of consumer litigation and not go for the easy FDCPA.

[tobee43]

same thing with us with b of a although they raised us from 5% to 30.9%....we had approx 90k line of credit between 3 cards....we needed the money for a surgery....and had been using the lines and then paying them down....

we made a payment of 48k....5 weeks later i found out i needed another surgery.....our insurance capped for the year...i called b of a to let them or give them a "heads" up on the fact i would be making a large charge of 20k to a doctor that afternoon......at the time we had approx. 68K left on the 90k line........the lady was so nice...and sweet and said she would make sure there was a note on the account so when the charge came through that afternoon we'd be all set....

oh yeah...she fixed us ok.......she cut our line to about 2k...........upped the interest rate to 30.9.........we used amex card for the surgery...suffice to say it was a terrible mess...and that was our reward from b of a for being with them over 40 years....chase did the same and we were with them over 35 years....never a late payment...never over the limit...nothing...

[flyinbroke]

I will never own a BoA product again. I never owned them to begin with, I had banks that were swallowed by Moby Bank.

Got a preselected Amex application the other day...which is funny. I doubt I would be approved even though it was for the charge card (PIF every month) and not credit.

[MarieT]

Same sitch...BoA raised me to 28 percent from 12 and 14 respectively. I preferred cash, bit the bullet, had the sick feeling in my stomach and pulled the no pay trigger. Cash is nice to have so the bad feeling did not last long. Of course I bought a cheapy disposable cell phone before I did this, and changed my numbers to this so my home phone is largely silent.

BoA has thus far refused to deal. They offered to knock my amount from 16k to 15k. I told them no thanks.

I think they are hunting for law firms to sue, but these accounts have been dormant for several years. I had not used one of them since 2006 or so; the other has been dead since 2008. There have been a lot of soft pulls from law firms but no one acts...maybe because I look awful on paper and appear to be teetering on the brink of BK if I want to hit that button.

One lawsuit mill took them up on it, but failed to validate within 30 days (state requirement) so they are no longer allowed to collect....I also elected arbitration which they hate because they cannot sue. The other was with NCO and a subsidiary. NCO dropped and the subsidiary never validated in time either.

I think they hired Brachfeld at some point because they did a hard pull last summer and only made a few calls that I missed. I sued them in small claims for impermissible pull (they never sent a letter so they have no biz IMO) and they blew it off. Awaiting my hearing for default judgment, then I am after their bond or their payroll bank. I am sure they will show up to appeal...

But no, I got zero love from BoA and defaulted in 2009. And I actually care less and less.

Just quick question...what does "validate in 30 days" mean? We have BofA that we owe $38K on. Was written off in December 2009 and now with 2nd collection agency that we got a letter from about 3 weeks ago. Talked to them and they are offering to settle for about 40% to 50%. We have told them that we are filing BK (we have already paid full amount to attorneys to do so now other than filing fee) but we would really like to settle if possible since we believe we will be on 100% repayment plan in Ch13. (we have other accounts as well, our Chase $22K account CA has agreed to settling for 10%.)

[CCsSuck]

Just quick question...what does "validate in 30 days" mean? We have BofA that we owe $38K on. Was written off in December 2009 and now with 2nd collection agency that we got a letter from about 3 weeks ago. Talked to them and they are offering to settle for about 40% to 50%. We have told them that we are filing BK (we have already paid full amount to attorneys to do so now other than filing fee) but we would really like to settle if possible since we believe we will be on 100% repayment plan in Ch13. (we have other accounts as well, our Chase $22K account CA has agreed to settling for 10%.)

Its kind of how it sounds, lol. Without misquoting all of the specifics, you can demand they validate the debt. Since the collection agencies buy your debt from the original creditor at pennies on the dollar, they usually will not have the appropriate documentation to prove the debt is yours and its accurate.

If some agency you've never heard of calls demanding you pay them thousands of dollars for your BofA account, you can force them to prove they actually have the authority to collect on the debt in the first place. You can force them to hand over the original signed credit agreement, the original contract, detailed statements of your charges, etc., and most of the collection agencies simply cannot produce the documents. Some states will not allow them to continue to collect a debt if you have requested a detailed validation of the debt and they are unable or unwilling to provide it.

That's kind of an elementary answer. To be totally honest, I've read about it on here, but I haven't actually researched it or "stored the specifics" to memory yet, lol.

[RichM]

same thing with us with b of a although they raised us from 5% to 30.9%....we had approx 90k line of credit between 3 cards....we needed the money for a surgery....and had been using the lines and then paying them down....

we made a payment of 48k....5 weeks later i found out i needed another surgery.....our insurance capped for the year...i called b of a to let them or give them a "heads" up on the fact i would be making a large charge of 20k to a doctor that afternoon......at the time we had approx. 68K left on the 90k line........the lady was so nice...and sweet and said she would make sure there was a note on the account so when the charge came through that afternoon we'd be all set....

oh yeah...she fixed us ok.......she cut our line to about 2k...........upped the interest rate to 30.9.........we used amex card for the surgery...suffice to say it was a terrible mess...and that was our reward from b of a for being with them over 40 years....chase did the same and we were with them over 35 years....never a late payment...never over the limit...nothing...

B of A is the devil incarnate.

Okay, maybe not Lucifer himself, but close. Like one of his demons, probably.

B of A decreased my credit line to a level beneath what was already owed (which was about a third of the previous CL), on a card that was current and on which I was making about four times the minimum payments. They also raised the interest to shylock rates, and sent me a letter informing me of both the CL decrease and the fact that I could "opt out" of the APR increase by never using the card again. Only one problem: They sent it two weeks later!

So according to their warped way of thinking, by using the card before I got the notice, I "accepted" the rate increase -- and also ran over my limit so they could penalize me for that, too.

I hate B of A. If I were standing on line in one of their branches and someone came in and robbed the place, I would shake his hand and offer him a getaway ride. I pray every night that Julian Assange has enough goods on B of A to put them out of business, and land their whole Board of Directors and every employee over the rank of teller in prison.

-Rich

[CCsSuck]

I hate B of A. If I were standing on line in one of their branches and someone came in and robbed the place, I would shake his hand and offer him a getaway ride. I pray every night that Julian Assange has enough goods on B of A to put them out of business, and land their whole Board of Directors and every employee over the rank of teller in prison.

Amen to that, lol.