I am 19 in college and my credit card company wants to sue me. I had a credit card for about a year after I turned 18. But i lost my job 5 months ago and could no longer pay. they say I owe 7$ and They are going to take me to court. I have no job and I cant find one. I am worried they may try to put me in jail or come after my parents for the money. I need advice on what to do. I talk to the collections agency and they said i have to pay 280$ (which I cant possibly come up with) before they can give me reasonable payment options and they call every five minutes now. Please help with any advice thanks.
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✅ Answers
Jamie it was pretty lame of you not to pay anything back to the credit card company for 5 whole months! I am not sure if your debt is $7, why the Collections Agency is asking for only $280? Is the difference between the two amounts interest on your overdue debt?
What will happen next is that you will be taken to court and you will beg and plead in court that you can’t afford to repay either of the two amounts and then the judge will probably sentence you to community service – so relax you will not end up in jail where you will have to bend over every night to please some big fat prisoner.
However you will now pick up a very bad credit score and will find it impossible to borrow any more money or even applyl for another credit card for a few years to come.
Not sure how you managed to get this card in the first place with the new laws that made it very hard for those under 21 to get credit cards.
Can your family help you out at all? A charge off over such a small amount would be the worst possible way for someone so young to start your credit history. Not sure how far you are behind, but you need to be aware that after you go 5-6 months past due, they will charge off the account, which greatly damages your credit rating. Do whatever you can to prevent this: sell valuables, heirlooms, blood plasma….
– You cannot be arrested or go to jail over debt in the USA…no worries there.
– They only way they can come after your parents is if they are on the account as co-signers. If they aren’t, then there is no way that they can come after them.
They can’t send you to jail, and they can’t make your parents pay if they didn’t co-sign on the credit card. And suing you is really just a threat. The chances that they would actually pay a lawyer to go to court for $7 is very low.
My advice: Block the calls on your phone and ignore the collections agency until you get a job and can pay it back. There’s not much a collection agency can do besides talk big and scare you.
Tough situation. I am also 19 and I did not have credit card debt but I was in an accident that totaled my car. The person who caused it fled the scene and the witnesses had the liscence plate number, but the cops never filed the police report. My little sister had to be taken by ambulance to the ER. So I had lost my car (a nice taurus I paid my parents for) and I had to go to the ER myself. I racked up a pretty big debt. I needed a car and I had almost $2,0 in hospital bills.
So here is my answer: Is there someone close to you that will lend you the money? If so, write up an agrrement that you will pay them back monthly until repaid. If not, go to a loan place. Loans suck, but they are there for a reason. Talk to your bank and tell them you are working on it, or ask them if they can set up a payment plan.
I bought another car and paid my debt by loans, and usually they will work with you on payments. I hope everything works out!
You say you lost your job 5 months ago……..and????
What have you done since then? That isn’t the only job designated to you! Go up the street to a local restaurant & beg to wash dishes…do errands for elderly neighbors…do anything. I find it very hard to believe that in 5 months time that you have not had money to eat, do things with friends, buy food, makeup, clothing. Where did that money come from?
The collections agency is thinking the exact same thing. Trust me.
Not trying to be mean…just opening your eyes to how they think.
You cannot go to jail for not paying your CC or even talk to your parents unless they signed on the card. Info to the contrary is bogus and hopefully a debt collector says they are going to send you to jail and you record it because it is worth a min of $25,0 to you as well as that person possibly going to jail,. You can demand no phone calls it is your legal right and if you have caller ID showing that often they call it is also illegal go to your states department of consumer protection and file a formal complaint.
you won’t go to jail for not paying a bill, and unless your parents are also on the account, they can’t call them. it will be reported on your credit report, but in the mean time, you can call the collection company and ask them to settle the debt for a lump sum amount. many times they will cut it in half or down a bit.
incredibly previous by using ask for suggestion now. yet because you asked. #a million. get rid of the mastercard. get rid of all of them. You of course are no longer responsible adequate to have one so get rid of them. #2. Pay the minimum volume each and each month. #3. See in case you are able to the two get them to decrease the pastime value or get a sparkling mastercard that provides a “0” p.c. pastime on transfers. in case you are able to swing a kind of for the finished volume, a minimum of you will no longer have pastime to handle. in spite of the fact that, despite in case you are able to decrease the pastime value a million-2 p.c. which will help. #4. decrease costs someplace else and placed the mark downs on the debt. while you’re sitting at living house with a working laptop or computer and have internet provider, decrease the provider and use the computer on the library. despite in case you have a $10 internet get entry to, it is money you are able to placed on the debt. in case you have a cellular telephone and a house telephone, get rid of one or the different, you do no longer pick the two. in case you have a cellular telephone, do no longer use textual content fabric or image messaging. do no longer use any of the added amenities as they value money. #5. Get a room mate. Get the room contract in writing and despite money they pay you, placed it on the debt. #6. Drop out of school a 3 and sixty 5 days, get a job and pay off the debt. pondering how dumb you have been racking up that form of debt, your grades probable are no longer that warm besides. #7. forget approximately attempting to adhere the mastercard enterprise for accountability reason they “knew it became a playing web site.” YOU knew it became a playing web site. If every person “cheated” it became you. #8. forget approximately keeping financial ruin. It have been given extra stable to do for precisely this kind of element, human beings racking up money owed then attempting to get out of them. #9. Your credit status is going to be ok in case you pay off the debt, via paying a minimum of the minimum each and each month. in case you do no longer make money, each and every time you pass over one, your credit status will drop 10 factors. once you hit 5, the mastercard enterprise could desire to turn the finished debt over to collections after which you will truly be in hardship. #10. sell some stuff. while you’re like maximum babies, to procure some junk laying around you do no longer pick. CDs, DVDs, high quality bike, IPOD. and so on. despite in case you in basic terms get some hundred and placed it on the debt, it is going to help. And circulate forth and sin not extra.