My HOA’s Attorney raked up excessive unjustified fees on me for their own personal gain. I was late paying my HOA fees initially and willing paid the stated late fees along with my HOA dues. However, the Attorney collecting these fees does not accept credit card payments over the phone or online, etc. Therefore, I mailed the amount owed. To my surprise, I later received another letter indicating I owed another 0 for late fees. I ignored this notice b/c I thought that they probably didn’t input my payment in their system prior to the letter going out. So I received another letter stating I owed the 0 plus additional fees, and so on. Basically, each time I paid the stated late fees via mail, the Attorney claimed my payment didn’t arrive on time to their Office, and therefore I owed additional late fees.

In addition, all of my payments were applied towards Attorney late fees rather than my HOA dues. My dues were only 0 per year, but within that year I paid over 0 in additional fees that were never applied towards the full amount owed to my HOA. The Attorney continued to take their money off the top and say that I still owed a balance towards my HOA dues. As a result, I stopped paying b/c I felt I was being ripped off and the fees continued to increase. They ended up suing me for the amount they claimed I owed along with more Attorney fees and court cost.

Since I mistakenly missed the initial court date, when I showed up for the second court date where they filed a judgment against me, they won simply b/c I missed the initial court date. Now they are garnishing my bank account for the amount owed from the judgment.

Currently, I’m unemployed and my home is in foreclosure. I recently filed chapter 7 bankruptcy to stop the sale of my home so I can have time to secure a job and work out a modification on my home loan and get it out of foreclosure. I have not had the meeting of creditor’s as of yet. Can I discharge the past due HOA fees from the judgment/garnishment? I am willing to pay the past due HOA fees I accumulated after the garnishment since I intend on keeping my property. Also, I live in Georgia. Thanks for your answers.

Technorati Tags: attorney fees, chapter 7 bankruptcy, credit card payments, creditor, foreclosure, hoa dues, home loan, job, judgment against, late fees, mail, money, personal gain, surprise

My husband and I both need to file I’m afraid. We live in Michigan where the economy, as reported, is the worst in the country. I have a job I love but my company is on a pay-increase freeze right now, otherwise I’d be making about more an hour. My husband lost a really good job in September of 2007 and did not receive unemployment. He finally was able to get a job in Jan of 2009 but it pays less an hour than his old job.

Anyway, when he lost his job we had to make do the best we could and decided that if we couldn’t afford to pay something, let the credit cards go so that we can keep our home. Now it’s been 2 years and the economy SUCKS. We would both like to get 2nd jobs to pay off our credit card debt but we are lucky to both have jobs at all! The unemployment rate here is over 15% ! Anyway, he talked to a lawyer a few months back about himself filing bankruptcy without me because I was able to make some credit card payments of mine still. Now because of the rise in my health insurance premiums I cannot afford any of my credit card payments. How do we file bankruptcy jointly on only our credit cards as we can afford and do not want to lose our house and car?

Technorati Tags: credit card debt, credit card payments, credit cards, economy, filing bankruptcy, good job, health insurance, health insurance premiums, insurance, jobs, lawyer, old job, unemployment rate

I live in Florida and have spoken with a Bankruptcy lawyer about my situation. I had excellent credit prior to a house I had up for sale being on the market for 6 months and tried to sustain two mortgages plus expenses on both houses and a lot of credit card debt, mostly used to fix up both houses.

It’s been since March 2007 that I made my last credit card payments. I took all of the 00 I received as a tax refund and paid it on 5 different cards.
I called the credit card companies and tried to set up a payment plan of some sort because I was drowning. NONE of the 5 would and acted really crappy when asked. The phone calls also bordered on harassment.
So, eating ramen noodles and peanut butter started pissing me off. If they didn’t want to work with me, then I wouldn’t work with them.
I changed my telephone number and stopped paying them.

After speaking with an attorney early this year, he stated that unless I was faced with court papers to appear, to stave off filing for bankruptcy. If I did file, it would be for Chapter 13 he stated.

I wanted a second opinion so here I am. My questions are…

If I do not file, the statue of limitations runs out in less than 2.5 years for the state of Florida. If I am not served a summons, after the SOL runs out, can they still serve me with papers?

If there is no summons or judgment, will the charge off debts stay on my record for 7 years from the last time I paid the credit card company? Or when the debt was sold to a collection agency which I think is usually a year afterwards (they all have been sold).

If the debt is sold again to another collection agency, does my time start over?

On my credit record, will there be an entry for the credit card company debt AND the collection agency?

I simply want to know when the credit card company debt and charge offs will drop from my record if I do not pay them.

Thanks for any help you can provide…

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy lawyer, chapter 13, charge offs, company debt, credit card debt, credit card payments, debts, filing for bankruptcy, harassment, judgment, last time, mortgages, peanut butter, ramen noodles, second opinion, sol, statue of limitations, summons, tax refund, telephone number

I live in Florida and have spoken with a Bankruptcy lawyer about my situation. I had excellent credit prior to a house I had up for sale being on the market for 6 months and tried to sustain two mortgages plus expenses on both houses and a lot of credit card debt, mostly used to fix up both houses.

It’s been since March 2007 that I made my last credit card payments. I took all of the 00 I received as a tax refund and paid it on 5 different cards.
I called the credit card companies and tried to set up a payment plan of some sort because I was drowning. NONE of the 5 would and acted really crappy when asked. The phone calls also bordered on harassment.
So, eating ramen noodles and peanut butter started pissing me off. If they didn’t want to work with me, then I wouldn’t work with them.
I changed my telephone number and stopped paying them.

After speaking with an attorney early this year, he stated that unless I was faced with court papers to appear, to stave off filing for bankruptcy. If I did file, it would be for Chapter 13 he stated.

I wanted a second opinion so here I am. My questions are…

If I do not file, the statue of limitations runs out in less than 2.5 years for the state of Florida. If I am not served a summons, after the SOL runs out, can they still serve me with papers?

If there is no summons or judgment, will the charge off debts stay on my record for 7 years from the last time I paid the credit card company? Or when the debt was sold to a collection agency which I think is usually a year afterwards (they all have been sold).

If the debt is sold again to another collection agency, does my time start over?

On my credit record, will there be an entry for the credit card company debt AND the collection agency?

I simply want to know when the credit card company debt and charge offs will drop from my record if I do not pay them.

Thanks for any help you can provide…
The SOL is 4 years, it will run out in 2.5 years since my last payment is what I was referring to.

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy lawyer, chapter 13, charge offs, company debt, credit card debt, credit card payments, debts, filing for bankruptcy, harassment, judgment, last time, mortgages, peanut butter, ramen noodles, second opinion, sol, statue of limitations, summons, tax refund, telephone number

im about 5,000-6,000 in debt…i can never make my monthly payments because i have 2 kids to take care of…every paycheck goes to paying the bills,food,gas,and my credit card payments…any advice about what should i do?….does credit counseling really work?…should i try to get a loan even though my credit is REALLY bad now…or should i file for bankruptcy????…help please!!!….hate being broke for the mistakes i made when i was younger…

Technorati Tags: bills food, credit card payments, credit counseling, paycheck, should i file for bankruptcy

I have a family, we don’t charge anything anymore. Been paying on these bills for several years. Make good wages, all goes to credit card payments. Have about 120 bucks a week for groceries, gas, entertainment. I’m gonna whine here a bit so bear with me, I have made bad decision with my finances, put money into our house that is now maybe worth what we owe on it….Is that any different than the banks making bad decisions? You know, the whole bailout thing. Where’s mine? Or at least a low interest government loan.
Madoff, i agree with your comments. My house is not the issue.I give 65k for it with some land. My wife and i make that much per year. I don’t think i’m house poor. We all make bad decisions in our life. And i would be glad to pay my debtors back. But i can’t do it with 20% interest.

Technorati Tags: 120 bucks, bad decision, bad decisions, bailout, banks, credit card payments, debtors, government loan, groceries, money, wages, whine

my mom has over ,000 in debt. she’s maxed out in ALL of her credit cards. she just today got fired from a job she’s had for over 27 years and she is 47 years of age. I was wondering if she should file for bankruptcy since we don’t know when she will have a job. she has a mortgage in her name …but my dad is the one who pays ALL of it and that is taken care of…….. they separated but are not divorced. she rents a room with my sister. we cannot help her with the payments on her credit cards and why should we?! because we are having difficulties ourselves with unemploymen, but I’m pretty sure having a place for her to stay at will be NO problem ..it’s just that we cannot help her with credit card payments. what will be the smartest move? and what kind of bankruptcy can she file without it affecting my dad or the mortgage
my mom has 10 siblings that can take care of her from now on, including myself. we’re young and we can give her a roof , and also, since my dad is taking care of the mortgage, there will be no problem. i just don’t want her to worry about making those damn payments on credit cards
I’m sorry not siblings, I mean relatives, including kids, brothers, etc
old bitty, why shouldn’t she file bankruptcy? will that hurt the house my dad is paying for, which is under both their names. will that hurt her chances of retiring?
even with those funds, she couldn’t possibly pay the minimum on ALL her cards

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy, credit card payments, credit cards, dad, job, mom, mortgage, relatives, siblings

I have about 30,000 in debt most is credit card debt that has been in collections for two years now. And the rest is my husbands school loan. I have 20,000 in equity in my condo but the condo is not selling.
I have horrible credit because of falling behind on credit card payments.
which started when I went through a divorce with my first husband.
I don’t know if I should file bankruptcy ( which I don’t want to do ) I just feel stuck. Please give me some ideas…

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy, collections, credit card debt, credit card payments, divorce, school loan

I am not sure if I even qualify… Here’s the scoop-
My husband and I lived in California but moved to Kansas City, MO in January. I haven’t been able to get a job. I am pregnant and starting to show. Although it is illegal, it makes it even harder for me to get a job. California we were making 5k a month. In Missouri my husband is only making 1800 a month. The significant price difference is affecting us. I have 6 credit card payments adding up to exactly 5 a month. 2 Car payments adding up to 5.00. Since they are under loan we have to pay 270.00 a month for insurance. Rent 529. Utilities… Food/gas. Basically, 1800 a month don’t cut it.

Even if there were alternatives to claiming bankruptcy, I’d like to hear about them.
It adds up to ,000

Technorati Tags: car payments, claiming bankruptcy, credit card payments, insurance, job, kansas city mo, scoop

I have 2 credit cards bills and a few medical bills and no job to repay them.

I don’t own anything. No car, no home, nothing that they can take.

If I were to file bankruptcy would this eliminate the credit card payments and medical bills?

I live in WV. Exactly how much would it cost to file bankruptcy?

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy, credit card payments, credit cards bills, job, medical bills

I need to file for bankruptcy and need to know if i need to take any classes for financial management to sastify the courts and what will I need for the courts and such. Im so scared but I need to do this.
To fill everyone in before you judge my husband ( now seperated) stole all of my bill money while I was working 16 hour days and was pregnant with our child. As he was sitting on his lazy ass at home doing whatever drugs he choose to spend my car payment and credit card payments on I was going bankrupt and didnt know it till they took my car and shut off my electric with a newborn son! Thank everyone for juding me claiming I was irresponsible when I wasnt! I had excellent credit before that douche bag! Also do I file for bankruptcy or divorce first?

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy, car payment, credit card payments, divorce, douche bag, drugs, financial management, lazy ass, money, newborn son