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

I have to wonder why people tell other people not to file bankruptcy because "it will be on your credit report for 7-10 years." I ask this because, if you’re not paying your bills, that too will be on your credit report for a long time. As in, what is the difference? At least when you file bankruptcy, you are consolidating your bills and trying to start over. If you can’t pay your bills, then they’ll just pile-up with late fees and never leave your credit report.

Technorati Tags: 10 years, bankruptcy, consolidating your bills, credit report, late fees, long time, quot

I was laid off in August of 2009. I still have not secured employment. I had stellar credit until October of 2009 when all my savings were depleted to keep up with my bills. I have over 5,000 in credit card debt as the late fees etc. have been adding up monthly. My credit score was at 720 before October of 09. I’m guessing it is now in the 400’s. No payments have been made on any of my credit cards since October 09. Should I file bankruptcy or just keep postponing any payments until I secure employment? I feel that my credit is ruined for life anyways, so why bother stressing out and paying it off. I’m confused as to what to do. Thanks.
Also, I took the time to write and mail letters to each of my credit cards companies three months "prior" to even knowing I would be laid off. I had requested that they drop the interest rate to 0% so that I could get them all paid off. They ALL declined. It wasn’t until 90 days after each of my payments were due that they contacted me and at THAT POINT wanted to work something out. I was enraged to say the least. I thought…"Now that you’ve destroyed my credit, you want to work something out". Again, I was livid. Had they just done that when I asked, I probably wouldn’t have gotten into more of a mess. I feel now that had they settled for 0 percent interest, they would at least be getting most of their money back, now it looks like they won’t be getting any. Part of me feels bad, but part doesn’t. Also, do I pay taxes here in CA on the released debt through bankruptcy? Because I don’t even have money to do that. Yikes.
One of the responses said I should have filed bankruptcy a year ago, but a friend advised me not to due to my ongoing health problems. Had I filed and needed hospitalization, etc. I would not have been able to add that debt for another 10 years. I have no medical nor dental insurance because it’s so expensive. As far as living beyond my means, a huge portion of my debt is medical and dental charges. Please don’t assume people are careless who get to this point. I had to charge alot just to survive.

Technorati Tags: 10 years, credit card debt, credit cards companies, credit score, dental insurance, health problems, hospitalization, insurance, interest rate, late fees, money, should I file bankruptcy, three months, yikes

I have a little over ,000 in credit card debt between my husband and myself on six different cards. Of those cards all of them are above 20% interest rates. The highest balance is 00. 8 ½ years ago I had to file for bankruptcy before I married my husband because of a car I was duped (very long story and this was the only thing I filed) into signing for, thus I cannot file bankruptcy. We also have 00 in hospital bills we have accumulated in the last year we are paying on sporadically when I can make payments. They were 00. I am about to have a baby in July, which means I will be on maternity leave for two months with a reduced income. We are having problems making payments on our bills now because we are overwhelmed. Prior to, financially we were doing ok, but we had some unexpected expenses come up and we previously had gotten lots of overtime at both our jobs which has been cut due to the economy. I just obtained 00 from a family member I do not have to pay back and I am having a hard time deciding where to put this money towards. A few of the doctor bills have threatened to send us to collections even though I am making payments when I can. I figure credit cards are best to put the money towards because of fees, credit report problems and interest. I have only been about 10 days late on one of the 6 cards and maybe 16 days late on another one, thus none of them show up late on my credit report. I manage to make payments, but barely. Late fees have been racking up though because I may pay a week late here and there on those two. Here are my primary questions after hearing my story…

1) Should I try to negotiate lowering my debt on the credit cards and doctor bills so I can get them paid off although I am not really showing up late on my credit report? Will they work with me if I am going to pay off the balance? I figure it is pointless to negotiate interest rates if my point is to pay it off…
2) Should I pay off the highest balance of 00, which also happens to have the highest interest rate and then put the rest towards doctor bills or the next higher interest rate card, which the balance is more than what will be left over? Or, should I put the left over money towards paying off the lower credit card amounts and the 00?
3) I have read that if I negotiate lowering my pay off amount with credit card companies then it will affect my credit and this is what I am worried about primarily. Has anyone had any experience with this?
Thank you ahead of time!!

Technorati Tags: 8 years, bankruptcy, collections, credit card debt, credit cards, credit report problems, doctor bills, economy, family member, hard time, hospital bills, interest rates, jobs, late fees, maternity, money, overtime, story 1, unexpected expenses

i had really good credit until a few years ago, i had all the major credit cards and i always paid my bills on time. but i was unemployed because of an injury for almost 6 months so i just lived off of my credit cards, when i finally got back to work i wasnt even making enough to pay all late charges and interest fees. i was paying 50% of my income each week towards paying it back but i was so far in debt by that time that i was still having each account grow in debt because i got so far behind. they were calling me at work constantly , i didnt even have my home phone because i got rid of any luxurys that i didnt need. i ended up moving out of state to avoid them. i understand there are new laws that prevent a person from filing bankruptcy on credit card debt. it has been over 2 years now that i have avoided them. but my debt was about ,000 back then and the way it was growing im sure it has to be double that by now. should i continue to try and avoid them. i earn only 000 a year
i would really like to pay it all back but i couldnt even keep up with the late fees back then and i have a job making less than i made before. is there any way that i could just pay maybe 20% of my income and get my debt paid off? i am barely scraping by now but i dont want to be a deadbeat. but i have also heard that if i avoid them contacting me in anyway for 7 years that they will not be able to collect anything from me. but im sure that they can find me because i work at a normal job and file my taxes every year

Technorati Tags: credit card debt, credit cards, deadbeat, filing bankruptcy, job, late fees, new laws

As I understand it when you file Ch 13 you have to pay back all of your debt… that being the case why file at all if you have to come up with the money to pay it all anyway? Does the debt get lowered at all? Late fees or interest taken off?

Technorati Tags: late fees, money

I was looking to buy I house that some friends of freinds owned. I had been told they were going to lose the house due to foreclosure. They ended up filing for bankruptcy. What happens with this house case? Are they just forgiven for missed payments and late fees or is there a chance they can lose the house after all? I am still interested in the property. I don’t know them well enough to bring this up with them personally. From what I understand thgey had already made alterntive living arrangments. I’m just trying to gauge what my chance of acquiring this property is

Technorati Tags: filing for bankruptcy, foreclosure, late fees