“Please keep in mind that laws may vary from state to state, and different companies may resort to different legal tactics.”
Yeah, maybe the OP can come along & tell us where they are?
The collection agency for which I worked (clerical support) fired folks who lied to the debtors. That company was (and still is) the ultimate in professional demeanor.
panache45
I can’t add any legal knowledge here, so I’ll throw in two cents on a related topic: Your Brother the Bum.
If by “bum” you mean he has no problem living off of others’ generosity, and little to no interest in supporting himself, you cannot rely on his version of events. He will undoubtedly interpret every exchange with the creditor in a fashion where he turns out to be the innocent threatened victim against soulless corporate bean counters.
He may be trying to hit you up for some bucks.
If you take on an unsecured debt. There is nothing the creditors can do. They can’t take your house, your car or anything except your credit rating. The debt is just that…unsecured.
Reeder, that’s just wrong. An unsecured creditor is simply a creditor who must resort to judicial process to collect from a recalcitrant debtor. A secured creditor – that is, a creditor who has a security interest in personal property or a mortgage in real estate – can sometimes resort to “self-help” (i.e., repossessing the collateral), but usually they, too, must utilize the same judicial collection mechanisms that unsecured creditors use. The primary advantage of being a secured creditor is the ability to claim priority over unsecured creditors with respect to the proceeds from selling the collateral.
Advise your brother to see an attorney and file for bankruptcy.
There is nothing wrong with going bankrupt, many famous, and well loved people have went bankrupt:
Thomas Edison, Milton Hershey, John Sutter, Oscar Wilde, H.J. Heinz, Henry Ford, Mickey Rooney, Burt Reynolds, Debbie Reynolds, Walt Disney, Larry King, Tom Petty, the BAss brothers, etc.
If it wasnt for some of these people going bankrupt, we never would have discovered gold in California, we would not have hershey’s chocolate, we would not have Heinz catchup, we would not have electic lights or movies, etc.
There is no good reason to declare bankruptcy for unsecured debts, especially if you have no assets to protect. If you default on unsecured debt, it is on your credit report for seven years, then is falls off. If you declare bankruptcy, it sticks for ten years. Invoke the FDCPA, tell the collection agency to leave you alone (in writing!) and after seven years, that will be the end of it. Go forth and sin no more.
[hijack]
Yeah, if you don’t count child support that the owing party can’t afford to pay now.
My S.O. has 2 employees that have gone to jail for non-payment of child support. In both cases, the child support was set when the person was making better $$. Now that they’ve been laid off from well-paying jobs, they don’t have enough $$ to hire a lawyer to get the payments reduced, and aren’t making enough working at a bookstore to pay at the original judgement.
So they were hauled off to jail. How they’re supposed to make $$ to pay the child support from jail, I dunno.
No argument that they should pay child support, but jeez louise…
[/hijack]
<Righteous indignation mode on>
Man, am I the ONLY one that thinks he just needs to pay the freaking debt? I know, I know, it’s a hot sports opinion, and doesn’t really address the OP, but jeez, just pay already. I despise it when people think bankruptcy is some sort of get-outta-jail free card they can just play whenever they want. He ran up the charges. He should pay for them.
<Righteous indignation mode off>
IIRC, If he hasn’t paid a red cent in 2 years, he only has to wait it out five more years. If he pays them a penny today, it’s another seven more years.
Avoiding garnishment.
Other than that, yes, you are right.
To the extent that the collection agency threatened him with criminal action, which does in fact occur in some cases, there may be grounds for suit.
To the extent that the collection agency stuck to threatening him with things they are actually capable of lawfully doing, there are no grounds for suit.
I assumed based on the title of the original post in this thread that there was at least some chance that an overzealous collection agent may have falsely threatened the OP’s debt-ridden sibling.
To clarify, in my last post the term “criminal action” refers to arrest and criminal prosecution by law enforcement personnel and district attorney offices.
The way I stated it was extremely muddy. Sorry.
Do you boycott products and services of those who have went bankrupt?
Are you a hypocrite?
Do you use electric lights(or purchase any other invention) invented Thomas Edison?
Did you ever see Wayne Newton perform?
Do you use ketchup or any other Heinz product?
Did you ever watch a Burt Reynolds or a Disney movie?
Did you ever go to Disneyland?
Do you own any gold that was originally taken from California?
Were you ever in a Ford car or truck?
(Note: I fully support you “”“IF”"" you are consistent in your beliefs and if you dispise ““all”” persons who go/went bankrupt. However, what are you doing on the internet if you dispise Edison, and dont want anything to do with anything Edison did after he used his get-otta-jail free card getting out of his debts, and later created the light bulb, and thosands of other products?)
Put your hat back on for a second there, Turek, and think about the questionable ethics of some creditors. Those who’ll give credit to virtually anyone, at any age. At the very least they take advantage of the naive.
But yes, people should at least attempt to pay their debts. Usually.
It you dont “support” people( the idea of people ) going bankrupt, then stop "supporting "( by buying the products of " those who went bankrupt. Turn off your lights, stop eating hersheys chocolat, and give(not sell) away all of your gold.
Ain’t gonna happen, Susanann. Creditors and their collections agencies have to have some expectation that the judgement can be enforced before they will file suit. Litigation isn’t cheap.
A few clarifications:
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We live in the state of Ohio.
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I listened to my brother’s answering machine, and the closest thing to a threat was: “I don’t think you realize what a serious legal matter this is. Once the paperwork is submitted to the county sheriff, there will be no deals.” He really doesn’t mention specific consequences, so I don’t see an explicit threat here.
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My brother doesn’t own a home, and his car is worth next to nothing. He does have a bank account and a few IRAs - I’m assuming these can be confiscated, or and I wrong? I did suggest that he just pay the creditor from his IRAs, but he won’t do that.
Depends on the creditor, he may (or may not) file a judgement if he knows or does not know if the person is employed. It is immaterial to some creditors, they file anyways.
It is easy to renew the judgement each year, in case the man is eventually employed. I have seen many creditors file for judgement of unemployed, and they do have to file a new garnishment each time the person is employed somewhere else, but once they get a judgement, it is easy to get a new garnishment at each new place of employment once they find out where he works.
On the other hand, some creditors make no effort at all to recover debt. They mail some threatening letters, and that is all they do, they never file for judgement even if the person is employed.
The bank account can be siezed/garnished/taken away, even if he files for bankruptcy.
The IRA is fully protected if he files for bankruptcy. He can keep all of what is in the IRA if he files, so paying unsecured debt from an IRA is just plain stupid.