Anything they can do, you can do better

Every time I see one of those ads for debt relief agencies that allege to help people in deep credit card debt I want to put my foot through the TV. They claim to be non profit agencies that exist to help others but in reality they are in business to do one thing, and that's make money off the misfortunes of others. (There is one exception and it's Consumer Credit Counseling.) Take it from me, and I speak here from personal experience, there is nothing those rip off agencies do for you that you can't do for yourself.
I know there are lots of people like me who got into financial trouble due to health reasons, the biggest cause of individual bankruptcies in this country is due to crushingly high medical bills, so this post is for you. For those of you on the brink of credit card trouble, this post is for you as well. And for any of you drowning in debt and who are being harrassed by collection agencies then this post is for you too.


First a bit of background on me, I stopped paying my credit card debt when I had my heart attack. I figured I needed my money more than the credit card companies did so I stopped paying them. Here's what happened next:

• They hounded me for a bit but I sent them all a letter telling them I was not going to pay since I was not working. I told them in writing that I needed my money worse than they did so they needed to stop harrassing me. The calls stopped as soon as they got my letters.
• After my bypass things settled down for me financially and I contacted the credit card companies to work out some kind of arrangement. They love it when you do this because they will get some money from you and some money is better than none at all. In all cases the companies reduced my interest rates and I told them I would pay them "X" amount of money each month and that I was only going to pay around 2/3 of what they claimed I owed. I also told them I was not going to pay any late fees or and add ons they put on me when I was not paying them. They all quickly agreed.
• A few months after I made these arrangements I found out I was not going back to work at all for the foreseeable future so I stopped paying the credit card companies once again. Of course they howled and complained, they said "We made you a deal! You must pay us!"
• When they sicced their collection goons on me I found out that I had a powerful weapon on my side, and it's called The Fair Credit Reporting Act. When ever a collection agency called I'd ask them for their address and then I'd thank them and I'd hang up. Then I'd write a letter to them telling them not to contact me anymore concerning that debt since there was no way I could repay it. The FCRA says that once the collection agency gets the letter they can contact me once more but that's it. If they do contact me more than once after getting that letter then they are in violation of the law and I could sue them for harrassing me if I wanted to. No agency ever contacted me again after getting the letters I sent.

My credit rating is shit since I stopped paying but in seven years all that comes off my credit report and when it does I'll be able to rebuild my credit again.

Am I suggesting you do what I did? Well, if you need to go right ahead but understand it's better if you stick with whatever repayment agreement you make with the credit card companies, unless your case is like mine and if you don't mind your credit rating going in the toilet for seven years. What I am telling you is this: YOU HAVE OPTIONS WHEN YOU ARE BEING HOUNDED BY CREDIT CARD COMPANIES AND THEIR COLLECTION AGENCIES. There are laws that are on your side and you should not be afraid to use them.

Just so you know, the credit card companies will eventually write off my debt and they'll get to subtract it off their corporate taxes when they do. All debts are written off eventually and wiped from the slate. Things happen that force us to rely on credit cards sometimes when we know we shouldn't and things happen sometimes that force us to use our money to keep a roof over our heads instead of sending our money to greedy corporations so don't be ashamed to stand up for yourself and stop the bullying of the banks who issue credit cards. In times of financial crisis always put your family before the needs of the financial industry. I hope none of you ever fall on hard times where you need to make the choice between paying your rent or paying a credit card bill, but until our current system collapses and is revamped more and more of us will fall between the cracks.