They will keep calling and most likely eventually take you to court and get a judgment. So when you do start working they will garnish your wages.

Best to try and locate a job and pay them off.

Worse case scenario is your creditor(s) (i.e. the credit card company) will file a lawsuit for a judgement against you. Unless you owe them alot of money, they are not likely to do that. A lawsuit will cost them even more money and legal fees may exceed the judgement that they recieve.

Most likely what will happen is that they will turn your account over to a collections agency who then will call you constantly and hound you mercilessly.

But that is what you really don’t want. Talk to the credit card company and tell them the truth that you are unemployed and that you have yet found other employment. Tell them that you want to honor your debt, and that they can either work with you and get their money or threaten them with the “B” word, Bankruptcy. They don’t want you to do that because if you file for bankruptcy protection, they could end up with nothing.

Continue your job seach either way. I will say, bankruptcy is there to protect people that have found themselves over their heads in debt. Lets face it, there is a point that the on-going credit problem is no less damaging than bankruptcy (choosing the lesser of two evils). What bankruptcy provides is a chance to start out with a clean slate. Yes, it initially goes off in your finances like a bomb, but it provides you with the opportunity to rebuild your credit. The deal is, you have to learn your lessons and use credit wisely.

But, I would advise that you fight it. See if they will work with you. Cut your living expenses down to the bear bone minimum. Cut your credit card up NOW! Set goal one as getting a job, two if you can swing it. Then, get all your accounts current, even if that means paying the minimum due. Keep them current. Find out which accounts have the highest interest rates, and pay over the minimum due as much as possible. Or accounts with small balances, if any, pay them off first…once they are paid off, the amount you were paying on them, pay it on those high interest accounts. Once you get all your accounts current, and I mean ALL, after 6 months, call your creditors and ask for them to lower the interest rate. Even if they only lower it a few percentage point, it will equate to big money you will save in interest. Continue calling them every 6 months.

Just don’t give up, fight with all you have. Get out of debt and stay that way.

The debt will be charge-off and you’ll have bad credit. If and when you get a job, you can offer to make a settlement on the charge-off debt at a SUBSTANTIAL discount…i.e. $500 for a debt of $3,000…..Remember that collection agencies buy defaulted debt for pennies on the dollar….so it’s pointless to pay them the full amount:

Rules about collection agencies:
**NEVER pay them one penny until you FIRST get a WRITTEN AGREEMENT from them.

**NEVER pay via an electronic check by giving them your bank transit and checking account numbers…they’ll mostly likely raid your checking account

**Keep all communication with collection agencies in writing and never sign your signature in any communication with them. Your signature might find its way onto bogus documents created by the collection agency to be used against you.

What happens is they’ll put it on your credit report saying you are delinquent.
then they call and harass you to try to trick you into thinking its the worst thing ever by not paying your bill.

They can take you to court and get a judgement against you. then basically you are legally bound to pay them.
UNLESS YOU FILE BANKRUPTCY

They could try garnishing your wages once they get judgement.
Or they wil just sell your debt to another company for like %15 of its total value

Over time, depending on your state, theres whats called a statute of limitations I just found out about.
If the company hasnt recieved a judgement against you,
and if so much time passes
then you are not legally bound to repay the debt since the statute of limitations ran out.
But they (collection agency wont tell you that)

So you pay them on the honor system.

Like in California I think the SOL is like 4 years.

But now it stays on your credit for like 7 years I think.
So it will always affect your credit rating.

But like wiht me, I had a collection agency hound me and demand I pay them nmore than what I could afford.
So I couldnt pay, and now the statute of limitations has run out.
Now I can tell them to **** off.
and theres nothing they can do about it anymore.

Im actually suppose to write them a letter informing them that I know my statute of limitations has run out.
At which time they will realize i know the laws of what they say and how wrong they are for trying to trick me into thinking I have to pay what they want me to pay.

So there you have the run down.

I highly suggest you speak with them (not over the phone, but person to person) and you get a job ASAP,even if its just flipping burgers until you can find something better, get out there!

Once you get back on track, take a course on money management. I wouldn’t even get a credit card until you have completed the course.

Invest your money, there are stories of even McDonald workers becoming MILLIONAIRES just by properly investing their money.

You sound like a smart person, and I believe that you can get back on track!

GOOD LUCK!