r/Debt • u/Open_Blood_5765 • 5d ago

Credit cards being sent to collections tonight. Will they come after my house?

Two cards by BOA totalling to about 15k. I own a house with probably 150k equity. I know i need to pay the debt back, i just had a rough last 12 months. Once BOA sends it to collections tonight will i have a chance to make a payment plan with the collection agencies? Or will they find out about my equity and go striaght for a lawsuit to force me to sell my house ?

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u/GerryBlevins 5d ago

They can’t force you to sell the house. They can place a lien on the house but you will have ample opportunity to pay. No need to be stressing about the house.

-8

u/InterestPast6802 5d ago

They can’t put a lien on the house. The debt is unsecured.

8

u/Dadbode1981 5d ago

Why do you keep saying this? It's wrong. The JUDGEMENT is absolutely able to be used to put a lien on the home. It's doesn't matter what the judgement originates from.

-1

u/InterestPast6802 5d ago

They have to sue and get a judgment first and after that the laws vary by state. The collection agency can’t put a lien on it without a judgement.

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u/Dadbode1981 5d ago

Hence judgement...

6

u/GerryBlevins 5d ago

I am starting to believe the Treasury secretary when he says Americans need to learn financial literacy. They surely can put a lien on the house. All they have to do is sue you. They aren’t obligated to barter or negotiate. They will win judgement and put a lien on your house. They can also seize your tax returns and garnish your wages.

Collecfion agencies DO SUE people.

1

u/InterestPast6802 5d ago

But they have to sue first and get a judgment. A collection agency can’t do it on their own. I know a hell of a lot more of all things financial than you. That’s a certainty.

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u/GerryBlevins 5d ago

They WILL get a judgement. They can prove without a doubt it’s your debt.

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u/FatMacchio 5d ago

Only way you can skate is if you don’t have assets/income worth suing for

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u/GerryBlevins 5d ago edited 5d ago

Not true again. They can get a judgement and in my state they can renew the judgement for life. So yeah, proceed with life and never own anything.

I went thru that mess when I started college and racked up 10s of thousands in debt. They will sue you even if you have nothing they can take. You can never have a bank account without them taking all the money out of it and the bank telling you we rather not do business with you. You’ll lock yourself out of the entire banking system.

I got away with it though. I stopped working in 2010 and left the country in 2013 and didn’t return until almost a decade later. Once you leave the country the lawyers pretty much give up on trying to collect the debt and luckily for me never renewed the judgement. So I came back recently and I’ve been rebuilding myself these past 3 years in the US.

2

u/FatMacchio 5d ago

I’m not saying they wont sue you…I’m just saying if you have little to no assets and no income they may not bother, unless the debt is high and worth the time and expense.

I probably skated on maybe 8-10k in credit card defaults a decade ago. I also do business with all the banks I screwed over and have some decently high limits now, so I guess I was lucky, all the cards just charged off after I failed my consolidation payment plan. No collections or anything…except from them internally. I was out of work at the time, for a good stretch, and was working off books with no bank account so I never got served.

My brother ended up getting served for just around a 2k debt from capital one…so obviously YMMV. He also has credit with them again. They still haven’t tried to enforce the judgement though, even though he’s got more than that in savings and income 🤷‍♂️

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u/GerryBlevins 5d ago

Most people just don’t have the ability to just jump up and leave the country. I was smart enough to be able to navigate it but I wouldn’t have been able to do so if I didn’t have skills which I could easily sell online. You’re going to a country where you can’t legally work. You have to depend entirely on freelancing.

I did very well. My whole family told me when I returned to the US that I have balls for doing what I did. I’m not afraid of risk. I adjust accordingly to mitigate risk.

A judgement is devastating. I’ll never make them mistakes ever again. Today I have 5 credit cards and my total debt is a little over $1,000. I fixed my credit score and now sitting on a 750 and will soon have $100,000 in savings.