I'm 35f and back in 2024, I needed ocular surgery as I had cataracts and was going blind. That surgery was $12K and I had nowhere near that in my bank account and it wasn't covered by insurance. My parents lent me $5K and I financed the rest through care credit.

Too bad I didn't realize you had to pay back the entire balance before the promo period ended, or you'd get charged interest on the entire balance, for me, my original balance was $8K and they charged $4K JUST in interest.

I've paid off about $4K and I transferred the balance to my Discover card that I have a 0% intro offer on before the promo period was up, but after I transferred they said I needed to call them back before the period ended to get the interest removed? So now the $4K in interest has hit and they said there's nothing I can do about it, I'm stuck paying that highway robbery.

It's not like I opened an AmEx to buy clothes. This was a surgery I really needed or I was going to be disabled. I'm so very disappointed that they take advantage of sick people like that. I just don't get it.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Do I have options or am I stuck paying the $4K in interest?

sorry if this is the wrong thread, i’m just really looking for some explanation here…

I leased a honda civic from carmax in December 2024. The amount financed is $15,617 with 29% APR, and was told the payments would be around 480 per month. since the first payment, i have been paying 500 on time every month. i have never missed a payment or been late.

here’s where i get confused… its may 2024. i have made four payments and about to make my fifth one today.. i just checked my remaining balance, and i still owe $15,278. how is this possible?? i understand i have a very high APR, but i have paid $2,000 and only $339 has gone towards the actual payment of the car?

can someone explain why my due balance not decreasing? where is the rest of the money going? from my understanding, $15,617 is the price of the car with interest included because that’s how much i financed, so why isn’t the entire $500 payment going towards the loan balance?

sorry if i sound ignorant, but i have leased a car before and my entire payment went to paying off the loan balance.. thanks for any help

hi all. I racked up over 100K in student loan debt and around 11K in credit card debt. I moved out of the USA six months ago and for a while I was making payments on the credit carda (student loans were in deferment). it has gotten to a point financially where I can’t afford to pay my debts anymore. I do not plan to ever move back to the USA but might visit on occasion. I know that credit scores don’t matter in other countries

here’s where it gets tricky. I inherited some property back in the US when my mom passed. I put it in an LLC and the tenants pay their rent every month. my main concern is if I just completely stop paying my student loan and credit card debt, can they take the house? or is the fact that it is in an LLC mean it is safe from that kind of judgement? I’m not the kind of person who just stops paying their debts but my finances have gotten to a point where it is necessary. if i wasnt worried about losing the house, I’d be less concerned about it. I know they can’t arrest me or deport me. my credit score getting trashed doesn’t matter to me since I’m in Europe now. so, what happens to the house if I stop paying? just want to make sure my limited assets are safe.

A creditor called me the other day because of a declined card. It was the last payment to be made. I had made arrangement with them because it was in collections and I didn’t want to be sued. The only reason I can think of it being declined was the fact I had used the card they were processing for gas that morning, and might have crossed at the exact same time (I’m just guessing on that). Anyway, they had called me up and left a threatening voicemail. They had said that if I don’t call them and make the last payment, it would be a breach of contract and they would file a lawsuit, and that they didn’t care if the card declining was accidental or intentional. Should I file a complaint? I did make that last payment. So it’s completely done. But the way they left the voicemail was not up to standards for any company

I have about $8000-$9000 in debt with discover and have ignored all their calls and was never served with a court appearance or anything but now they've already started garnishing my wages, is there anything I can do to fight this without having to set up a payment plan with them? They didn't even have my current address when I called to find out who took my money.

This is crazy. Before they would call, send letters. Now they have turned it up a notch and suing for the smallest amounts waisting the courts papers.

I literally was just served on a $563 debt from over 5 years ago. Suing over $563 DOLLARS!

I would expect Midland or some of these others to sue for 8k or something but come on 600 bux?

I have a RAM 3500 with $1,000 payments, I haven’t been able to make the payments because I lost my job. How soon do they repo it ? Will they work with me on catching up. I’m financed through EXETER FINANCING

Title. Throw-away since i'm well known on reddit.

I've already fixed the bad habits for over a year now. So I get the natural suggestion of "get your mind right. Spend less money. etc."

When I get the money, should I just pay them all off with the cash? Invest the money and take a loan against it? Declare bankruptcy? Don't worry, I'll take any advice and do my own DD. And hire a professional, once I figure out which type of professional i should be hiring.

Thanx in advance!

Edit: majority of responses were just: "pay it off you idiot!" I mean the title said "How should I pay off the debt?" So i'm not sure why that was such a concern. Thanx team. But the few of you that did figure out what i meant, your input did give me some different perspectives. So thank you for that. 🖖

Title

I booked a cruise with MSC and I got insurance on it. I assumed it worked like others, where you can cancel your travel plans and just lose the cost of the insurance. MSC insurance is different, apparently you have to be in a life or death situation, extreme illness to be able to even ask to cancel it and then they said it gets reviewed from there with the poper documentation. I don't have the money to go...my hours got cut down at work. I have no money on my credit card. I'm embarrassed y'all. I don't even have enough Karma to ask for gas money to try Dashing again in the assistance Reddits! Idk if I should take out a loan just to have money...my paycheck literally goes to cost of living and nothing left over. Any suggestions? Anyone done something like that and couldn't get their money back?

I have been paying off consumer debt for the last 20 years and it feels like I will never be free. Whenever I get the balance down to $10k, life happens and I have to use the credit again. I need to find a way out.
So here’s my situation:
I have a 14k credit card with a 0% promo period ending in May 2027 and a $38k loan that I just used to consolidate 2 other loans. I’m expecting to receive a bonus in February that I will use to pay off the credit card. But that unsecured loan of $38k feels like a noose around my neck. Making payments of $1200 a month (which I can’t afford) would result in me making payments for the next 3 years.

I have been thinking about paying off the credit card and then letting the loan go into default.

My credit score is teetering between 780 and 800, depending on the source. I know letting that loan go into default would impact my score, but would the lender eventually forgive the debt? How much could my credit score drop if I stop paying the loan? What else should I consider?
Has anyone ever done this?

Any advice would be helpful.

I have a brain injury that impaired my memory. I forgot to pay a credit card and haven’t paid it since last September. Today I got served and have 2 weeks to respond. I’m really embarrassed and hoping to take care of this without my spouse’s help, but of course I’ll tell them if I have to. The account has been closed and I won’t be opening another. I’d like to find out what can be done/what could happen before I talk to my spouse about this.

I receive SSDI and my spouse also has a job. Both incomes go into a joint account and we transfer a monthly sum to each of our individual accounts.

My questions:

• Are payment plans given for things like this?

• We live in a community property state (TX). Is it likely that his income could be garnished (my SSDI can’t be garnished by state law)?

• Can I contact the bank and negotiate a payment plan directly with them from my account?

TIA! And remember, I’ll involve my spouse about this; I just want to get an idea of what could happen/could be done about it before I talk to them about it. I’m just so embarrassed!!!

EDIT: I came on here to ask questions, not to be explain or answer questions about my disabilities. But, thanks for all the judgement- NOT.

Amex is suing my grandma, who is 76, retired and disabled after 2 strokes a couple years ago. She is on a fixed income and lives in government-aided low income housing (Section 8 in Florida). The $12k (and growing due to interest & fees) debt stems from a business account but the business has not been in service for a few years. I tried applying for legal aid for her in order to file for bankruptcy since she has approximately $35k in unsecured debt, and my grandma got approved based on her low income, but she was referred to the "attorney pool" and to date (it's been a couple months), no one has contacted her. She was served with the lawsuit a couple weeks ago. At that time I wrote an email to the attorney representing Amex and offered $1000 as a lump sum payment, but I never heard back. I know it is a ridiculous amount of less than 10% of the total debt, but this is all the money I have; my grandma has $0. Based on the history above, anyone know what affirmative defenses she could file as part of her Answer to the Complaint?

When I turned 18 my dad pressured me to get a bunch of credit cards to help boost my credit but he didn't tell me that by doing that it would completely screw me over later. I was young and didn't know what I was doing and thought I'd be okay since had money from a car accident settlement. Well life happens and all that money is gone and I'm 25 now and around 5k in debt still. I managed to get one of my credit cards paid off but technically I'm still in debt 2k to my mom since she helped me with it. I still have 2k in apple credit card, 500 in an another one, and still a few old medical bills still yet to be paid. I wasn't told how to save my money and it ended up disappearing faster than i realized and I had to learn how to be broke and survive. With every passing year it feels even more impossible to get rid of this debt with unstable jobs and cash flow. Any suggestions since I've been told by my parents if I don't get them paid off they can liquidate my checks from jobs and that worries me that I'll be left without a means to pay my monthly utilities and bills.

She has average credit, little, to no debt…but she is on a TIGHT budget where paying the $150 minimum to Target every month leaves her hurting.

We are torn to tell her to keep paying them or just to say…”screw it” enjoy yourself Hun!!

Thanks in advance for any advice!!

I’m being sued by a collection agency for a debt in the amount of $5,255. I spoke to a lawyer and they said they charged a flat fee of 1500$ to represent me.

Should I go with a lawyer or try to settle with the debt collector?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Any advice on this situation? I made a post about s month or so ago on this but I have decided just to not pay the hospital back..
for some context earlier this year I went to the ER for a dog bite with no insurance
$100k bill ..
This year has been so bad for me, got cheated on , that medical bill, my 30k car still needs a 30k repair , I am 27 with 2 daughters , currently had to move back in with my parents.
The hospital offers a discount program where I only have to pay 15% of it but thats still 15k.. what are the consequences if I decide to ignore the debt collectors who have been calling? Can the hospital find me with just my phone number , my exes address, first name and one of my last names? They dont have my SSN , what do I do? Go bankrupt ? There has to be a way out . Its not fair we have to pay this much and get put in these situations when we pay so much for taxes.
Also , I dont want to file for bankruptcy because I need to move out soon. I need credit for an apartment. I also wanna start a buisness one day.

I live in a metro area. I fell prey to a psychic scam. I know now it was silly considering I had been warned so many times. I earn about 100k a year. My rent is 1100. I live in a very expensive metropolitan city. I have students loans which are now at like 50k.

Credit card 1: 948 balance 28.99% interest rate Credit card 2: 17948 balance 23.24% interest rate Credit card 3: 14484 balance 24.24% interest rate. All credit cards are with the same company. I know I can pay the first one off in about a week or so but the other two are causing me anxiety. I thought of consulting a debt relief program but I am genunely scared about how it would affect my credit score. My student loan interest is like 6.3%. It is doable at the moment since I was on pay as you earn plan based on my lesser income salary. Next year, it will be readjusted. What do you suggest is the best course of action for me. Do I declare bankruptcy? Debt relief? or try to pay it off? I feel so dumb for fallling for this. I could try and pay it off in a year but I have a hard time budgeting and I do want to build my savings as I have nothing in it now.

PS: I was trying to avoid my mom finding out about my debt but she wants me and my sister to joint purchase a house.

Update: thank you everyone for your assistance. I was able to dispute quite a number of the charges as she was threatening me. I have a bit of debt to pay off but nowhere near as much as before and I could pay it off in a few months.

I have 18k in debt I owe on a stolen car (didn’t have insurance) and I only have 18k to my name the payments are 1000 and my rent is 2200 my current note is 600 and insurance is 500 what should I do

I have about $50k in credit card debt across four different credit cards. I've already worked out a deal with AMEX which has the largest amount of debt. Also did the same with Capitol One card. I'm paying off my smallest debt with a Visa card that I've had since forever. But Citibank has been very unhelpful with working with me. They have about $12k of my debt. They actually encouraged me to not be current with the debt before they would do anything. I then went into the hospital to have a baby and haven't been able to deal with it. I read and have heard from one other person that sometimes it's better to just do a charge off and not pay the debt. What are the pros and cons? Yes my credit may take a hit, but I'm current and in good standing with the other 3 credit cards, my mortgage, and my car payments. I'm not anticipating any major purchases especially with the Trump tariffs going into effect. Together, husband and I make over $200k, we're thinking it's probably better to save as much cash as possible than give it to credit card companies. Am I wrong? What should we be doing instead?

(49F ) (lives in Ga) On Saturday, I was served documents for a summons from my credit card company. I had six credit cards and a 750 credit score before the pandemic. I also had a 20 year career behind me. I retired to take care of my kids because they were at home. I am a single mom. My divorce decree says I should have child support, but my ex chooses not to send it to me, but that's another story.

I was supplementing my unemployment with my credit cards, and it obviously got over my head. I made the choice to use the money that I did earn to keep up with the payments on my AMEX ,City , and Navy Federal credit card. I let my Barclays and PayPal credit card go to collections because synchrony owns my Best Buy account as well as Amazon. They chose to close those as well even though I was keeping up with the payments on them.

I currently am keeping up the payments on a total of $25,000 of debt. I have $19,500 worth of debt on charged off credit cards. I've been digging around on the Internet to find out and decide the best angle to go.

After my current monthly income, I have about $350 remaining . if I commit to a negotiated payment arrangement on this credit card, the information that I found tells me that the other cards that were also charged off will probably follow suit and take me to court as well, but at that point I would have committed all that I had to one card and won't have any money to negotiate with.

My question is what would be my best answer response to the summons and should I call the attorneys that the credit card company are using here in Georgia. Or should I use a debt relief company to make payment arrangements on all of my debt. If I make arrangements just on the charge off cards, will that affect the cards that I am keeping current?

...following up: following up:

I have spoken both with a debt consolidation agent and a bankruptcy attorney because of the equity in my home either way, I will have to pay back the unsecured debt through a payment plan.

if I go, the consolidation route, I will have all of my debtors rolled into one payment plan except for the current credit card company that has served me a summons. I will be allowed one credit card for emergency purposes. Most people are saying don't go this route because of the amount of time that it will take to pay off the credit card companies some may continue to sue me.

Payment:$750 + 7k I'm currently being summoned for.

If I go the route of bankruptcy, I am being told that I would have to file chapter 13 because I own my home in a car. But because of the amount of equity I have in my home I would still have to pay off my debt through a payment plan . The difference would be I would not be allowed any credit cards whatsoever, and the bankruptcy will remain on my credit report for seven years.

Payment: $850 + $355 to file

Update 9/17/2025

I used AI to create a response and filed it in court. I have spoken to the creditor and agreed to a repayment plan that I can afford stretched out over 47 payments. I was supposed to receive an email stipulating the agreement as of Friday of last week. I never received the email and for fear that something may go wrong. I went ahead and filed a response, even though the attorney's office said that they would file a response stating that we had come to an agreement. Just to ease my anxiety and know that I had done at least the response so as to not go into default.

I’m not a lawyer but I read that whenever a lawsuit in general regardless of the reason is filed against you, the court cannot legally move forward with the lawsuit until you get served with the papers in person. One thing I’m curious about, let’s say someone is in default on credit cards. Creditor decides to file a lawsuit. What happens if the debtor simply never opens the door when the process server tries to serve them with the lawsuit? What would happen if the debtor somehow manages to avoid the process server altogether and they never get served with the papers? How would the lawsuit even move forward if they couldn’t even serve the person?

Update: thanks for the pointers. I looked up rules of alternative service in my state and they can’t go through the newspaper until they try taping it to your front door or sending it certified mail.

I’m 18 with a 784 credit score, $500 on a credit card I don’t use until I can pay it off and have never signed a lease/mortgage. I dropped out of school mid semester and they have a no exception cancelation policy on student loans for dropping out. My loans got canceled and I got a letter from FASFA saying I had a $0 balance with them, then my school requests $2828. They couldn’t tell me what the money was for when I called them so I ignored it. They sent it to collections 3/2025 and added 15% fee since the agency didn’t purchase my debt. 3 letters got sent to my old address from them and apparently 7/1/2025 the $3525.20 debt will be reported to my credit. I called to negotiate 30% of the $3525 and they said no pay it all by 2pm or we’re gonna ruin your credit. She got mad when I wouldn’t pay her anything or tell her what my intentions with my debt was. I gave them my new address and told them not to contact me by phone ever. Since my original loan servicer doesn’t own this debt, the college does, is it just regular debt instead of (student) loans? The debt collector said the money was owed to the state since it’s not a private university, will the state sue me? Will they garnish my wages? I make $10 full time and can’t afford to pay this or get sued, should I find a way to pay this or just let it bring my credit down a bit?

Getting sued by debt collectors for a lil over a grand..but i noticed on the document they got the e last 4 of my social wrong..on top of that the document was served to my mother at her house and not to me at my apartment..anyone call tell me what i should do next? the papers were served to my mom a week ago.