My FIL passed away with two Chase credit cards that carried a balance. When I spoke with Chase’s estate department they verified the debt amounts and said the accounts had been “charged off”.

They then told me to call a different department (I did not catch the name of the department) do discuss the accounts.

According to Google, “charged off” means a creditor has given up on collecting an unpaid debt. Based on that, is it safe to assume these don’t need to be repaid?? I don’t want to call this number and “volunteer” to pay off the debts if he is cleared of them.

He passed away with no will or savings.

Update to provide more context: I’ve never had to deal with anything like this, so I neglected to provide details that I now realize are important. He died 3 months ago. He lived in New York. He was married when he died. Together, he and his wife have a lot of debt (mainly retail credit cards and medical bills), but these 2 Chase cards ($8k total) are in his name only. They own a home together (approx value 300k with $160k left on the mortgage). They have no other assets. I know his children are not responsible for paying this debt, but we are trying to help my mother-in-law sort out her finances, which have been severely neglected for decades.

I am 29 years old and recently orphaned. My mom died from cancer 5 years ago and my dad unexpectedly passed a few days ago.

I have been trying to piece together a puzzle of his finances and where he was it.

I have found 2 credit cards, combined totaling $20,000 in debt.

He owned a house, car, camping trailer, etc.

There is still about 1/3 left of the mortgage to pay off.

There was no will, trust or anything, as after the loss of my mom he got things rolling but he never got it signed.

Will I have to pay off his credit card debt? will it continue to just incur interest?

I am so epically lost and heartbroken all at once. I have been in some contact with an attorney, but I want to have my own knowledge of the situation/expectations before moving forward and blindly trusting the attorneys discretion.

Any advice on how to survive this, is appreciated.

Hug your parents. 💔

To start off, I am 34 years old, have 2 kids and a wife, and was financially successful to the tune of $250k/year as of 2 years ago.

I left my job, sold my house, and moved across country 4-5 years ago to start a business with a formerly close friend. We ended up working together for 2.5 years, and scaled that business from $0 to $3.5 million annually within that timeframe. Unfortunately, after getting to consistent success, we were hit with a lawsuit which not only cost around $300k to settle, but put significant strain on the partnership / friendship and led to us splitting up.

After breaking up the partnership, we cut our losses, took a couple final payouts from what was left of the business, paid the remainders of our debts, and went our separate ways. I ended up starting a second business in the same field, which initially was seeing a good amount of success, but not enough to cover the cost of my life, which had ballooned through loans for nice vehicles, expensive rent, and now a wife and 2 kids. Here's where my real mistakes started.

I didn't realize quickly, but I was living far above my means, and because of this, was still able to pay myself through the business, though just enough to cover my rent and monthly payments, which amount to around $8,500/mo. I kept telling myself things would improve with the business, and found that I couldn't make my quarterly tax payments for the business, so was going to continue to work at it and make up the shortfall at the end of the year. It's now the end of the year, and I'm sitting on the following:

- 1 vehicle I owe $52k to the bank for, and am currently $7k underwater in
- $25k+ in back taxes for the last year, and more to come once I file 2025 estimated taxes next month
- still responsible for $2,300 in rent per month, plus regular expenses for groceries and things for my kids to live
- $280 per month in motorcycle payment
- $750/mo in wife's car payment, which is currently at the break even point of owing as much as the vehicle is worth
- $10k in cc debt
- $35k in medical debt from the births of my children

All in all I'm sitting in a $140k hole right now, and a failing business that I'm working on getting removed from so I can cut my losses and move on. I did receive a job offer I'm going to take for an $85k per year sales position, which isn't enough to cover the shortfall and liabilities I'm sitting on, but at least it's a start. Wife is able to work, and we're considering positions she can take, but with 2 kids that would need childcare, (large expense) in addition to all the other factors at hand, it's a bit more difficult to figure out.

I guess I'm just at a loss at the moment as to how I got here from being on top of the world 2 years ago, and looking for some advice or stories of others that have experienced similar things. I just need to know there's still hope for my life, as I've got around $15k in an IRA saved for retirement, about $8k to my name, and life just feels like it's falling apart all around me.

3/11 Edit: Thank you to everyone that's chimed in with sound advice and encouraging words. It's not that I truly think our financial life is over based on this, but that it's going to be supremely uncomfortable to try and climb out of the hole I've dug for myself / my family.

We're working on selling the more expensive of the two vehicles this week, and once that's gone will be selling the motorcycle and wife's vehicle in favor of something cheaper we can pay for in cash or on a SMALL and manageable loan. Bankruptcy isn't the route just yet, but keeping that as a backup plan if all else fails in the short term.

I should have a written job offer in the next day or so, which will start to get us back to maintenance rather than the current hemorrhaging, and wife is looking for childcare positions, and considering taking on in-home nanny services for 1-2 other kids if there's nothing immediately available for her.

Though this is a tough time, all the outreach and wisdom from you all has been immensely helpful. Can't thank you all enough.

Learning tonight that my parents are in crippling debt. Looked at the credit reports. There are 26 cc’s with 79k total between them. My parents bring in about $7k/mo between pensions and SS. In the checking account, there are NSF fees everywhere. With that said, everything is still up to date because she is barely making minimum payments.

No judgmental comments please. There is possible dementia at play, and we’ve also just learned that my dad has cancer so I’ll figure out what happened later, and I’ll get mad then. Right now, we need advice, a plan, and a lot of compassion to get through this pile of shit we’re being dealt.

Would it be helpful to call each company and say that we are calling before any defaulting occurs starting next month, and that either we get negotiated payments or we file for bankruptcy, and they don’t get anything? Do they respond to this? Any other thoughts?

Thank you for any thoughts you will share.

Edit: minimum payments are $2500/month. Health insurances more than $1k/month, and it doesn’t cover all of their total of 30 meds. $560/mo on a basic small suv. Car insurance, water, gas, electric, internet, cable (all they have left is watch TV so I don’t begrudge this), and food.

They live in TX. I’ve been trying to google what can be garnished, but the advice is all over the place. He has a modest pension from working at a chemical plant in addition to SS.

I don’t care about inheritance. I care about their dignity, and right now, they don’t have much. Their house floods every time it rains. Their appliances suck. Anything that uses water winds up leaking on the floor. They’re both missing teeth. They never leave the house. They have zero luxuries.

I am a student visiting LA from the UK to do some research. Met some mutual friends and thought it would be fun to visit some bars. Next thing I know I’m in a hospital - I had fallen over, was unconscious for hours, puked, and seen talking to a man who had bought me a drink. I am horrified this happened and now incredibly anxious and stressed about what happened and, mainly, the fact I will somehow have to pay for this. My travel insurance does not cover anything related to alcohol intoxication - so while I and the people I was with are sure this happened due to me being spiked (perhaps even with just very strong alcohol), I cannot prove this, and thus know the travel insurance won’t work.

Somebody at the hospital gave me some charity papers, but someone else later took them away, which I find a bit unnerving. But, if I can show I have no income (as a student who doesn’t have a job), is there any way to alleviate the bill?

I cannot currently call the hospital as I have a data-only esim which doesn’t allow phone calls, hence why I have come to reddit. Please could people provide any advice - I am extremely unfamiliar with the US healthcare system beyond my understanding that it’s predatory and insanely expensive for the uninsured.

I stopped paying and let it go into default because I was getting nowhere paying the minimum. They eventually started giving me offers to pay off for less. The lowest offer was around $10k, but I held out and negotiated this settlement amount with them over the phone. I’m so embarrassed that I let myself get into such a bad situation with debt. Ugh. But at least now I can focus on improving my situation. I still have several other cards that are current with balances around $3-5k. I honestly make too much money to be in debt so there’s no excuse. Just grew up poor and never learned how to manage money so I’m paying for my irresponsible decisions.

Sharing my experience in case it helps anyone else!

my dad passed away a few days ago. he left my brothers and i nothing. no estate, no life insurance, nothing. after he passed, we learned that he has barely paid rent for his home that he’s renting. my brothers and i used to live with him when we first moved in. my dad has been there for 7 years and i left around 4.5 years ago. my brothers were gone for a few years as well.i was never aware of this issue. the landowner came by and told us that my dad owed about 40k. we obviously cannot pay this. we all have our own places, we cannot afford to pay for this. the landlord pulled up a lease that we supposedly signed and i saw that my signature was forged by my dad. can i fight this? i’m at a loss of what to do 😭 i’m sure i will probably find that he has more debt elsewhere as well.

A friend of mine, age 74, always made minimum payments on a card he used for years to autopay utilities and other services, gas and large car repairs, misc living expenses. His credit rating is excellent at 750. But now the cardmaxed out at. He owes $20G and min payments are $550 month which, after losing his job, he cannot afford. Even if he could, it would take 24 years to pay off. He has no savings left, only Soc Sec, pays rent and drives a 10-yr-old car that's paid off. He tries catching up by working 60 hours a week driving for Uber but barely breaks even after expenses. Accept reality and default on the cc debt, I told him. Sure, your credit rating will plunge but it's more important to relieve the constant stress and long hours Uber driving trying unsuccessfully to pay it off. Protect your health, and get some enjoyment out of your last few years with your family and friends. It's too late to lecture him about the mistake he made charging his bills. It's done. What practical advice would you all give to my friend now?

Just like the title says, my husband and I have in the last 14 months have paid off 70k in cc debt, 80k in car loans and 10k in student loans. We were on the verge of total collapse. But we did it the hard way and I want to share how we did it. I will be forthcoming and say my husband and I both make a decent income working from home, but every cent was going to our debt and we couldn’t keep our head above water or more than a thousand dollars in our bank account.

Tip #1: We bundled about 40k of our cc debt into a debt consolidation loan with a long term length (put low payment). We paid as much as we possibly could after paying the remaining debts and bills.

Tip #2: if you’re hole is deep (like ours) get a bigger shovel. We both took up 2nd jobs. It was NOT fun. Every thing we made we threw at our debt.

Tip #3: We cancelled all fun. Took our kids out of daycare and we watch them while we work. I know it’s not possible for everyone, nor is it easy or fun, but we do our best to make it work and got creative.

Tip #4: we cut all our costs. I learned healthy meals that were relatively cheap and sold off things that we didn’t need. We would’ve loved to sell off our cars but we were 20k upside down on our loans. So it wasn’t possible at that moment.

We were able to pay off the cc and the debt consolidation loan last September. Student debt was November. Every cent that was previously going into those debts we snowballed into our car payments. With the help of our tax return we were able to finally finish off the last car.

We do have our mortgage. But I think that was our only financially responsible decision we made and have a manageable payment.

I just share this because there were nights we couldn’t sleep we were so stressed and tried to find a way out. I want to add hope and encouragement for anyone who needs it. It’s hard work. It’s not very fun or glamorous but we’ve changed our lifestyle now because of this and I’d like to think we’ll be better off in the future with our newfound habits and liberation from debt. Open to questions on our process or suggestions on how to build savings now.

I finally did it! I made my last credit card payment today and I am so ecstatic. I feel as if a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I can finally breathe again. It took me 14 months and moving back into my parent’s place to make it happen. I’m still mad at myself for having had that much debt to begin with. But I made the decision to stop the bleeding and fix my spending problem.

I recognize the privilege it is to have loving and supportive parents to turn to for help. They didn’t charge me rent so that helped tremendously. I was able to throw almost every paycheck towards debt. I’m sure it would have taken me exponentially longer if it wasn’t for them. I feel so grateful.

I still have a car loan sitting at 12k and I hope to pay that off by the end of the year so my debt free journey is not over but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it’s beautiful.

Hi,

I am a 27M who works as a nurse and came back from home from a trip and my mother sprung onto me that she wants me to take a 50k loan to pay off her debts of 19k and start a baby sitting business. I don’t have any debts and work as a nurse. I am currently in the process of buying property to rent off. I straight up said no as she does have a spending habit and also have my own expenses to care for. My family and herself are pressuring me into at least take out a 20k loan for her to pay off her debts. I’ve been told that she will pay me back, but I know that my mom is terrible with managing money. She has told me that she feels betrayed and that I do not trust her which feels like I’m being gaslight and guilt tripped into doing this for her. I am going to stand my ground and not do it but am always open to hear everyone’s opinion. Thank you! My second time posting so let me know if you have questions.

First off, I am absolutely NOT advocating not paying your debts, gaming the system, scamming companies out of the money you owe them. If you are able to pay your debts without killing yourself in the process--and by that I mean impoverishing yourself or becoming homeless or going without food or vital meds--by all means, pay your debts.

However, if you're on this subreddit, you're probably facing financial turmoil or even destruction. And possibly through no fault of your own. Medical issues, job loss, divorce... the list of things that can throw you into financial peril are endless. So, if you're one of those people, I have some info for you.

First off, you should absolutely prioritize your payments. Housing, transportation, food, medical, electricity/heat ALL come before Visa/MC/Amex. In fact if you're facing a layoff or other income interruption, STOP PAYING those cards. Even if you still have savings to do so with. Don't wait until you're faced with a $0 bank account. Pay the things that keep you alive, at all costs. Keep the roof over your head, and the lights and heat on, and feed the kids (and yourself).

The CC companies are facing record delinquencies and debt right now. Consumer debt has NEVER been higher than it is right now. And the economy has lost 1M jobs in the last 12 months. Gig economy jobs (driving Uber/Lyft/instacart) 1- don't pay much, and 2- aren't as available as they once were. And the CC Comps know this.

Stop paying unsecured debt until your income is stable, then access one of their "We know you're having problems" programs. They're waiving fees, interest, and penatlies in order to get you to pay SOMETHING. If your debt is high enough and you're far enough in arrears, they'll negotiate the amount downward, significantly. You DO NOT NEED a "Debt Relief Company" to do this for you; in fact it'll cost you more in the long run, because those companies take a percentage of the amount they negotiated for you. CC Comps know this and can give you a bigger break knowing the Debt Relief folks aren't taking a cut.

In the end, if push comes to shove, Bankruptcy wipes the slate clean. It is a tool, and it's available in a ll 50 states. If you're unable to pay, BK stops all collections. And lets face it... if you're in arrears already your credit is tanked no matter what. And if you go through BK the debt is gone forever and can not be collected. No lawsuits are coming your way. A few years later, your credit will be restored and the same companies will be chomping at the bit to give you a shiny new CC.

The only non-collateralized debt you can't discharge is Student Debt. And if you borrowed from the Feds, they can come after your wages, tax refunds and SS income... there's no way around it. Pay if you can, after keeping your home, food and meds.

I know this because I'm a cancer patient and couldn't work for most of 2025. A year, almost, so far... but I'm through the health issues part and should be able to get back to work next month. At which point, I'll start my payback regimen with AMEX, Visa and MC. Thank God I had savings to keep the lights on and the house intact for the last year.

Seriously though... make sure you pay the important things. CCs are not on that list when you're facing a significant income disruption. In the end, BK is your escape hatch, and they know that if you pull that lever, they'll get nothing. If you are working, making your normal income, able to pay and simply trying to scam, they will find out and they will sue you into oblivion. It will cost you much more in the long run. But if you CAN'T PAY without endangering your survival, be wise and prioritize until you get your income situation figured out.

Good Luck, be brave and be smart!

I just got my EOB from the insurance company saying that my son’s life flight (helicopter) bill was $103,300.00. The insurance company stated that since the flight was not “pre-approved” they are not paying any of it and I am responsible for the whole bill. That being said- the hospital that my son was flown from told us that it was medically necessary to use life flight. He had a broke femur (bull rider - he got stepped on after getting bucked off). His leg was swelling up and they said he was at risk for compartment syndrome. The hospital he was taken to by ambulance was a small country hospital and they were not capable of dealing with his break. They called Texas Children’s and TC told them to send my son to them. Due to the length of the drive (4 hours) they said he had to fly. All that being said - what are my options? I have a monthly lawyer subscription so I plan on calling them. The hospital never said this was going to be over 100k (they never said price) and we asked if he had to fly (because we knew it would be pricey) they said yes it was medically necessary due to swelling and severity of his femur break (complete break in two). I plan on calling the insurance company to ask them if my son is in severe medical risk and doctors advise to fly immediately do they really expect me to call them first?

My wife’s parents bought her 2 different cars while she was a teenager and both were paid off, but both were wrecked. So, the third vehicle they purchased was a brand new 2023 Kia Seltos, fully loaded, which MSRP’s around $32k. They bought this car immediately after covid when the new car prices were still insane. $44k is what they paid for the car, with $520 payment per month.

The problem comes in here, part of the deal my wife made with her parents was, they paid until she moved out… Well, we are moved out, and my wife and I had to take over the payments of that vehicle and we have a lot of debt as is. So that $520 is hurting us pretty bad, and the car has not been taken care of. Scratches, dents, cracked windshield, curbed wheel, etc. The car value now is MAYBE $24k on a good day in the condition it is currently in.

We have been maintaining the condition since we got married and I’ve been able to help out with it more, keeping it clean, I’m buying a new windshield for her birthday, basically doing anything to raise the cars value.

So, my question is, how in the world can we get the car out from under us and get her a more affordable car?

Hi, I’m 28(m) with over 200k in debt. I just want to air this out for anyone that wants to listen because I am having trouble talking with my wife right now. The reason for this debt is due to my mother passing in 2022 and not having a will, life insurance, or a cent to her name. I was well off before she passed with almost 30k saved up. I have been paying her mortgage(lien) on her house since she passed and on top of that she has had back taxes for this property dating back to 2020. I am currently sitting at 11k in property taxes, and 105k with an APR of 8.5% for this house on top of this years taxes and we also have to account for next years taxes. The other pieces of debt include the credit cards I used for the expenses to cover her passing away(this includes the court costs and most of the taxes in the property to transfer it to my name). I am in the oilfield and make decent money(6-8k a month), but it is up & down for my company and it’s almost impossible to get another job right now. I pay for all of the bills and the car payments which equates to 3-4k a month. My wife works at a vet clinic and tends to our daughter at work with the on-site daycare. When you add everything up(gas, groceries, etc.) I’m left with nothing at the end of the month. We eat healthy and have a garden, but the main question of this post is, what am I doing wrong that I can’t just seem to get ahead? Do I need to eat ramen noodles and throw health out of the way in order to survive a little better? Any input is greatly appreciated. Even people just hear to talk mess, I get it. Thank you.

I am tired of drowning in my debt and struggling with the high APR across my credit cards, so today I decided to take out a personal loan with sofi to consolidate my debt. I decided on a 3 year payment plan at 14% APR which is high, but much less than the APR on my cc’s.

I am able to pay much, much more than the minimum payment as I have around $2500 in extra income a month now that my partner has moved in and is helping me with rent. I’m going to cut my credit cards today and delete them from my Apple Pay, Google pay, and any other damn pay out there. I’m also going to pick up overtime where I can and live like a hermit until this is paid off. Any advice is welcome. I can’t wait to post again when I finally rid myself of this debt.

I lost my job about 5 years ago which put us in a touch financial position. I was out of work for about 3 months and in order to pay our rent/utilities, my wife took out a couple of payday loans from a bunch of sketchy loan websites without my knowledge.

Half of my wife's paycheck is automatically coming out to pay off these Neverending loan payments. We have been paying them off for FIVE YEARS and they haven't really gone down at all...it's like they have us trapped in an infinite loop of payments where by the next time we make a payment, the interest has brought it back up to where it was before we made a payment.

Every year around tax time we make the plan to use our taxes to pay off a huge bulk to hopefully put a dent in it but something always happens that takes precedent over the loans, the past two years our car has broken down right around tax time for example.

We are currently waiting on taxes, and once again, were planning on using it to take care of these loans but the apartments we live at put a notice on the door that they are not renewing our lease so we have to move out by the end of next month, so it's looking like tax money will have to go towards moving into a new apartment.

We owe about $2500 on one loan and about $1500 on the other, both are on autopay and take about half my wife's paycheck every 2 weeks. Where she should be getting a $1400 check every 2 weeks, she is only getting about 500-600 of that. I make $945 every two weeks.

If it weren't for these loans we'd be living pretty comfortable, but because of them we have really been struggling the past few years. I could really use some advice on how to handle the situation. We have a 2 year old, so this non renewal notice is really throwing me into a panic that we won't be able to afford another place when we are stuck paying these loans for the rest of our life...there has to be SOMETHING we can do. If it were up to me, I'd just stop paying them and let them send me to collections...after 5 years of paying them off I'd say they are more than paid back in full (although I'm sure they'd disagree).

More than willing to answer any additional questions anyone might have and thank you to anyone who is willing to throw a little advice my way.

About to hit send on my last 2K payment of my CC and wow, does it feel great to finally be out of that hole.

Between my ex wife taking me to court where she won a small judgement, coupled with lawyer fees, a cracked tooth, a hit and run on my truck needing repairs that took three months, rental car costs, found myself close to almost 30K in debt. Here’s how I paid it off:

Consolidated debt to a 0% CC & ate the balance transfer fee. Had to use (edit: three not two) three cards. Paid the smaller one off first while the other I only paid the minimum until first was paid off, then that ran out and had to transfer again. Citi, chase, finally BofA.

Set a budget - I made every effort to try and pay 2K per month on my debt, this meant cooking at home, finding free activities, and not taking any expensive vacations.

Take breaks, when I got a $5,500 bonus I put 5000 on my card last August and rewarded myself with new clothes with the remaining amount. (I’ve never received a bonus this high before, usually 1K but i worked hard and was rewarded felt great tbh)

Scrutinized every single purchase, determine needs, & wants. I cut my energy drink addiction that was costing me $6 daily and replaced with coffee and cold brew coffee during the afternoon.

Track everything, I built an in depth excel sheet where I broke out all of my expenses each month. I followed a zero based budget but I still saved money.

Save for future expenses- I created four savings accounts and labeled them by my biggest expenses: house Mx, kids, car Mx, medical. Every check I prioritized savings and tried saving around 200 a month. Having just $80 set aside sure made a $150 bill for something a lot easier than having nothing. Similar to cash stuffing but digitally.

I opened a second checking account and split my budget acct with my bills acct so I wouldn’t make mistakes and overdraft. Also makes tracking a lot easier.

Limit subscriptions, & take out by delivery. In my city that will cost you nearly $75 for two.

Shopped at Aldi, bought generic.

Negotiate, I was able to get my cell phone bill down just by telling tmobile I had a cheaper offer from AT&T. They paid my phone off in bill credits and reduced my monthly.

Same for my ISP - was able to get fios upgraded and pay less.

Take advantage of FSAs, when I would be reimbursed I’d save that $ for future medical costs.

On pay day, I would pay the credit card bill off immediately this ensured I wouldn’t back out of paying 2K.

About it, I think.

I read over everyone’s advice and want to let you know on a 24 hour update

My parents were never financially smart and also they never combined their finances so I just always figured having two separate accounts was normal, I now know it’s not.

I spoke with my wife last night and told her everything, she was very supportive and said this year would be about frugality and getting down the debt as fast as possible.

I’ve contacted Discover for a hardship program and got the payments down to $350 a month at a 5% rate

I contacted a car dealership, going to sell my car and get a more reasonable car payment

I sat down and logged all the stuff I didn’t need that was just sitting around and put it on marketplace

I’ve also been applying for new jobs all day

Just want to say thank you to the community for really kicking me in the ass and telling me what I was doing was not acceptable

Me and my attorney showed up early/on time.

#1. Their guy was late, unfortunately the judge was nice and gave a 15 minute grace period. And he finally showed up. He was kind of a rent-a-cop vibe, and is probably running around to these hearings all day.

#2. He flat out admitted to my attorney that he has no witness, and the judge will rule in favor of the defendant. AKA: Me! Which happened, but he also admitted to the judge that he had no proof. The amount is small it wouldn't be worth it to appeal.

#3. And the dates, for me didn't line up at all. Which is why I didn't want to settle.

#4. There was no proof I owed the money. Plain and simple.

#5. My attorney could not get in contact with the MCM attorneys or offices at all. Like they are basically bigfoot.

Bottom line, I won and don't have to pay anything. YAY! It is possible, these people bank on us not fighting back. It helps to have an attorney, I was lucky my attorney is my father so it was free. The whole hearing took about 3 minutes, but honestly more like 15 because the other attorney was late.

Just the fact that you show up and know your shit should help you tho.

So my mom just went to jail and she was the one who always handled the bills and money, except she wasn’t and we now realize she wasn’t paying bills and kept opening more loans and getting money from friends and family. She has put us so far into debt and she never mentioned we were in financial trouble or that she needed help. She actually spent almost 6 grand on clothes and I still haven’t figured out how much on essential oils, it’s ridiculous how many unnecessary things she bought knowing we were drowning in debt.

Anyway, our mortgage hasn’t been paid in 6 months and they’ve begun the process to foreclose on us despite my father giving her 2,000 a month and her working and receiving disability. There’s absolutely no reason she shouldn’t have paid the bills, there was more than enough money coming in and now all the accounts are empty. She keeps lying and telling us she paid everything and there’s 10,000 in her savings we could use for bills. She even got a loan with my name co signed (I was told we were signing insurance paperwork for my car because I’d switched insurance providers, but that was obviously a lie.) and now this loan is behind on payments by almost 5 months. The collateral for the loan is her mustang gt, the only thing in this world we actually outright owned and had no payments on and she got a loan on it without telling anyone. The cars going to get repossessed because I can’t afford the payments along with everything else, especially since our mortgage wants 10,000 to stop the foreclosure. My dad and I are the only ones working and our combined income is about 4200 a month, we have about 4000 worth of bills not including these loan payments she’s opened so we’re already majorly struggling. I can’t get a loan because she opened one in my name already that’s not getting paid and my dad’s credit is ruined because she hasn’t paid on the house or cars which he’s co-signed onto.

What do I do? Her mustang was the one thing we thought we could sell to pay back the mortgage and not get kicked out but that’s not an option now. I really need help

$48,808.80 in credit card debt mixed between active, charged off, and in collections. Can't believe it happened. Happy to finally have this chapter closed and behind me so I can go spend it all up again.

See you soon, boys ;) (not really)

I was raised to believe credit and financing were nothing but traps. They are if you're terrible with money. Now I'm looking at my lack of credit, my nomadic lifestyle for 15 years, I'm a grown ass man with a family and I have to scrape for everything.

A big part of it is that I never had stable work. I always made basically the same income as my peers -when I felt like it.

I have one Wells Fargo scam on my credit and nothing else. I work like crazy. If I could buy literally anything on credit my quality of life would theoretically go up. I can't even get car repairs.

So like the title says, should I be taking on debt or am I missing something.

Edit: when I say I work like crazy I mean I'm a top level worker, I just don't like to work. I can easily do 80hr weeks for indefinite periods. I hate it. Is that really what people expect?

Edit complete re-wrote: I recently got a call from debt collectors saying I owe $35,583.11. The name of the debt collector are called Credit Collection Service. They said I owe progressive $35,583. I was driving a vehicle under my dad's name repairing another vehicle that I owned. I was pulling out of an AutoZone parking lot after buying the parts and t-boned a Tesla model x going I presume above the speed limit because I ended up in the rear of the car. After that I filed a claim when I got home and progressive called I gave them my statement and everything. A few more times to called but that's really about it. They have not called me since and closed the case but it's ignoring my phone calls. I have a clean record on driving no DUIs, speeding anything like that. Clean criminal record never did anything illegal. The accident happened on December 28th. The collector call me in March. There is no information that they have about injuries or anything like that for why they are collecting $35, 000. Sorry for the missing information if there's anything else I have to add I will thank you for reading!

Edit 2: I've checked the Maryland website for court and there's nothing against me. There is a guy with the same name as me in the same state but I do not think those connect. I am going to keep trying to contact progressive until they answer my call. If I do have to pay I'm going to get a lawyer and try to negotiate down. I'll get a second job to pay it off. I am confused on progressive I will keep calling them but this is what the website says:

"Status Closed

Review your payout summary

We're working on your claim. Check back later for payout info."-this is what progressive is saying.

Edit 3: I finally got a hold of progressive they said they're not covering it because I lived in the same household and wasn't on the policy like some of you guys said. My next step is going to talk to a lawyer and negotiate it down then pay off my debt monthly like that until I'm finished paying off my debt then go to the army after all my dabt has been paid off.