Credit And Debt Counseling Mississippi

I have 3 bad credit card accts and 1 to a hospital. My pymts were always current until Hurr Katrina wiped me out 2 yrs ago. It has been a slow crawl of a recovery & I quit paying on these debts long ago. There just is not enough $ to go around. After I pay my monthly necessities of house pymt & utilities there is about 50$ left for food & gas. I am really getting scared however of these debts coming back to haunt me. They may already be in that process as my neighbor said she saw who she believed to be a process server at my door this morning.
I will be getting a small raise at work soon & can send my creditors a small payment of about 10-20 $ monthly. I contacted a debt counseling service today and did not qualify for any of their programs.
I am frightened of a judgement as I am studying to obtain a real estate license & cannot be issued one in my state if I have any judgements against me.
I live in Mississippi & am about 8000 in debt.
What to do?? Help!

What debt counseling service did you contact? I'd recommend to contact your local Red Cross for a referral to the local CCCS, Consumer Credit Counseling Services, in your area....this is the main non-profit service....I don't think they reject anyone outright....

$8K isn't a catastrophic amount of debt....It may seem like a lot....but there are a lot of people with much higher debt than that. You may be able to try a settlement at 50%....The problem here is that when you settle they often want all or a large part of the settlement up front.

If you do receive a summons, DO NOT ignore the court appointment under any circumstances. If you do they'll get a default judgment against you.

Tips for dealing with collection agencies:

Understand that you have rights under the Fair Debt Collection Act. Read up on this and understand your rights.

Watch out for the following tricks:
** The collection agent tells you that they'll send the sheriff to your residence to arrest you if you don't pay them immediately....This is illegal and they have no such power.
** The collection agent tells you that they'll garnish your wages if you don't pay them immediately. It is impossible to garnish wages without appropriate legal action...which takes time, and it can't be done overnight.
** NEVER, NEVER EVER give a collection agency your bank transit & account numbers (or debit card numbers) to make an electronic debit from your checking account. If you give this info out there's nothing to stop them from raiding your checking account and taking every penny you have.

The ONLY way you should pay a collection agency is with a money order. Do not use any other form of payment.

** If you pay a collection agency, get the terms about the exact amount of money that is to be paid to settle and close out the account IN WRITING FIRST before you pay them one penny,

2007-11-13 17:44:13 by Suzee G

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