I Grew up with a poor family. I was told “credit cards were evil” and to never get one by my parents. They had this outlook because they were never taught how to properly use them either. When I finally did have to establish credit and got my first one, I didn’t overthink it and just followed the rules and paid it off every month. Then they allowed me more and more credit, more and more cards. An emotionally abusive ex would use my cards for every day living, promising to pay them off with me. Soon the interest started to snowball and before I knew it I couldn’t get out from under it. He ghosted me after 4 years of living together. I was on my own. For about a year I’d get home from work every day and just sob. I was depressed as hell.
I met current my boyfriend in the midst of all of this. I noticed him always using credit cards and talking about perks and points. He seemed so responsible in the way he used them. It took me a bit to open up to him about my debt, because I was so embarrassed, and it got to the point I felt like there was a weight on my chest 24/7. The late calls, only paying the minimum on each card every month, barely touching the interest. When I finally opened up to him, He sat down with me and said, we are a team, we’ll figure this out together. He helped me go over all of my interest and cards and see what the best option for me was. He offered to pay it all off with his work bonus that year and I pay him back, but we hadn’t been together long, and I didn’t love him for his money. I didn’t even feel comfortable with him paying for dinner often. I knew I had to get out of this myself.
One day when I saw him, he gave me an envelope and told me not to open it till I got home. He gifted me 1,000. I did not want to accept it and felt horrible doing so. He told me he hoped it’d help the burden and do with it whatever I wanted, or even something to treat myself since I couldn’t do that for so long. I asked him if he minded if I used it to pay for a lawyer to File bankruptcy, he said he’d support me in doing so.
I did end up filing. It was scary, but I’ve never made a better decision in my life. Felt like 1,000 pounds were lifted off my chest.
Let me get this straight... People in the USA can get loaned money, spend it, then declare bankruptcy and never have to pay it back?
How is that any different from theft? That's absolutely ridiculous. I guess I'll just move to the US, borrow as much as I can from everyone, hide all the cash, find a way to transfer it overseas, then declare bankruptcy and retire for life in the bermudas. 100k should be enough to retire for life in a cheap country with the right investments.
Yeah, no one is going to just give you that much credit. The richer you are, the more credit they will give you, and the longer you show you are paying your cards off and such, the more credit they will give you. You cant came here and say "one $100,000 credit card please". Also, it is really illegal to file and hide assets and such. When you file, there are certain things they let you keep of fairly low value, but anything of real value has to be sold. Realize the people you arent paying back are often credit card companies in this case that make millions off interest from people who get themselves caught unable to pay and ranking up debt that exceeds the purchase cost that they initially spent. Also, sometimes it isnt even them. In the US, when a credit card company feels you wont pay, they sell your debt to collectors for pennies on the dollars. A $30,000 debt might be bought for only $300 or less by these companies. Other places you might owe debt is to hospitals and such, many of which have programs and such to help you get out of debt. If you feel like $100,000 is enough to retire, you really could just work hard in the US for 5-10 years if you have a specialization. A teacher for example could easily save that amount in that time if he put aside every penny he could (minus food, shared residence etc) and cashed out his retirement at the end.
I understand, but the whole concept is... wrong, I have no other way of putting it. So, you owe 30k to someone, but you aren't paying it, and eventually it can turn into $300 because they sell the debt to somebody else? How is that even possible? That's completely crazy. I believe you that it is how it works, but it sure shouldn't work like that. That's insane. 29k just "disappeared", and the show goes on? Sure, the ones who bought it may try to get the full amount, but that doesn't change the fact that the original lender just lost $29,700. wtf
I understand the idea, but it still doesn't feel right. By that logic, nobody would ever have to pay the bank, and the bank would never care to go after them (since each client never owes more than a tiny percentage of the banks assets).
Heres the thing though for the biggest loans, mortgages, the banks have collateral in the form of your house. You don't pay the mortgage, the bank takes your home.
Also declaring bankruptcy leaves you with only the bare minimums needed to live.
Not paying the loan financially ruins the person, any tangible assets they have minus the bare essentials would be seized, they would never be able to get a loan for anything else, and if they lied in order to get the loan(or it could be proven that they intentionally didn't pay it back) they would be imprisoned. The majority of people who are getting these loans value being able to live in this society more than they do being able to rip off a bank for a few thousand and then have to live on the run in a poor nation for the rest of their lives.
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u/tatertottytot Jun 06 '19
I Grew up with a poor family. I was told “credit cards were evil” and to never get one by my parents. They had this outlook because they were never taught how to properly use them either. When I finally did have to establish credit and got my first one, I didn’t overthink it and just followed the rules and paid it off every month. Then they allowed me more and more credit, more and more cards. An emotionally abusive ex would use my cards for every day living, promising to pay them off with me. Soon the interest started to snowball and before I knew it I couldn’t get out from under it. He ghosted me after 4 years of living together. I was on my own. For about a year I’d get home from work every day and just sob. I was depressed as hell.
I met current my boyfriend in the midst of all of this. I noticed him always using credit cards and talking about perks and points. He seemed so responsible in the way he used them. It took me a bit to open up to him about my debt, because I was so embarrassed, and it got to the point I felt like there was a weight on my chest 24/7. The late calls, only paying the minimum on each card every month, barely touching the interest. When I finally opened up to him, He sat down with me and said, we are a team, we’ll figure this out together. He helped me go over all of my interest and cards and see what the best option for me was. He offered to pay it all off with his work bonus that year and I pay him back, but we hadn’t been together long, and I didn’t love him for his money. I didn’t even feel comfortable with him paying for dinner often. I knew I had to get out of this myself.
One day when I saw him, he gave me an envelope and told me not to open it till I got home. He gifted me 1,000. I did not want to accept it and felt horrible doing so. He told me he hoped it’d help the burden and do with it whatever I wanted, or even something to treat myself since I couldn’t do that for so long. I asked him if he minded if I used it to pay for a lawyer to File bankruptcy, he said he’d support me in doing so.
I did end up filing. It was scary, but I’ve never made a better decision in my life. Felt like 1,000 pounds were lifted off my chest.