Location: NY, NY
To preface, I’m not actually considering ignoring collections (we haven’t even reached the stage of our debt being sent to collections yet, but it’s likely we will), I just wanted to know in case there came a point where we physically can’t afford to pay anymore.
My household has five members and my dad is the only one working. He works out of state, in Connecticut, so he needs a car to be able to commute to work. The car, and it’s insurance, is no where near been paid completely. He also often works night shifts so he also needs to rent a place at Connecticut to stay, but the rest of our family lives in NYCHA, so we’re essentially paying two rents. This has caused us to be stretched incredibly thin.
Additionally, my dad’s dispoable income is significantly less than 30 times the minnum wage in both Connecticut and New York, so I believe by NY law, collections can’t garnish his wages and/or bank. My real concern comes with his car, he really needs it for work and I’m wondering if collections would take his car even if it’s not been fully paid off. For further context, this debt is an unsecure debt.
I know close to nothing about dealing with collections, so forgive me if the answers obvious.
Comments
Hi there currently going through this now it’s been the second time in my life where I’ve had to pay off debt this time it was after cancer and being off work for two years. I had two credit card companies sue me and they are holding a lien on one of my bank accounts until I get stuff paid. Other companies were able to settle with me and some of them I was able to pay off immediately. I suggest starting with the smallest bill first and adding that payment to the next payment until that’s paid off and just keep adding payments to each thing to get it paid off. Unless you’ve been sued in court and then you have to pay that first.
Can I ask why no one else in the household works? If someone is able, it would make sense to do so to help take some of the burden off of your father. However, I don’t know the situation. Just wondering. Absolutely no judgment here.