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She is 88. Due to poor decision making and the rising costs of her everyday living expenses she got behind on rent and utilities while trying to make the minimum credit card payments. So she finally had to stop paying the cc payments and is starting to catch up on the rent and utilities. But of course the cc companies are threatening collections unless she comes up with hundreds to get caught up. These are all unsecured debts. Can they do anything to her since she only has Social security and no assets? What should she do?

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NO. Please trust me, or you can look it up online.

Can Social Security Be Garnished? (aarp.org)

They can not touch SS check. Do not pay, they will likely get a judgement, but that judgement will be unenforceable. Do not have her pay 1 cent, her credit is ruined anyway, and she will need her money to pay for her living expenses.
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What is the amount of the credit cards? I would say get a consolidated loan. That way you only have one payment a month. But with her credit record that maybe hard. She may have to declare bankruptcy. Her rent and utilities at this time are important. I don't think her SS can be attached.

I think we r going to see a lot more of this if prices continue to rise.
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BurntCaregiver Sep 2022
Her SS can get attached when the debt gets sold by the credit card company to a collection agency. They would pursue it in court if the debt was $10,000 or over. Less than that usually isn't worth their while. If she owes more than that though, they likely will bring a suit.
It's best if she tries to settle with them for a lesser amount. This way it's paid off. Her credit will be ruined for seven years, but at 88 I don't see how that would be such a problem.
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Stop paying the credit cards for six months or so. They will harass and everything to try and recover the money. All credit card companies at some point sell the uncollected upon debt to a collection agency for pennies on the dollar. Before that happens they will usually try to come to some kind of settlement arrangement with the person who owes the debt and it's always for far less than what the debt is.
Be warned though. Your mother will not have credit cards anymore. She will have to learn to live within her means and that could mean moving into low-income senior housing.
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If any amount of debt is reduced, she will receive a statement that is also sent to IRS and she may have to pay taxes on the amount forgiven. Get rid of the cards if she is running up bills.
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So sad.
CC's are the very devil, yet a great way to build up your credit rating-but Mom doesn't need to be doing that. And she absolutely doesn't need them for anything at this stage of the game.

If you want to 'make good', then call the CC co's. Explain the situation, and make a plan to pay back what you can. CC's would rather have something than nothing. If you want to try to get out of paying completely--well, good luck. They cannot attach her 'income' as it is all SS based, so that's something.

Likely they'll give you some grief and then have to write it off as a bad debt, It will ruin mom's credit history, but she doesn't need to worry about that at this date.

And don't let her have any more CC's! Mom was so faithful in paying off her bills monthly, I am glad she was frugal and the $$ she gave to sketchy charities was minimal.
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mstrbill Sep 2022
I wouldn't recommend "making a plan" . It will do no good to mother and she needs her money to live on.
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Burnt, her SS is untouchable by credit card debts or collection agencies. The only entity that can garnish SS is the Fed (IRS taxes owed) and court ordered child support (and student loans possible, but that is it).
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BurntCaregiver Sep 2022
If her SS is directly deposited into her bank account, they can take it to court and to start having payments automatically withdrawn. No, the Social Security Administration will not garnish a SS check because someone owes money.
The credit card company will settle with her for a lump sum and it will be far less than what she actually owes.
It's shocking to me that a person would behave like this. Run up credit cards and just default on them. Being elderly is no excuse.
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One more piece of advice. Get your mother a new phone number. perhaps a prepaid burner phone from Walmart, and don't give out the new number to anyone but family and trusted friends.
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chasvix Sep 2022
Your advice has been very helpful. I am a bit confused because some are saying that they can take her Social Sec if it is direct deposited and not a paper check. Hers is direct deposit. Also another said if it is over $10,000 they can. The total amount of all CC combined is over 10,000. And going up daily with the late fees and such. She is not charging anything now and all accounts accounts have been closed. Also they were all sent a letter explaining the situation and asking them to not call per the Federal fair debt collection practices act. Her address was also changed to a PO box for them to communicate to her. They never had her cell number. There is only one company still calling, and it is daily, several times a day. She does not answer her phone anyway. She stopped making payments in July and is starting to catch up on general living expenses. Even if she wanted to make a plan with them, she just isn't in a position to do that yet. I'm thinking worst case scenario is if she starts getting sued, she could file bankruptcy. Any thoughts or insight is appreciated.
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I think you also need to make sure no one else is signed on those debts. If someone else is signed on the debts (either as cosigner or a joint account holder), the collectors can and will go after that person. I worked in that industry for years and many cosigners and joint accounts holders do not understand this.
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Chasvix, I'm glad to see that you raised the issue of bankruptcy. That was my first thought, and not necessarily to file for bankruptcy, but to get the advice of a bankruptcy attorney who could help identify and sort through her options.
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If Mom is still getting a call and a letter was sent to that company then she needs to answer and tell the caller a letter has been sent and that a note needs to be placed on her account that no more calls are to be made to her. Its probably not the same person calling every time. They work on commission so its tge first person that gets the money.

I guess the best thing to do is wait on a judgement and say she is on SS with no other means of support.

My GFs daughter teaches a daily living course to teens. I told her she needs to cover how a credit card works. Me, I only charge what I can pay off monthly. Its more for convenience. If you run a total, most Credit cards do finance charges before they take off the payment. If your late, an extra charge. In an amount owed like 10k, Moms minimum payment is not even covering the principle just interest. You have to pay more than what is owed to make a difference and you have to stop charging. This is how you get into this kind of debt because you don't know how it all works,
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