I am being harassed! What can I do to stop the calls? There are ways of stopping annoying creditor calls, or at least minimizing them. Credit collection became so harassing that Congress passed the Fair Credit Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. Section 1692. Under the Fair Credit Collection Practices Act, a creditor may not call a borrower before 8:00 o’clock in the morning or after 9:00 o’clock in the evening. The creditor also may not contact any third parties such as neighbors or friends to ask questions about the borrower. Finally, the creditor is prohibited from calling the borrower at work, or from threatening the borrower with criminal prosecution.
Can bankruptcy stop a creditor from taking money out of my paycheck? Yes. When money is owed to a creditor, the creditor can go to court and get a judgment against the Debtor. If the Debtor don’t work something out with the creditor to pay off the judgment, the creditor can file a Writ of Garnishment with the Court, and the Writ then forces the Debtor’s employer to take money out of each paycheck and pay it to the creditor.
I co-signed my son’s car that the bank repossessed- can the bank go after me? If a Debtor co-signed a debt such as a car loan for their son and the son cannot make the payments, the bank will generally repossess the car and sell it at auction. Because the car will not sell for as much as what the son owes on the debt, the bank will have a deficiency judgment for the difference between what is owed and for what the car sold.
Can bankruptcy stop the bank from taking my car? Yes and no. When filing for bankruptcy, generally everything a Debtor owns becomes property of the bankruptcy estate, except property which is exempt under Arizona law (if you live in Arizona). The bankruptcy estate is protected from the collection efforts of creditors by the automatic stay. Arizona exemption statutes protect exempt property.
