Identification. Credit card debt is an unsecured loan; so basically, a credit card company cannot legally take any physical assets from you.
Mike, it seems credit card companies cannot easily go after your house to pursue their debt. They would have to get a court judgment first and place a lien on the property. Even then, they would only get money if there's equity left above the homestead exemption, after paying off any mortgages and other liens.
The bottom line is this: Your credit card company can take your stuff if you don't pay, but only after a fairly long process that will have to play out in the court system. Before a credit card company can seize your property, they'll have to sue you and obtained a judgment.
However, the answer to your question is: probably not. Credit card debt is unsecured debt. In order to lose your home, several things would have to happen. First, you would have to be sued in court and lose.
TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read) If you fail to pay your credit card bill and the creditor charges off the debt, they can legally sue you, issue a default judgment, garnish your wages, or even put a lien or levy against your personal property.
The short answer to this question is No. The Bill of Rights (Art. III, Sec. 20 ) of the 1987 Charter expressly states that "No person shall be imprisoned for debt..." This is true for credit card debts as well as other personal debts.
Credit card companies sue for non-payment in about 15% of collection cases. Usually debt holders only have to worry about lawsuits if their accounts become 180-days past due and charge off, or default. That's when a credit card company writes off a debt, counting it as a loss for accounting purposes.
When you stop making credit card payments, you could not only be charged late fees and higher penalty interest rates but also take a hit on your credit. If your unpaid balance lingers for too long, your account may go to collections, and you could be served with a debt collection lawsuit.
To open a bank account that no creditor can touch, a person can (1) use an exempt bank account, (2) establish a bank account in a state that prohibits garnishments, (3) open an offshore bank account, or (4) maintain a wage or government benefits account.
YES. Debt collectors can show up IN PERSON where you live. But FEDERAL LAW says they can't do any of this… Force you to open the door.
After a creditor gets a judgment against you, they can have some of your stuff sold to pay off the debt you owe. Some property is so important for you to live that creditors cannot take it. Usually, creditors are only interested in your personal belongings if you have something that is worth a lot of money.
In California, the statute of limitations for consumer debt is four years. This means a creditor can't prevail in court after four years have passed, making the debt essentially uncollectable.
A judgment gives the creditor the right to use additional collection methods to collect the debt owed to them. For example, if the credit card company proves to the court that you owe $5,000, a court may enter a judgment saying that you owe $5,000 (plus costs and interest).
When someone dies with an unpaid debt, it's generally paid with the money or property left in the estate. If your spouse dies, you're generally not responsible for their debt, unless it's a shared debt, or you are responsible under state law.
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, debts can appear on your credit report generally for seven years and in a few cases, longer than that. Under state laws, if you are sued about a debt, and the debt is too old, you may have a defense to the lawsuit.
If you happen to default on your car loan, your creditor is allowed to repossess your vehicle without being granted a judgment in court, since the car is used as collateral for the car loan.
In many states, some IRS-designated trust accounts may be exempt from creditor garnishment. This includes individual retirement accounts (IRAs), pension accounts and annuity accounts. Assets (including bank accounts) held in what's known as an irrevocable living trust cannot be accessed by creditors.
A bank account levy allows a creditor to legally take funds from your bank account. When a bank gets notification of this legal action, it will freeze your account and send the appropriate funds to your creditor. In turn, your creditor uses the funds to pay down the debt you owe.
You could end up with a debt collection lawsuit and a judgment if you don't pay your credit card bill over time.
Failure to pay credit card debt is not a crime in the United States. The US have debunked debt imprisonment in the 1950's which decriminalized the act.
A statute of limitations is a law that tells you how long someone has to sue you. In California, most credit card companies and their debt collectors have only four years to do so. Once that period elapses, the credit card company or collector loses its right to file a lawsuit against you.
Typically, a credit card company will write off a debt when it considers it uncollectable. In most cases, this happens after you have not made any payments for at least six months. However, each creditor has a different process for determining whether a debt is uncollectable.