What is fair ?

[Peaches]

Originally posted by sarettah@Apr 3 2004, 09:16 PM
Unfortunately, we live in a country that tends to encourage bankruptcy etc.

Back a few years ago, I had my credit way overextended, making late payments, all that. I went to buy a house for about double my salary and could not get the credit for it (although I could go buy a fairly expensive car at that time in two hours time..go figger). Anyway, I worked extremely hard at learning some financial discipline, paid off every cent plus interest and late charges.

Took a hell of a lot longer to clear from my credit record than a bankruptcy would have. I had many financial and legal types that said I would have been better off with a bankruptcy rather than working through it.

So, while my paying it all off somehow might make me feel superior morally, it really did not help me financially.

Paying your own debts is one thing. I've lost money through the years through bad decisions, and I've eaten mac-n-cheese and hotdogs in order to get it paid back. I've never not paid any of my debts and when I borrowed money from my Dad, he got 100% interest.

But paying someone else's debts (especially when that someone owed/owes me additional tens of thousands of dollars I'll never see) just wasn't something I planned on doing. :angry: IIRC, I was going to be left with $125 a week to live on and support a child with once the credit cards garnisheed my wages.

This was back in the mid 80's - before a lot of the laws regarding collections were passed. The harrassment from these companies was just intolerable. After the guy from AMX told me he was going to make sure my kid was taken from me because I couldn't pay my bills, I called a BR attorney and never looked back