$986,000 in credit card debt

[weiss613]

What is the name of your state? Florida
I owe the above amount to about 46 Credit cards. My last payment was April 5th, 2001. Lately they started hounding me again. I have been totally disabled since Feb 2001 and my only income is from Social Secuity and a private disability policy. That income is about $11,000 a month and in Florida it is totally exempt. Tonight I discovered on your site that in Florida there is a 4 year statute of limitations on CC debt which I just passed. But the hounding has been fierce. 1)Am I crazy to file for chapter 7. (I have no other income or assets) 2)How will a Trustee look at my case when I am getting $11,000 a month? 3)Will he kick me out of the room even though the $11,000 is exempt? I feel I am at an important crossroad and I can't stand the calls and letters anymore.

 

[bigun]

If you have $11,000/month income, you are a foolish to have filed a bk of this size without an attorney.
What sort of diaposable income did you show on the filing? For near a million bucks worth of debt, it's a sure bet that the trustee will go through your filing with a mircoscope.
The fact that you've not been sued over that amount of money speaks volumes about how the collection agencies feel about seeing any money.
Were I you, I'd find a lawyer ASAP.

 

[Ladynred]

Nearly a MILLION on 46 credit cards ??????? How does one DO that ???

While the SOL is listed as 4 years in FL, the judges in the FL courts aren't buying it and they WILL stick to the 5 year SOL for written contracts. There has been much discussion on another board about this and many people being sued and finding out the judge won't accept the 4 year SOL. So don't count yourself 'safe' yet.. you still have another year to go !

 

[djohnson]

Plus, they can still get judgment against you. If so they can continue to hound you past the SOL. But filing bankruptcy with that kind of monthly income, you can bet you will be nit picked with a fine tooth comb. Why can't you pay towards some of it? With that kind of monthly income you either have a large savings, have way over the amount of personal assets allowed, or completely irresponsible with money.

 

[bigun]

Fl. is an incredibly debtor friendly state. Burt Reynolds and the late Bowie Kuhn {former commissioner of major league baseball and a high powered NY. attorney} got bk's discharged in Fl. O.J. Simpson is walking around with $4MM in anuties that can't be touched. The thing is, all 3 of these guys lawyered up and didn't make this a "do-it-yourself project".

 

[vgmhilliard]

Nearly a MILLION on 46 credit cards ??????? How does one DO that ??? ....

Ladynred, I will tell you how

You apply and get accepted to a Top 10 Business Schools in the world. You automatically become one of the "golden boys" and lenders queue up trying to pay for your tuition and living expenses.... 2 years in Biz School and you are already 100-200K in debt.

But who cares - you get a trading job with one of the top banks - Goldmans, Merrills, Deutscher Bank etc.... New lenders queue up with loan offers, store cards offers, loan offers etc.....

You are a "golden boy" - lifetime member in poshest clubs in NYC and London, going to Royal Ascot, playing polo etc.... You are so confident your are the cream of the cream that you open your own trading accounts and start trading your own money. But.... you are either 1) very unexperienced as a trader, 2) a complete dumbwit in trading or 3) just plainly very very unlucky.... You go long hi tech stocks which crash..... You play Williams bid for Enron and get on the wrong side..... You trade a zero cost collar on a stock which unexpectedly gets a takeover bid and jumps 20% overnight.....

But again every time you lose money - you just phone another lender, mention the bank where you are working ..... and voila, the money is in your account tomorrow....

But then you bank starts going through a rough patch and you get made redundant..... not exactly your fault..... and you are left with a debt that is too massive to even start handling. You try to get a new banking job.... but they do sometimes run credit checks and you do not get job offers.....

Finally you find yourself in a situation where if you land a "simpler" job, your paycheque is not going to be anywhere close to just monthly payments on your debt.....

In the meantime you still go to those posh night clubs - everyone knows you anyway, you get in for free, get p*ssed up for free etc.... bitterly watching new "golden boys" round you splashing out dosh.... Finally comes to the point where you cannot marry your fiancee because she has a career and marrying someone with THAT sort of deliquencies will ruin her future.....

Voila....

 

[weiss613]

What really happened by the author

I had been playing the markets between patients for at least 15 years and I turned into a crazy compulsive gambler. After I lost everything I was diagnosed with bipolar disease and I've been on disability since. It seems the rush of the markets and any action for that matter was my so called drug of choice. It cost me my practice, wife, kids, home, friends and my life. I never spent the money on cars, vacations, clothes, food or my family. My head was always trying to "make money" and I took cash advances as I kept trying and losing. Little did I know I was a sick compulsive gambler on a decent to hell. If I had just concentrated on my practice and just saved the money in the bank I would have easily been a millionare now but I was-am a crazy person.

 

[Ladynred]

Wow, guys, I wasn't ACTUALLY asking for your stories, it was kind of a rhetorical question. In my little world I can't even imagine having 46 credit cards nor that amount of debt. I know nothing about the stock market, I leave that to my brothers who do well enough in their retirements to make small gains and not lose mountains.

I can see where the 'golden boy' lifestyle can be pretty heady, but, as they say, sh*t happens and nothing in the job world is EVER certain any more.

Weiss.. you, on the other hand, have a real problem. Gambling, like alcohol, is a disease. I've never had to deal with a gambler myself, but I have had to deal with an alcoholic partner..the eventual destruction is the same, although his disease will kill him sooner than yours will. I have a friend who was FINALLY diagnosed as bi-polar about 6 years ago. Today he is very successful and doing quite well, but for the 3 years before that he was on one edge or the other all the time.

 

[bigun]

Weiss,

Get a lawyer. This bk is doable but the $$$ amounts cry out for competent counsel.

 

[vgmhilliard]

....but I was-am a crazy person.

Please do not be hard on yourself.

Unlike roulette/gambling, markets CAN be consistently beaten. Trading is NOT entirely gambling if you focus on identifying patterns which have high odds of delivering.

However, even the highest odds are ODDS and here comes the gambling component.

the funniest thing about the trader I mentioned in my previous post is that he was consisitently delivering profits on the trading books at the bank where he was working.... being as consistently r*bbish on his personal trading accounts. Juicy bonuses paid out to him by the bank would end up in the gutter....

perhaps the biggest difference between yourself and my trader is that trading stock market was his JOB, so he quite naturally "extended" his job functions into trading his OWN money.

Anyway, do not be too hard on yourself.