Many Pennsylvania residents own at least one credit card. While these devices can be useful, they can also be the cause of financial hardships. Life can bring unexpected challenges, and some individuals rely on credit cards to address bills they cannot pay, such as medical bills. Although some consumers can overcome these uses of credit cards, others might find themselves in overwhelming debt. In these situations, individuals are left deciding how to move forward and address their debts.
Those struggling with credit card debt want to understand how they can get rid of it the best way possible. Consumers hear the word personal bankruptcy and become nervous and scared. This is not a negative debt relief method, but rather, it is a reliable method to obtain a fresh financial start. Nonetheless, debtors still wonder what they could do to overcome debt without filing for bankruptcy.
It may be possible to negotiate with a credit card company to write off your debt. This looks like you having a zero balance and the credit card company taking the balance you owe as a loss. This might appear to be simple and straightforward; however, this could present some other issues before you are free from debt.
In order for this process to occur, a credit card company must declare you debt uncollectable. This looks like six months of missed payments and the credit card company determining that they have little to no chance of every collecting that debt. This is often referred to as a charge-off or charging off debt. In these cases, a credit card company might sell your debt to a debt collection agency. The agency will then attempt to collect any part of the balance you currently owe.
There is no way to actively have your credit card debt written off without going through the process of not paying any bills owed for six months. If it is your goal to have your debt eliminated without paying anything that you owe, then you may want to consider debt consolidation or filing for bankruptcy.
Consumers have the option to file for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Both of these processes can help individuals address their debts in the most appropriate way possible for their situation. It might be difficult to initiate this process; however, it is often a useful and most effective way to erase credit card debt.
Source: mybanktracker.com, “How To Write Off Credit Card Debt Legally,” Christina Majaski, April 7, 2017