If you owe money to the credit card company or any other creditor, and you’ve fallen significantly behind, there’s a good chance that you’re hearing from them — a lot. In addition to month after month of bills marked PAST DUE in big red letters, they’re probably calling you, threatening to sue, and generally making your life miserable. These tactics are all illegal under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and the debt collectors all know this, but few pay attention to the rules. All that they’re interested in is collecting their money, and they’ll say just about anything to intimidate you into paying. The good news is that there is a single action that you can take that will do the trick of getting them off your back, and maybe even encourage them to negotiate a lower payment or more forgiving payment schedule. What’s the answer? It’s telling them that you’re thinking about filing for personal bankruptcy in South Jersey.

Mentioning the magic words “personal bankruptcy” is one of the most powerful things you can to get the attention of a creditor or debt collection agency, and there’s a good reason why. If you were to actually file for bankruptcy, there’d be a very good chance that the debt collector or creditor would get absolutely nothing in terms of payments of your debt. Because bankruptcy wipes out much of what an individual owes, it leaves creditors holding the bag – an empty bag.

If you’re being harassed by a creditor, this tactic can strike absolute fear in their hearts – but you have to approach it the right way. You can’t simply throw out an empty threat (even though that’s what they’re doing to you). The best way to approach it is to meet with a South Jersey bankruptcy attorney and sign a retainer agreement. By doing so, you put yourself into the position of being able to refer the creditor directly to us the next time they call. They’ll take down our contact information in a hurry because they’ll want to do everything they can to negotiate getting some kind of payment out of you before they’re certain to be able to get nothing out of you.

Though there’s no guarantee that mentioning the notion of personal bankruptcy will work on a debt collector or creditor, if they’re smart they’ll sit up and pay attention and move on to working directly with your attorney. We can then field offers to settle the debt for a fraction of what you owe, discuss the possibility of getting the interest rate on your debt lowered, or spread out your monthly payments further — whichever option works to your best advantage.

To discuss the many ways that a personal bankruptcy attorney in South Jersey can help you with debt collectors, call Reinherz Law today.