maporsche

Well, damn.

I'm in Illinois actually. Deficiency judgments are allowed.

Really? Why? I don't think I'm asking to do anything illegal. People are allowed to open up checking or savings accounts in other countries, right? And all I'm asking is if other countries recognize judgments and leins from countries outside the bank's country.

I'm about to be foreclosed on; which I'm totally cool with. I have a question though; I want to protect myself from deficiency judgements and make sure lendors cannot freeze my assets. I'm wanting to know if there are any offshore banks that I can use as a checking account that will be similar to how I use my account in the US that would also be safe to deposit money into so that creditors cannot freeze those accounts. I'm NOT looking to hide any money from the IRS and my employeer will still deduct all taxes, etc. Just wanting to protect my assets from creditors. Thoughts?

www.discoverbank.com 3.25% APY on a 60 month CD.

Which, of course, it is. Again, I work in the Marketing department of one of the top 5 credit card companies. We do this; and if we do it, so does everyone else.

Well, that's the catch isn't it? I will close 4 of these 6 cards (I will do this before even requesting the 401(k) loan, and reduce the limits on the 2 I keep down to no more than 4k total once they are paid). Most of my current debt was for medical bills and an engagement ring. I realize that I should have had savings to cover these costs. I also spent a lot of money on a house and housing projects that I will no longer have to make. We are moving out of our house in March and into a low-maintenance condo.

Well the bank borrows the $1.00 to lend you. They have significant overhead that they need to pay for. A % of customers do not pay their bills, so they have those costs. As a whole, PIF customers are not profitable for the CC company. Some customers are, most all are not.

That REALLY depends on the volume you transact on your card. Trust me, I work for one of the top 5 credit card companies in their customer segmentation and marketing department. PIF customers have their benefits, but it takes a lot of transaction volume for the CC company to even break even.

Not a horrible idea; my employer matches 6%. However, if I reduce my witholding down to that 6%, my annual contribution will only be $4500, and I will have to pay taxes on the $12000 I didn't contribute. My tax rate is at least 25%, which is higher than all of my credit card rates. I think it makes more financial sense to cap out the 401(k) to reduce my income tax liability, no?

Card, Balance, Limit, Interest Card 1 - $9300, 9500, 7.99% Card 2 - $5100, $5500, 15.24% Card 3 - $7500, $9000, 13.24% Card 4 - $3200, $3500, 14.15% Card 5 - $2200, $2500, 17.90% Card 6 - $1200, $1500, 8.99% Total - $28500 Total min pay - $712 Monthly Interest - $300ish When not investing money in my 401(k), I bring home $3800/month cash. When maxing out my 401(k), I bring home $2700/month. My rent is $750, other bills combine to roughly $300/mo. I'm currently maxing out my 401k - $16,500/year. I do not have another retirement account. One of the problems is that I work for the same company that I have cards 1 and 2 with. I really don't want to risk defaulting on cards that come from my employer. I have approx $65k in my 401(k) account, and I just turned 30, so I won't be needing that money any time soon. I would only take out a loan to pay off all of these cards, which I will then methodically close and reduce limits down to 4k total. The money I save from paying these cards would be put into savings (which could be used to pay back loan if I lose my job, which I've been at for 11 years).

Good to see you again too! Thanks for the response. I'm aware of the dangers. If I choose to do this, I will close all but 2 credit card accounts and lower their limits to less than 4k (currently 50k in credit lines). I do not want to get to this point again.

Yeah? So in your frame, paying in full is exactly the same as defaulting? If you bought a car and it dropped in value and you were underwater on the loan, you'd walk away? What about if you bought a $10K suit but found out you couldn't sell it for anywhere near that later? Would you default on that CC bill? Woah woah woah....you're putting quite a few words in my mouth.

I'm in Illinois. I'm a W2 employee in Illinois. My home has two mortgages. One for $215,000 and one for $80,000. I appreciate your help. I'll think about ch13, but we're on a plan to have our debts paid off by end of year. You don't think they can take money out of our 401(k)s?

I currently have almost 30k in credit card debt. I'm considering taking a 401k loan to pay them off and close all but 2 cards, and probably request much lower credit limits. This is the 3rd time I've cycled through this 'rack up debt, pay all debt off, rack up debt again' process. I have not demonstrated an ability to manage this very well; so I'm going to keep low limits to limit ability to massively screw things up. Is the 401k loan idea a good one? The terms are 4.5% interest rate that gets added to my 401k account. I can choose the repayment terms from anywhere from 1-120 months. I'd likely set up a 36 month repayment plan.