Credit card debt question (help me, please!)

[latebloomer]

My mother-in-law was living with her irresponsible son and let him use her credit card for "emergencies only." Well, his "emergencies", such as the need to go to a restaurant, eventually added up to over $7000. Then he stopped making payments.

She got fed up with him, finally, and moved in with us (Goddess help me, I could rant about this for an hour). She is on several waiting lists for senior housing, but I'm afraid she will never leave us because her credit is ruined- at least, we assume it is.

A collection agency has caught up with her but she denied that she was herself and said that she didn't live here. She is terrified they'll make her pay the whole amount, which would be impossible anyway because she doesn't have a pot to piss in. So she is using the ostrich approach to dealing with the situation.

My question is this- Will a collection agency work something out with her where she only has to pay a small amount- say $50 or $100 a month? And would that fix her credit so she could move out? Or would she have to continue living with us till she paid off the whole thing? :scared:

[flvegan]

1. One credit card shouldn't ruin a lifetime of otherwise good credit.

I'm making a lot of assumptions there, but I don't have anything else to go on.

Most collection agencies should work with her to pay off the debt in small increments. The collection agency gets 10% of what they collect, so it's in their best interest to collect *something* each month.

Good luck to you and your mother in law.

[Lilyhoney]

2. Visit this site.

Go here and create a user account. Go to the forums and ask your questions there. My husband has received sooooo much help from this community in the past several months. It has been a great resource for us. http://www.myfico.com/

Sorry about your MIL.

Lilyhoney

edited to remove website from subject line.

[latebloomer]

3. Thanks, guys!

I will check out that site.

I hope her credit isn't ruined- I am going to apply for a copy of her credit rating.

So much work to clear up other peoples' BS!! :mad:

[ET Awful]

4. Even better, go to this site

www.creditboards.com

myfico forums have good information, but creditboards.com is better (in my opinion).

With help from the folks there, I've increased my FICO scores by well over 100 points in the past year.