Unfortunately, I have to make my money the old fashioned way: earn it.

I don’t have a crystal ball and can’t make recommendations without spending several hours to assess YOUR situation:

http://creditfactors.com/subscription-and-services/credit-review/

I need to know who EACH creditor is and how much you owe and what for (secured, unsecured, child support, etc.) — for starters I review the credit reports.

Then I need info from my clients:

STATE law determines whether wages can be garnished and when the statute of limitations expires.

Re. settling: “on your own assuming you fall behind on payments (which I haven’t yet)?”

Many of my clients settled SMALL accounts themselves with a little help at their private forum.

Can you record phone calls?

A MUST if you want to negotiate on your own behalf. Bankers and their collectors frequently LIE.

Much of what you SHOULD do also depends on your willingness and ability to document violations so you have counterclaims if they sue you.

If you simply default, you might get lucky and some of the accounts might be sold to debt buyers. If so, you have an excellent chance of prevailing in court if they sue you.

Of course you could also settle SOME accounts as opportunities arise. One of my clients once got an offer from Chase to settle for 10% — that’s a no brainer if you WANT to settle, but in my client’s case, he chose not to because he had many other debts and there was simply no point to spending thousands on settling this one account.

You could stop making ALL payments including child support and make the CHILD SUPPORT PAYMENTS your “friendly LLC” IF your wages can be garnished.

What YOU should do also depends on your ASSETS. Do you have equity in a home? Retirement funds?

If you are judgment-proof and they can’t garnish your wages (either because of state law or because it all goes to child support), one option is to ignore the unsecured creditors.

After you stopped paying the unsecured creditors you might be able to save that money so that you have cash to settle accounts for 10 – 30% IF that’s what you want to do.

No two situations are alike and one person’s solution is the next person’s nightmare.

I’ve given you some options here, but there really is no way to advise someone on a MAJOR decision such as whether to default on credit cards without knowing a lot more about you, including some personal info such as your health, how stressed you’ll be if collectors harass you, etc.

There’s a LOT more to life than money and ultimately you need to find a way to deal with your debts without having the bankers destroy your life.

Read some of the FDRS damage reports to get an idea what can happen when you default:

http://liarsandcheats.info/fdrs-mark-cella-debt-elimination-fraud/submit-your-damages/

It’s heartbreaking what some of these people are going through and to realize that they PAID many thousands of dollars to end up in misery.

Just a few hundred dollars for new phone numbers and a different mailing address could have saved many so much aggravation. A little planning goes a long way.

“… eliminate the liability from your debt by establishing an LLC and creating a ‘friendly lien judgment’ against yourself thus blocking other creditors from enforcing any judgment they may get against you since only 1 judgment can be enforced at a time.”

For God’s sake, are people THAT gullible?

If “your friendly LLC” already garnishes your wages, they might submit evidence of your fraud to the court and you might get jail time. It would probably take me LESS than half an hour to DOCUMENT that your “friendly LLC” is a fraud.

The same applies to your real estate. If you walk away from your house and your “friendly LLC” gets paid instead of a judgment creditor at the foreclosure sale and they find out (they’re not as stupid as the people who pay Gliha), they’ll make sure your fraud is exposed.

If you try to SELL or refinance, you simply can’t until ALL judgment creditors got paid unless the BUYER is willing to purchase WITH the judgment creditor’s lien against your house. It doesn’t matter how many other liens you have against the property.

And why on earth would anyone go through the expense of setting up this scam — most people could just pay their bills or settle the accounts with that money!

I can’t believe people PAY for such HORRIBLE advice.

Not to mention that anyone who isn’t a true deadbeat would have trustworthy FRIENDS or FAMILY to simply transfer their assets to or put a lien in their name.
At least you could argue that you like them, you made a gift, or maybe you owed them for something.

Wealthy people do that all the time and it’s not illegal. The wealthy get COMPETENT advice from professionals (tax and bankruptcy attorneys) – not a moron, or should I say CRIMINAL like John Gliha. Something tells me that he might be the next Mark Cella.

If you’re willing to set up this elaborate scam with your LLC and FAKE judgments against yourself, you better be willing to go to jail.

BTW, setting up such a fraud will certainly help creditors to successfully argue FRAUD in bankruptcy court. You’re not some innocent victim, you’re a criminal, you never intended to pay your debts and they will therefore NOT be discharged.

I just cannot believe the nerve Gliha has and I will certainly mention him in my dealings with AGs.

My DEMAND to AG Jerry Brown for Mark Cella’s arrest and restitution to the FDRS victims.

One way or another, I hope to be able to “eliminate” the enrolled debts. If FDRS doesn’t pay up and the creditors don’t take action, at least the consumers shouldn’t have to pay the debts.

Apparently because of the IOU’s in CA the people arent working, and I dont think they plan anymore action against them. Afterall they got the 50 million seized and none of that will go to those scammed, The Suits against them seem to be going nowhere.

I fear out country is done for….. Looks like neither of us will get a penny from them. Funny probably one of the few that would have paid you only to get nothing. what a world, while the rest get their money and contribute nothing.

However, start by requesting your accounting statement pursuant to RESPA at my closed Fight Back forum:

And I suppose you have their letter demanding payment in full, but if you really want to keep the house, also include your request for payment arrangements and let them know how much money you have.

Do NOT just send them money so that they can foreclose on you anyway.

More advice on dealing with foreclosure.

And of course stay away from all these people offering to “help” you only to refer you to crooks for a nice commission.

The TRUTH about the people who want to “help” you:

Mortgage Victims Assistance: “Serious about cashing in on the Mortgage Modification Market?”

Greed rules the world.

Bill, I’m in Arizona. Who do I talk to at the CA Atty General office to get my money back from FDRS. Based on your post, looks like people who went this route were successful in getting their money back. I’d like to do this before they’re shut down.

Christine, you said, “As far as the AG complaint goes, I definitely would not be satisfied with a refund. I’d demand payment of the debts and if the credit rating was negatively impacted, compensation for that too.” I SO want to do take this action. How do you suggest going about doing this?

Then you said, “PLEASE send the legal filings to the AG and if they want filings that were submitted for COURT, I have some I can send in. I just run out of time, but if they care, I WILL make time.” Anything I can do to help with this?

I happened upon the National Assoc of Consumer Advocates (www.naca.org) recently after doing some research on the FDRS scam. Bud Hibbs (budhibbs.com) directed me to that. I found a local attorney who is associated with the organization. I haven’t set up the initial consultation. Should I go forward with it, or find out what you can do to help (and yes, I know your help wouldn’t be free, that’s ok)?

By the way Christine, I too will donate a portion of any returned money to your site/cause.

I’m not sure on the AG I will be glad to get my Money back, she didnt seem to care too much, but I think she is hiding the fact they are building a case? She didnt confirm asset confiscation, so I dont know.

I do know these programs are worse that the debt settlement programs because they FEED off patriots and steal their money that could be used for more important things.