For many people when their finances are in trouble they try to move money around to get everything paid.

A robbing Peter to pay Paul situation in sues.

At some point a payment is missed the debt delinquency timeline starts.

Before you know it your total financial situation is out of control.

I was at this point.

I tried to keep this balancing act going for two years.

If you don't get a hold of this situation when it starts it can cause sleepless nights, anxiety attacks or a heartattack.

You will have bad credit.

You may lose your home to foreclosure.

You may have to file bankruptcy.

I came across the article referenced below that explains what happens to your credit when you start missing payments.

"Some may be tempted to try to outrun the debt by dodging collection calls and throwing away creditor letters. But sooner or later, your debt will find you.

Just walking away from a debt won't solve the problem.

Your delinquent debt can follow you on your credit report and possibly all the way to court if you refuse to pay".

Source Yahoo Finance – Debt Delinquency Timeline: What to Expect

There are five stages to the Debt Delinquency Timeline.

Stage 1: 30 Days Past Due on Debt Delinquency Timeline

Your account has gone 30 days since the billing cycle without a payment.

A new billing cycle has started.

When you get your first 30 days late lenders will contact you by phone, letter, or email.

They are still friendly when they contact you to receive your payment.

By not contacting the creditor you make your credit situation worse.

Some lenders will report your 30 day late payment to the credit bureaus.

I agree with the article about contact the creditor first.

When you contact them first and explain your situation they are more willing to work with you.

A payment plan can be setup.

This may not end the phone calls.

Your account however will be noted.

Stage 2: 60 Days Past Due Debt Delinquency Timeline

 Your account has gone 60 days since the original billing cycle without a payment.

The second billing cycle has started.

Your creditor will place your account into its internal collections department.

The creditor will get more aggressive in its approach to receive payment.

The letters, emails, and phone calls will be less pleasant.

They will also become more frequent.

Many lenders will switch up the phone numbers they call you from to get you to answer.

You can still come up with a payment plan with your creditor.

Stage 3: 90 Days Past Due Debt Delinquency Timeline

Your account has gone 90 days since the original billing cycle without a payment.

The third billing cycle has started.

 The letters, emails, and phone calls are aggressive.

The callers are no longer pleasant.

Your account will be deactgivated.

You may not realize that your account is suspended until you are denied in a store.

You will have late fees and interest added to your account balance.

You can still work out a payment plan.

Your account can be reactivated.

Stage 4: Charge-off Status Debt Delinquency Timeline

The creditor has been unable to receive payment on the account.

The creditor may sell or contract the account with a third-party debt collector.

The credit bureaus will be notified that your account has gone to a collection.

You will start receiving correspondence from the third-party debt collector.

They must abide by the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, which outlines when third-party collectors can call and how often.

Many of these third-party collectors do not follow these rules.

Verify that your account has been sent to this collection company from your creditor.

You can setup a payment plan or negiotate a settlement.

I agree with the article about trying to do a settlement offer with your oringinal creditor.

Be sure to get your offer in writing.

Many people pay settlements without getting it in writing.

When making payments get a clause in writing that the collection agent or creditor will not sue.

Also ask that the creditor or collection agent report to bureaus that the account was settled in full when they report your payment.

You don't want the account to say account settled for less than the amount owed.

Stage 5: Court Debt Delinquency Timeline

Once the debt collector is unable to contact you they sue.

You will recieve a summons to appear in court regarding the collection account.

If a judgement is rendered against you the collection agency can garnish your wages.

I was in a court room a few days ago.

I watched a woman trying to get a garnishment resolved.

She had been paying for two years 25% of her pay check.

The interest was still accumulating.

The balance had only gone down 50%.

You do not want to get yourself into a garnishment situation.

Paying out 25% of your paycheck is alot of money.

You can dispute the account at this time or come up with a repayment plan.

If a garnishment has already been set a judge will not let you dispute the amount at that time.

The article gives a few suggestion to sum up the debt delinquency timeline.

Remember if you make any payment it will restart the statuet of limitations.

The degragatory information will stay on your credit report for seven years followin the first late payment.

Many collection agencies sell accounts to eachother.

Be sure to dispute any duplicate accounts.

Once your finances and credit are in trouble it takes serious work to get back on track.

The most important thing you can do when you know that you are going to be late paying on an account is to call the creditor.

Many times we try to avoid the creditor by not answering the phone. 

When I was going through this I changed my name to Lisa.

I thought that I was avoiding the situation.

In hind sight I should have told each creditor where I stood financially.

In my new book Sex Lies and Credit I talk about getting out of debt, cleaning up your credit and finding out how you got into financial trouble.

Your financial coach,

Renee Lawson
 

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P.S. Did you know there's one amazingly simple thing you can do right now to increase your credit score? My new video show your how FREE: www.totalprosperityclub.com.

New Book Coming: www.sexliesandcredit.com.