*** 20 Reasons to STOP paying your credit cards!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
ARRESTED!—For two overdue library books
Wisconsin woman, 20, arrested for two overdue library volumes
AUGUST 21--The next time you forget to return a couple of library books (and ignore those annoying letters about the overdue status of said volumes), think of Heidi Dalibor. The Wisconsin woman, 20, was arrested earlier this month in connection with a pair of books overdue for several months.
Dalibor, who made the mistake of ignoring a court citation issued after she failed to respond to letters and phone calls from the Grafton library, was busted August 6 for failing to return copies of Janet Fitch’s best-seller “White Oleander” (a 1999 Oprah Book Club selection) and “Angels & Demons,” author Dan Brown’s precursor to “The Da Vinci Code.”
According to a police report, Dalibor was apprehended at her family’s home, cuffed and stuffed in a cruiser, and booked for violating the “overdue library materials” ordinance.
She also had to pose for the below mug shot at the Grafton Police Department.Dalibor subsequently settled with the library by paying her overdue fines and reimbursing it for the cost of the two novels, which totaled around $180. Dalibor’s mother Patty told TSG that her daughter was “a good kid” who works two jobs. She is also now the owner of the Fitch and Brown books, which Dalibor got to keep as a result of paying off her library levies.
Absolutely incredible.
I was just thinking about giving several boxes with books to the library. I’ll certainly NEVER get a book from a library again.
This is a Grafton city ordinance, a town apparently run by a bunch of NAZIS.
But that’s the trend across America. I hear Alex Jones’ statements about police brutality, setups and more and more laws to control and humiliate us. And I often find it hard to believe, but then you watch videos and read the official press releases, and it’s true.
CHANGE this system NOW or go to jail for not paying parking tickets, utility bills and eventually, your credit cards or mortgage.
Of course this is one more reason for the essentially judgment-proof to STOP paying unsecured debt NOW!!!
—before you’re shipped off into labor camps to work off the debts when you CAN’T pay because you lost your job, got ill, or for whatever other reason.
Don’t think that it can’t happen.
Chances are, you WILL be forced to default sooner or later if you have large credit card debts.
When you can be arrested for two (not 200) books overdue by a few months, anything can happen.
I sure hope that at least a few readers will send this URL to the morons of Grafton. I’d do it myself, but don’t know which “Grafton” this is.
*** 20 Reasons to STOP paying your credit cards! • Credit - Collection - Economic News • (1) Comments • Permalink
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Man sets himself on fire over Rent-A-Center collection efforts
Man Sets Himself on Fire Over Debt Collection Actions
July 31, 2008
A debtor in New Jersey found a new way to register his displeasure with the collection tactics of a local Rent-A-Center.
by insideARM staff
July 31, 2008A New Jersey man was in critical condition at a Livingston hospital after he set himself ablaze at a Rent-A-Center store in protest of the volume of late payment notices and collection calls he’d received from the chain, according to local media reports.
Emilio Saladriagas, a 62 year-old man from Newark, went to the Rent-A-Center in Bloomington Tuesday to speak to a manager about the collection letters and calls he had been receiving regarding missed payments on furniture rentals. When he was told a manager was not available, he doused himself with lighter fluid and lit the fluid with a cigarette lighter, self-immolating in front of customers and employees of the store.
As of Tuesday evening, Saladriagas was in critical condition. Police said that he will not be charged with a crime because store surveillance appeared to show he intended to hurt no one but himself.
“We don’t know if he had mental health issues or what sparked it,” Bloomfield Police Capt. Chris Goul told The Star-Ledger. “Employees said he’d always been a nice man.”
Rent-A-Center (Nasdaq: RCII) has been accused in the past of unfair business practices concerning its credit granting and debt collection tactics. In 2006, the state of California reached a $7.75 million settlement with the company for what regulators said was a failure to “disclose the true cost of its rent-to-own program.”
There are numerous articles about Emilio Saladriagas:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS245US245&q=Emilio+Saladriagas
I’ll try to update on his condition and whether a lawyer will sue Rent-A-Center on his behalf.
How will he live if he survives?
My comments are in the post about the woman who killed herself on foreclosure day:
http://creditsuit.org/credit.php/blog/reader_mail_hopeless_and_overwhelmed_after_reading_my_sites/
For every person in the news over financial problems, there are MANY deaths due to drug or alcohol abuse and stress related accidents and illnesses. They don’t cause headlines, they just can’t take the creditors’ abuse anymore and they perish quietly and nobody gives a damn.
The legislators do NOTHING to protect consumers and as their actions in recent months document, they throw literally billions of dollars at the banks who can’t pay their bills while paying their executives many millions and consumers are free to become homeless and/or kill themselves. Creditors HARASS debtors until they pay - or die. And as I’ve posted in the past, even death often does not stop the harassment and the surviving relatives are tortured.
ONLY collectors are regulated by the FDCPA, federal law allows creditors to call you multiple times per day.
If you’re close to judgment-proof:
STOP paying your credit cards!
Use the first payment you do NOT make to the creditors to pay for a new UNLISTED telephone number and do NOT call toll-free numbers from the new number as even unlisted numbers will be revealed.
Don’t wait until you can’t make the payments, make a rational business decision and know that you’re doing the RIGHT thing by not paying these thugs.
UPDATE: The article was at the COLLECTION site InsideARM.com and I just noticed a change from:
“A debtor in New Jersey found a new way to register his displeasure with the collection tactics of a local Rent-A-Center.”
To:
“A debtor in New Jersey, displeased with the collection tactics of a local Rent-A-Center, set himself on fire in the store after asking to speak to a manager.”
Even the changed version shows the collectors’ utter contempt for human life. They don’t recognize the difference between an angry letter and an extremely painful suicide attempt?
You don’t kill yourself because you’re “displeased”.
You kill yourself when you’re so frustrated, stressed and desperate that you’d rather be dead.
*** 20 Reasons to STOP paying your credit cards! • Credit - Collection - Economic News • (0) Comments • Permalink
Friday, July 25, 2008
Reader mail: hopeless and overwhelmed after reading my sites
It all started because i wanted to pay off my credit cards. i thought i would transfer the highest one to the one with the lowest APR. i was surprised at how rude the telephone agents at CC companies are. So i googled one of the companies for names of officers and one of your sites came up. I read your various sites for hours until i felt so hopeless and so overwhelmed that i could hardly breathe.
You have worked very hard for a long time. i wish i could give you a huge donation. i am glad there are people like you out there, fighting in the abyss for those of us who can’t go there. i live on disability income. Please don’t stop fighting....
I much appreciate the comments, but it’s also extremely frustrating to know that I don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of making any difference to what is happening with America and the world.
I can only hope that a few readers look beyond the credit reporting, collections and FICO scores.
The Money Masters and several other MUST WATCH free online videos.
I just checked CNN to see whether the impeachment hearings made the headline (forest fires in Greece are more important), but noticed this video about a woman who blew her brains out on foreclosure day:
If people have to kill themselves, why not take some of the assholes with them?
I’m the last person to advocate violence, but it’s getting rather obvious that nothing else works.
My lawsuits document that justice no longer exists.
It does not matter that I have the recordings of phone calls and the credit reports, the CRAs and collectors ignore everything and the judges usually rule in their favor or simply do NOT rule at all. Been waiting for the 9th circuit court of appeals to rule on the Cap One credit limits for over a year now.
Equifax entirely IGNORED my discovery requests, NCO, TU and Experian responded way late.
I sued IC System about a month ago and they have the NERVE to continue to call me. Today I told them to NOT call me anymore and that I sued them. A few hours later, they called again. I meant to post some recordings today, hopefully tomorrow.
IC System removed the case to federal court today and I’ll should file an emergency motion to get an injunction and order to not call me again. Of course I don’t know HOW and they read here, they know that I’m extremely busy and that I can’t afford depositions or legal advice.
They are making a point, demonstrating that NOBODY can stop them, that they own the courts and judges, that resistance is futile.
Just like the bankers made the point that they can do what they want, they pocket the profits and the American people pay the losses.
I’m publicizing my litigation in hopes that people will wake up, get a clue and if nothing else, start preparing for rough times and STOP paying their unsecured debt.
For those of you who still believe that heroic passengers brought down the plane in PA on 9/11/01, read Bin Laden driver knew 9/11 target: prosecutor:
… “If they hadn’t shot down the fourth plane it would’ve hit the dome,” Stone, a Navy officer, said in his opening remarks. ...
Anybody reading the alternative news on the web knew the truth many years ago. That’s why they’re going to shut down the web as we know it to allow only corporate controlled news. We ARE living in a fascist regime, but most Americans haven’t noticed it.
If you ever wondered why the Germans didn’t do anything about Hitler, have a look at Americans today.
The day before Obama’s speech in Berlin some German guy drove through the barricades where Obama was going to speak, red paint was pouring out of his car, he drove around in circles and eventually he crashed. I searched the major German news sites Stern and Spiegel to see what that was all about and it was like it never happened. It was all raves for Obama and his New World Order.
It’s understandable that the Germans are sick of Bush, but to see these 200,000 flag waving idiots in Berlin is sickening. It doesn’t mean that ALL Germans are morons, but the main stream media presented the event as if there was no opposition.
The economy, the loss of freedom for individuals, corporate and government controlled press, the Olympics, the dog and pony show called elections, it’s 1936 all over—but worse. Europe AND America are in it together.
Astronaut Ed Mitchell just came out of the closet and claimed that aliens exist. Are aliens our only hope?
Update: I was just going to send the reader the URL and realized this post is not exactly uplifting. What can a person on disability DO about all this?
I really hope she’ll watch the free videos and PREPARE for tough times. Since she is on disability, I sure hope she will STOP paying the banks for unsecured debt. EDUCATE friends and neighbors. I know, most people don’t want to hear it, but I try.
I’m not that concerned about the disability check being cancelled (although it’s a possibility), but it is quite likely that prices will CONTINUE to rise as the dollar loses value due to the creation of billion after billion (the latest projections are up to $1 trillion) to bail out the banks.
People should not just stock up on food, but grow their own food and establish local COMMUNITIES to help each other. Regardless of what happens, there’s nothing like the taste of tomatoes and veggies from your own or the community garden.
7/26/08 Update:
The reader wrote:
will watch the videos. i am preparing for the worst, for tough times coming; and i am telling everyone who listens to me to get out of debt. i will now also direct them to your websites.
Are you saying i should not pay off my credit card debt when you say “STOP paying the banks for unsecured debt”? Aren’t i morally obligated to pay the debt i owe? Should i declare bankruptcy? Should i not own a house, but rent one? If i become a focus for them, then i will lose what little income i have on some technicality that i can never fight, how then should i live?
i do appreciate your hard work to uncover all this “mess” i will continue to read your sites and the ones you recommend.
Lots of good questions. Yes, I’m encouraging people to STOP paying their credit card debt.
1) “Aren’t i morally obligated to pay the debt i owe?”
Morality is of course a very subjective term. If you borrowed money from Hitler, would you feel obligated to pay him back? If so, would you still feel that way knowing that he killed millions of innocent people and the money you borrowed was really theirs?
Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to NOT pay back Hitler even if you are a millionaire? Shouldn’t the money go to the people he hurt or to the relatives of the people he killed?
2) “Should i declare bankruptcy?”
That depends, but most people wouldn’t have to file for bankruptcy because even if the creditors get judgments, they can’t take anything.
You can’t squeeze blood from a turnip!
It’s very important to know your STATE law regarding protected income and assets. And it also depends on how well prepared you are for a default. Will they call you 20 times a day? Can you change your number?
It comes down to pesky details like that. Bankruptcy stops all collection efforts.
3) “Should i not own a house, but rent one?”
You should PROBABLY own, but your equity should NOT exceed the bankruptcy exemption. In some states you can have unlimited equity in your home and you get to keep it if you file for bankruptcy. That’s why OJ moved to Florida.
4) “If i become a focus for them, then i will lose what little income i have on some technicality that i can never fight, how then should i live?”
I’m not aware of anyone ever losing their disability income because they couldn’t pay their credit cards.
In same states wages can’t even be garnished. It really all depends on YOUR situation, your assets, income and what STATE you live in. I’ve seen so many people struggle to make their credit card payments when there was NOTHING anyone could have taken from them.
5) “i am telling everyone who listens to me to get out of debt.”
That’s not a question, but I have some comments because that’s EVERYBODY’S advice. How exactly are people supposed to get out of debt? Rob their neighbors? Start scamming and defrauding?
Sure, there are people who WASTE their money on crap they don’t need. But many millions are paying credit cards instead of taking care of themselves and their families. Many people who still have UNSECURED credit available should use it to take care of deferred maintenance on their houses and cars, they should use that credit to pay for doctors and dentists and generally pay for what needs to be done.
I’ve had too many people ask me for help to improve their credit so they can get medical care or fix the leaking roof. NOBODY will help you if you don’t help yourself.
Additionally, you should have cash reserves for those occasions when you are defrauded, when you cancel services and they continue to debit your account, etc.
I just spent hours scanning and posting docs and updating at CreditCourt.
I DOCUMENTED in local and federal courts that the corporations have the power to defraud you and get DISMISSED.
DirecTV never reimbursed the fraudulent charges, neither did NetZero. The credit bureaus have never paid me 1 penny after 7 years of litigation.
If you live in America, you need to take care of yourself. What little social security and disability payments people get buys less and less due to inflation. Real wages are DECLINING.
I’m in the process of setting up numerous blogs with summaries and the links to the court filings because I want people to see that corporations and banks DESERVE to not get paid. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire or you’re going to burn and die.
Too many people are already dead.
As long-time readers know, I lost my relative Dorothea in 2003 because she worked herself into the grave after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and apparently Verizon reported an entirely fraudulent collection on her credit, causing her rates and payments on her large credit card debt to increase. She was one of those people who could not face bankruptcy and her flawless credit rating was everything to her.
The last time we talked, she was transferred from the hospital to a hospice the next day and she was so concerned about the impact on her credit rating of having her car repo’d. 2 weeks later was the funeral.
I’ve had clients in foreclosure talk about suicide just like that woman who shot herself on foreclosure day. Fortunately, they didn’t do it. But it was so stressful, I can’t work with people in foreclosure anymore. I don’t have the power and/or money to do whatever it takes to resolve the issues. All I can do is try to help people not end up in these desperate situations.
We ALL have an obligation to stop the madness and to do whatever we can to help as many people as possible survive and to reduce their suffering.
Of course each person is different and in the almost 20 years I’ve worked with clients, I’ve learned that I often change my recommendations as I get to know them better and learn more about their situation, family, health, etc. etc. There is no “one fits all” solution. The only thing I can say for sure it that nobody needs to feel sorry for banks and corporations. They’re not human and sometimes I wonder whether their executives and lawyers are human and I seriously doubt that they have souls.
Don’t feel “morally” obligated to give them your money.
*** 20 Reasons to STOP paying your credit cards! • Reader mail • (1) Comments • Permalink
Friday, April 04, 2008
Open Letter to Target: Why I stopped paying my Target Visa card
Christine Baker
[address redacted]
ATTN: Terrence J Scully
President, Target Financial Services
Target National Bank
1000 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55403-2542
Via Priority Mail
April 3, 2008
Re: Dispute of my Target VISA card # 435237XXXX
Dear Mr. Scully:
I am hereby informing you that you can STOP having your collection employees hound me as I will not pay this account.
1) I initially stopped paying my $8,000 Target VISA card because my polite request to lower the over 18% interest rate was declined.
As per the 2/27/08 Target letter, it declined my request for a lower rate due to my Experian credit report and for the following reasons:
Number Of Accounts With High Balance To Limit Ratios
Ratio Of Balance To Limit On Open Revolving Accounts
It takes a lot of guts and bad judgment to charge a “valued” customer over 18% interest. Obviously, I cannot reward Target for this usury with further payments.
The high balances were primarily incurred due to my litigation against credit bureaus and banks like Target and Capital One and to build my new house.
It is not MY fault that the banks changed their underwriting guidelines and that I no longer qualify for a mortgage as when I started building.
For 1.5 years I made the payments on my credit cards, planning to refinance my credit card debt into a mortgage once the house was finished.
Greedy bankers screwed up the entire credit market and I no longer qualify for a mortgage.
2) I recently discovered that Target didn’t actually lend me its own money.
In First National Bank of Montgomery v. Jerome Daly, MN 1969, judge Mahoney wrote:
Plaintiff admitted that it, in combination with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, which are for all practical purposes, because of their interlocking activity and practices, and both being Banking Institutions Incorporated under the laws of the United States, are in law to be treated as one and the same bank, did create the entire $14,000 in money or credit upon its own books by bookkeeping entry. That this was the Consideration used to support the Note dated May 8, 1964 and the Mortgage of the same date. The money and credit first came into existence when they created It. Mr. Morgan admitted that no United States Law or Statute existed which gave him the right to do this. A lawful consideration must exist and be tendered to support the Note . . . [Emphasis added]
And:
The sole consideration paid for the One Dollar Federal Reserve Notes is in the neighbourhood of nine-tenths of one cent, and therefore, there is no lawful consideration behind said Notes.
Unjust Enrichment.
The debt I allegedly owe was apparently created by accounting entries and Target had the audacity to charge over 18% interest.
As judge Mahoney wrote:
Slavery and all its incidents, including Peonage, thralldom and debt created by fraud is universally prohibited in the United States. This case represents but another form of Slavery by the Bankers.
I could not agree more.
I believe that Target PROFITED from the alleged debt created by fraud and you failed to share your profits with me.
These concepts are explained in the free online film Money as Debt at http://creditfactors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2 and in Ellen Brown’s eye-opening book Web of Debt, available at http://www.webofdebt.com/
Money should be created by the government so that it can stop incurring new government debt and start buying back the national debt, maintain bridges and highways, provide medical care and education, ensure that social security funds will be there when I retire, etc.
3) The cost of my litigation against Target regarding its refusals to report the credit limits for its Guest Card by far exceeded the amount I allegedly owe to Target.
I never understood why Target continued to litigate this lost cause even on appeal instead of supporting me, especially since it started to report the credit limits. I don’t get paid for working on legal filings and Target chose to waste a lot of my time.
4) Target’s handing of disputes has not been satisfactory.
Most recently, the disputed Dish Network unauthorized charges caused serious problems and I really don’t understand why Dish was able to charge my account again after my disputes and specific instructions NOT to allow any further Dish charges.
Please immediately delete this fraudulent Target account from my credit reports.
Enclosed are $10,000 Stelojs (I can create money too) and Target is not going to get one more penny from me unless the government bails me out as it bails out banks and corporations.
I am sick and tired of corrupt governments ran by greedy bankers all over the world. There is no place to go, the bankers infested every country with any kind of economy worth exploiting.
I decided to vote with my money and to publicize this Open Letter.
I hope to inspire many millions of judgment-proof consumers to stop paying their unsecured debt.
Sincerely,
Christine Baker
c: posted at http://mylitigation.net/, http://creditsuit.org/ and other websites
*** 20 Reasons to STOP paying your credit cards! • 2004 Suit (credit limits, credit reporting - on appeal) • RNB (Target) - FINALLY reporting credit limits • (0) Comments • Permalink
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Capital One extraordinary incompetence - failed to send balance transfer check!
On 1/10/08 I called Capital One and asked whether they could send a check directly to my bank account, as I recently had been told several times.
The guy barely spoke English, I had to spell out every letter for the Compass Bank name and address and I was worried right then.
On the 15th I called Cap One to make sure that everything was going ok. I was told no problem, it just takes a few days to process everything.
Checked my account balance today, no record of the deposit, called the bank, no record of receiving the check, called Capital One again.
Of course the first person knew nothing, transferred me to Becky, employee ID IRS818. She started talking about the transfer being cancelled.
I have a letter from Cap One stating that the transfer request was approved, dated 1/10/08.
The she said the transfer was stopped on the 15th. I didn’t stop it, I called in on the 15th to ensure that everything was going ok. After putting me on hold several times, Becky couldn’t provide further details and had to transfer me again.
Then spoke to Eric, employee ID VRF848. He finally told me that on the 18th the “address verification” failed. I wasn’t too surprised.
I asked Eric why NOBODY informed me that the transfer was cancelled and he replied:
We don’t have the manpower for that.
Can you believe that? They send out a letter stating that the transfer was APPROVED, and then don’t bother to notify you that they didn’t send out the check. Notably, the address was NOT on the letter, it only referenced “Compass Bank”.
So I asked what Capital One could do for me and Eric suggested that we submit ANOTHER request for the check. I asked whether he could verify the address instantly, but they don’t have that capability.
Why on earth would I do this AGAIN, what reason is there to believe that the address would be verified this time?
Eric thought it wouldn’t be a problem. So I asked him to look up why the address wasn’t verified and it turns out that they had ARKANSAS instead of ARIZONA.
It would REALLY help if they had people with half a clue and basic English skills. Not to mention, that the idiots in the “verification department” could have figured out that the ZIP CODE is in Arizona and that my billing address happens to be in Kingman ARIZONA and is even on the SAME street as my bank!—DUH!
What kind of an IQ does it take to determine that their employee made a mistake?
Is it really too much to expect that they call me, as they FREQUENTLY do when I use a Capital One card more than 3 times in one day?
Is it really too much to expect to at least get a letter?
And why was the transfer APPROVED on the 10th and they didn’t even verify the address until the 18th?
I asked Eric whether I could just get a cash advance and they put it on a promo with the $50 max fee. But of course that was not an option. The checks I have already expired.
Eventually, Eric figured out that it was not even possible to send a check to my bank!
They can ONLY process requests to CREDIT CARD accounts.
So why do their employees continually suggest having Cap One send a check to my bank directly when I say that my bank won’t accept their promotional checks sent to me?
This is as bizarre as it gets.
Finally Eric suggested that they send a check to ME. Not having any other options, I agreed to that and supposedly they’ll now send a check to my billing address, he told me that the request was approved.
45 minutes on the phone today and my total time wasted is at least 3 hours - so far.
*** 20 Reasons to STOP paying your credit cards! • 2004 Suit (credit limits, credit reporting - on appeal) • Capital One - ruthless banksters • (0) Comments • Permalink
