What happens to your debt when you’re no longer working? Unfortunately, a lot of the time we’re still on the hook even when we can’t afford to keep up with the bills. But for a woman in Michigan, she dedicated herself to finding a solution that worked for her after she was laid off. Owing debt and not being able to pay didn’t stand in her way. Instead, she went and spoke with a lawyer about her options so she could do things her way.
TikToker Becca.Ridge—Jenni—posted a video sharing that she received a reminder of her debt just before the holidays. Merry Christmas, right? If it isn’t before a holiday, it’s just before you made headway with some other nagging issue. Well, Jenni was just laid off from her job and couldn’t afford her mounting credit card debt. When the debt collector sent a summons before the holidays, she told them “sue me” if they wanted the money so badly. That’s exactly what happened and it didn’t take them long to do it. In record time, too.
Jenni contacted her lawyer, knowing full well the debt collector would continue to harass her. Her lawyer said she should consider a payment plan. Jenni disagreed. She argued to her lawyer her “theory” is the debt collectors “send all of these summons just before Christmas because 70% of the time, people do not respond to them and their wages end up getting garnished.”
This happened to Jenni just before Christmas in the past, leaving her baffled. It’s a horrendous practice that puts people in a difficult financial position when they’re already feeling the year-end strain and that of the impending holidays. You know you have some debts to settle, but you just want to use some of the extra money you worked your butt off for to buy your family some gifts, you know? Dropping that notice before Thanksgiving and Christmas is just cruel, but that’s the point.
Even though Jenni’s lawyer didn’t have a lot of faith she would get results, she said she’d still like to try. Being laid off, she only has unemployment to depend on at the time. And that doesn’t last forever. In the end, her lawyer agreed with her and said he’d like to help her. She smiles as she tells her audience, “That man is gonna get that [expletive] dismissed.”
Apparently, her lawyer agrees it’s wrong of companies to take advantage of people in tough financial positions during the holidays. Debts are debts, but that’s just throwing dirt in a wound many Americans are already painfully aware of.
“And here I am out here not buying things I can’t afford and paying all my bills,” one person joked. Credit scores would never recover!
“Debt isn’t real. I maxed out a bunch of credit cards and immigrated to another country where credit scores doesn’t matter. I even abandoned a car with a loan at the airport. Changed my number, emails, everything, my money is in a foreign account and I’m long gone. They can pound sand,” another stated. Whatever works for you, right?
