Let go of feeding the unfair controlling Corporate. Bring their forces down a notch or 2

[anelabo]

And while we are at it, let's ALL stop paying Citibank for one month. All of us at the same time. So what if they threaten to lower our credit score. It would not be the end of us. Perhaps the opposite. Perhaps it would give us our selves back. Who we are, after all, is not measured by our credit scores. Really !

Let's take ourselves off the treadmill. Let's consider that Our value lies in WHO we are as Spiritual Beings in Human form......NOT as worker Bees filling the coffers of unrelentless and out of balance masters of our earnings. What can they take away from us? Things? Our things? Our very "security"? If our things are that tenuous and are threatened by the power of our creditors, be it mortgages or paying off the heater system, credit cards or the car payments ~ It gets down to observing how controlled we have become over money,,,or,, er,,, the IDEA of money, as in credit and ever increasing balances due to interest charges that are exorbitant and non user friendly. We can stop that cycle, but it takes courage to stand up for our Sovereignty as Beings of whatever we call our Divine source, GOD. Rest assured, All we need comes to us with Faith and Trust in who we really are.

In no way was it my 'fault' that I was deeply injured in an accident that has caused me to need a long recovery in order to survive, and has indeed, left me with great difficulties in my earning capacity. When this happens to any of us, due to circumstance, losing jobs, disasters, illness, etc., our creditors have shown no mercy on circumstances that are out of our control, and in the face of it, harass and threaten us with absolutely no consciousness about our importance as Humans, Being. Why then, should we give them honor when they give us none? Are they too BIG, are we too small? I am thinking not. We need courage to say NO to this kind of abuse. If we all Stop paying Citibank, we will see first hand what they will try to do to us, and what our power in numbers will do to change the pattern of their relentless grip on us.

When I could not borrow any more to keep up the Citibank credit card payments, I was in tears when I called and asked for a supervisor to explain my circumstances and had to reluctantly inform them I would only be making a partial payment that month. Within a week of the due date, I was hounded with phone calls and late notices in the mail. It got worse, not better. I was hounded at least 12 times a day with phone calls. My first instinct was to keep exerting the effort to explain to them my incapacitation due to injury (I had been struck from behind by an SUV while I was standing on a sidewalk). The answer I was given on the phone that day was that 'even end stage cancer patients don't get away with not paying their bills' and neither would I. I was shocked that someone would say that to me. I had honored Citibank for 25 years with a perfect payment history right up until I was absolutely unable to continue, having exhausted every means available to me. I was so upset over it that I was experiencing severe panic and anxiety attacks and had to go on prescription Meds for it. It was shocking to me that I, who had always protected my credit rating, had now found myself at the end of the line and could not keep moving on the treadmill to pay any longer. I was aghast; right up to the moment when that person said that to me on the collector call. I said to him " Did you REALLY just say that to me?" He replied a resounded and emphatic "YES ! You HAVE to pay your Bills ! Everyone has to, even if they are dying! We will do what we need to do to get the money from you." Within one month after taking Citibank off of my checking account autopay, I had 'incurred' over $700 in 'extra' punishment charges for being late on my full payment. they did not care that I had sent a partial payment, or that I had informed them of my plight- it didn't matter in the slightest. After 2 months of not paying the full payment, I was dropped by Discover from the 'privilege' of using my discover card. CANCELLED. I had been keeping up my Discover card payments. When I asked for an explanation, they said that even though I had a perfect payment history with Discover and was indeed current, certain information they had obtained led them to believe that since I had not paid someone else on time, (citibank), so, therefore, they were pulling me off their list of approved consumers and further more I would no longer have privileges with them, but of course, I would need to keep paying my balance with them.

The following month, I stopped paying Discover too. It had been a real hardship on me. I was eating a lot of pinto beans and rice in order to keep on paying the Discover credit card minimum payments. If they could treat me with such disregard and disdain, why would I want to continue to sacrifice my very basic needs in order to keep paying them?

This experience has changed my perspective on what is valuable. I no longer think that my survival, or my self worth as a person is tied to these conglomerate credit machines who have collected so much money in interest payments over and above fairness from me and all consumers like me.

Yes. It is true that they could take away all of my possessions, and maybe even the roof over my head. Maybe my life will change. What if they put me in jail? All of these fears have risen up to be dealt with. I have discovered that I can let GO of these fears. I can have faith and trust that I will always be provided for, and that my worth as a person is NOT tied to my ability to keep feeding these creditors for the sake of my credit rating 'worth' . It seems to be important to me to remind myself and my creditors that I did NOT cause this accident that led to my credit rating demise and dire circumstances. I was NOT walking out in the street. I was not where cars are supposed to be. I was struck from behind as I was standing off the road by a great big SUV. I did not even see it coming, so how COULD I have gotten out of the way? I discovered I had an innate need to 'tell' someone that it was NOT MY FAULT !

So What if it was not my fault? Was it 'their' fault that they who have lost their house to a flood or tornado or forest fire? Or their job due to economic strife? I have come to digest that this is not about 'Fault'. It is about what is. THIS is where we are finding ourselves, and it is good to clear up our perspectives of what REALLY is important. We are drones of the 'money machine'. How to break away from that? In my case it was broken for me. I am not alone in this. I am seeing a new view of what is distorted and by these painful realizations a new world is dawning, and I am stronger in who I AM now, without fear of what will happen. So if you are ready to brave a chunk the BIG MACHINE that holds us in repression, go ahead! STOP paying your credit card payments. Watch and see how the impact of our actions affect the machine that is our collectors. they only have the power we keep on giving to them. In numbers we can get their attention as to what is needed for us all to be in fair harmony in times of need as we now find ourselves in. If Citibank wont cooperate, then they can suffer too. we are not alone. Unite now ! what do we have to lose? Think about it.

[ubaru]

I'm really grateful you posted this anelabo.

I'm writing this to help anyone overcome their fear and oppression of not being able to pay their credit card bill. And I've attached the letter I used to make collectors go away.

In 2002 I suddenly lost 64% of my income and could no longer pay the biggest of my credit card payments. I felt much dread and stress at being called by collectors, as my whole life I had never paid a bill late, and my identity and pride were tied to that. It was worse, actually. I was so stressed I was in nervous exhaustion.

At the time I responded to one of those Debt Elimination spam emails prevalent at the time, which led me to a paralegal who uses Common Law. He guided me through a letter writing process which included taking my case to a people's arbitration court, who awarded me a judgement against the bank, requiring them to pay ME the balance I had owed them. Whew! What a rush. The power tables were turned.

Now, in the "real world," no one uses Common Law anymore, and I don't recommend it for anything serious. The bank did not acknowledge the judgement I had won against them, and as I continued to not pay my bill it was eventually put into charged-off status.

So, big deal. A charge off. It's not the end of the world, and finding that out was liberating.

However, Common Law was once the law of the land, and in learning a bit of it, I transformed my fear of not paying my bill into a feeling of power. I learned what to say to collectors. When they threatened me illegally, I held them to the Fair Debt Practices Act. I learned how to stand up for myself using the law, and that gave me power.

My other credit cards jacked up their interest rates until 7 years passed, when it dropped off my credit report and my credit score shot up. Credit scores are artificial bank-created system of points to keep us obedient. Sure, they help us get loans, and increasingly landlords will ask for them, but I stopped feeling that my worth was tied to them. And I gained the freedom from my deliberate experiment with Common Law in never having to pay back $17,000 + interest. And I feel fine with that considering that they made up the credit out of thin air, and I paid obscene amounts of interest on it for over a decade. I simply decided, given my inability to pay, that I no longer wanted to keep my contract with them, so I told them it was now null and void and I spelled out my new terms.

After a year or so, the bank sold my account to an out of house collector. Once they did, I wrote the collector a legal letter demanding that they validate the debt within 30 days--prove that they had ever loaned me money, or cease and desist collection activities. They never could, of course, and the letter I sent had such "teeth" that they crawled back under their rock and I never heard from them again. The letter I used is attached below. In about 2 years they sold my account to the next sucker, and I sent the same letter, and they also went crawling back under their rock.

So it's worked twice, and I've just used it again. It's too soon to see if the phone calls will stop. But it annoys me less than a fly. [Update 12/11/11 I haven't had any calls from the collector for 2 weeks, and they used to call multiple times a day, so it's worked a third time]. Anyone could do the same thing without going through the Common Law letter writing process I did, by just stopping paying their bill. It'll eventually go to charge-off status. Once it's in the hands of a second party collector, you could try sending them the Tertius Interviens letter.

I want you all to know that if you're ever faced with not being able to pay your credit card bill, that it's not the end of the world. It's an opportunity to shift your thinking out of one mode, into another. If fact, it'd be far better for you let go of feeling oppressed and stressed by the situation, and instead invite your friends over and have a burn your bills and collection notices party ;-)

(Student loans, however, are a whole different animal).

Liz

In posting this Tertius Interviens letter, I hold that I am not responsible for your experience with it, or your decision to stop paying your credit card. Your experience might be different than mine. I had no assets to lose and the times were less fascist. For instance, Citibank's terms of agreement include their claiming the right to collect by coming to your door. Use at your own risk.