This site is a blessing

The destruction of my credit started early.
My parents never had good credit—at least my mom didn’t. We would buy groceries with pennies she had to dig out of the couch or car because she was too embarrassed to tell my dad that she didn’t have any money. My dad had a GREAT job and we never went without, but my mom kept the ringer on the telephone off because off all the collection calls she would get. She would sometimes go months without paying the house payment and have to borrow it from my grandparents. My dad never knew a thing.
When I turned 18, credit card companies began flooding my parents’ home with offers for me. I did not open even ONE account. Later, I found out that my mother had opened one in my name that she kept because she was trying to “build” my credit—I only found out because there was a $6000 charge-off on my credit report. That one went to LVNV and I had to file an identity theft report to get rid of it.
I also had trouble taking care of checking accounts. I didn’t have a checking account for about 5 years because I had closed one that was overdrawn for $52 and I didn’t know that I could take care of it by just paying it!
I never had any good credit cards, since that huge charge off prevented me from getting any. I had several of the usual cruddy, high fee ones: First Premier, Imagine, etc. I charged them off because I made a bad decision in opening them. Period. I could not afford them.
When I was 21, I bought a car with my ex. He then went out the next week and bought another car. (We had NO money. He just had pretty good credit.) The car that was in OUR name became my car. He then proceeded to get three DUIs in a 2 year period. We had broken up before he got his third—so I was shocked when I went to renew my registration and they told me it had been CANCELLED! In KY, they can cancel the registration on any car in your name if you get too many DUIs. I begged and pleaded with the state, I even got a lawyer, and they wouldn’t budge. So I had this hunk of metal in my driveway with no plates and no insurance. The lawyer suggested I go to the finance company and have his name removed from the loan—they wouldn’t. My ex even agreed to sign the car over to me, and they still wouldn’t, eve though he wasn’t making the payments. The decision I made was to let the company repossess the car. Even though I knew this would seriously impact my credit, I couldn’t afford to make payments on a car I couldn’t drive.
After that, I got into PDL trouble. I had some PDL in the past (all storefront) and I was able to pay them back. When I got caught up in internet PDLs is when all of my problems started.
My mother called me one day to tell me that she had not made their house payment in 4 months and the mortgage company was going to foreclose. She wanted to know if I could get a loan in my name that she would pay back. This was the BIGGEST mistake I ever made. I loaned her $1500, $900 of which came from a Check N Go installment loan. She gave me 4 payments by check and the 4th one bounced. I ended up having to get a loan to take care of the installment loan, which I ended up defaulting on anyway. I had to get more loans (storefront and internet) to cover the costs of the interest on other loans. It was this horrible cycle that I did not see an end to.
I eventually closed my account, and got a new one. That’s when the scary collection calls started coming. I wasn’t really flustered until I got a call from United Legal Collections over a defaulted loan. They told me that they had the AG on the line and I was going to be arrested and lose my job. I was almost in tears, calling the police department making sure I wasn’t going to be arrested. While searching the internet for this company, I came across this website, and it was like I could breathe again. I can’t tell you how many sleepless nights I have had before I found this site—you could never find a more intelligent, caring group of individuals who are willing to help a complete stranger.
After reading the many incredibly helpful posts, I am comfortable that I know my rights, I know what’s legal, and I’ll never worry about things that I CAN control—like my debt.