creditor garnishing my bank accounts and took all my savings--legal question

[[Fl...]]

oh my God, really? can you please let me know a little of what is happening with it right now and what YOU are doing about things? did they ever try to garnish wages like they did with me?

 

I didn't have any wages to garnish but one collection agency did try to press forward to see if I had any assets they could collect. This forced me into my inevitable bankruptcy. That was stressful but once I received the discharge the pressure was off.

 

All of this happened early in 2010. I stopped clonazepam the end of that year and have been too sick to worry about getting my credit or any of my finances in order since.

[[Be...]]

Pretty, I asked the admin about the site last night.  I got freaked out and thought the site was taken down or something, since I couldn't get on either.  It was Server maintenance or something, which this benzo site has no control over, the admin. said.  Do you receive Supplemental Security Income here in the US?  Most states will give you an extra 700 bucks a month if your resources and savings is low enough.  I don't think it takes but a few months to get it once you apply and it's an easy case.  My state of PA, says 2000 bucks in cash and minimal resources, for about 700 bucks. 

[[pr...]]

thank you WhateverInNy for all those resources and good advice, i actually printed it out and also gave it to my mother as she just started her bankruptcy because of this. we both went to the attorney together yesterday. i really hope she is good.

 

 

and thank you Patty Lu for the link--haven't had a chance to look it over yet but definitely will.

 

thanks Becksblue for telling me about the site last night because i asked Gardenia and she said she was able to get on here last night but maybe it was certain times or certain area's but i did kinda freak out a little at the thought of never ever talking to all of you again--i really need you guys and so happy you're all in my life. although the people change a lot but very grateful for this forum

 

and Becksblue, i receive social security/disability in US and not sure if it's SSI or just social security? so not sure if i am able to bring in even more money? are you saying that i could possibly be a candidate for having them give me more? that is my only resource. i would love to be able to receive more money monthly. i really don't know what i am going to do? i have to leave here very soon and not sure how i would do that?

 

you know after all of this has happened to you--after a benzo withdrawal and people just taking money out of your account, and doing the action of trying to get it back and cleaning up your life, nothing scares me right now. the fact that i finally talked to them after ignoring them for almost 8 years and being so afraid of all this. and seeing the attorney and being at the court house filling out paper work and forms. i don't feel scared right now. the only thing that scares me right now is being alone forever and being homeless. but i don't think i will be afraid of being homeless when i start feeling stronger. then i will just have the one fear. or maybe two. the growing old fear.

 

i already don't have money. not really. i don't have a home of my own. i don't have health right now although i kinda do but still weak. well anyway, you know the drill.

 

so very quickly, the attorney doesn't think i should do a bankruptcy because of the fact that i've been ill for so long, not working. she said it would be different if i were working. and that still could be a possibility. she gave me a letter to mail to each and everyone of my creditor's and doctor's. i will go through everything as i have 6 piles of stacks and stacks of bills, debts, papers in different places in my parents house. so this is life's clean up work and that is okay!

 

i also filled out the "claim of exemption" form at the court house today but have to go back on monday to fill out a few more forms as i have 4 lawsuits against me, yikes!

 

i kinda hope this thread can keep going for anyone else who ever feels like they want to talk about their finances and get some really good advice and i thank all of you once again!

 

love, pretty

[[Be...]]

Yes, Prettydaisy.  I also receive regular SSDI, the regular social security disability, but there is another federal fund called SSI, which is supplemental security insurance, which will pay you, on top of your SSDI, more money each month, when you have exhausted all your resources or have high debt to offset it.  Please look at the federal socialsecurity.gov website and read about the SSI.  I know your mind is on other stuff now, but getting more money is what you need eventually.  It's a good chunk of change too.  Each state tweaks the amount but, I know in Pennsylvania it's an extra 700 dollars on top of the SSDI.  It's there as a safety net for those on SSDI who are having trouble making ends meet. 

[[pr...]]

Yes, Prettydaisy.  I also receive regular SSDI, the regular social security disability, but there is another federal fund called SSI, which is supplemental security insurance, which will pay you, on top of your SSDI, more money each month, when you have exhausted all your resources or have high debt to offset it.  Please look at the federal socialsecurity.gov website and read about the SSI.  I know your mind is on other stuff now, but getting more money is what you need eventually.  It's a good chunk of change too.  Each state tweaks the amount but, I know in Pennsylvania it's an extra 700 dollars on top of the SSDI.  It's there as a safety net for those on SSDI who are having trouble making ends meet.

 

i will look into that. i may already be getting both, not sure? i will definitely find out as when i do go back to work i wish to still receive some benefits for awhile and i think you are able to do that. thanks!

[[Wh...]]

My Mother received SSI, which is "supplemental" money available to people whose income and assets fall below a certain amount (I cannot remember what it is) she receives around $700 a month. I just went through all this with her earlier this year. They basically look at your bank statements not only to determine and verify that you fall below the qualifying amount but to make sure that you didn't withdraw money and hide it as cash so that you qualify. They may look at larger transactions and ask you what it was for. Her application was processed quickly. She was denied during her first attempt and apparently that is very common to get denied. SS will often nit pick your financial records and deny you based on something completely ridiculous. But you have the right to appeal their decision and my Mother appealed and was granted the full benefit amount. My Mother and I were wondering if they just deny most applications on the first go around assuming that most people will not appeal because they are scared of the government. This was pure conjecture on our part, but it would make their jobs easier if that is an off the record policy. Once my Mother was granted SSI they also gave her $200 a month in food stamps. AND because according to SS my Mother lives at poverty level she was able to apply and qualify for a reduction in her gas and electric utilities.

 

Regarding bankruptcy. Your attorney is absolutely right there is no reason for you to file based on debt that old. I can't believe I didn't pick up on that yesterday, this damn Klonopin has lowered my mental sharpness. It would actually be a huge mistake to file at this point in time. Not only because of the SOL but because of FCRA law.

 

Have you looked at your credit reports recently?  According to the FCRA Fair Credit Reporting act - delinquents debts must be removed 7 years after the date of the last payment, Bankruptcies, liens and such must be removed after 10 years. So if most of your debt is around 8 years old it shouldn't even be showing on your credit reports.

 

This is why it is actually NOT is your best interest to make payment arrangements with a Collection Agency for an old debt. Many people make the assumption that after hiding from their creditors for years, that they want to clean up their credit reports. So they start contacting old creditors offering to pay the debt thinking that this will give them good credit because they eventually paid the debt in good faith. This is actually the worst thing you can do. Why? Because when you pay the debt you reset the clock you "re-age" the debt since the date of last payment DOL is now 2013. If you don't pay the debt and as in the OP's case the DOL is 8 years ago and shouldn't even be on the OP's credit report. So although you paid the debt, it is still going to report as a delinquent bad debt that went to a Collection Agency and you just ensured that this account will be on your record for 7 years. With Original Creditors say American Express, calling them 8 years later and offering to make right on a delinquent debt is fruitless. Why? Because after 6 months of not receiving payment American Express charge-offs your debt, which means they take it as a loss and take it is as tax write off. They then go to your credit report and mark the account as "charged off" which looks really bad on a credit report. Then they sell your debt to a Collection Agency for some chump change and the Collection Agency enters this debt on your credit record and they start calling you everyday. So now what was once one bad debt is now two bad debts. That is how the game is played and it is really slimy. In the end sometimes it makes no sense to pay an old debt even though you may feel ethically compelled to do so.

 

While the OP may have $80K in delinquent accounts, they are too old to be reporting on her credit report as per FCRA so her credit reports should technically look clean.

[[pr...]]

thanks WhateverInNy! i'm going to print this too! by the way i am the OP on this thread sometimes i can't believe all the things i write. i can't believe my debt is 80,ooo! yikes. but the attorney did mention the time frame as i think she said it was about 10 years and everything you said about not having them be able to renew the debt after that time.

 

i am so freaking tired from all of this and going to see the attorney and going to the courts to fill out the exemptions forms--and i have to go back on mondy to fill out a few more since i have 4 different lawsuits. too tired for all of this.

 

i think i may get all that i can get from SSI and social security but i'll check into that. i will also check into how we maybe could have our gas and electric utilities reduced.

 

i need to charge my juices this weekend and just rest without going anywhere but i guess it was good to know that when i need to go somewhere i can do it, although it's still really hard. i am just waiting until i don't vibrate so violently. but brain sxs seems to be much better for 9 days now.

 

thanks everyone!

pretty

[[ea...]]

Pretty, just wanted to comment on how clear your writings are now! You are obviously making progress in the healing department. Way to go, girl!

east

[[su...]]

Hi Pretty,

God, it's all you need!

Still, the act of koping with it might actually help you in a strange kind of way!

I know nothing about American laws, so won't even attempt to comment there, but just know my thoughts and prairs are with you,

Keep at it, you'll get there in time!

Glad you've had some symptom improvements, and remember, no matter what you get subjected to by governments, banks etc, you have yourself, your soul, and no one and nothing can touch it!!!

 

[[pr...]]

thank you East and Surprised!

 

monday i have a lot more work to do. i've got to get up and go to the court house again and feel out a few more of those exemption forms. and i will tell you that getting up four days in a row really exhausted me. i slept so much today and i just couldn't get up for nothing. it really took a lot out of me. the emotional stuff too.

 

i still have to go to the bank and hope that i get a compassionate person who can credit me the very hefty charge that they took out for the collection agencies lien against me. i guess it is good that i'm learning about this and it's time to do some major clean up work. it's also time to do some major cleansing and detoxification of my body too. lot's of clean up work. i wish i knew where to start?

[[su...]]

That's the thing that sucks about the modern world,

Everything expects you to maintain it.

If you go off or get sick or dont' tend nicely to all the little money games governments, banks and corperates expect, you land in trouble by default!

It's pretty stupid when you look at it from a detached point of view!

Still, good luck getting back on top of it all.

hope they will be compassionate to you and sort it out as well as possible!

 

[[pr...]]

whateverInNY,

 

i wanted to thank you again for everything you wrote on your last post. i printed it out for my mother to read and she was very grateful towards you. she's going to take in it to the attorney that we got. the attorney has not gotten back to my email filled with questions though and she had better since she has been paid the whole amount that she asked for don't like that so far.

 

going to try very hard to get up tomorrow and go to court to fill out the rest of the paperwork of being exempt so they don't do this to my checking account. i really hope i had enough time where they will give me my money back. it's 15 days and i think i am right there and only of they will give me my money back. oh what a weary weep i am today. i could not get out of bed and vibrating with burning pain just like acute withdrawal.

 

all right peeps, thanks so much!

prettyD

[[Wh...]]

prettydaisys:

 

I wish you and your Mother the best. All of these big institutions like to bully or play dumb but there are laws in place that protect consumers - it is just few of us are aware. You do not need to thank me, just make sure that if you meet someone in the same boat make sure to tell the law is on there side.

[[ea...]]

Wishing you luck, Pretty - you will be in my thoughts and prayers.

east

[[pr...]]

thank you East! hope you are doing well. get very little updates about from Causing

 

just wanted to say that i did not sleep at all again last night. i am just up all night still revved and vibrating. so i finally fell asleep at 7am this morning and was woken up constantly by my mother. i couldn't make it to the courts to fill out the other exemption forms. but the clerk who helped me fill out the first form was so nice and talked to be over the phone and said that i don't have to come in unless the other 3 "lawsuits" or judgements against me have already enforced payment through my bank and she didn't see where they did that (yet)... so i have to keep in touch with my bank to make sure if they do or not.

 

she also said that i seemed to be within the 15 days so i could possibly get my money back and that is if the collection agency actually decides to give it back. and they might since i told them if they don't give me my savings money back that will be all the money they ever see from me.

 

the attorney has not called me back and i called her again today. she has been paid a lot of money and i have three messages into her from last week and today. what is up with that? i don't like it at all. but i need to know if she faxed over the letter saying i am exempt to all the judgements against me. that way they hopefully won't ever bother me.

 

this is a tough road but glad i am learning--and yes i will definitely pass on the information to anyone who is in the same boat.

 

thank you, pretty

[[pr...]]

so a little update:

 

i went to the bank today and they credited back that hefty charge just like that. i was happy. i was sitting there and i told myself not to go into any negativity. i just sat in the present moment and look outside at the trees softly swaying. she called the legal dept. and was placed on hold--we spoke a little more about what i should do and poof there was money back into my account.

 

the attorney has not gotten back to me with answers to my questions and my mother paid her $1000. what the frack?

[[pr...]]

so and even better update to the story here! i got all my savings back the other day. the whole things that they garnished! i worked really hard for about 2 months with this and i also won the case about the brand name suboxone that medicare kept denying which would have cost me about $800.00 for that prescription. they paid for it today, yay!

 

i worked really hard these last 2 months on both these things and i learned a lot. and i also showed myself what i am capable of even in bad withdrawals and i've also start the opiate withdrawals because i was basically out of the suboxone. and even though i'm tapering from that--since i wasn't taking the brand name, and all the other generic formula's of the suboxone just weren't doing the trick--and i can't believe that this drug companies are making so much money and then making a generic form that really doesn't work as well. i bet you anything they don't put much of the actual medication in there and that they do put in a bunch of crap fillers that make you feel like shit anyway. the subutex totally set me back with the benzo withdrawal as it made me have the worst case insomnia and anxiety.

 

that's my theory and the judge that granted me the approval was nothing but cool and he was saying stuff like "so this is purely a business decision about the drug company not 'approving' the brand name of suboxone any longer--when they basically lied and said 'it was addcitve and children were getting into it and some died'-- they're still making but i guess now they want to only sell the generic and the film version.

 

so the judge said, 'this is really a unique case" over and over he said that-- and i just can't believe he granted me access to winning this!~ if i could do all of this when i'm feeling like a computerized robot and so sick--i can only imagine what i will be able to do when i am well again

[[fr...]]

Amazing. Congratulation on all your successes. Sounds like you kept your cool and it really paid off.

[[Be...]]

Good news pretty, glad to hear it worked out.

[[pr...]]

i want to thank every single person who helped me on this thread. i just re-read through it again. it kinda helps to see where i was emotionally and mentally in these withdrawals. i was very frantic during this post. i am a little better although having sleep issues now and again which also make them family issues since i've been fighting for my sleep/rest since i got home and my brother wasn't here yet. just having issues again and wish they would just ease up. sometimes they do i guess.

 

i don't feel like starting a new thread right yet but this sleep thing is bad now only because it has literally been since i c/t'd and that is almost 17 months now--that i have been able to have any sleep at night. my brain is still revving and as long as it's still revving, i just don't sleep at night. but i do start falling asleep around 9am in the morning. and that's when they're all getting up. so it was just bad here again today and i have never in my life had dark purple circles under my eyes--but i have them bad now. thanks God they look kinda interesting.

 

why can't it just go good for awhile? is it only the withdrawals that make it seem like it's bad and stressful again? will i think differently about everything once i'm in a window or healed? i need to know?

[Guest [my...]]

You're a tough cookie!  so happy for you. 

[[su...]]

Hi Pretty,

Yes, there will come a time of change of perspective, that's what happend to me, and I think eastcoast and likely many others.

You'd recall that one thread I started in WD help, about weather I should get a shrink!!!

That was a really bad down anxious few days, quite a bit beyond what I'd been experiencing, but strangely after that, something snapped, and I went from being inside the symptoms, as them being totally me, to being perhaps above them perhaps more like traditional pain.

From there, is seemed that a majour step of healing took place, and, yes, I was doing some NLP style state change stuff too, and I know that also helped a lot.

Still, It does seem that sometimes a chrisis point can give us a leg up with the recovery, perhaps the extra stress up regulates the gaba system a bit so we have a better baseline after that.

To me now, there are sometimes very vague little feelings of uneasyness, I'd call it, and I can think them away, and instantly distract myself with thinking of something I plan to do like a trip to Europe next year. and it changes to excitement.

I'm not quite prepared to write a full success story just yet, partly because benzomurphy is likely to come and give a massive wave as a reward, <grin> but I'm waiting for the true 100%.

Some say it even gets better than that as you might feel better even than you did for years before even starting benzos!

I'll wait and see it I have that one happen!

From what I've read from you, and your issues you've dealt with over the last few months, you've come a huge long way, and you were on the stuff for years along with other things.

It makes total sence that you will take a while, but you are vastly better than when I first met you on here, and I'd have to call it way over half way healed.

Remember too, if you can do some meditation such as hemisync or something that gets you down into theta or even a low alpha, can make up for hours of normal sleep, and it ups your seratonan levels too.

I'm sure there will be some kinds of things happen with getting off the opiates, but I don't think they are in the same league as benzo WD, so I suspect that will not be too hard for you considdering what you've already been through.

Still, No drugs is the goal, and everything you can remove from your diet will be a step in the right direction.

 

[[Ki...]]

and i can't believe that this drug companies are making so much money and then making a generic form that really doesn't work as well. i bet you anything they don't put much of the actual medication in there and that they do put in a bunch of crap fillers that make you feel like shit anyway.

 

 

 

 

[[Ki...]]

so and even better update to the story here! i got all my savings back the other day. the whole things that they garnished! i worked really hard for about 2 months with this and i also won the case about the brand name suboxone that medicare kept denying which would have cost me about $800.00 for that prescription. they paid for it today, yay!

 

                 

[[pr...]]

so and even better update to the story here! i got all my savings back the other day. the whole things that they garnished! i worked really hard for about 2 months with this and i also won the case about the brand name suboxone that medicare kept denying which would have cost me about $800.00 for that prescription. they paid for it today, yay!

 

                 

 

it can be done--and so can healing from benzo's high five!

 

surprised, i don't know about half way healed yet. maybe it's gearing towards almost half way but i'm still burning up over here --my little burn victim. brain just started deeply squeezing and those long deep pulse's out of the blue just now. after not doing this for a few weeks, what the funion? i call it deep healings!