So in his latest email newsletter he goes off on this lady, it was even reported in the daily mail. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11939679/Barefoot-i…
She reckons she has gotten away with not paying $50000 in credit card debt.
Thanks For NOTHING, Barefoot
Hi Scott,
Some years ago I wrote to you asking for advice as we were heavily in debt and finding it a bit overwhelming. Now my husband and I are debt free, our credit score is excellent, we have money in the bank, and we’re paying off a mortgage. How did we do it? Not by listening to your advice, which was to get two jobs each and slug it out paying thousands in interest and principal to banks to pay off our huge credit card debt.
No, instead we simply stopped paying the credit cards back. The amount we owed was $30,000, which increased to $50,000 with interest. Yet I learnt that, as credit cards are unsecured loans, you don’t actually have to pay them back. So we sat and waited for seven years and, lo and behold, we are no longer in debt, and have excellent credit scores. I would love you to share this with your readers – unlikely, I know! But it’s probably a better tip than working your bum off giving billion-dollar profitable companies money they don’t deserve.
Lisa
Hi Lisa,
I’ve been in the trenches as a financial counsellor and I’ve never seen a lender roll over and not try and recover a $30,000–$50,000 debt (which they have every right to do – because you are legally liable to repay the debt).
Regardless, let’s be clear about what’s going on here:
Someone lent you money in good faith … and you intentionally ripped them off.
You say: “It’s probably a better tip than working your bum off giving billion-dollar profitable companies money they don’t deserve.”
I say: (nothing, my mouth is open, but no words are coming out).
I can’t help but wonder how having this mindset spills over to other areas of your life: like how you fill out your timesheet at work, how you write in financial questions to a newspaper, and what sort of example this sets for your kids.
You may think you’ve got away with this, but you really haven’t.
You went bankrupt seven years ago.
So TBI's respose seemed to be skeptical at first, and then shocked. He wrote more about the ethics of the situation than it's practicalities. And so that's what I don't understand- the practicalities.
Is this a real situation?
Ignoring the morality for a moment - Does this actually work?
Hypothetically if you can live with seven years of debt collectors harassing you, can you spend $30k with no intention of ever paying it, wait it out, and effectively get away with stealing it?
I've read people talk about doing this when they are old and expecting to die relatively soon, but I assumed the lender would take stuff from the estate?
@bargain huntress: I'm not here to provide sound byte sized answers in place of a fuller reading on the subject but 1. maybe someone else becomes the director instead 2. phoenixing is mostly illegal for these very reasons