If I pay less than the min. pmt each month, can credit card companies still sue to garnish my wages?

I recently lost my job and cannot afford the minimum payments on my credit cards. Is there any legal action the credit card companies can take against me if I make a small payment each month? The payment would be much less than the required minimum payment.

Public Comments

1. Anytime you violate the terms and conditions of your credit card agreement they can take you to court and sue. I would suggest talking to them first and see if they will work with you to lower your minimum payments.
2. There are three phone calls you have to make. The first is to somewhere that will give you a job. If that is unseccessful, the second one is to the credit agency. Try and make a deal with them to pay what you can afford. Usually, they will try and help make a deal because going to court costs a lot of money and writing off your debt also costs them money. If that doesn't work, call the courthouse and file for chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy. Nowadays, bankruptcy looks better on a credit report than piles of bad debt. Bankruptcy also goes away from your record in 7 years.
3. call your creditors, let them know what happened and see if they can arrange for interest only payments or some sort of short term reduced payment arrangement.
4. If you breach the contract agreement then they have a right to take you to court. I would contact the company before it is sent to a collections agency. The credit card company would probably be more willing to work with you rather than a collections agency (their favorite word is no and are not authorize to negioate anything other than paying the full amount of what is owed) The problem with making a min. payment is that the interest, late payment and etc. will be more than the actual amount to keep the balance steady. Call your credit card company and ask them if they can work with you through this situation you are having. Some companies have it where you won't be billed if you lose a job and such. Check and see if that applies to your contract. Wage garnishment is usually the last option that will happen. How it usually works is the bill will keep adding up until they finally sent it to a collections agency. The agency will then try and settle the amount with you (sometimes for a lesser amount) If there is no response then the bill is transferred to an attorney's office for further action. The office will try and make a deal with you through a settlement or a monthly payment schedule. If one is not reched THEN the wage garnishment order is placed or they also write it off as a bad debt on your credit report. Call the credit card company as see if they can reduce you monthly min. payment until you are able to increase it. Odds are they will be willing to work with you if you show that you are still wanting to pay the debt back and be in good standing.