Desperate Friend
I've spent a few days helping a friend who has gotten into major financial trouble. Not because of identify theft or drugs or other bad habits, but stupidity does factor in. She isn't stupid, but she did some stupid desperate things. She may lose her house, and her credit is now zero. She can't borrow the $7,000 that would get her out of trouble and her family won't help. She's pretty much alone with this.
Another friend from her church and I are going to pay off enough to postpone the foreclosure and bad checks for another month. Maybe that will give us time to help her find a more permanent solution.
It was on-line and payday loans that did her in. She can live on what she makes but she had some extra expenses and took these "little" loans to help with them. When pay back came and she had no money, she took out another. Then the overdraft fees piled up, and it snowballed into big debt. Now, if the sharks deposit the post-dated checks she gave them, she could have criminal charges as well. The solution is elusive.
She's as good a person as I know when it comes to helping others. She has supplied the little extras her cousin's soon needed for college because he was on his own. She has made several 200 mile trips to take her friend to a cancer doctor. She volunteers to do anything somebody else needs done.
Now where are all those helpees? She needs them, and they mostly say it's too bad, they feel really sorry about her situation.
Maybe the best thing is for her to let the house go. It's still in her dead mother's name and she could walk away and let it revert to the mortgage company. It's probably not worth the tax accessor's valuation because it needs so much repair. But it has been her home most of her life and she probably can't find anywhere to rent as cheaply.
Well, I can't do much more. Neither can the man from the church. I think she's going to dissolve into a pool of humiliation, and maybe face the court system.
There ought to be some limits placed on these "quick loan" companies that charge such terrible fees. There ought to be something done to a company that would lend thousands of dollars to an elderly woman who was clearly senile and incapacitated (her now deceased mother).
And there ought to be common sense in a 50+ year old woman, but I've never been so desperate, so I won't judge her. I don't know what to do now but listen and encourage her to find an attorney to help her work this out.
Are you tired of listening to me about this, Lord? I know you've got an answer.
Another friend from her church and I are going to pay off enough to postpone the foreclosure and bad checks for another month. Maybe that will give us time to help her find a more permanent solution.
It was on-line and payday loans that did her in. She can live on what she makes but she had some extra expenses and took these "little" loans to help with them. When pay back came and she had no money, she took out another. Then the overdraft fees piled up, and it snowballed into big debt. Now, if the sharks deposit the post-dated checks she gave them, she could have criminal charges as well. The solution is elusive.
She's as good a person as I know when it comes to helping others. She has supplied the little extras her cousin's soon needed for college because he was on his own. She has made several 200 mile trips to take her friend to a cancer doctor. She volunteers to do anything somebody else needs done.
Now where are all those helpees? She needs them, and they mostly say it's too bad, they feel really sorry about her situation.
Maybe the best thing is for her to let the house go. It's still in her dead mother's name and she could walk away and let it revert to the mortgage company. It's probably not worth the tax accessor's valuation because it needs so much repair. But it has been her home most of her life and she probably can't find anywhere to rent as cheaply.
Well, I can't do much more. Neither can the man from the church. I think she's going to dissolve into a pool of humiliation, and maybe face the court system.
There ought to be some limits placed on these "quick loan" companies that charge such terrible fees. There ought to be something done to a company that would lend thousands of dollars to an elderly woman who was clearly senile and incapacitated (her now deceased mother).
And there ought to be common sense in a 50+ year old woman, but I've never been so desperate, so I won't judge her. I don't know what to do now but listen and encourage her to find an attorney to help her work this out.
Are you tired of listening to me about this, Lord? I know you've got an answer.
posted by Mom at 6:31 PM
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