Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in North Carolina

If you have not been making the minimum payment your account is in default and they have the right to do this. You are not required to talk to them, but you should probably give it a try. If you are not able to pay the minimum payment they insist upon to keep the account from going further, the account will be routed through the collections process. Synchrony is pretty aggressive right now and you may be sued pretty quickly (as in, they sue 7-9 months after default in several cases I have seen).

You should go talk to an experienced debt collection and bankruptcy attorney now to take a look at the big picture and get comprehensive advice about what your options are. It will be worth the peace of mind for you to know ahead of time. I have seen many instances where people think they are doing "the right thing" but they actually made their situations no better, and sometimes worse, by continuing to send in small payments less than the minimum to several creditors rather than either letting the accounts go to default and resolving them one at a time, or rather than filing for bankruptcy. You might be able to save up enough to offer them a lump sum settlement later, but do not expect to settle for less than about 60% and maybe even more than that with this particular creditor, unless your debt is sold to a debt buyer. Hope this advice helps and good luck!

I kind of disagree with Attorney Coleman here about talking to Synchrony. There is no point. First, creditors do not have to accept whatever you send. They can, but they do not have to and if you do not pay the minimums, then you are in default. Your credit is already probably toast because if the minimums are not paid then you are considered late.

You are probably doing more harm than good by sending in small sums. When times are tough, the first things that have to go are credit cards and if you must default then you must. Synchrony will do nothing to help you until you are at least 90 days behind. And even then, I have seen fake offers sent to my clients and when they go to accept, Synchrony says there is nothing they can do because its with a debt collector or the account has been sold.

I don't know your situation, but I would recommend that you sit down with someone and have then go over your finances. It is time to re-group, re-think and re-trench. Depending on what comes out of that, it may be that you let Synchrony slide further into default. They shut off access to your account so not much sense paying now if that money is needed elsewhere. Eventually, Synchrony will sell off the debt to a junk debt buyer and it can be settled for some percentage less than 100% of what is owed. However, as noted by Attorney Coleman, I have seen Synchrony also start to hang onto debts and sue.

Attorney Coleman is right - you do need to sit down with an attorney and review your debts and assets in detail and come up with a game plan as to the best way to handle. I am not a bankruptcy attorney and I think of bankruptcy as the option of last resort after everything else has been tried. But there are times when it can be the option of first resort as well, but it depends on your situation and you don't go into that.

I do not file bankruptcy but I can review your debts/assets with you and help you decide which way you ought to go. I charge reasonable fees for phone consults. If interested, please contact me at [email protected].