My Friend Haley Stopped Paying Her Credit Cards- And Here’s What Happened

Haley, a 30-something Millennial, had (or has) $10,000 in credit card bills.

She also had some debt from Afterpay and Pay Later programs. She was working at Starbucks and Target, trying to make ends meet. She has a college degree but in Communications. This is already an oversaturated field. As she told me, she is ticked she went to school for four years to not even get a job.

Sometimes she would ask me for financial advice and I would tell her to try to at least pay the minimum. She felt like with barely being able to afford food and utilities (she lives in an apartment with her roommate), she would never be able to pay the debt off.

She felt things were pretty bleak. So she just stopped paying. She opened up a few different checking accounts and directed her auto-debits there. Or turn off all the auto-debit payments.

Credit card delinquency gets progressively worse the longer it goes on.

The stages are:

1 Day Late. A late fee can be applied

30 Days Late. A late fee and a ding on your credit report

60 Days Late. Default interest rate can be applied, and late fee can increase from $30 to $41

90, 120, and 150 Days Late…