Stop Bill Collectors!

In general, creditors with a judgment against you can take 25% of your income, unless you owe back child support or alimony, when the state can take up to 50 percent of your disposable income. If you are in arrears, they can legally take 55 percent. And if you owe the government money: watch out. For unpaid taxes or delinquent student loans, they can take a whopping 65 percent of your disposable income. If you’ve read my general article on how to stop wage garnishments, you’ll know that once a garnishment is in place, there are very few options to stop garnishment. Some states have enacted laws to protect consumers from unfair garnishment; you might be able to stop a garnishment if you meet the requirements for that state.
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Thousands of people have successfully sued harassing debt collection agencies and won. the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act allows you to claim up to $1,000 for each violation of the FDCPA. In addition to the $1,000 per violation (one harassing phone call from a debt collector counts as a violation), you can claim financial damages, court costs, and legal fees. Here’s how to do it: the easy way.
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Filing for bankruptcy isn’t cheap! A quick survey of lawyers in my area put the cost for filing with a lawyer between $1,500 and $3,000 for a simple bankruptcy. If you’re swimming in bills and deluged with debt collector calls, you may be considering bankruptcy as an option.

But here’s the #1 thing that people filing bankruptcy don’t know about: and it could save you thousands of dollars.
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Wage garnishments are an unfortunate consequence of having a judgment entered against you in court. You may not even know of the existence of a garnishment until you get a notice in the mail informing you that your next weekly check is going to be docked. In order to stop the garnishment without filing for bankruptcy, you’re going to need to do a little research and some legwork.
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