Reply #29: Well I have already done a version of this,

[TBF]

just refused to pay. It can take awhile to get everything negative off your credit, but we're pretty close to buying a house now. Refused to pay about $100K in credit card debt - a bunch of it to Citibank and mostly because they were such assholes to deal with.

Even with help from credit repair it takes awhile, may actually be quicker with bankruptcy (but we also had massive student loans which we have been paying, so that is a factor in our rate as well).

I have to think if a lot of people either refuse, or simply can't pay, it's going to bring down a lot of scores and then your own score doesn't look so bad.

I will say if I had to do it again I wouldn't have the cards, but I was young and foolish. Completely admit that. But the banks are also very predatory (at least the big ones are) and deserve some of the fault for loading people up with credit (incl. ridiculous interest rates) and then refusing to work with them on paying it back - perhaps they get a better tax break by just writing off the debt?? Dunno, but it all needs to be revamped and re-regulated as far as I'm concerned.