If you or your loved one is in incarceration at the moment, then this may be a serious concern for you. While there are many hardships when you are in jail, one of the main concerns you may be facing is the fact that you cannot pay bills from your cell. This means that you may be slowly sinking into debt because you do not have the ability to satisfy all costs. If you are in incarceration and are concerned about how this will affect your monthly payments, you can typically write creditors and explain your situation. If you have monthly bills that you can’t satisfy, then you will want to write letters to all recipients of the money and tell them about your circumstances. Some creditors will be understanding and may even freeze bills until the individual is released from jail.

In some cases, the people that you owe money to may not be as understanding as you may think. A creditor is not required to accept any payment arrangement other than the one that was agreed to in the original credit contract. This means that if you can’t pay off your credit card and the company doesn’t want to work with you in your difficult situation, then you may be forced to suffer the consequences. While in jail, you will have very limited alternatives regarding the money that is owed. Typically, a creditor would garnish your income if you did not pay your bills on time. Yet when you are in jail, you do not have any income being placed in your bank account.

If possible, you can try to negotiate a payment plan using savings or another source of income. With this money, you may be able to pay off the monthly costs until you are released from incarceration. You may want to ask a friend or family member to contact your creditors for you, and speak to an official at the company who is authorized to negotiate repayment plans. You can ask a person to discuss options with your creditors and then get back to you. Whether you talk to other creditors or have a friend do this job for you, you will want to be stoic on the amount of money that you can afford in your repayment plan.

Some creditors may try to get you to pay more than you can afford each month in hopes that they will be able to eventually gain more money from you in interest and late fees this way. You will want to determine the costs that you can afford and then ask for a copy of the agreement in writing which you can review to make sure that your requests were honored. Also, you will want to determine how creditors are going to report your account on your credit report. If you received horrible credit then this may be a disappointing and relatively debilitating situation for you when you emerge from jail.

Some creditors may be able to waive the delinquency on your account and report it as “paid as agreed” if you are not going to be too late on the payments. You want to also make sure that your debt will not be placed on another individual if you have someone help you with your expenses. A helpful family member or friend could be saddled with your expenses if they meddle in the situation too much and a creditor determines that they could satisfy the payments.

If you are not able to come to an agreement with a creditor, then you will want to end the conversation. You should not haggle and get into constraining deals. As a debtor, you may be able to pay off all of your debt in one lump sum in the future. If you want more information about paying bills while in jail, or if you are considering bankruptcy because you cannot satisfy the payments that piled up while you were detained, then you need to locate a bankruptcy attorney near you today for more information.