Charge card debt...ever been sued?

[Aralis]

Yep I was served papers and am now gonna have to go to a pretrial for a charge card debt of $635. I would like to settle out of court with some kind of payment plan but I think it might be too late for that. They will prolly end up getting an order to garnish some of my wages monthly to get their money.....I dunno.

Does anyone know anything about this or had this happen to them? I feel like such a loser right now. I mean what am I gonna say in court. Yep..i owe em...yep I suck? :tear

[Fierce Critter]

Damn $635? How long have you had the debt?

I've got debts more than double that and nobody's touched me for over 6 years. I was going to file bankruptcy, but the sonofabitch attorney I paid $600 didn't get my papers done before we moved, and then claimed he didn't owe me my money back. Long story.

I can't remember the department name, but when I realized I needed help settling my debts, I was going to get free help from some agency in the City County building downtown. I went in, but they couldn't help me at that time 'cause I hadn't been served papers yet.

You only have to pay something like $40 in filing fees and they cover the rest.

Let me do a little web searching to see if I can jog my memory of who it was. I'll get back to you in this thread.

[Sybil]

..i have never had credit cards.. :blushing

[Onyx]

Yep I was served papers and am now gonna have to go to a pretrial for a charge card debt of $635.  I would like to settle out of court with some kind of payment plan but I think it might be too late for that.  They will prolly end up getting an order to garnish some of my wages monthly to get their money.....I dunno.

Does anyone know anything about this or had this happen to them?  I feel like such a loser right now.  I mean what am I gonna say in court.  Yep..i owe em...yep I suck? :tear

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That is really not that much money. I'm thinking if they did garnish wages it wouldn't be much, but if you could set up a payment plan it would probably cost you less in the end.

I'm really surprised they took the trouble to put it through court for such a small bill.

[Aralis]

Yeah for only $635 .....with Capital One and it was a debt transferred from another card to theirs to get credit while i pay on the transfer.

For some reason they like to come after me. I had this happen before with another card and we settled outta court and I had to pay $1000.

And I only owed the $635 for about a year since you asked.

I know they are gonna rape me and the $635 will turn into like $1000. I do not have the cash to pay them it all at the pretrial and I really can't afford for my some of wages to be garnished if they go that route. I have been trying to clear my credit and now this. The judgment will be on my public record under my credit. I am really stressed about this.

:tear :tear :tear :confused

I have been doing some research and can they can garnish up to 25-30% of your netpay. :doh

[Fierce Critter]

O.k. I'm not sure this is what I used, but it might be (well, consulted. Like I said, I hadn't been actually served or garnished yet, so they wouldn't help me.)

http://www.ladadetroit.org/

I don't know what your income is, or what their guidelines are for who they will help. But they're worth a try.

I would highly recommend going through something like that.

Sorry I can't remember exactly who/what I consulted before. But this website might actually be it.

Best of luck!

[Aralis]

Thanks for the link but I do not live in the Detroit area. I won't qualify but thanks just the same! =) Appreciate it!

I am doomed. :tear

[Fierce Critter]

There are legal aid services available in just about every county.

I hope this works out for you in the end...

[Troy Spiral (13)]

I've had perfect credit for my entire adult life pretty much. Basicly it was drilled into me with massive force that i need to "pay my bills, always, every time, even if it means working 500 hours a week" so my credit score was through the roof. Until the car accident, basicly racked up tons of bills i couldnt pay, with no real chance of them ever getting paid, so i had to declare bankruptsy and now my 15 years of working on keeping my credit good is destroyed. =(

The upside? No bloodsucking lawayers ever got to sue me for anything. =)

You sure you cant work out some sort of payment plan with them? From everything i've read, they'd much rather have you work something out , as it costs them a lot to pay a lawyer to look into a case.

Good luck with whatever happens, and remember, try to keep your chin up. =)

[Black Sunday9]

Yep I was served papers and am now gonna have to go to a pretrial for a charge card debt of $635.  I would like to settle out of court with some kind of payment plan but I think it might be too late for that.  They will prolly end up getting an order to garnish some of my wages monthly to get their money.....I dunno.

Does anyone know anything about this or had this happen to them?  I feel like such a loser right now.  I mean what am I gonna say in court.  Yep..i owe em...yep I suck? :tear

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

for $635 can they really take you to court? I assume it is small claims court?

if your debt hasn't gone to collections yet then yes you can work out a payment plan with your creditors. If you have any attorneys in your circle of friends or family or know someone who will do it free, have the attorney call the creditor and demand a payment plan, you can usually re-structure the debt and often get a lower interest rate.

Contact me via PM if you want some more personalized help.

[Kiss The Midget]

one ? ....is the name of the company Stillman law office?

[Aralis]

I do not know the name of the company. I have the lawyers name though on my paperwork.

On my answer to the court I filed a paper and said I would like to work out a payment plan outta court. I then received my papers for a pretrial a few days later. I do not think they wanted to work out anything. I guess I could call Capitol One but I think it may be too late for that. They already have a lawyer I assuming from a collections agency after me.

[Fierce Critter]

It dawned on me - the reason I haven't been sued probably is because I haven't worked an "on the books" job in over 6 years.

If I were to take on a job, as soon as my SS# hit the computers, they'd be after my ass.

Yeah, I'll be filing my bankruptcy again well before moving back. Might need to get a job for a while back in Michigan, and better take care of this beforehand.

Aralis, it would be worth it to call Capital One. If they go to trial, it'll cost them some money and they might like to avoid that - even if they can get fees back from you on top of what you owe.

The worst that can happen to you is they say no, it's too late. In which case, you're back where you started, none the worse for having tried.

Oh, and even if they say no, find a way to contact the collection agency that actually served you. At this point, what probably happened is Capital One "sold" them your debt - meaning the collection agency gave them money, a percentage of what you actually owed them. So it's the collection agency that wants IT'S money from you. They might still be willing to work with you rather than garnish you.

[ManicQueen]

I've had 3 credit cards and with each one I've gone over and charged the hell outa them.. I was doing good for a few months but then some shit happened and I couldn't pay them off. It's been a few years and I still haven't paid on them.. haven't gotten served either and I own a massive amount of $$.

My boyfriend, on the other hand, has been sued by a credit card company before. Not sure what ever happened, if it went to court or if he ever paid... I'll have to ask him.

B~

[Aralis]

Yeah ask him. I would be interested in knowing the result.

And thanks everyone for your advice and stories!!!

[Hellion]

:devil I completely understand what you are going through: I myself claimed bankruptsy because I owed a hell of alot more like 30,000! Ihad lost my job 4 years ago becuase of the 911 bullshit and the credit card companies acted like It was my fault. To hell with bank of america all they cared about was 11,000 dollars in the rubble of the twin towers how sad. I know that they changed the bankruptsy laws so see if you can get a payment plan going so you do not have to go the route I did.

[ManicQueen]

I asked him about and he said he was sued by two companies. He recieved a letter in the mail giving him the option to go to court. Then another letter a few weeks later saying he's been sued. He also says that they never garnished his wages at all *I don't see how thats possible* cuz he was working. And to this day he's never paid on any of them. Odd.

B~

[mallochai]

I don't think it's legal for them to just out and out garnish your wages without you signing some kind of paperwork giving them permission.

[Fierce Critter]

I don't think it's legal for them to just out and out garnish your wages without you signing some kind of paperwork giving them permission.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Apparently, it is.

There are so many differences in how things are handled down here, including vehicle taxes. Moving from one county to another and back again in less than 3 years got me all befuddled. We ended up not knowing we had vehicle taxes due in one county, and they ended up starting garnishment proceedings before we knew what was happening. The papers went all the way to Jon's employer, and the only reason his paycheck wasn't affected was because that was all we needed to realize we needed to pay those taxes, so we did, and the garnishment was stopped.

It happened again the following year, when we moved between counties again. only that time, I was ready for it and alerted Jon's employer that that was probably going to happen and that as soon as it did, we'd know the taxes were overdue and would pay them right away. Sure enough, that's what happened and we paid the taxes and the garnishment was stopped.

But if we hadn't paid the taxes, sure as shit they could have followed through with it without any input from us whatsoever.

[Onyx]

Yes, they can garnish wages up to a certain percentage (which amounts to a big chunk of your pay) and also can claim first rights to any future income tax refunds before you even get it.

I had thought it had to be a much larger amount before they took the trouble to get involved in court and such, but I guess not. hmmm.

[mallochai]

Yes, they can garnish wages up to a certain percentage (which amounts to a big chunk of your pay) and also can claim first rights to any future income tax refunds before you even get it. 

I had thought it had to be a much larger amount before they took the trouble to get involved in court and such, but I guess not.  hmmm.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yikes. Things like that are scary.

[ManicQueen]

I don't think it's legal for them to just out and out garnish your wages without you signing some kind of paperwork giving them permission.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They can. I was sued by a fire dept. and they sent all the papers to my employer to start garnishing wages.. all without any kind of signature from me. I didn't even show up for court.

[honeymustard02]

THis is why I don't own credit cards. I would owe money for the rest of my life!!

By the way, were you paying on this debt, or was this one of those "if I ignore it, it might go away" things??

Because normally they don't make a huge deal if you're making SOME kind of payments on them.

[Brenda Starrr]

When Wayne had cancer, we could barely afford our apartment and food, much less pay Capital One what I owed them. I didn't pay tnem for 3 years. We recently made arrangements, and I'm almost paid off. Call them. It makes you look responsible in their eyes, and they're more likely to work with you.

[holliwood66]

Be careful of relying on bankruptcy as a means to settle debt. The gov. recently passed legislation that will make it extremely hard to declare ch. 7 or ch. 11. Ch. 13 should still be possible for most people but expect to be in payment mode for 2-5 years and have a dead credit rating for 5-10 years after. The new laws also make it extremely difficult to file for bankruptcy citing medical hardship.