Board 8 > Oh hey i'm being sued

(+) Yeah! (+)

So looks like I had this old credit card, I missed the final payment, and over 3 or 4 years, it built up to 1200 bucks

and now they decided to sue me, I got served as I was outside with my dog

um, halp?

I don't know ANYTHING about this. I have no money, I can't afford any lawyers or anything
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well for starters, did you invite them to start singing don't stop believing with you?
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Did they not make any attempt to contact you during those 3-4 years?
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If you cant pay, you cant pay, and it should just go as a big negative mark on your credit score

I dont think they can do anything beyond that except continue to hound you about it
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If you can prove they never made an effort to contact you, you can get the fees and credit hit removed, even if it was your fault the original payment didnt get made.

Source: It happened to me a few years ago, and when I asked for proof they made attempts, they canceled they never provided it and instead canceled the entire debt, which made my credit jump by like 150 points.
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I can't imagine 1200 dollars is gonna cause a company to really crack you that hard. Especially just for 1 missed final payment that accrued interest for years.

Try talking to them directly. I think you could get them to accept the original final payment if they dropped the interest, or else they won't be getting anything.

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I mean, I never heard of any attempts

will they really accept "I didn't hear nothin" as an excuse? I can't prove they didn't try
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Jakyl25 posted...

If you cant pay, you cant pay, and it should just go as a big negative mark on your credit score

I dont think they can do anything beyond that except continue to hound you about it

I seriously don't know anything about this kind of stuff

I was assuming I was looking at jail time if I couldn't get this done >_>

is that really whats going to happen?
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I feel sick to my stomach

my depression is coming back

I haven't felt like this in a long time

this and the phone thing really knocked me out of my peace

my bad luck hasn't acted up in a long time. I guess it was long over due
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I can guarantee you that no jail time is in your future for this
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And yes, even if you just ran away from all of this and ignored their attempts to get the money from you, all thats gonna happen us your credit score will be negatively impacted
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If it helps, debtors prisons haven't been around in a very long time.

Yeah jail time over something like this isn't a thing. The amount is so (relatively, for them) small too that even them serving you is most likely just a matter of procedure for them.
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Can you call them and say you thought you paid it 3 or 4 years ago and never received any notification? Maybe you can compromise on the interest accrued and submit a payment to them and this will just go away.

Check your credit score records, if possible (it's free with Credit Karma), to see if this comes up anywhere. I've never missed a single payment and can use that as evidence if something dumb like this happens...
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as others have said

1. there is no risk of jail
2. just try calling them and talking to them directly. tell them you never got any notices. it's possible they will accept just the final payment and not any of the fees, because they know they won't get ANY money otherwise.

3. if they are difficult about it, just ignore them. your credit will be negatively impacted but oh well. if you can't pay, you can't pay.
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I have two credit cards with 2000 dollars debt on them. While I am paying minimums for now, Im considering just cutting them loose and just dealing with the bad credit.

Cause that's all that would happen

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1200 seems like a petty amount to sue over
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you sure it's the credit card company and not a third party they sold the debt to? That happens to old debt sometimes.
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fuji
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In all honesty, this is only an issue if plan on buying a house or financing a car within the next 7 years and like people have said contacting the credit card company will likely lead to them working something out with you. If it does go to court they have to prove they have made multiple and consistent attempts to contact you over it and odds are they won't be able to prove they have.
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pjbasis posted...

I have two credit cards with 2000 dollars debt on them. While I am paying minimums for now, Im considering just cutting them loose and just dealing with the bad credit.

Cause that's all that would happen

Er well yes and no. That's all that would happen in the realm of your life staying exactly the same for 7 years. If anything changes in 7 years then this attitude would hurt you. If you ditch $2000 in debt and ignore payments, you'll never get a mortgage. What if sometime in that 7 years you desperately need an credit card or line of credit? No one will lend you a dime. Want to lease a car before 2028? No place will even consider you. Where I live you need a credit check to even rent a decent apartment. I dont advise this.

Brayze_II posted...

you sure it's the credit card company and not a third party they sold the debt to? That happens to old debt sometimes.

This was my first thought. My aunt got in a bad way with debt after my uncle died and she never told anyone. She had a gambling issue no one knew about and eventually racked up over 20k on a credit card.

Eventually it got handed off to a debt collection company after she was delinquent on payments for over 12 months. These companies will only get paid if they recover some money and often try and scare you into compliance. They'll serve you, and often offer you a package in order to get out of it. "Pay us 75% by a certain date and all is forgiven". If you ignore them they'll eventually move onto a new contract.

I just woke up from a depression nap and went and got some comfort food, as well as checking up with my phone provider

anyways

this all stems from something else, the anniversary of my dad passing was 3 days ago, its been 8 years.

so I've been down lately, and all of this new shit definitely didn't help

but thinking about it, I HAVE been sued before. for the house after my dad fell behind. So technically I was incorrect. But alot more was at stake then.

I appreciate the heads up, everyone. I guess its NOT as bad as I thought. I don't think I want to completely ignore it either, but its good to know something super bad won't happen

I don't plan on getting a new car or house anytime soon and my credit has been bad as soon as I became an adult. My mother actually ruined it lol
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Yes absolutely just call and talk to them about it, explain you never got contacted about it (be polite), and ask if there's any way they can help you out.

For small stuff like this, most places are usually pretty reasonable.

If they refuse to compromise on anything, as said, the worst that can happen is a mark on your credit record. You don't ACTUALLY have to pay anything if you're willing to accept that, and it can be recovered. It sucks, but its not the end of the world.

So did you sing with them or not?
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They are suing you so they can obtain a judgment to garnish your wages. Just work out a settlememt with them and this should be ok
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Also, despite what some of the alarmists are saying, something as minor as this will definitely not block you from all credit. You will still be able to get (bad) credit cards and (small) loans. The worst that something like this can block you out of is buying a house or a new (as in, not used) car.

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KingButz posted...

They are suing you so they can obtain a judgment to garnish your wages. Just work out a settlememt with them and this should be ok

Ive never heard of anyone actually getting garnished over such a small sum. Though I guess its possible. Much more likely this is just a scare tactic though.

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Cant garnish your wages if you quit your job!

*points at head meme*
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Jakyl25 posted...

Cant garnish your wages if you quit your job!

*points at head meme*

On a related note, everytime I hear about GameStop doing poorly and closing down stores, I always wonder if Pun's will be one of them.
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I live in a back water ass town, it lingers on my mind too. but I think we'll be okay
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Hope it all works out
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Call then and work ouy a payout

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oh by the way it is indeed NOT the bank itself suing me, its some other jackass company
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Oh, fun. One of those.

They're hoping for either a default judgement (you no-showing the trial) or a settlement (you wind up paying them). IANAL, so I suggest talking to someone in this kind of law to see if you have a defense.

You Anal?
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No lawyer I, just some old man with a big mouth.

Punnyz posted...

oh by the way it is indeed NOT the bank itself suing me, its some other jackass company

Yeah. They sell debts at significant discounts to collection agencies who will then she you for the full amount. They basically cut their losses to not have to deal with the bullshit to collect it.

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Corrik7 posted...

Punnyz posted...

oh by the way it is indeed NOT the bank itself suing me, its some other jackass company

Yeah. They sell debts at significant discounts to collection agencies who will then she you for the full amount. They basically cut their losses to not have to deal with the bullshit to collect it.

With this being said if you have a summons to appear in court by any chance DO NOT ignore it. If you do then you're admitting full responsibility.

I may have good news.

https://www.creditkarma.com/advice/i/debt-collection-rights/

https://www.debt.org/faqs/americans-in-debt/consumer-texas/


Texas four-year statute of limitations on debts works alongside the Texas Debt Collection Act. The limited time period means that debt collectors cannot sue individuals in an attempt to collect debts that are more than four years past due.

You have the legal right to ask when and where the original debt came from, and if it is over 4 years old, it's passed the statue of limitations and they can't pursue it any further.

Edit: By the way, don't agree to pay anything, don't mention the possibility that you can pay, don't even treat the debt as valid until you have this information. And yes, if you got an actual court summons, go, and demand dates, amounts, and never stray from your defense that they never contacted you.

Debt collectors are shady as fuck, and there are literally laws in your favor to stop them from not contacting you and then trying to steamroll you in court.
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Theres also federal laws that limit how much interest/penalties can accrue on a defaulted account, and this doesnt quite pass the smell test on actually complying with those.

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oh wait isnt' @Snrkiko a lawyer or something
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i am but not really this kind of lawyer.

from my general, non legal experience, what people are saying above are about right. debt collectors are shady af and will go after claims even if they are past the statute of limitations or generally bs, just to see what they can collect.

Don't talk to the collector. you're not going to jail. in the possible event that they push this further in court (default judgment, if anything), you can probably find a lawyer that does this stuff for a free consultation. alternatively you can post on /r/legaladvice and see what they have to say (but take everything with a grain of salt).

im not your lawyer, etc.
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if you call them, claim you have no money, and then ask if there's an amount you can pay to avoid this, they'll most likely give you a substantial discount, the company that has your debt probably paid like 10 dollars for it, so anything above that is profit for them.

if you do agree to pay it, DO NOT PAY with credit card, they'll just charge as much as they can and fight you in court so it's not worth the challenge. You can use a visa gift card or send them a check with return service requested.

I used to have debt back in the day, but it's all gone now because of monsters like this. Use this as encouragement to never use credit again.
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SantaRPidgey posted...

if you call them, claim you have no money, and then ask if there's an amount you can pay to avoid this, they'll most likely give you a substantial discount, the company that has your debt probably paid like 10 dollars for it, so anything above that is profit for them.

I should remind you not to do this until everything has been verified as inside the 4 year timeline.

Once you acknowledge you owe the debt or offer to pay, the statute of limitations resets and your chance at getting out with zero payments OR credit hit goes out the window.

In the situation where they hit your credit and then it's determined you're outside of the statute, assuming you haven't reset the timeline the credit bureaus will remove it for you, so don't despair and agree to anything beforehand.
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Oh yeah you're right Tony, I'm just living in a world where I would pay them money to not have to deal with due process, Pun I think is not of that world.
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ChaosTonyV4 posted...

If you can prove they never made an effort to contact you, you can get the fees and credit hit removed, even if it was your fault the original payment didnt get made.

Source: It happened to me a few years ago, and when I asked for proof they made attempts, they canceled they never provided it and instead canceled the entire debt, which made my credit jump by like 150 points.

@ChaosTonyV4 can you tell me how this conversation went?
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It was actually over email. Ill copy and past the email that kicked it off:

Good afternoon,

My name is Tony D'Ambrosio, and I'm writing about the debt letter I was sent in the mail. This is an error, as I have no outstanding balance with Lewis University.

Please let me know what I have to do to get this taken care of without anything added to my Credit Report.

They didnt actually respond to me for 2 months, at which point it popped up on my credit report and I emailed again, including this letter again and asking for documentation as what the basis was and saying I needed it removed.

They replied that day and told me it was closed and that I needed to contact Experian/Equifax, which I did through the Credit Karma app and they did their investigation and ended up taking it off.
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All that means is you contested it, and they didn't respond to the inquiry.

They don't have to show anything for the debt trying to collect to take it off.

It took me 4 times contesting and help from Obellisk on here to finally get an old Best Buy Credit Card debt from my father that was bought out by someone else in New Jersey before they finally removed it for not being my debt off my credit report.

If you owe the money and you contest it as not yours when you know it is, that is probably in some way fraud.

That said, they are looking for a default judgment against you. They don't even have to prove that you received the summons for it, just that there was an attempt to send it to the address on file. Default judgments like this are actually pretty shady.

That said, the easiest thing to do is call up who owes your debt and see if you can work out a lowered amount to pay it off as an agreement. Depending on the amount and whether they file against you, you could just also let it fall off your report after the time of reporting. (In this case, they already did file though).

Skipping the date is the worst move you can do, so if you can't work it out then make sure you show up for it.

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Uh its worth noting that the Lewis University debt I talked about actually WAS valid, but it had been seven years and as far as I know, literally never contacted me, with New Mexicos statue of limitations being six years.

I just straight up denied it existed and because it was past the time limit they couldnt do anything about it.
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ChaosTonyV4 posted...

Uh its worth noting that the Lewis University debt I talked about actually WAS valid, but it had been seven years and as far as I know, literally never contacted me, with New Mexicos statue of limitations being six years.

I just straight up denied it existed and because it was past the time limit they couldnt do anything about it.

Yeah, after 7 years it doesn't get reported anymore or shouldn't have been on your credit reports.

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