I am being sued by a credit card company for about $2,200 but can't afford to pay them. What should I do?

Question

I have a court date on the 14th of this month. I thought they would just write this amount off but was served with court papers today. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated... THANKS!

Answer 1

Call the company and negotiate the payment. They would rather work with you than have their lawyer to go to court for just $2,200. Make payment arrangement with them. I knew someone who was in exactly your situation. She made payment arrangement and has been paying them back on time. They left her alone after that.

Answer 2

BEGIN CAREFULLY prepare the best case you can. DON’T wait until a couple days before, one day before or the day of your appearance or at the last minute.
DON’T GO LIKE A SLOB!
If you need a haircut, get it done about a week before your appearance. About a week before: get your clothes dry cleaned and properly pressed: white shirt, tie, jacket and pants pressed with creases down the front.

The day before or the morning of your appearance: Take a shower. Shave. Brush your teeth. Get properly dressed: just like you were going to church or temple - or to your best friend‘s wedding! Get dressed using that clean, freshly starched, white shirt, jacket and tie. Shine those shoes.
Why are you doing all this? To show your respect for the Court.

You have ONLY ONE chance to make a good first impression. Make a great first impression! IF you don’t do anything else, you MUST appear for your court date on the right day AND about 15 minutes before your appointed time.

I don’t know where you live or where the courthouse of district judge’s court is, but this is what I discovered:
Every small claims court case is scheduled for the same time. DON’T complain about having another appointment or being late for work. Simply sit still, be quiet AND wait until your case is called.

When you get into the Court and when your case is called, you must stand up straight and address the Court as, “Yes, sir.” and/or “No, sir”
OR Yes, ma‘am.” and/or “No, ma‘am.”
AND/OR Yes, Your Honor.” AND “No, Your Honor.”.
DON’T lie to the Court. OR to the credit card company’s attorney/representative.

Too many times people run the other way. When folks run, they lose. OR they dress like real slobs or pigs. You DO NOT want to go to court dressed like a jerk. The credit card company will automatically get the judgment they are looking for and want. DON’T be a coward!!!!

When you asked your question, you did a great job - not only for yourself, but for every other person reading my answer.

TYVM!

I wish you well!

VTY,
Ron B.

Answer 3

I am not sure that you are being sued... really.

Did you get served by a constable or did you receive a letter in the mail from the collection agency?

What is the docket number? Call the county clerk to verify your court order and date to appear.

$2200 sounds too low of an amount for a credit card to sue you over.

If in fact you are being sued... (I would be interested to know the name of the credit card company and the attorney handling this case) call the collection agency or credit card company and negotiate payment.

If you are not in a position to pay and have no assets it is highly unlikely that you are truely being sued. It may just be a roose by the agency. In which case, if you were 'served' they may be in violation of the FDCPA.

Again let me know how this turns out... Go to the sight below.

Answer 4

First of all, you must answer the summons. If the debt is outside of the Statute of Limitation (SOL), you have an affirmative defense, and you have no legal obligation to pay them.
http://www.cardreport.com/laws/statute-of-limitations.html
If not, the burden of proof lies with them. Challenge their right to collect on the debt. Most likely, you are dealing with a Junk Debt Buyer (JDB). JDBs purchase written off debts for pennies on the dollar and then try to collect the full amount plus interest and fees.
Most of the time JDBs file lawsuits and hope for default judgments because they cannot prove that they really have any right to collect from you. They must prove that the debt is yours (the original signed contract between you and the orignal creditor), since old debts are usually sold over and over again you can challenge the chain of ownership (do they really own the debt).
With these points in mind, the case is winnable. It might be worth your while to invest a few hundred dollars in good consumer law attorney.
Good Luck!

Answer 5

YOUR FIRST COURT DATE

If you admit you owe the money or don't show up on your first court date, they get a judgment. Ten days after the judgment, then they can get the garnishment.

Most people don't show up for their court date, so they automatically plead guilty to owing the debt. Ignoring court papers is usually not a good idea, and especially not in Virginia where the judges don't lose sleep over whether you really knew about your court date.

Most people who do show up for court, just plead guilty.

The judge says, "do you owe this money?"

"Yes, but I can't pay it right now."

Judge, "OK, you can discuss it with that lawyer after court."

Do that, and you just pled guilty! The ONLY judge who cares about whether you can pay is a bankruptcy judge. Bankruptcy judges worry full time about whether you can pay, so the other judges don't have to worry about it at all. And they don't.

If you go to court on a warrant in debt you should tell the judge you are not admitting you owe they money and you need time to talk about it with a lawyer. Some judges will really push you to just plead guilty, but if you stand your ground they can't make you.

YOUR TRIAL

If you show up for your first court date, don't plead guilty and ask for a trial, you'll get a trial date a month or two later. At the trial you need to stop the creditor from proving that you owe the money.

The creditor's lawyer probably appears in that court on hundreds or thousands of cases each year. You're there for the first time. That gives you an idea of what your chances are of winning if you show up without a lawyer.

THE GARNISHMENT

Ten days after your trial--or ten days after you plead guilty--the creditor can get a garnishment. There isn't another court hearing on whether you should be garnished, the lawyer just walks down the hall to the clerk's office and signs a paper.

That paper is called a garnishment summons. The garnishment summons has a return date, but that return date is not a date for you to tell the judge you don't owe the money or can't afford to pay. The return date is the day your employer or bank is supposed to turn in the money.

From the clerk's office, one copy of the garnishment summons goes to your bank or employer, one copy goes to you. Nobody cares whether you get your copy before your payroll office or bank gets theirs.

There are lots of steps leading up to the garnishment, but when it finally hits, it hits without warning.

The garnishment summons tells your payroll office to take one-quarter of your pay and make plans to send it into court on the return date. The garnishment summons tells your bank to take your whole bank account, including everything that you deposit between now and the return date, and make plans to send that in.

Obviously, as soon as you know a garnishment is coming, you need to stop direct deposit of your paycheck. That's because they only can take one quarter of your pay (that's bad enough), but they can take the whole check once it hits your bank.

Answer 6

Show up in court. Maybe they will work out some payment plan. Chances are they will get a judgment and be able to attach you bank account or garnish your wages.

Credit card companies are no longer just writting off a couple thousand dollars. They are going to court.

Answer 7

how long have you owed them, it is unusual for them to take such drastic action, after you get the court action decision you still have the option to file bankruptcy, one thing about it your credit report will not look any better, and for whatever reason this country likes people that file bankruptcy, before you know it your mailbox will be filled with applications for a new card

Answer 8

Talk to a consumer lawyer. Check both links and look for one near you.

http://www.naca.net/find-consumer-protection-attorneys/
http://www.myfaircredit.com/s/national-coverage-map

You can often get a lot of free advice out of consumer lawyers. Worst case, they can refer to you to a reputable lawyer who does pro bono work for those of limited means. Might even be a listing of such lawyers in your state, county, etc.

Answer 9

Try working out a payment plan that you can afford. If not they could garnish your wages if they get a judgement against you.

Answer 10

i have never heard of anything like this. what is the name of the credit card company? but don't worry, because nobody goes to jail for owing money.