What can bill collectors do when they threaten to take you to court?

Question

What if the person seriously has no money, and owes a loan company thousands? How can they sue you for money you don't have? Can you go to jail?

Answer 1

You won't go to jail for not paying a debt. That does not happen in the US. However, they can take you to court and get a judgement against you. Some states will allow them to garnish your wages. Some states do not allow this though. Texas is a state that does not allow bill collectors to garnish your wages (exceptions would be defaults on student loans, IRS debts, and unpaid child support).

What you may want to do is research how the bill collectors can act, what they can and cannot do, and what your rights are. Their #1 weapon against you is you lack of knowlege about the law. Go online and look up "Debtor's rights" and you will find tons of pages that talk about this.

One site that I go to is
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/Archive.html

They have thousands of articles about personal finance. You will have to do some searching but there are articles in there that deal with debt collections and what you should and should not do.

Answer 2

Credit jail is no more.
Companies can't do a single thing if you don't have anything to give them. All they have to do is wait, just like you do. The best thing to do if you're in this situation is to simply closed all of your accounts and take no money. IF you have a house they can get you with a lien. Sell it and move into a rental. IF you get money for it you can use it to clear your debt. IF you don't have one then don't pay anyone anything, except for your rent. Save your money then when you have neough, call the creditor and ask for a settlement for less than you owe. If they don't accept it, don't pay them.

Answer 3

Yes, you can go to jail IF you fail to heed court order obtained by creditor in a civil action (court). Creditors have a wide array of remedies at their disposal to prevent deadbeats from 'moving on.com' without making arrangements to repay. Creditor may, for instance, petition deadbeat into bankruptcy. Court will appoint a trustee to apportion deadbeat's assets according to a prescribed system of priorities. Taxman is usually first followed by creditor who obtains judgment against debtor.

In short, this is serious stuff you can't walk away from. If you fail to attend court/heed court orders, there will be contempt proceedings that may result in jail time.

Answer 4

They can take you to court and if they get a judgement against you, they can enforce that judgement by garnishing your wages, by taking property that you own and selling it, by placing leins against you, etc... If you're ordered to do something by the court and you fail to do it - you can be held in contempt of court and jailed for that charge. You can't be jailed for being in debt necessarily, but you can still end up there over the issue if it goes that far.

Answer 5

They can put a lien on your bank account. You can't go to jail. They will usually allow you to make payments that are pretty small. Also, the judges I've seen when playing paralegal for a friend in need are pretty lenient toward the debtor.

Answer 6

they can garnish you if you have a job. but cant have you put in jail for it.i had one say that once because of a $100 loan someone else got in my name.they backtracked big time when i told them that i was a deputy and if they did it would be the first time since the pilgrim days some one went to jail for debt

Answer 7

They can take you to court. Because you do not have money now does not keep them from col;lecting it later. See a lawyer.

Answer 8

some times they can send bailiffs to youre house, to take youre stuff, to regain the value of the money you owe

Answer 9

u have to file for bankruptcy go to court n prove u broke...anyhow u shouldn't have let it get this far it will be recorded on ur recorded ad wont be taken off for years..

Answer 10

it ill mess up with your credit.