Hello, I have an account with Capital one ($1,100) that has been charged off. I've had a few collection agencies call me and I they haven't been very willing to negotiate. Today a law office called "Stevens and Stevens" called and said that they are going to summon me to court. Has anyone ever experienced this? Reading some of the articles on this site, I got the impression that a CC company wouldn't sue over $1,000. Is this just a bluff (like a collection agency seeming to operate as a law firm), or is it for real? How can I tell? Thanks a ton.
I believe it is illegal for a CA to threaten legal action which they do not intend to take. Any chance you can get a recorded conversation?
Very Unlikely In my experience, it is very unlikely that a credit card company will actually follow through with a suit for such a small amount like that. At one point a few years ago I had several CC Charge-offs from $1000 - $7000. None of them ever actually took me to court. At some point, after they've tried to collect for a year or more unsuccessfully, they will begin to get open to negotiation for settling your account. At that time, you should be able to Settle In Full for about $400 or $500. This is just from my personal experience. YMMV.
I am in a similar situation with Providian who had some CA buy the account and send it to an attorney. I was sent a couple of letters from the attorney's office and foolishly ignored them as I had several collection offices over the past few years. Needless to say, I received a summons and had to respond to the summons within 21 days or a judgement for the full amount would be filed against me. I am in Michigan so CA may be different. What I should have done, and have done subsequently was send a validation letter to the company the attorney is representing. THe validation letter is located in the FAQ section. I now may need to hire an attorney. I am not sure yet, I go Monday for a consultation. I'll let you know what happens. FYI- my original amount owed was 1000.00 dollars but over the past couple of years, THEY CLAIM it is now about 2500. Hockeymom
Did the attorneys send their correspondence (other than the summons) via CRRR? If not, you could deny that you received correspondence. Your lack of previous response to them probably made them think you were an easy target for a lawsuit (they may figure you won't show up and they'll get a default judgment. Check out the SOL applicable to these accounts. That is the easiest defense, if it applies. Ask for dismissal with predjudice. *If* they can prove you owe, definitely make them prove they have the right to assess the additional $1500. -ingenue
See if you can get an address for them. We can find out if they are "collections" lawyers. If they are, then they are covered under FDCPA.
Thanks Ingenue The SOL is not gone (7 yrs in MI) so can't use that. THe paper's were served to me so there was documentation filed by the server to the court. Kinda risky to not respond... I do think I might have something though... my understanding is that the suit must be filed in the city you live in or the city that the application was signed in...so I may be able to get a dismissal if that is the case. The other attorney has already filed his pre-trial paper work with the court ( I rec it Fri) so I thinking that they plan to show up. Probably they are hoping I will settle with them at that time. Which may or may not happen. The attorney I spoke to last week seemed to indicate that if I had not sent the validation letter PRIOR to receiving the summons, they may not have to respond, and so far they haven't. So....It may be a case of settling to make it go away. It would have to be for a lot less then what they are saying they owe and a deletion! Hockeymom
Depending on your State,& the date you were first late on the account,you may be beyond the SOL. In addition, again depending on your State and where the CA is located, they may be unable to take any legal action against you.
Apparently, in addition to keeping immaculate records, they will sue. I received a notice on my door today from the Sherrif's department for my husband for a civil suit. I called, and am going to go and pick it up tomorrow, but it was from Capital one, and if you can believe it the orignial credit limit on this card was $200. I can't begin to imagine what it is with the interest and so forth. I will post again tomorrow when I get the details, but I have never received anything from an attorney before about this account, this is the first correspondence I have received. Has anyone had a similar experience, and what should be my first step? Will Mr. Cooke be of any assistance here? Could this possibly be an in-house thing @ Capital One?
Stewart & Associates, PC PO Box 723848 Atlanta, GA 31139 This company offers legal services. Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to unanswered complaint(s). Number of complaints processed by the BBB in last 36 Months: 2 Additional Doing-Business-As Names: Frederick J. Hanna & Associates Frederick J. Hanna & Associates 2160 Kingston Ct., Suite O, ZIP: 30067-8951 Mailing Address: 2160 Kingston Ct., Suite O, ZIP: 30067 Phone: (770) 988-9055 Fax: (770) 980-0528 Mr. Frederick J. Hanna, Jr., President 120-1-14-.19 Practice of Law in Debt Collections. Unless a licensed attorney in this State, no debt collector shall engage in conduct deemed the practice of law. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct will be deemed a violation of this section: (a) the performance of legal services, furnishing of legal advise or of false representation, direct or by implication, that any person is an attorney; (b) the solicitation of assignments of claims for the purpose of suit or at the instigation of an attorney; (c) the institution of judicial proceedings on behalf of other persons except on an assigned claim; (d) any communication with debtors in the name of an attorney or upon stationery or other written matter bearing an attorney's name; (e) the use of any printed or other material which simulates or resembles a summons, warrant or other legal process; or (f) any demand for or payment of money constituting a share of compensation for services performed or to be performed by an attorney in collecting a claim. found on lawdog.com Mr. Fred J. Hanna Suite 0, 2160 Kingston Ct. Marietta, GA 30067-8951 Phone: 770-988-9055 Fax: 770-980-0528 Status: Active Member in Good Standing OK I'm thinking they are lawyers.
I have charge offs with Cap 1 for $5k and they havent sued me. Most of the time they are trying to scare you.
Well, the sherriff came to my door today, so I would say that is scary...... Like I said, I will go tomorrow to the sherriff's department and actually get the summons, but my credit limit on this card was $200, and I am guessing it must be near $1000 for them to sue me. (Don't even ask how I let this get this far gone....) Needless to say, I will be posting for info tomorrow.
I am in the same situation. After repeated collection calls today I received a letter from a law firm. I am researching it and thus far the info I have found is that if the law firm is one that can practice law in your state then the threat of legal suit is very real. However, I found this excellent article on how one may beat it even if the debt is legitimate. Funny thing, Capital One is very deceptive. Back when the debt was only about $500 I made an attempt to make payments if they would close the account and the collection agency assured me they would close it and stop interest to which I agreed to let them charge my bank account for the payments as that was the only way they would agree. I even received a letter from the collection agency that the account would be closed and interest would stop and they would charge my account the agreed upon monthly payment. However, CO did not keep the agreement and continue to charge interest which was nearly as much as the payments so I closed my bank account as the balance to CO would never go down that way. Even if you were to make payments they cannot be trusted. Do check out this article though: It lays out steps to take that may dissuade the creditor to follow through on the law suit. I cannot post the link, the article title is "How to Not Pay Your Debt or Beat a Collection Suit", written by debtcollectionlawyer. Put the title in google and click the blogspot selection, think it is the third link. I hope this helps you.
How did you find that blog, by clicking on my signature line or by using a search engine? I've had that one and many, many more like it in my signature line for a very long time. I have had them all in my Thunderbird program for the last several years. Anyone can do the same and it is all for free. It is done using RSS feeds and Yahoo pipes. Very easy to set up and keeps you up to date on all the things that might happen to be of interest to you. Everyone has their own personal things they like to follow and keep up with and so they can do what I do and be right on top with all the latest. What is even better is that once you have it all set up you can do mountains of research in just a few minutes a day. Saves lots of time for other things. While the link you provided is interesting it does have a great deal of misleading information. Nothing false, but only misleading. The graduated denial is great but it hasn't proven to be the panacea that this and other NACA attorneys have made it out to be. Much more research needs to be done to make it the slam dunk that it's advocates would like it to be. That attorney apparently has no clue as to how oldsters on govt pensions can avoid getting garnished and having to live on Raman Noodles or cat food or less. I think that if he understood how easy it is for Seniors on pension to put an unbeatable stop to garnishment he would be telling people how to do it instead of letting so many complain on his blog about what some pensioners are put through by debt collection companies and their attorneys. Another item he went to great lengths to discuss was how easily he beats up on the self employed and makes them pony up. I'm sure he does exactly that to the business owners who are so ignorant they don't know how to protect their assets. He talks about putting a sheriff in the business to collect all the money that comes in but business people who are smart will have their business incorporated so things like that can't happen. Setting up a corporation is cheap and easy. If they set up a corporation based in another state, preferably a Delaware Corporation and do it long before such problems can occur the lawyer don't stand a chance because the corporate veil cannot be easily pierced. They can even have their bank accounts in Delaware and do business from their Delaware bank just as easily as they can with a local bank. They can set it all up for less than $1,000. All their assets such as vehicles can be owned by the corporation and would be safe from any attachments. While there is good information on many such web sites all over the internet their stories are usually either full of misleading information or outright false information or the story is only about half told. Putting it to good use is seldom as easy as they make it seem at first glance. The reader usually needs to know enough about the law and how the court system works for it to be of any practical value.
