Will they settle prior to a judgment being entered?

You may be able to pay 50-75% of the current balance, but with you already being served, I wouldn't count on it, especially since your first payment isn't until January. You would have better luck offering 400-400-800, if they even accept that offer. As per most credit card contracts, you're still required to pay all the interest at the default, or state allowed rate, until the card is paid off.

 

Do you live in NJ?

Who is suing, the CC or a CA?

What is the SOL for your state?

Were you dunned by the atty and if so, did yuou DV?

Who is the CC?

Have you answered the complaint?

 

Call the courthouse..find out your options

Call the courthouse and find out when will the hearing date be.

If you can, appear or send a letter to the courthouse to continue the case until you can.

If you appear and I highly suggest you do, you can work out a stipulated judgment or a settlement with the lawyer in the courtroom.

Trust me, judges are really lenient on pro se defendants, normally if the lawyer appears to be a a-hole, the judge will work in your favor.

I know for a fact, that some of the judges/commissioners see these lawyers everyday and know that they are just a step above abulance chasers, the reason that these CA get away with some of the crap they do, is that the defendant does not show up in court. If you show up and show a little bit of a clue and a willingness to handle your business, the judge/comissioner will show you mercy.

I have one other question, were you personally served? If not, you have an out or a reason to vacate.

I collect for a living, but I don't like to see people victimized, check out your local statues on appearances in court and grow a back bone and fight. Also check out

URL REMOVED BY MOD

This sight is empowering.

 

Texas is 4 years. I'm getting differing info for open-ended accounts in NJ, ranging from 3-4 years. You should research this further, and verify exactly when you defaulted on the debt in question. You may have an affirmative defense.

 

I would get the documents directly from the courthouse. The lawyer suing you is not your friend.

 

You might want to get both to see how the suing lawyer may be salting the record.

 

NJ SOL are 6 years both on open account and written contract.

So if the ddate of last payment or date of first deliquency as you say was in 2002-2003, they appear to be within the SOL.

If they have already paid an attorney and the court costs, I still think they'll go after the judgment. If you default on those arrangements, they'll have to spend more money to file again.

 

Do you have the original card agreement? If not, the use Discovery to get it.

 

Collector2: my opinion of what the OP is talking about trying is that such a substantial offer would make the plaintiff believe there was more money to be had and possibly hold out for the full amount. As a collector, what do you think?

Personally, I would offer the original value plus $100 for attorney fees and make it clear that if it goes to court you'll claim usurious interest and make them prove their right to the interest. If they don't have a right to that amount of interest (or more) then it should be a violation of the FDCPA.

Interestingly, NJ's usury rate is capped at 50% for corporate loans, 6% for Texas, and I believe 5% in Deleware. I may be mistaken but I think the contract with Citibank puts contract law under Deleware. If you can borrow Deleware or Texas law, you can probably claim the usury and nail them for the violation.

 

Sorry but, I have to inquire as to why there a link to another consumer message board on this one? There is plenty of pertinent information to be found here and frankly, that link is pretty disrespectful to the intent and admins of this excellent forum who founded a long while back and maintain it today.

Now, I apologize to pipe up about this if there is some fashion of Agreement between the board admins between creditnet and the other but, this is the first time I've seen a poster come on one message board and a link to another one. Maybe this has been permitted and if so, I apologize for the below and the above. However, it seems unlikely that a very new new poster could have obtained such permission. The link just seems unnecessary and essentially, a dig at this site given all the time, money and effort it takes to maintain this forum.

That said, yes, there is a link in our signature. However, we do not compete with creditnet.com. We add our opinions and suggestions free of charge, for what they're worth, and in conjunction with the overall intent of this board which is to share information. We also cleared doing so before adding it a long while back. We do not hide it within posts and thus, I don't think these two links are comparable. In any event, I just wanted to clarify that before any stones were cast in our direction.

In any event, again, this link is misplaced for obvious reasons absent an Agreement. It has the effect of steering viewers to another board when the same information, and better, can be found here. I'm not saying that there isn't good information to be found other places but, there is no need to suggest going elsewhere on a board as good as this one. In fact, it seems the original question had already been aptly responded to.

Personally, as a long time member who would like to see this board continue to progress unencumbered, I would ask the poster to kindly remove this and refrain from doing so anymore.

Again, if there is some fashion of agreement, I humbly retract my statements.

 

This board bashing sucks, and is, in and of itself, disruptive.

It is clear, Apex, that you do not like NAME REMOVED BY MOD. That's fine. Others might find it useful.

Each of us is entitled to judge on our own, wouldn't you think?

I would think that it becomes an issue only if you elect to make it one.

Debating the relative merits of one board over another, here, might not be respectful of the interest of the owners and administrators of this board.

 

I have to agree with Oracle

I was not promoting one board against the other, I like both. I think that NAME REMOVED BY MOD offers the OP options on how to answer the complaint and also instills a sense of empowerment to the distressed. She was served with notice from the court and my advice is for her to look at the merits of the case.

1. Was she personally served

2. Did she contact the courthouse for directions on how to answer or attain a copy of the original complaint.

3. If after all of this, does she have the ability to appear in court and present her side of the story.

4. Most CA love when a def does not put up a fight. Personally, my judgments go smoothly when the def ignores the courtcase. If a person gets involved or even calls me, I advise them to show up in court and be heard.

I have lost 5 cases by a person showing up in court and been required to give a person a stipulated judgment for $50/month on a $5k debt. This person is still paying and there is not crap I can do about it. The comissioner took mercy on this person and when I check pub records for this person, well lo and behold, there is no public records.

So Apex, re-read my intent and let it go.

 

I would think you can judge the merits of another board by visiting that board directly. I was simply stating that is not proper to place a link for it here. It would be like if allowed Lexington Law to visit us and then they started advertising on our site and in our office.

I am not debating the merits of anything. The link should not be here. That is my opinion and I would feel the same if it were vice versa.

There is nothing from my post above which espouses a feeling towards any other board beside creditnet. I'm not bashing anyone or anything. I simply said it was rude and shouldn't be here.

 

I didn't question your motivation, I simply opined that the mere act was misplaced.