I received a letter 2 days ago from a local law firm who has obtained an old acct of mine w/ Providian. I called them today to ask for verification of the account and date of last activity- they told me the date of last activity was Oct. 2005- I know this is incorrect b/c the acct was charged off in 2003. I haven't made any payments since Dec. 2002 because I did not want the account to "re-age". I double-checked my bank rec's just to be sure and yes, no payment has been made. (I tried to neg. terms w/ Providian back in 2002 to lower payments, etc. but they would not cooperate...so I had to let it chrage off and hoped they would offer settlements terms- they never did and now I'm hearing from a law office.) Of course the amount has grown to $2931.96 from the original amount of $1200. I asked the layer why they waited 6 yeasr to contact me and of course his answer was that I "probablymoved around a lot..." ( as we know ALL loser debtors like us tend to do..!!) I assured him I have not moved and no one has contacted me. He did offer to settle for 65% of the amount but I'm not going to consider that- at least not now. Anyway, my question: how can I obtain with absolute certainty proof that no payment has been made since 2002? GA SOL is 4 years for open accounts and my research has shown me that under Fed. law all credit card accounts are considered open-ended accounts and are governed by Fed. law over state law. I know Providian is notorious in their practices - they could say I made a payment by phone or something...anyway- I want to resolve this before it goes to court and I get stuck with a judge who is sympathetic to collectors. I need my SOL argument to hold up so I need to find out exactly when that last payment occurred. Any help will be appreciated!!!
If they haul you to court just assert the SOL defense. They will have to prove that you did make a payment after 2002. You don't have to prove anything.
The court might ask you to "prove a negative" ... the best you can do is: 1. Complain to the judge that he's asking you to prove a negative; and 2. Have decent bank records that don't show anything close to that amount coming out of your accounts in the time frame the plaintiff is claiming.
