A girl stole my credit card 8 years ago. I have her name and address. She moved into my house when I moved out and the bank sent me a new card. One of the charges was a parking ticket. The bank finally, after many months, took the charges off and SOME of the interest and late charges. We were disputing the interest and late charges and they sold the account to a collection agency. The collection agency is harrassing me. Can this company garnish my wages for a disputed debt?
No, they would need to have an judgement first. Do they know where you currently work? Is your current employer listed on your credit report? If any of the above, they can garnish your wages later if they ever get the judgement against you.
Did you report the theft at the time to the police??? If so you need to get a copy of the police report and send it to them. If not, you're screwed!
If the collection agency sues you, you have to appear and defend yourself. The collection agency has to serve you with a summons of a lawsuit, and has to win the lawsuit in order to get a judge's order to garnish your wages. If you don't get sued, they can't get your money.
I disagree completely. It wasn't a theft it was fraud. The other woman did not STEAL a credit card directly, but rather opened the woman's mail and stole the credit card without her knowledge. There was no way for her to know this until after the charge was made. Law enforcement consider the bank or credit card issuer the "victim", not the person whose identity was stolen. e mail me for more info (click on my name)
Pat, This is how I also felt. In fact, no one ever told me to file charges on this girl, not even the bank. It would have been so easy to get her considering she paid a parking ticket with my credit card. Her license plate number is connected to my bank account number. Duh!!! The stupid bank did not go back to the original balance but instead used some sort of formula to determine the late charges and interest which was incorrect. For some stupid reason, they also put the interest and late charges under another account number and then BILLED ME for it. I was so sick of dealing with them that I told them they would never see a penny until this was cleared. I kept getting different statements with different balances under different account numbers. I was in the middle of disputing the interest and late charges when they sold my account. In 8 years, a $1,000 balance has turned into $5,000. And, they expect me to pay this. What are my chances, if this ever goes to court, that a judge will make me pay more than my original balance, of which I am willing to pay? The collection agency will not budge for a settlement. If we do settle, they want the whole payment up front. I don't have $1,000 to give them. I could make monthly payments on it but they won't accept this. Do you have any advice for me? I would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
if you also owed them other money on the account (old or new) that wasn't fraud from the other woman, they might have a legal right to go after you. If you owed some money and didn't pay, the judge will almost certainly award whatever the law allows, which will be more than the original debt. $5K for a $1K debt is unlikely. If you owe the credit card company some money that you haven't paid, drop me an e mail with your location (click on my name) and I'll find a low cost state bar approved lawyer referral service. If you don't owe ANY money and it is ALL the other woman's fraudulent charges, tell the collectio agency to shut up and sue you.
