Hi everyone. I have been rebuilding my credit for the last 2 yrs. I have made great strides since finding this site. I have 7 cc now with limits from 1000.00 to 9000.00. I have been on time and never overlimit in 2 yrs. I have'nt went about disputing anything on my file yet but was thinking about doing this. I have a judgement in the file for 2,200.00 from about 4 yrs ago. It was for a car repo. I recieved a letter today from a local attorney representing this company. It is demanding 3,360.00. How can it increase so much after judgement has been made. Here is what the letter says,"Please be advised that your past due account gas been forwarded to this office for COLLECTION. uNLESS IMMEDIATE PAYMENTS ARE MADE OF THIS DEBT, OUR OFFICE WILL BE FORCED TO PURSUE FURTHER LEGAL ACTION AGAINST YOU.which will only result in additional expense and inconvenience for you. Unless OUR OFFICE recievespayment regarding the above account or agrees to accept payment arrangements within 5 days of the date of this letter, you will be subject to legal action without further notice. It then tells me I have 30 days to dispute this debt. the last paragraph reads" The fact that you have 30 days to indicate a dispute may not prevent us from diling a lawsuit within that period of time. This letter is an attempt to collect a debt, and any information obtained will be used for that purpose. What should I do? Can they sue me again on the same debt ? And can they sue for a different amount on the same car 4 yrs later. I would appreciate any advice. Just as I start to look forward to the future this happens.Thank you in advance. Suzanne
Re: partial answer I don't know all the particulars, but here is a reasonable answer. This answer assumes they have a court judgement against you. First your original judgement was for $2200. Normally a Judge would add court costs (filing fees, etc.), attorney fees, and interest on the debt until paid. If it was a default (that is you did not contest it), the Judge probably awarded attorney fees that the attorney asked for, withing reason. Interest on a judgement will vary from state to state, but assume at least 12% since the date of judgement. Chances are that interest owed prior to judgement was already added into the judgement. Therefore, the total amount is probably not out of line. Second, they are not trying to sue you again. They have a judgement against you and the next step is to enforce it. That usually means trying to find assets they can get from you. This is usually handled out of court, typically by a deposition where you would sit down before an attorney and court reporter to be questioned about your assets. Then, they would go after those assets. This could include attaching your bank acounts, garnishing part of your wages (if allowed in your state), seizing your car, putting a lien on your house, etc. When this happened to me, the creditor ordered an asset search through some company. When he called, he knew all of my assets, including balances on accounts. He knew more than I did about my affairs. I don't know where he got it, but he did. The problem is that they will likely go after the asset that is most important to you. If you need your car, you can bet they will go after that. Will they? I don't know. I think the reality is that they will attempt to collect if they find some assets they can get. Otherwise, it is a waste of money. If you have nothing they can get, you really don't have to worry. If you have assets, now is the time to try to work something out.
Re: partial answer I have nothing in my name except ccards. My husband has the car in his name. Can they get that. It is 11 yrs old though so I doubt that it will be worth much.
Re: partial answer I don't have an answer because I don't know enough details. Normally, they could not take your husbands car if it was your debt and the judgement was against you. But, some states have strange laws called commuinity property (these are strange states like California) which may allow them to take his car. I don't know for sure. Someone else may want to address this issue. But, go back to what I said earlier. They probably will not go after it if it is not worth the effort. An 11 year old car is not worth much so I doubt they would bother. What they will try to do is to get you to put the debt on your credit cards so they get paid now and you pay it out over time. That, of course is up to you. It will get them off your back.
Re: partial answer $2200 plus 12% for four years is $3461. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act states that it is illegal for the debt collector to threaten " to take any action that cannot legally be taken or that is not intended to be taken." http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpa/fdcpact.htm#807 Watch their actions. Why don't you make payment arrangements?
Re: partial answer CB, Where you served a summons stating that a lawsuit was being filed against you? If so, did you respond or just ignore it? If you ignored it, then the plaintiff was most likely awarded a default judgement against you. In which case you would have received a copy in the mail. Did you receive anything to that effect? Finally, have you reviewed your credit reports recently? If a judgment has been filed against you, it would appear under the public records section. Manny
Re: partial answer Suzanne, I missed the part where you stated that you did have a judgment on file. Manny
