Back in the late 90's I had a lot of credit cards - I paid off the majority and some charged off, but I have learned from my bad habits and past mistakes. Yesterday I received a summons that I have 35 days to answer that Arrow Financial Services wants a total of $1,787.64. I pulled my credit report and called First Premier (the original debtor) to confirm who they sold the account to - since they have no more records of me. So here is the Background: I opened an credit card account with First Premier in 2/2002. They charged off $887 in bad debt on 12/2003. Arrow Financial bought the debt of $887 and reported it on 3/2006. In their summons they tacked on $812.24 in interest + $32 filling fee + $7 service fee + $48.99 attorney fee = $1,787.64. According to the court documents I can: 1. Answer the complaint to the office of the clerk 2. Resolve the dispute with the plantiff/attorney 3. Get a laywer I have no interst in drawing this out, especially since in the past I did make mistakes with my credit. So I am willing to pay but I really want to make sure I'm not being cheated. My main conern is that $812.24 arrow financial is charging in interest - do they typically just double your original credit debt and you have to pay it? Thanks for any info!
That's some low service fees and low attorney fees. If you do manage to draw it out, they will likely ask for more lawyer fees. You are in a lawsuit. You might have options such as discovery. It might not be unreasonable to request a contract that evidences the rate of interest they are charging you. You seem to be most concerned about that. You could also check your state law and see what the rules are for rates of interest. You should likely also check the state's laws that they claim the contract is under.
Rule of 72 is divide the IR by 72 to see how long it takes your money to double. You're looking at a 14% rate more or less.
