Hello! This is my first post here....I am happy to have found this board! I just received a letter from a collection agency this past Friday, regarding a Household Bank (HSBC) credit card account. The amount owed is $1200 and the last payment I made was 1/15/09. The letter states that they will take whatever I can pay monthly and I need to fill out the information and mail it to them. My husband has lost a good portion of his income and I lost my job. If the collection agency runs a credit report on me, they will see that I am late on everything, including the mortgage. Can someone advise me on what I should do? If I mail the letter back stating I can pay them $20/month for right now, will I still owe them after the statute of limitations is up? (I am in Arizona). I don't know what to do. I DO NOT want to be sued. Will they sue me if I don't at least pay something? Thank You.
Generally each time you pay anything, the statute of limitations time period starts afresh. Of course you should check your specific state laws. They might sue you even if you pay something. If you have numerous debts that you are not paying on, likely someone will sue, especially given you say you own a home. Of course these are difficult times so one never really knows.
Thanks for your response, Bob. My house is in foreclosure..in fact, the sale date is this week. Would it matter if I mailed them a copy of the papers?
Nowadays, saying you own a home just means you have a 1 in 3 or 4 chance of being underwater. I'd be surprised if that had the same meaning of material wealth that it used to be. I've been watching one credit report's filings in the local court and they seem to file for only debts > $1,000. I don't know any of the histories, just what I see on the docket. It looks like they get their judgments granted in about 2 months. Take that for what it's worth.
Household will sue and they are tenacious at getting money, so if you can pay the monthly amount just do it and get it done with. Woofer
