An idiot friend of mine has a Providian account with a balance of over $14,000. I think it WAS around $6,000 originally when she didn't pay and now it's $14K with the fees, charges, interest, bs. Well, she had ONE year remaining on the statute of limitations and decided to dispute the account on Equifax. 5 days later she was served with a lawsuit --- OOPS. They also sent her a rather rude letter and copies of EVERY statement she had for the period she had the account along with copies of her original application and the comment something like 'Is this enough evidence to prove that this account is yours? We have verified this account with the major credit reporting agencies as of (3 days after she requested verification).' Damn - sucks to be her!
I wouldn't have screwed with an account like that. Geez...$14K??? Should have let sleeping dogs lie...
The mere use of the card shows she agreed to its terms. That's why CC companies take application by phone or online, without getting one's signature first. Saar
Without a signature, one could always scream fraud. Of course, at that point, the CC company would try to dig up past payments (checks she wrote) and they'd still win. I would not have screwed around with an acct like that.
She could scream all she wants, with $6,000 in original charges, it would be pretty easy to prove at least one of the charges was really hers, at which time she's left with no defense at all, and also incurs court costs and attorney fees. Is she going to lie on the stand, under oath, and say none of those 100 charges are really hers? The chances of this withstanding cross examination are zero to none. Sure, the burden of proof is on the plaintiff, but try to win without telling your version and see where you end up. Saar
Of course, if this was Doc, he'd tell her to think she's sued for $100,000 and what a relief this would be when the judge only tells her to pay $14K Saar P.S. - Doc, you know I'm just teasing
Wait a minute, just because she disputed the account with Equifax, that doesn't mean that the SOL gets renewed. How does her disputing the account correlate to her getting sued?
If the SOL has not expired, and the consumer has woken up the "sleeping dogs" on an account that is quite sizable, by disputing the account, there's a good chance the OC will go ahead and sue the consumer.
If you read the original post, there is one year remaing on the SOL. By disputing with EQ, they have to notify the creditor there is a dispute. The creditor is NOT going to roll over on a debt of this size. Had they have left well enough alone, the SOL probably would have probably passed unnoticed. Happened to my wife too. Even though the SOL passed on some old debts, Equifax actually notified the creditors she pulled a report and they tried to strong arm her into collecting before the 7 year reporting period ended. Gib
In my situation with Providian I disputed that they never sent me anything that disclosed the 19.95 increase fee. They sent me a pamphlet after they received my dispute but even the pamphlet was postdated after I opened the account. I guess that's why they credited my entire charge off balance to $0. This may have been lawsuit material and they knew it even though they sent me a statement every month with that darn charge on there.
Actually, she has responded to the suit. In a rather unique defense, she is saying that at the time she opened the account and used it, she had acute depression and, as a result, wasn't 'competent' to enter into a contract. Her attorney came up with that one. This one should definitely be interesting.
