Will try to be brief. Debt with Citibank, and other credit cards. Have managed to get ALL credit cards except Citibank out of collections and all but paid off. Almost lost our house due to foreclosure. Both my husband & I were laid off in 2003. Citibank put the card with a collection agency last December. I sent a C&D to the first CA. They in turn sent it to a second CA. I sent a CRRR validation letter to the second CA. I received the green card back from this second CA - but NEVER received anything from them regarding the validation of the debt. Still have the copies & paperwork. This was end of March 04. I had all intentions on signing up with Consumer Credit Counselling - yes, I did my homework, no comments about how they are not worth it please. I'm not stupid, I know what to look for. In fact, I have the contract from CCC - but, then we had to lay out money for my husbands stupid truck so he could get back & forth to work to get a paycheck. Anyway.... I just got served paperwork from an attorney here in Phoenix regarding this Citibank card, for the amount of 6,300. Questions: 1. What do I do now? Send the attorney a CRRR with copies of the first attempt at CRRR to the second collection agency? Or, don't bother with the copies? 2. I got this credit card BEFORE my husband and I were married. The card is in my name only. Is he going to end up being responsible for this? 3. I am self-employed. I get a 1099 yearly as a subcontractor (I work online). How does a judgement work when you are self-employed? This is NOT a guaranteed check - my boss hires & fires depending on his moods. (believe it or not). 4. If/when we end up going to court; would someone please explain EXACTLY what I need to expect? We can barely afford to pay our bills, we are JUST scraping by, our mortgage was upped 200.00 a month just to get us out of foreclosure (it goes back down in 12 more payments). How do they garnish a 1099? How do they figure how much you can afford? Hell, probably 200 a month is MAX. We own: 2 vehicles, a 91 pickup and a 96 Buick - the car is paid off, the pickup will be paid off in August. We are paying on 40 acres of land north of us. BUT, that alone is 5 months delinquent. We want to sell it, but have had absolutely no luck in trying to reach the real estate agent up there. Our college loans that were on forebearance both start in September, that is another 200.00 a month. I'm just sick to my stomach over this.. doesn't help that I just got over a nasty flu either. It's too late to finish the contract now with Consumer Credit Counselling, so that is not an option. THIS is how Citibank treats people that had 10+ year accounts. God, I had a Capitol One CC - the SAME BALANCE as the Citibank, and CO worked with me to get the balance down - and it was only a 3 year old account! I have icq: 72837462 if anyone wants to contact me. I feel like .. I dunno. HELP please, please!
#1. Calm down #2. Calm down! You will find people here are willing to help you solve this problem to your best advantage! #3. You must answer the summons with general denial of everything they claim. You DEFINATELY MUST SHOW UP IN COURT! #4. Nowhere in your post did I read that the debt has been properly validated by the CA. This is in your favor. #5. How old is the debt? Is it within the SOL for your state? What was the date it first went delinquent? We'd need to know more information before developing a plan for you. You might want to be proactive and protect your vehicles by putting some otjher names as lienholders on the titles. In the worst case if they do get a judgment, they will be less likely to try and get the vehicles if there are lienholders in line before them. As far as 1099 self employed work, they could depose you and ask you your source of income after a judgment was obtained. The objective will be to prevent the judgment in the first place!
I don't see where you demanded validation from the first CA but if you did it would have been a violation for them to have sent it to the second collection agency until they validated it or returned it to the OC. Don't bother with the copies. Just demand validation of the attorney Partly depends on if your state is a community property state or not. If not community property state then probably not. Self employed people are among the hardest to collect from if they can't pay or don't want to. A lot of problems for sure. First you would be served by a sheriff or a process server or by mail. You would be given 20 or 30 days to answer the summons. The summons will tell you how many days you have to answer. In most cases an extra day is added so that it becomes 21 or 31 days. It is usually 20 or 30 days excluding the date you were served. You should plan to file a written answer to the court, not a verbal answer. Answers are not that hard to file. You would need a statement of general denial of all of the plaintiff's allegations and then after that you would need to look over each allegation the plaintiff makes in his complaint and either admit or deny each and every one individually. The ones you cannot deny are the ones that state who the plaintiff is, who you are and where you live. Things like that. Once you are done with the admissions then you will have to either admit or deny the rest of them as well. If you don't want to fight about it then you might as well admit the rest of them as well but then there would be no purpose of your answer so I assume that you would want to deny all the rest and demand that they prove their claim. If your court allows admissions and interrogatories or discovery you should expect that they will send you a list of admissions and interrogatories with a demand that you answer them. If discovery is allowed they may hold a discovery meeting which you will have to attend and expect that they will get as mean as possible with you, try to frighten you out of your wits and get you to forget about fighting them. There are many people here and on other forums who will try to tell you that it is easy to fight them in court but in most cases the more you fight the more they fight. If you want to fight them you can and you can win but you will have to learn your Rules of Civil Proceedure and your Rules of Evidence very well. You may also have to learn about discovery and how to deal with that if discovery is allowed in your court system. There are good books that you can buy at your local bookstore or that you can find in your local law library that will teach you all you need to know about discovery. So you need to find out if discovery is allowed in your court system or not. I'm not trying to make you feel that it is going to be too much trouble or that maybe you should just give up and pay off or scare you into paying instead of fighting. All I am saying is that you need to be aware that if you want to fight and win then you are going to have to learn how to do it and that will take a lot of work and study. I'm not an attorney and I don't ever go to court so I can't give you advice but I do know and understand the law pretty well regardless of what some others here seem to think. There are a lot of people on the internet who may try to sell you on the idea that they have all the answers and will reveal all their magic tricks to you for a few thousand dollars. You should never get involved with those kind. Most of those on the internet who are good and who do know what they are talking about will usually help you for free if you are willing to show them that you will study and try to learn as much as you can on your own and only ask them for guidance once in a while. If you don't want to study and don't want to do your part and just want someone to do it all for you then expect to pay a reasonable amount for their time and effort. But if they want huge sums of money then you should avoid them entirely. You just have three options. Either pay up or get busy and learn all you can or hire a competent attorney to help you. Then it sounds like you are going to have to do a lot of study and do the best you can without paying anybody. Don't be frightened by that. Most people can do it if they have the time and the inclination. They don't garnish a 1099. That is a tax form employers use to tell the IRS how much they paid you each year. There is also a 1099 form that is a forgiveness of debt and they can't garnish that either. They don't care how much you can afford most of the time. But there is a formula that tells them how much they can legally take from your paychecks. They can only take a certain amount, usually not more than maybe 15 to 25 percent depending on your state law. Another poster told you what you can do about that but you do have to be very careful how you do it or they can claim that it is an attempt to hide your assets and still take it away from you if that is what they want to do. Those vehicles are old and not actually worth very much. The old pickup might be worth a bit more than the car is. They really don't want old vehicles most of the time. Too much trouble to dispose of them and get much out of them. Not likely they would try to take that either. There are people who are willing to help you but the first thing you need to do is to quit feeling despondent and "sick to your stomach" over this and start learning how to deal with the problems if you can. I may be a CA but I also understand how hopeless some of these situations may seem. Above all, don't ignore it because it won't go away and don't fall for some fast buck sales pitch on the internet. Good help is out there for free if you look for it and are willing to study and learn. Best of luck.
First.....take a deep breath, most of us have been in your shoes in some form or another! Plan on spending alot of time reading and reading and reading more The best tool on this site for getting specific info fast, is the search tool. Type in judgements, FDCPA, lawsuits, garnishments and so on. Here is a good link about judgements and your rights and recourse before and after: http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=judgements&sp-a=sp0423e500 Also look up all the above aforementioned words at this site too, it should make you feel better and gain some direction.
We live in Arizona, a Community Property State. Thank you all for your posts and help... Here's an update: I called the attorney listed on the summons/complaint; and I do understand that by calling, I am acknowledging the debt. I hope I remember everything she said correctly: 1. I mentioned that I had sent in the validation request to Academy Collections - the second CA, (not the first, only a C&D) and have yet to receive a response. Her response to me was: "The summons complaint was sent because originally with the first CA last December, I sent them a Cease & Desist letter, informing them that I would no longer communicate with them, because of their tactics. GC Services was the first CA. (If anyone is familiar with them, you know they are nasty, nasty, nasty.) Because I sent the first CA a C&D, the only way they could reach me was via the summons." She also stated that she "knew nothing about Academy, because they received the account directly from Citibank". Now.. do understand, while some may disagree, I have no problem acknowledging that this IS my debt. The validation to the second CA was a delay point so that I could work on a signed contract with Consumer Credit Counselling. I've always wanted to have it paid off. Consumer CC would have taken 5 years to pay this off, at monthly payments of 216.00 (including another Credit card in there - which we know is necessary, however, that credit card is not in collections and almost paid off!). I can make payments of $268.75 a month to this attorney for only TWO years, and have Citibank paid off. That is only 50.00 more a month. ~~~~~~~~~ My husband is the one who is now in a royal panic - because judgements appear on your credit report for 7 years. I guess now my questions turn in a different direction: A. Since the card is in my name, will this judgement appear on his credit report also? Hell, I've had a repo on my credit report from 1987 to 1994 - so to me, this is no different. ALSO: Since the first payment (not given over the phone, I'll be sending MO's in) is going to start on July 30th, how long will all of this mess appear on our credit reports? 7 years from the date Citibank put it in collections (December 03) or 7 years from July 04??? B. The attorney told me that she will be sending me more paperwork. What **exactly** do I need to be wary of? look for? etc... so I don't get screwed over with this? She mentioned something to the effect (and I won't know for sure until I receive the paperwork) that she goes and files some type of dismissal with conditions - indicating that because payment arrangements have been made and it doesn't get filed in a specific court but filed in another? I have no idea what she is referring to. C. Understand that I already know our credit scores are horrible. I have not checked the CRA's because I really just don't want to see them at this point in time. We had 6 credit cards, all of them were 120+ days, one of them in collections (along with Citibank), our mortgage was 1 week short of starting foreclosure, our college loans were in forebearance - you name it, it appeared there. My husband just doesn't get it through his head, that every time he gets laid off (it's a lot, if he holds a job a year or longer, he is doing good! 2003, he had 5 W-2's I had to file. The year before, it was 4. He blames it on the fact he is in construction), we get further behind, and it takes longer to get caught up. Total denial about it. (that's another story.. LOL) However, since January, I've managed to get 1 credit card paid off, 3 credit cards are all under the limit, on time, and will be paid off by the end of the year; the 4th is out of collections but will take awhile to pay off; the mortgage has been fixed, and even though our payment is 200 more a month, that goes back down to the real mortgage payment July 05. His truck will be paid off in August - 3 months early. Our land - which is currently 5 months delinquent should be caught up completely by the end of the year - as I'm doubling up payments as much as possible. So, all in all, I've worked my butt off to get everything current again! and he is worried because of this judgement, even though we already have crappy credit! So... now that you got the long-winded version... What can we expect with this supposed "judgement" appearing. Even though I am not settling for a lesser amount on Citibank, and making payment? I've looked over and over this thing, and there is no place that says I have a court date to appear, where, time, date, etc! This is the exact wording: "You are hereby summoned and required to serve upon the Plaintiff's attorney an answer to the complaint which is served upon you, within thirty (30) days, exclusive of the date of service, after service of this summons upon you if served within the State of Arizona, and within thirty (30) days, exclusive of the day of service, if served without the State of Arizona. If you fail to do so, judgment by default will be taken against you for the relief demanded in the complaint." Then it goes on to give me just the name & address of the Plaintiff's Attorney. Says signed & sealed this 10th day of June 2004. (served on June 15th). And finally the summons just has the disclaimer about "unless you notify this office withini thirty (30) days after receiving this notice that you disput the validity of the debt or any portion thereof... yada yada.... " So.. *laugh*... did I include enough info for y'all to help me?
That's an old trick to make you think that now you can't get around it because by calling you admitted the debt. Won't stand up as evidence or admission in court. Yes, they can do that. Good! You are to be commended for the hard work you are putting into paying what you owe. Now that is a bit strange[/quote]. This is the exact wording: "You are hereby summoned and required to serve upon the Plaintiff's attorney an answer to the complaint which is served upon you, within thirty (30) days, exclusive of the date of service, after service of this summons upon you if served within the State of Arizona, and within thirty (30) days, exclusive of the day of service, if served without the State of Arizona. If you fail to do so, judgment by default will be taken against you for the relief demanded in the complaint." [/quote] OK. So exactly how were you served? Maybe not. Take a look at that summons and see if it has a court stamp on it and a docket, file or case number. If it has no court stamps and no docket, file or case number you might want to check on it a bit further to find out if a case actually has been filed against you. If there is docket, file or case number and no record at the county clerk's office of any such motion for summary judgment then they have violated by sending out a sham legal document. Would not be the first time false legal documents have been used against a debtor.
Roddysmom: Judging from all the questions you ask in your post You really need to read and study up on this. NEW MEMBERS READ THIS. http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=410243#post410243 ->I know it's a lot of reading but when I started there wasn't any starter threads like this to launch out from. I had to learn all this by reading nearly every thread on the board. It took me about 3 to 6 months to do that just so I could begin to grasp the basics and get a handle on how things work. This is why I felt it so important to include a referral to the newbie links in every post I make.
Kaykay - The only thing it has: No: CV04-04049RA (handwritten in) Summons North Valley Justic Court County of Maricopa, State of Arizona At the very bottom, under the Important Notice - 30 days to respond to validity of debt, it says: Clerk (type) VC - handwritten by: Then a stamp. No addresses, phones, anything other than the attorney's.
NEW MEMBERS READ THIS. http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=410243#post410243 ->1*Yes, they can do that. 2*Good! You are to be commended for the hard work you are putting into paying what you owe. kaykay29 ================= 1*Why didn't you explain what that means to her? 2*You forgot to tell her that the CAs OCs and CRAs will continue giving her and hubby the shaft as their thank you for paying didn't you! This is exactly why this line is in my signature below. They never take it off the report when we make it right so why should we take it off the docket when they do?
Re: Re: Urgent Help Needed.... Judgement Well, since the case number is hand written that further reinforces my suspicion that it may be a bogus court document. Attorneys almost always get a case or docket number and type it in. I'd like to suggest that you call the court to find out about that document or docket number and see if there actually is such a docket number. If it turns out that the court clerk tells you that it is not a valid document or docket number then you have a valid reason to file a suit against them for sending you a bogus legal document. In your financial shape, a good lawsuit against an attorney who is acting in violation of the law just might get you out of the mess you are in. If nothing else it might get them to try to settle with you by forgetting about the debt. I'd suggest you check it out and see. All it will cost you is a phone call at first but if it is a bogus docket number and a bogus account number then you would want to actually go down to the clerks office and get a written statement from them saying that no such case or document number exists. Then you can see if you can find competent legal help to file a lawsuit on them.
Originally posted by lbrown59 NEW MEMBERS READ THIS. http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=410243#post410243 ->1*Yes, they can do that. 2*Good! You are to be commended for the hard work you are putting into paying what you owe. kaykay29 ================= 1*Why didn't you explain what that means to her Because she plainly stated that she knew what she wanted to do and what the consequences will be. 2*You forgot to tell her that the CAs OCs and CRAs will continue giving her and hubby the shaft as their thank you for paying didn't you! No! I knew you would be right here beating your little drum on that issue so I didn't think I should make my post any longer than it already was. As usual you did a marvelous job.
Re: Re: Re: Urgent Help Needed.... Judgement NEW MEMBERS READ THIS. http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=410243#post410243 -> 1* In your financial shape, a good lawsuit against an attorney who is acting in violation of the law just might get you out of the mess you are in. K K ================ A couple hundred thousand would help out wouldn't it?. Never read the fine print. There ain't no way you're going to like it.
Then you can see if you can find competent legal help to file a lawsuit on them. kaykay29 ================ Then this leaves out one like your boy friend. NEW MEMBERS READ THIS. http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=410243#post410243 -> Never read the fine print. There ain't no way you're going to like it.
KayKay.. thank you for the "heads up". I'll look into it tomorrow, give the court a call to check up on it. Will post whatever I find out. However... lbrown... I really didn't come in here to post and get put in the middle of any squabbles. I honestly think putting someone who is new, genuinely looking for and asking for help in the middle of your sarcastic remarks and putdowns to another person is downright rude and uncaring - and extremely unfair to me, or to anyone else who would have been "in the middle". If whatever KayKay said is incorrect, a simple correction from you on my thread, would have sufficed. I'm not dumb. I know I have to read, read, read. I actually began taking law classes years ago when I started college but changed to an education major. I've also had CA's hounding me when I had cancer surgery & was literally homeless. I know how to deal with Collection Agencies - up to a point - THIS point of an attorney & a summons. So, I'm asking, would y'all please be considerate of me, and not put me in the middle of something that I don't know anything about? Thank you all. Thank you again for your help.
what it basically boils down to (and you will see this on many threads kaykay posts on) is that Kaykay is a debt collector and her boyfriend is an attorney that collects debts (and she admits he has been sued and lost). and lb wasn't trying to say you were incompetent, just that there is so much helpful information on this board, but its hard to know where to start (which is why he put the link up).
This is my last post on this thread . If The op prefers to follow the advice of A Ca over what I say fine. So why waist my time and efforts for naught,? PS thanks for the vote of confidence jenz .
Re: Re: Re: Re: Urgent Help Needed.... Judgement ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ They never take it off the report when we make it right so why should we take it off the docket when they do? *** Victims of Credit Reporting *** http://members.aol.com/victcrdrpt/Score.html Special for newbies ------ Read these links http://consumers.creditnet.com/stra...0243#post410243 LOL
