Let say you owe money to OC. Let say you stop making payments. Let say they put 30, 60, etc. late payment notices on your CR. Let say they bring up a CA. 1. What's the worst you can expect from OC? 2. What's the worst you can expect from CA? Thank you for your co-operation ...
Re: Re: What's the worst that can happen? C'mon, Butch ... I'm serious ... Can they sue? Would they sue? What's the worst judgement I can get? Can they get me in jail? Stuff like this ...
Re: Re: What's the worst that can happen? ummm I don't think there is a debtors jail so I don't think you can go to jail for it unless it's tax related. But they could get a Judgment and that could lead to a garnishment (unless you are in a state that prohibits this).
Re: Re: Re: What's the worst that can happen? I know, Butch ... Since I'm unemployed and got no income, I'm planning on stopping payments on one of my CCs (you will see it soon on my THE WAR IS (W)ON thread). Doing so I'll need any input from people with such experience what they - THE ENEMY, are usually doing, and will need to know what the law allows them to do. Disclaimer: Butch, I know you know what I mean. I'm just trying to make it more clear for anybody who may need more detailed information.
Re: Re: Re: What's the worst that can happen? Deciding what effects depends greatly on the amount of the 'loss' that they'll be experiencing... The higher the 'loss', and the more they can expect to gain by escalation. If the CC is a $100.00-500.00 card, and they would have to pay that much to even consider a civil suit, the odds of that is less then for a $2500.00+ account. Depending on the CC they may sell to the CA instead of assigning it, getting you a CA that could be local enough to decide to drive the few miles to appear in court... Of course, if the OC can't validate the account for the CA that makes that mute... But then, the more you've used the CC, the more likely it will be that they could if they are despirate enough find something to validate appropriately... Then it could come down to trying to get some type of discrepancy to appear with the account that happens after the final statement c/o... If you've joined any of the CC's 'optional' plans that credit a pro-rated amount of the fee on cancelation, and they cancel the optional plan on c/o, and that is done after the c/o when they don't do statements, the amounts would have an inborn discrepency. If you sign up for small auto-bills, there is a chance that the CC would still have to pay the auto-bills even after c/o, and because they wouldn't have a statement for them they wouldn't be able to validate them... Long-term pre-auths would be another inborn discrepency; the 90 day trial magazine offers where they auth for $1.00 now, and then run the charge for the full magazine cost in 90 days using the same auth-code... Again, the company could always try to deny the charge, but for a small amount they could be forced into accepting it post c/o... And of course, when you're anal retentive about validation matching perfectly, even a penny misaligned could cause a major headache for the CA... and if the CA makes a representation that the amount is even a penny more or less than the true amount of the account, even if its based on the final statement which is discrepencied, the CA is misrepresenting the amount of the debt, a violation... And of course, even if the discrepency is in 'your' favor, it wouldn't be in your best interests to pay the remainder, because if their documentation can prove the higher amount, they could always try to come back for the difference later...
Do a search for my famous "Understanding" threads - "Understanding the Collection Process", "Understanding the Collection Agency" (2 parts) and "Making Yourself Judgement Proof". With the number of times these questions are asked I am surprised they haven't made it into the Hall of Fame yet.
While there is no "debtors prison" a debtor can possibly end up in jail. In some states, after being sued and having a judgement entered against a consumer, the creditor may obtain an order for supplemental proceedings. That requires the judgement debtor to appear and be deposed re:their complete financial situation. They must bring bank acct statements, insurance docs, pay stubs, tax record, titles to propery, etc. Should they fail to appear, a warrant is issued for their arrest and they could be held in contempt of court and/or for failure to appear.
Re: Re: What's the worst that can happen? Jam, we're talking about 10K here ... The way I see it at some point OC could sell it to a CA, which will buy it for a lot less money, so at some next point I can offer them a settlement for an amount bigger than they paid, but lesser than I owed OC ... Meanwhile I will give OC and CA each and every opportunity to break the law and will keep a track of all violations. Who knows ... I may end up making some extra money ... Just thinking aloud ... Flyingifr, the threads numbers are 369232, 368333, and 49085 ... Got it, LKH, thanks!
Re: Re: What's the worst that can happen? Rolling eyes!!!!!!!! Related scary thread on present practices somewhere in Illinois: http://www.creditboards.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=15586 Sassy
