how soon before you were sued?

[Atrix]

I have not paid a CC in 12 months...I have an attorney and I have referred all calls to him and have not heard from a CC in 11 months...have not filed yet...just wondering when CC start to sue.....I would love to put off filing as long as possible just to catch up a bit with car repairs etc.
How long was it before you were sued? Any info would be helpful....Thank you

[lrprn]

How long it might take a creditor to sue you depends on the creditor (big vs. small, national vs. local, etc) and how much of a chance the creditors think they have to get the money you owe them through wage garnishment or taking an asset and selling it.

It costs a creditor to take you to court to get a judgment against you, so they want to be sure there's a decent chance of getting a good return for their investment.

Threatening to file for 12 months but then not filing is taking a chance. Creditors hear every day "I'm going to file bankruptcy." It may hold some of them off for awhile. It won't hold all of them off forever.

Talk to your lawyer. He/she will be familiar with what other Ch 13 and 7 filers in their practice have experienced with the at least some of same creditors you have, and how long it typically takes a specific creditor to file a judgment case. It's going to vary a great deal depending on the creditor and your financial circumstances, so whatever a forum member tells you about their experience and time before being sued here really isn't reliable for your situation. Your lawyer is your best, most reliable source of answers for you.

[sunshinepa]

I was sued by Citi in 6 mos. I think CC companies are getting quicker to sue these days.

Of course, it sounds like you have been giving them your attorney number so that might make a difference. I would wonder though just how long an attorney will take calls before the will want you to file. Did they give you any idea how long they would handle your calls? Just curious.

[Danglin]

We had over $100k in CC debt with Chase, Amex, and a few others. We stopped paying everyone in September 2009 when we knew were going to file, however, due to circumstance, we didn't file until February of 2011. We had retained an attorney in 10/2009, and we were giving out his name to the creditors until June of 2010, when our attorney informed us that he could not handle our 13 because he didn't realize at the beginning that we were in a county served by a different BK court...One with which he had no experience. So, we had to retain a new attorney, which we did on September 2010.

During the whole time we didn't pay, we were not sued, and the only thing close to a threat was from the esteemed firm of Hunt and Henriques back in July of 2010. We sent them a DV letter and never heard from them again.

Sorry to ramble, but if you've retained an attorney with intent to file, I would think you could hold them off indefinitely, though I wish we would have filed sooner, because then we'd be nearly 2 years in instead of just 5 months.

[Atrix]

Thank you for the replies....

Maybe someone could answer this...I saw on Suze Ormans show that if you don't make a payment for 7 years a CC company can no longer chase you for the money. So, if I wait 6 more years and but some sort of miracle don't get sued....the CC company cannot do anything about the debt right? I owe Chase/AMex/Bofa/Discover.

If I filed today I would be on the hook for 5 years anyway right?.....Money is so tight right now I was panning to file in a about 6 months to catch up on car repairs etc......But if there is a possibility that I would not be sued...(are the banks that busy that I could be ignored that long).......why not wait it out?

Any input would be greatly appreciated...Thank you

[Danglin]

Statute of limitations in California for collection of credit card debt is 4 years. As I mentioned above, you MIGHT be able to hold them off indefinitely since you've retained an attorney, but there are no guarantees. Thing is, how is your attorney going to react after 2 or 3 years of taking your creditor's calls but you've not yet filed?

It's also very possible that you could get sued anyway. It just depends upon several factors, as lprn said above.

I know you said you want to put off filing, and that's what we did. We had car and home repairs that we strung out over a several months, though had we budgeted, we could have handled in a month. We regret putting it off because had we filed when we first intended, we'd be that much closer to discharge.



It sounds to me like you're looking for every reason to avoid filing, yet it would