How long does it take CC companies to sue?

[backtoschool]

How much time do you have after getting a letter like that from your creditors, to file Bankruptcy? I keep thinking we should just hold out as long as we can....because I'm worried about losing our tax return (which is usually about $5-6K). Then again, I suppose they will wonder where I spent the money? I'm going to need a car--mine is a leased auto. So, I'm hoping to have a little bit of money to purchase a good used car.

I have also noticed that BofA is a little harder to deal with. I have 4 other cards that are CHASE and they are just starting to get aggressive now. To the point that they've called my family and involved them. Great!

The minimum time you would have after a creditor sues you is the 30 days you have to respond to the complaint. If you send them a DV as a reply, and drag the complaint out a bit you could probably buy yourself several months before you file.

[ace13]

How much time do you have after getting a letter like that from your creditors, to file Bankruptcy? I keep thinking we should just hold out as long as we can....because I'm worried about losing our tax return (which is usually about $5-6K). Then again, I suppose they will wonder where I spent the money? I'm going to need a car--mine is a leased auto. So, I'm hoping to have a little bit of money to purchase a good used car.

I have also noticed that BofA is a little harder to deal with. I have 4 other cards that are CHASE and they are just starting to get aggressive now. To the point that they've called my family and involved them. Great!

My attorney did advise if we are not ready to proceed with filing and I'm sued that I should just let them enter default judgment without me appearing then we file an appeal and at that point file BK petition all the while letting charges age...court dates take a little time. Which in turn gives us the debtor time to finalize pprwork for BK petition

[Rog]

I was sued by Citibank 4 years after I defaulted ($17,500). I didn't even respond to the complaint as I was saving money for a bk attorney. The plaintiff pushed for default judgment but the judge denied that due to insufficient proof of debt. That was almost a year ago. When I look at court cases in my county regarding this attorney, the majority of the cases are dismissed due to lack of prosecution. Go figure!

I have 6 other delinquent accounts and none of them sued allowing the SOL to expire. Total debt of $49,000. Again, go figure!

[daytona]

Chase is threatning to sue me at just 60 days late and never late in 14+yrs prior!

[backtoschool]

Chase is threatning to sue me at just 60 days late and never late in 14+yrs prior!

Have they served you papers? A collection letter threatening to sue is probably not a real near-term threat if you are only 60 days late.

[daytona]

Not served...a form letter with 20 days to repond or they are going to refer me to their attorney....

[backtoschool]

Not served...a form letter with 20 days to repond or they are going to refer me to their attorney....

That is just a form collection letter and I would not assume at all that a lawsuit is coming up soon.

[LostNFound]

I wouldn't worry about that form letter either. I got one of those from a collections company and they were very aggressive. They called me as well as sent that letter. If you read it closely, you will see that they are making empty threats. I sent them a letter which disputed the debt. You will want to do that. They will forget about you at that point. IF you don't respond, they may try to take it to the next level. They are hoping that you will run away and hide--stick your head in the sand. IF you do, then they win. If you challenge them, they have to provide the proof that its your debt and thats not always easy to do. Especially if you have had the card for a while as they need to provide the original paperwork. Its' also much harder for a collections agency to do that.

[aljohnson007]

As previously mentioned, the CU can overdraft your account and then you are in a heap of trouble unless you cure the OD immediately. My advice is to completely close any account where you owe money.

[hopeforus]

We haven't paid anything since Sept 08 and no one has sued us yet. That we know of. I assume we'd know ...? We are about to have our consult though and should be filing soon after.

[LostNFound]

I think that collections will vary person to person as well as to whom the debt is owed. I've heard that some cards (like Discover) can be more aggressive then others. I also know that it depends on if they feel you are collectible. If you have assets that they can go after, they will possibly attempt to do that. And yes, you should know if there is any judgments against you.
First, you should get a letter from the collections/creditor, telling you that you have about 20-30 days to respond. You can ask them to verify the debt. The burden of proof is now with them.
Secondly, you should be served papers from someone to know that your going to be going to court. You should have 30 days to respond to that.
Finally, you will have a court date set and you can again ask them to verify the debt. Although, I've never had experience going this far and honestly have fears of that happening--hope it never does.

[WaitNSee]

As previously mentioned, the CU can overdraft your account and then you are in a heap of trouble unless you cure the OD immediately. My advice is to completely close any account where you owe money.

I'm in the process of getting all direct pays out of the CU. I have stopped the direct deposits. Now I'm a little worried about the overdraft amount. They won't know what I'm doing til the end of November. What is "a heap of trouble" and is there a way to stop OD before I am ready to close account?
WaitNSee

[davephx]

I got sued by Discovery immediately after charge off.

They served on my maintenance guy who was fixing the toilet plumbing.

I did a Fair Credit Act demand. All they sent me was a copy of the latest statement not all the stuff I had read on various boards I could demand.

Talked to an attorney. He said by answering the suit I have admitted service and as long as it got to me even if not served personally it is good. I am in AZ so many be different in other states.

Attorney also said raising the Fair Credit Act issue not likely to help. Discovery attorney can quickly move for discovery and add huge legal fees to the judgment. Don't really have much else as a defense but I need to delay as long as possible. But there is no required mediation and doesn't even have to be a Court date - just motions and actions by the Court.

I really don't want a judgment with bank account attachment and garnishments soon to come per attorney.

I have sadly a huge amount of cc debt after trying to keep up last 2 years with never a late payment till early 2009 after using up all reserves and having to use lots of credit to survive. If anyone looks at credit report they would see horrible shape now, including a foreclosure sale of prior home and current one in foreclosue which I am desperately fighting to keep via HAMP but don't want Chap7 to screw it up as it does with some servicers.

[LostNFound]

DavePhx: WE are in the same situation practically as you are. We always paid our bills on time and our credit was in the 800's. When things started to "slip", we used cash advances from credit cards and struggled to get by (we has hoped that one of our rental houses would sell, but it hasn't happened). In Feb, we stopped making our credit card payments too. Usually, we just don't answer the phone. One of our creditors contacted 2 of my husband's family members. We've never acknowledged this debt to them and then they went so far as to tell our 14 year old daughter that her parents were in BIG trouble and should stop running. We have an attorney that wants to go fter them for unfair debt collection practices (there are a few more things they did). But I'm to the point that I just want to file BK and move on. We can fight one creditor and that still leaves 4 more to deal with. I just want to cut off this part of my life and move on.

I remember a day when my credit score meant something to me. However, credit got us into this mess. I've come to terms with the understanding that I can't charge things anymore and we have to pay for things as we can afford them (which isn't very often these days). I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. If we can file, we will be able to combine our resources and pay our house down quickly. I'm not sure if Chap 7 will look at that type of income and allow us to proceed that way, but we are working towards that goal. The freedom of being out from under all of that credit card debt would be HUGE!

We gave back a contract for deed (rental house) last month and we are considering letting 2 of our houses enter into foreclosure.

Can you believe we STILL can't get an attorney to call us back? I have called every day this week--no return phone call and always in a meeting. I hope that means they are good!

[calgirl67]

[QUOTE=LostNFound;343346]DavePhx:
I remember a day when my credit score meant something to me. However, credit got us into this mess. I've come to terms with the understanding that I can't charge things anymore and we have to pay for things as we can afford them (which isn't very often these days). I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. If we can file, we will be able to combine our resources and pay our house down quickly. I'm not sure if Chap 7 will look at that type of income and allow us to proceed that way, but we are working towards that goal. The freedom of being out from under all of that credit card debt would be HUGE!

I'm with you on this part. Once upon a time preserving our credit score was all important but like you, credit got us into this huge mess and we are DONE with it.

We have not charged anything since Jan this year. Funny enough we are still here, we still have our house and cars and food and insurance paid. We just don't buy crap we don't need OR AFFORD anymore.

You CAN live without credit but you have to budget very carefully.

Credit cards are evil. We will never again have one. Once our CH 7 is discharged we will opt out of any offers in the mail. We are done.