What amount will CCs sue for?

[anykey]

What is the number that makes it a go?

5k?


1K?

Does anyone know what it costs to file suit-atty on their part?

[Bell30656]

I was sued by an OC for $860 and a JDB for two different accounts one $5800 and one $2000

[flyinbroke]

THey can and do sue across the board. Word is that they actually prefer smaller amounts. Small claims court is far cheaper than anything else, and they don't want to spend money filing suits. One CA rep that posted on some other board (which slips my mind at the moment) said that when it is 10-20K and up, they figure the person is on the way to BK and don't bother (as they won't get anything) as much as when someone owes 1-5K on something. I won't take that as gospel but it is easier and cheaper for them to file against smaller numbers. In looking at my friendly civil court, the small claims cutoff is 10K and they do sue a lot of single people rather than companies. The civil suits for large amounts are rarely for individuals but for individuals identified as DBAs and businesses (The exception being Chase, they sue everyone from what it looks like.)

Assets may also play a role on whether they sue; if you own property, you are probably more likely to be sued regardless of the amount.

[Dst1]

Steps to figuring out if you are going to get sued. This works! I guarantee it!!

(1) Read your daily horoscope and count the number of words in it.
(2) Shake a Magic 8 ball and count the seconds it takes to get a result (round to a whole number).
(3) Divide the result of (1) with the result of (2) again rounding off to a whole number. If the number would be less than one round to one.
(4)Take a shotgun, stand 30 feet away, and shoot the number of birds given by the result in (3). You must use buckshot! Pigeons are preferred but chickens will do. Do not kill a person in an animal costume, that doesn't count. Unless it's the Philly Phanatic.
(5) Examine each bird closely. If any of the pellets struck the heart of a bird that means you will be sued!! If none of the pellets struck the heart of a bird that means you will not be sued.

Simple.

[nodollarsnomo]

Flyinbroke, am also in Texas the northern district, are you looking online at court cases? I live in a small town south of Dallas, but it happens to be the county seat, I have tried looking at court cases on their website but can't find anything. They may just be so backwards here that they don't have online access to court cases. Any help in figuring this out would be appreciated.

[HHM]

What flyingbroke says is true. Lawsuits are more frequent and come faster in the $1,000-$3,000 range. If you have debts in that range, you can usually expect a lawsuit about 9-12 months after your first missed payment (sometimes much sooner). It really just depends. I like Dst1's analysis. The bottom line, it is unpredictable. As was mentioned, the collection agency are playing the odds, the odds of someone going BK over a less than $3000 debt are not high, so they can usually get some money. Collection is a business like any other, and because they are dealing with debt, they are looking for yield on their portfolios. Lower balance portfolios have a higher yield. For example, if you have a $2MM portfolio of sub $3,000 debts, you might yield 15%, whereas a $2MM portfolio with over $20,000 balances will probably yield less than 5%.

The real question is, why are you waiting around to find out. Take action and SOLVE the debt financial crisis, don't wait around for the other shoe to drop.

As for costs; it is only the filing fee charged by the court and the cost of the process server. A common tactic (depending on your state's civil rules of procedure), the law firm will serve you with the summons and complaint before actually filing it with the court, in an effort to motivate the debtor to make contact and arrange a payment. If after 2 weeks, the debtor does not respond (after good service) they file the lawsuit figuring they will most likely get a default judgment.

[ryan]

Steps to figuring out if you are going to get sued. This works! I guarantee it!!

(1) Read your daily horoscope and count the number of words in it.
(2) Shake a Magic 8 ball and count the seconds it takes to get a result (round to a whole number).
(3) Divide the result of (1) with the result of (2) again rounding off to a whole number. If the number would be less than one round to one.
(4)Take a shotgun, stand 30 feet away, and shoot the number of birds given by the result in (3). You must use buckshot! Pigeons are preferred but chickens will do. Do not kill a person in an animal costume, that doesn't count. Unless it's the Philly Phanatic.
(5) Examine each bird closely. If any of the pellets struck the heart of a bird that means you will be sued!! If none of the pellets struck the heart of a bird that means you will not be sued. Simple.

I bought an ebook that taught that same formula. Very simple, didn't get sued, but had 14 birds crap on me.

[treehugger1]

For unsecured lines of credit, I have been sued for $9K, $3K, $10K, $300, $1100, $700, etc. The complete spectrum. Some local and some national.

[BKDefender]

I moved to Nevada from Texas. In Texas if you owe $10k they often still won't sue you because there is a constitutional prohibition on wage garnishment, and bank garnishment isn't easy in Texas either.

In Nevada though, we can get 25% wage garnishments & wipe out non-exempt bank accounts. I've seen lawsuits in Justice Court (the courts that allow recovery of attorneys fees for cases $0 to $10k) for a measly $750.00 credit card debt. Payday loan companies have sued for $300 payday loans in small claims court (representing themselves since the person usually defaults anyway.)

I guess what I'm trying to say is it depends on how easy it is to get a judgment by default and how easy it is to garnish wages & bank accounts in your area. If it's easy to do both, then the creditors will sue on lesser debts.

--William

[flyinbroke]

I can second the Texas thing...small claims cap is 10K but most cases that were filed were for under 5K. They seemed to range from a few hundred to a few thousand tops. I am guessing it is all in what William says; they can't touch your wages though they can go after bank accounts, it is tough to get money back. Thus smaller amounts are more profitable.

[Bell30656]

I wonder if debt collectors involuntarily shudder when a debtor passes on his or her new address and it is in Texas.

[nickifan]

I wonder if debt collectors involuntarily shudder when a debtor passes on his or her new address and it is in Texas.

I hope so!!!

[HHM]

The odd thing is, many collection agencies and Junk Debt Buyers are based out of TX

[flyinbroke]

HHM this is probably because unbonded CAs can't even pursue debt in TX. Then again, Brackenfeld (or whatever her name is) claims to have offices here, but is not bonded to collect....

[LostNFound]

Oh wow.
Well, I have unsecured credit card debt (30K w/BOA)
(90K with Chase and that's on 4 cards and 1 of those is a business card).
We have 5 other properties besides the house that I live in, so there is plenty on my credit report to go around! I would gladly hand over any one of those houses...but no one is coming after us at this point.

I'm not sure what rules they use to go after someone and take them to court. Certainly, if I was Chase, I would come after us for all 4 cards at once. But maybe the system doesn't work like that?

At any rate, we've NEVER been offered a settlement. In fact, I no longer get statements from anyone and I rarely get phone calls (Maybe 3/per week). I always tell them to send me things in writing, but they never do. Because I work during the day, I don't have the option of chatting with them on the phone with daycare kids playing in loudly in the background. So far, they've not taken me up on the offer to send much of anything.

I'm not sure if we have fallen off the radar or what. It's been since Feb 2009 that we've paid a credit card. I would like to settle and we are patiently waiting for one of our houses to sell.

In a perfect world, I would just file bankruptcy. However, I have a husband that isn't willing to let go of his "Stuff" as easily as I am willing to do. I think that the debt is stressful and so long as we don't file, it will continue to be a part of me. I want to move on with my life. It's just a personal opinion that I feel at this time. I think that most settlement companies are a joke and I am certain that most people would eventually get the same results if they tried.

So, bottom line. If you are in the position of being able to file BK, I would do that and move on with your life. Your credit is already ruined. I'm still hoping that my husband will make that final decision, but he has to be ready for it and come to that conclusion on his own. I can't do it for him.