Attorney placement pending letter

[tenngal]

Quick background on my situation: I met with an attorney in July and was advised to stop making credit card payments immediately, to stop using all credit cards and basically wait until I was served a judgement before I filed. I owe around $30,000.00 on 3 different cards. I was finally approved for Medical Disability in April and received around $20,000.00 back pay. My attorney was concerned I would lose this money and wanted me to spend what I could on living expenses before filing for bankruptcy. I have kept every receipt since July and have a detailed record of where my cash is going ( and it is going quickly ).

As expected the calls began shortly after missing my first payments and have continued steadily every day since. I have not answered any of them ( again, on advice from my attorney ). The numbers have remained the same and still seem to be coming from the credit card companies and not an outside collection agency ( yet ). Today, however, I received a letter from Discover Card that informs me they have been authorized to proceed with legal action and have given me until January 31, 2011 to respond or they will forward my account to an attorney and obtain a judgement against me. OK, I knew this would eventually happen and have been preparing for it. My question is this; is this just a tactic the credit card companies use? Do I still have some time before they actually file a judgement against me? Should I go ahead and file? I was hoping I had longer than 6 months. Thanks to those that take the time to read this and to answer.

[enginegirl]

it's a tactic..... do be prepared for the summons too.. maybe another 2-3months

[tenngal]

Thanks... 2 or 3 months is better than right now, assuming I still have some time with the other 2 cards.

[daxtell]

what happened to me before i filed was that by the time i filed, three years after i stopped paying; it resulted in two judgments. one was capital one about a year after i stopped paying. and the other card, first usa was sold to another company asset acceptance who also got a judgment against me. i had to wait to file chapter 7 this week! finally. now that i have filed, they can no longer go after me for money. but i do have to file motions after the bankruptcy to vacate them so that they come off my credit report.

[tenngal]

[QUOTE=daxtell;481405]what happened to me before i filed was that by the time i filed, three years after i stopped paying; it resulted in two judgments. one was capital one about a year after i stopped paying. and the other card, first usa was sold to another company asset acceptance who also got a judgment against me. i had to wait to file chapter 7 this week! finally. now that i have filed, they can no longer go after me for money. but i do have to file motions after the bankruptcy to vacate them so that they come off my credit report.[/QUOTE

Daxtell: How did you avoid dealing with the judgements against you for so long? I guess I was under the impression that once you had the judgements placed you must file as soon as possible to avoid losing your home, car etc... I *think* I am exempt against garnishment from my bank account because it is strictly SSDI that is deposited. I hope I am not wrong.

[frogger]

Today, however, I received a letter from Discover Card that informs me they have been authorized to proceed with legal action and have given me until January 31, 2011 to respond or they will forward my account to an attorney and obtain a judgement against me.

I bet that is not what the letter said. EXACTLY what did the letter state?

[treehugger1]

Anyone who has been around collection forums or this forum knows that there are two creditors who generally do not fake it; citibank (citicorp) and discover. As Frogger asked, "what was the exact wording?" As far as I know, Discover and Citi do not make illegal threats. It appears that when they threaten, they follow through. If the wording is as you say, then you can be expected to be sued by Discover. My experience from reading about other's and knowing other's expereince with Discover is that they do not mince words, and they keep very, very good records.

[tenngal]

I bet that is not what the letter said. EXACTLY what did the letter state?

Frogger: I am a bit perplexed you doubt what the letter says so I will give it to you EXACTLY. Thank you for any advice you have.

ATTENTION: ( My name, of course )
REGARDING: Account ending in XXXX
BALANCE: $XX,XXX.XX

Dear ( My name ):

We have been authorized to proceed with legal action to secure the balance you currently owe us as of December 6,2010.

If we do not hear from you by 8:00pm Eastern time on January 31,2011, your account will be forwarded to an Attorney to obtain a judgement against you.

To stop this action, call us immmediately to make acceptable payment arrangements.

CALL NOW BEFORE YOUR TIME EXPIRES!

Sincerely,
Patti Whitmer
DFS Services LLC
1-800-347-4452

[daxtell]

tenngal: capital one got a judgment against me in 2008, but they never found out where i worked nor did they ever find out my bank account information. my first usa card was bought by asset acceptance who got the second judgment against me. they actually went further and got a garnishment because they found out where i worked. i have an idea how they found out. on my works website it lists all our names and what we do, so they probably googled my name and it came right up.

it took me a long while to save up enough to file bankruptcy. and for me, with the job i have i cannot pay basic expenses if my wages are garnished. so i qualified for chapter 7. i also do not have any assets except an old 1995 jeep and my checking account which i am told is safe now that my petition is filed. and they cannot garnish my wages any longer.

i have read where others on this site say creditors have other means of finding out your job information and checking account but i do not know how.

[treehugger1]

teengal, This does not appear to be a threat, they are clearly telling you their intent. Again, Discover Financial Services tends to follow through. Now, in the past they often used Mann-Bracken (National Legal Firm) who turned out to have less than stellar activity in many states and they no longer exist. Now DFS uses reputable legal services, so do not assume a threat.

[frogger]

Frogger: I am a bit perplexed you doubt what the letter says so I will give it to you EXACTLY. Thank you for any advice you have.

ATTENTION: ( My name, of course )
REGARDING: Account ending in XXXX
BALANCE: $XX,XXX.XX

Dear ( My name ):

We have been authorized to proceed with legal action to secure the balance you currently owe us as of December 6,2010.

If we do not hear from you by 8:00pm Eastern time on January 31,2011, your account will be forwarded to an Attorney to obtain a judgement against you.

To stop this action, call us immmediately to make acceptable payment arrangements.

CALL NOW BEFORE YOUR TIME EXPIRES!

Sincerely,
Patti Whitmer
DFS Services LLC
1-800-347-4452

Thank you for the exact wording. You.... are going to get sued. The wording of this leaves no wiggle room because of their wording. Due to the wording that your account "will" be forwarded to an attorney to obtain a judgement, they are now legally required to do that or they will be in violation of the FDCPA.

If they had used the word "could" or "might", they would have had the wiggle room to do whatever they chose. Now, if they do not follow thru with their letter, they have issued a threat and you could sue them.

[daytona]

I tend to think this is a scare tactic. So discover has authorized themself to proceed with legal action? Sounds kind of dramatic.... They will likely charge off sometime around 6mo of no pay and then turn over to third party collections..then third party will go through dunning letter etc. e
Eventually they might sue...but they have to sue first and WIN before they can get any judgement!! Simply answering the suit can buy lots of time..possibly a yr or more... Lots of factors though and I am not familiar with discover...just many others............

[ryan]

I tend to think this is a scare tactic. .....

Sorry, but in this case I disagree. I got almost exact same letter with almost same wording from Chase.....2 months later: Lawsuit.
Got similarly tightly worded letter from Citi....2 months later: Lawsuit. If I get one from Discover (which I may) I will expect a lawsuit to follow. Letters like the one above just do not leave many 'outs' for the CC company.

Pure 'threat letters' use words like 'may' and 'legal DEPT' and other modifiers. In this case I would assume the worst.

[tenngal]

Thanks everyone for your replies. This forum has been so very helpful.
I went ahead and scheduled another appointment with the attorney I met with in July. I will let her advise me further. I will post an update after I meet with her.

Thanks again and Happy Holidays to all!

[GoingDown]

Sorry, but in this case I disagree. I got almost exact same letter with almost same wording from Chase.....2 months later: Lawsuit.
Got similarly tightly worded letter from Citi....2 months later: Lawsuit. If I get one from Discover (which I may) I will expect a lawsuit to follow. Letters like the one above just do not leave many 'outs' for the CC company.

Pure 'threat letters' use words like 'may' and 'legal DEPT' and other modifiers. In this case I would assume the worst.

I agree that with that wording they are probably serious about filing a lawsuit, just because of the serious tone of the letter. Not because they are legally bound to follow through on the threat. The letter is from the Original Creditor, Discover, and as such, they are exempt from the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Nevertheless, I think they will follow through with their threat.

I received tons of letters from Wells Fargo that they were going to sue me, and they never followed through on their threats. They first used a local collection agency that does asset and employer searches and after that they just sold it to a junk debt buyer. I guess they didn't like what the searches revealed about me and my lack of assets and lack of an employer.