From demands to a lawsuit for collection~how long?

[kenshirley]

I am really worried that we may be sued by creditors before we can file our BK.
Can anyone who has been through this type of thing before tell me about what time frame it takes to be served and sued before they attach my bank account?
We are retired and we have no choice but to have our monies go to the bank each month and I really worry we are going to draw money or pay a bill one day and not have it.

[LeighRyan]

Don't worry....

they cannot sue you and get a judgement without you receiving a summons from the court setting a court date. Even then they cannot issue a judgement against you until the court date, a judgment must be adjudicated by the court, not the collector. The minute you get a summons to court, seek a lawyer to begin filing. As soon as you file, that immediately stops any judgment, I just love that part, finally we, the embattled debtors have some arsenal in our corner.

[AngelinaCatHub]

KenShirley, I have read your story. Usually about the third unpaid bill you may get some flak. After that a demand letter and a subpoena. Then you answer that for sure. By then you should have your lawyer. You still have time for a nice Christmas. Remember this, we live in "interesting times". You are making a business decision and should not fret with what you have lost, only what you can gain and maintain. We had holdings of over ten Mil and gave it away when we had money. Now we are fortunate for what we have. A life estate, and SS. 'Hub

Please do have a Merry Christmas.

[kenshirley]

Thanks, after waiting 7 weeks after making the appointment we will finally see our attorney for the first time next week.
The only thing I am worried about at this point is I would rather go 7 than 13 and time is going by since my wife lost her job for medical reasons.
Too bad that income still counts on the means test! But she has had no income now for sometime so we should be OK as I see it.
I am just worried about going to the bank one day and finding no money or using my debit card and being refused do to no funds when I should have them.

[AngelinaCatHub]

Thanks, after waiting 7 weeks after making the appointment we will finally see our attorney for the first time next week.
The only thing I am worried about at this point is I would rather go 7 than 13 and time is going by since my wife lost her job for medical reasons.
Too bad that income still counts on the means test! But she has had no income now for sometime so we should be OK as I see it.
I am just worried about going to the bank one day and finding no money or using my debit card and being refused do to no funds when I should have them.

[kenshirley]

That is part of what I am worried about.
I had an RV that we turned in a few months ago to the same bank that I have my accounts with.
I have no credit card accounts with them however.
Too the best of my knowledge at this point they have not sold the unit so maybe I don't have anything to worry about yet.
That's just one of the points I will talk over with the attorney next week.

[jktrading]

And if you pay any of your creditors minimum payments with auto/online payment, I have heard that it is possible for them to continue debiting.

I would highly consider closing any account that you have had bad debt with in any capacity to be as safe as possible.

[kenshirley]

I do make payments using my bank online but they either do the transfer at my command or send them a check.
I have no agreements with anyone to take money out of my accounts and never have had or will have.
I had a friend get into a dispute years ago over payment of a debt and they had his authorization to debit his account on file and boy did they use it.

[magyar123]

Close your bank accounts. Try to get the payors of your pensions and SS to send you paper checks and cash them. Pay your bills with money orders. Once you file and get discharged open the bank account again.

[kenshirley]

Can't do it. These are federal pensions and you must have them sent to an account. They will not send checks. I am not sure that SS will even send a check today but my SS is so little is would not matter if they got that.
We have no choice.
I can change banks as often as I have to though if the need comes up.

[jktrading]

I do make payments using my bank online but they either do the transfer at my command or send them a check.
I have no agreements with anyone to take money out of my accounts and never have had or will have.
I had a friend get into a dispute years ago over payment of a debt and they had his authorization to debit his account on file and boy did they use it.

At the minimum, I would go online and try and delete the payment account on the creditors website. Amex and BofA are the only 2 I know that make you add another payment account before deleting the current one.

[PoorGrammyinBK7]

If you are behind on payments for the RV loan, (which I assume you are if you gave it up) you definitely should change banks -- if its at the same bank where your checking account is. Some banks will do it and some won't - but they will NOT let you know ahead of time, they will just TAKE your money!

It has happened to some people in this forum - I remember one guy who had over $3K taken suddenly and it caused all kinds of bounced checks, etc. Just wiped out his account.

[kenshirley]

Unlike many that had arrangements to make payments automatically from their accounts I have never had any such arrangement.
I am thinking that they have to sell the unit, come up with a delinquency balance and asked for that first. Then sue and get a court order as I originally inquired about the time frame.
I think that after missing the last 3 payments and turning the unit in to them before I was ever behind might make a difference.

[PoorGrammyinBK7]

The ones who had money taken did not think they had agreed either, but in their loan agreement was some wording in the fine print - something like "right of offset" (I am not sure - maybe someone else can help here) - anyway, it gave the bank the right to take money from any accounts they had at the same bank as the loan. I hope you are right. Wish I could remember who had this happen - LAJazz I think was one - not sure who the others were.

[Flowers]

I decided that bankruptcy was going to be the only solution.
This was in June 2008. At that meeting my lawyer suggested I stop paying credit cards and a few other creditors.
I did not have the neccessary funds to pay the lawyer for the BK until Nov2008 and I finally filed on Nov.21.

It was not until early December when I finally got a call from one of the credit cards (well they were calling 5 times a day from June to December), but I got official word they were charging off my account. I had answered the phone that evening and gave them the BK filing number.

So that is a good 5 months. I'm not saying it is that way with every creditor, but I think you have some time.

Good luck.