My mother has been served with papers from Capital One Bank for a debt that may or may not be past the SOL. The debt is only for 1600.00 but she can barely afford to get by, she works part time and cares for my 16 year old sister and my 73 year old grandmother with alzheimers who just had 2 hip surgeries and a feeding tube placed in her stomach. Does she respond to the papers in court and try to do a 10.00 per month payment plan or take her chances and not show up? I am surpried that they are trying to sue her for such a small amount of money. Any info will help! Bythe way how can we find out if it is passed the SOL? She can't remember.

ScottGem

NEVER ignore a summons. That just hands a judgement to the plaintiff. There are loads of threads here, and in the Bankruptcy and Debt and Credit forums that detail what to do.

The first step is to answer the summons stating her Intent to Defend. then send a copy of that answer to the Plaintiff asking for verification of the debt. If she gets that we can decide where to go fronm there.

JudyKayTee

Finding out the date of the last payment has nothing to do with the Statute - it's the last ACTIVITY on the account and the mother very well could have paid and continued to use the account without making another payment.

Inability to pay is NOT a defense.

ScottGem

PJAMOK
Look its nice that you want to help, but you need to make sure of your facts before you give misguided advice. Judy is not stalking you, but she frequently answers questions in this forum (as I do) so she will look at threads that pop up with new activity.

And Judy is 100% right here. Collection agencies frequently file suits even if the SOL is past. They expect the debtor to continue to ignore the dunning and get themselves a default judgement that way. If the debtor doesn't answer the summons the judge awards a judgement no questions asked. The plaintiff doesn't have to offer any proof.

progunr

**** I like this post so I did not delete it, there was a group of posts that were wrong and a few attacking, I have deleted them, I love this post, think I will make it a wall hanging by my computer FC***

One thing you will find out here, as I did, is this site actually has some credibility, and some self governed standards.

I know, those qualities are a rare breed in this day and age.

If you want to just shoot from the hip, without any regard to what is actual and factual,
this is not the place for you. Especially if you don't want to be corrected when you are wrong.

If you are like me, you will hang around, learn from the mistakes you make, and provide better and more accurate answers here.

If you are not like me, and don't actually want the chance to be wrong now and then, and improve yourself, then you should find a site without any credibility, that will allow the users to say whatever they want without being challenged.

PJAMOK

Please explain to me how someone could continue to charge on an account after defaulting on payments? Yes, they try to take you to court after the last date of activity. I never said not to go to court. If they have turned it over to collection, she should go to court and make her case. If they are still within the timeframe to sue, she should plead her case. If the time limit has expired, she should ask that the case be thrown out. BUT all this depends on where you live. She needs to know the laws in her state.

JudyKayTee

Okay - I'll explain it.

I have a charge account. I make a payment. I charge something. I don't make the next payment. I charge again because (so far) no one has cancelled the charge privilege. I would venture a guess that "most" people with credit cards make a payment and then charge something else/additional.

The Statute runs from the last charge, not from the last payment.

Statute always works the same way, no matter what your STate - LAST ACTIVITY ON THE ACCOUNT, not the last payment.

PJAMOK

But you ain't gonna do that for long. And the last date of activity should be listed on her credit report.

progunr

Of the thousands of credit reports I have viewed, none has ever indicated the last date that a charge was made.

It only indicates the payment history, and the status of the account.

NEVER the last time something was charged.

JudyKayTee

Once again, you said it goes by the date of the last payment - of course, no one can look that up because it's been deleted.

Be man enough to admit when you're wrong.