I have been sued by a Collections Agency for the sum of 1547.86 and am wondering if I should proceed to file an Answer or to settle out of court. A week after the summons I was given a letter telling me if I pay 55% of my amount by the end of the month, the case would be settled. However, when I called them, they gave me a different amount than what the summons says and told me I could pay 55% of $2300.

This is highly suspicious, but I do not want to go to court because if I lose the case, I would have to pay more than what they are offering to let me settle.

Is there a way for me to avoid a trial or settle out of court for a reasonable monthly payment plan or should I go to court and challenge these people?

What type od debt is this, is it really your debt, when was the last payment made on this debt. Do not agree to anything at this point. We must figure out if the statute of limitations has run out yet or not.

This is a credit card debt. It says on the summons that they are suing me for the charges made on the credit card on the date of April 30, 2008.

Sorry if I wasn't clear before.

Most likely what you were sued for, now here is additional fees, court fees, legal fees, filing fees and so on.

Unless you can prove the debt is not yours or prove it was already paid, they are going to win ,

So a settlement at this point is very fair

" is it really your debt" did you make the purchase on the card, is it yours?

Yes, I believe I made the purchases on the card. However, I feel that they are asking for more than I paid or accrued.

Do you have statements? I would ask for an itemized list of charges incurred but I don't think they have to give it to you, seeing as they would have sent you statements since you got the card.

Many banks have online accounts were you can check your balance and charges. You may want to look into it, see if their figures match yours.

Bottom line, if you charged then you have to pay. If they're offering to let you get away with paying half then that's a pretty sweet deal and I'd take it.

Thanks for the info. I'm going to ask for my statements before I pay for any settlement outside of court. If they can't provide it, I'll take it to court and do what Mr. Yet has suggested in many other threads.

Okay I just received the same summons from the mail about 26 days after my first summons was put in my mailbox by a police officer. It doesn't seem like a copy as the court stamp is new, but the date of the stamp is consistent with the first summons I received.

I called the court to verify my case number and they said it was legit. Should I be concerned? What was the purpose of sending me 2 summons? I don't even know who sent me the second one.