I received a Civil Summons for a credit card I had several years ago. The credit limit was only $2,000 and now it is almost $6,000. I do not have a job nor any kind of checking or savings accounts, I am married though and husband works. His name is not on the account. Do I ignore this for now or respond? I was suppose to respond about 3 days ago but I thought I understood someone say just to ignore it and I have heard someone say answer it. Can you go to jail for not answering it? What do I need to do now that I have this? I am assuming someone else bought the account from the credit card company because it says the Plaintiff is First Resolution Investment Corp and they turned it over to their lawyers who is Zarzaur & Schwartz. Can someone tell me what to do. Thank so much

Hello c:

YOU need to tell us what you WANT to do first. Do you want to reach a settlement?? Do you want to defend against the suit? Do you want to tell them to go to hell? Does your husband have good credit?? Do you?? Do you own a house?? Are you on the mortgage or the deed?? Are you a joint owner of ANY of his accounts??

HOW you respond depends on HOW you want to handle the case.

excon

I don't know what I want to do. I don't think it is fair that this company has added all that money to the card when I only had a credit limit of $2,000. How in the world can they add $4,000 worth of interest in an account. I do not have good credit and the only thing I have ever had in my name are credit cards. My husband does not have good credit either due to a bad work related issue that got us in a huge bind. The only thing we have in our name is our vehicles. Our land nor our home is in our name but they are both paid off. No, I am not a joint owner of any of his accounts. I do not mind paying off the money I put on the credit card but $4,000 worth of nonsense is ridiculous. Do I send them a Debt Validation Request letter? It was an old Providian credit card and now it has been through several different companies, I guess it's where companies just continue to buy old accounts from other companies, it is now with First Resolution Investment Corp. It has been sold several times and all these companies are making negative marks on my credit report when this was from Providian.
Thanks for the help.

You don't say how long this balance has been sitting, but its not hard for a balance to triple or more with interest and collection fees even after a few years.

You don't think its fair that they do this? Well they don't think it is fair that you took their money and didn't pay it back! Did you every try looking at it from that angle. How would you feel if you lent someone money and they never paid it back and you lost income on that money and lost additional money try to collect?

But there is good news for you. Providian probably wrote off the balance and sold the debt. Most likely it was sold for pennies on the dollar. So, if you can make a lump sum settlement of say $2-3K, then make them an offer. There is a good chance they will accept.

So what you do now if file an Intent to Defend with the court. Send a copy of that to the plaintiff with a request for verification. In the cover letter, tell them, if they can validate the debt, you might be willing to settle for $2-3K.

You are correct. I did get the card and had intentions on paying it back. I was paying on the card respectively until my husbands paychecks started bouncing in our account and then we started getting behind in everything. Not to mention that every month when my statement came in my balance was not getting lower. It kept accuring interest and my blance was growing. In the end I had o make a choice: feed our family, keep our lights turned on and keep making a vehicle payment or pay a credit card. Sometimes in life you have to let things go and take care of the important things in life that will keep you going. There is no way I can pay them alump sum of $2k-$3k. I live from week to week. If they would let me pay that sum back in payments on somethingI can afford then I could do that. The last time I heard from First Resolution Investment they wanted me to pay a lump sum or make $100.00 monthly payments. I couldn't do that. Thanks

If they garnish your salary, they may get more that $100/mth.

Hello again, ch:

Ok, let's stop all this Mickey Mouse stuff. What's fair or not fair is long past, and doesn't matter a hill of beans anyway. What IS - IS, and this is what IS:

You owe it, and they'll get a judgment for it - AND it's going to be even MORE than the $6K you're complaining about now - a LOT more. It wouldn't surprise me if it got up to $10K with legal fees and court costs.

The next thing you need to know is THERE IS NO MIDDLE GROUND!! Either accept responsibility and pay it, or don't. There isn't ANYTHING else to do. Anything else is silly, because you gain NOTHING.

You are, what's called "judgment proof". Given your situation, that's NOT BAD. Well, it ain't great, but THIS isn't going to make it worse. Your credit is already ruined, and they can't get squat from you EVEN if they do sue and get judgments.

Judgments last around 10 years and can be renewed. So, this can hang around for a while. However, they're not stupid. They're not going to pay a lawyer to go to court just for the hell of it. If they don't think they'll ever collect, they're not going to throw good money after bad. Once they GET that they're not going to get a nickel, they very well may NOT sue you.

What they MIGHT do, is sell the debt to the next bottom feeder for even less than they paid. Course, by this time, your debt ain't worth much.

Write 'em a letter. Tell 'em to stick it because you're judgment proof. Of course, THEY know that. They're just hoping YOU DON'T.

The bad credit comes off your report in 7 years. A judgment wouldn't come off till 10 years.

excon