If the last payment that was made on a credit card which was obtained in 2000 was in 2005 can this be taken to court? This credit card is through the company that has a lien on my house. Can they legally add the credit card amount owing onto the loan that I have with them without my consent? Mysteriously once the loan was paid (or which I figured it was paid) there seemed to be a balance on the loan for the amount that was on the credit card. When I disputed it and asked for proof that I still owed this amount all of a sudden I started getting letters from the credit card division. Can they put a credit card onto a loan that is secured by collateral? If so would they not have to iinform me of this? I have had no contact with the credit card division since 2005. A

SOL in Ontario is 2 years after 01/01/04.

I would need more information about the company that had the lien on your house and extended credit card. Was it a credit union by chance.

In Ontario, a security interest attaches when value is given, a agreement is signed which includes a description of the collateral sufficient to identify it and the debtor has sufficient interest in the collateral to pledge it.

The lien on the house could never apply to the credit card UNLESS the terms of the credit card so provide in advance.

You would have to review both contracts to determine this.

Please provide more information about the nature of the institution.

The Company is Trans Canada Credit which is now Wells Fargo.

My suggestion is still the same look at your loan agreement with WFF. They could have leant you say $10000.00 and given you a mastecard with a limit of $5000.00 all secured by the house. You can find out the full extent of the lien by going to the local land registry office or reading the lien documents. Still sounds kind of fishy to me.

Do not do anything. Let them come to you. Have them deal with you only in writing. Do not deal with them in writing as they may use that as evidence you acknowledge the debt.

If it were me... here is what I would do. At their next call, ask them in writing to establish that you have made a payment or otherwise acknowledged the debt in the past 2 years. Tell them that you dispute the debt and in the absence of this written information it is statute barred (subject to SOL). Basically tell them to put up or shut up.

I have not had any contact about the mastercard since 2005. The loan due to medical problems I had ended up at a collection agency. I made payments to them paying it off I had thought. I never heard from that company again. Nine months later got a letter from another collection agency not the same one I made payments too saying I still owed $2,400 to Wells Fargo and it had the wells fargo loan acct. number. I wrote to them saying I didn't think I owed them the money and I wanted proof from them (the collection agency) that I owed Wells Fargo this money. I never heard from them again. I also wrote to Wells Fargo back in May 2008 asking for copy of all payments made to them and all charges added to the account. I also listed all the payments (payments always made with postal money orders) which proved to them that the account was paid. To this day I have not received a reply to either letter but started receiving letters from the Credit Card part of Wells Fargo (with credit card account number) for the amount of $2,400 dollars. I believe the credit card division knew that they were unable to collect so tried to collect from the loan division because that division had a lien on the house. I told the collection agency trying to collect on the loan not to contact me in any way until they had proof that I owed the money to Wells Fargo. How can Wells Fargo just change collection agencies when I was making payments to another agency nine months later?

By the way forgot to mention that the last payment was made to alliance one in June of 2007. Never heard from them again. In March 2008 the letter I received came from NCO regarding owing 2,400 to Wells Fargo. It was to NCO that I wrote asking for proof.

Companies like WFF employ more thatn one collection agency. If one is not successful they will pass it on to another. Conversely, if one collection agency does not think they can collect or it is too much work they will send the account back to WFF who then passes it on to #2.

What has likely happened is that your request for information got #1 thinking that you might be too much work so they sent the account back to WFF who sent it off to #2 collection agency.

You are taking the right approach. Deal only with only the most recent contact. Make sure they send you the statutorily mandated letter introducing themselves and who they represent and the balance of the debt. Ask for proof of indebtedness and a statement of account. Tell them that if they sue you they will have to produce this information. Why not now and save some money. Do not give in.

Was the payment in 2007 on the loan or credit card? When did you last pay the credit card directly? These are tow separate contracts with their own SOL unless there is a contract linking the two.

I would suggest the three line approach with the CA and repeat this each time they call until you get the information requested:

- I dispute this debt
- I require a Proof of Indebtedness and a statement of account
- Have a nice day

Every time they call - this is the response. Pretty soon they will get the message. The longer it takes to resolve the more the SOL comes into play. Send nothing to them in writing = everything is verbal.

Wait them out.;

The payment in 2007 was on the loan which I believed to be the final payment. The last payment on the Credit Card was 2005.

Two separate contracts. The mastercard is statute barred provided that there is no contratual linkage with the loan. The mastercard became statute barred in 2007. The SOL on the loan ends in 2009.

Was the loan from WFF a home equity or second mortgage loan?

A mortgage is subject to the Mortgage Act. WFF is subject to Mortgage Broker legislation. There are a lot of issues should this matter proceed to trial.

I had a client who owed WFF a substantial sum of money. The account went to 6 collection agencies. Finally the account became statute barred. With each collection agency, we had to make the same argument that the debt was disputed until the production of the documentation. It was never produced. Our case was a bigger stretch that yours. In that case, WFF lent our client a substantial sum financed by a car. The car was purchased from a dealership. The dealership registered a second lien on the vehicle for the down payment. Client did not make down payment.
Dealer sold car after holding in storage for a year. All proceeds went to dealer. WFF went after client for entire remaining balance. WFF and collection agencies could not or would not disclose this information and how the balance placed for collection was calculated.

We took the position with each subsequent collection agency that, in absence to evidence to the contrary, that the car was sold for sufficient funds to pay of the debt. This went on for about a year and a half until the debt became statute barred.

You can take the same approach. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, you have made sufficient payments to retire the debt. Your real problem is whether the charge against property has been released. This could prevent the mortgage lien from being discharged even if the debt becomes statute barred. I would concentrate on this debt rather than the credit card.

If yiou have other questions...

Thank=you for the help I will only worry about the loan. It was a loan using the house as collateral not a remortgage. The loan was originally for 13,000 it was taken to collections when there was aprox 4,000 left on it. As far as I am figuring from all my money orders I have paid the 4,000. I will just sit back and wait for them to contact me again. Can they just come and lock my doors and repossess without any notice for the 2,400 that they say I still owe even though I have requested that they send detailed readings of how they figured out that I owe 2,400 to them.

What about the interest?

No there is a legal process to follow. They just cannot show up. If they go through that process, the documentation will disclose how the $2400.00 was arrived at.

Thank-you for your help. The interest was in that I paid them about 20,000 in all 13,000 plus interest. Let me tell you I will never deal with these people again. No better than loan sharks preying on people that are in dire need. Unless the collection agency can add interest on their collections I paid what the first collection agency asked for in monthly payments.