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sav4000 · Apr 7, 2008, 10:49 AM

Hello! My fiancé has received a civil summons from a law firm representing Discover card. My fiancé has never had a discover card in his life. His parents hae one, but the civil summons is for him. He has never received a bill or a letter or a phone call. Apparently the card balance has been outstanding since march 10, 2006 (now its April 6, 2008). When he received the summons it had a photo copy of discovers credit card terms, but it did not have the written agreement of payment plans, nor a signed agreement of anything. His signature was nowhere to be found. He never signed anything with discover and the summons said that included in this summons pack was the copy of the terms and a copy of a written agreement, but the photocopy of terms was the only thing included.

It says that my fiancé is in default under the terms of that note or credit agreement, in that said defendant has failed to make the payments due thereunder. But her has never had a credit card!

Any information would be very helpful!!

Fr_Chuck · Apr 7, 2008, 10:53 AM

Reply that he intends to defend hisself. State that he has never had such a card and that if there is one in his name it must be a fraud or a stolen Identity. Ask them in separate letter to provide the address where the bill and card was opened at. Once you have that, file a police report for a stolen ID.

You also need to check his credit history and see if there are any other open accounts in his name.

Also as a note before you do too much, have him check with his parents, sadly some parents who got into money troubles where known to open credit card accounts in their kids names, so before you start pressing charges against them, you may want to ask or tell them about this and that you are going to get the police invovled, (something with tact of course)

ScottGem · Apr 7, 2008, 11:17 AM

As Chuck indicated the first thing is to answer the summons with his Intent to Defend. Stating that he never applied for, posssesed or used a Discover card. Next, send a copy of that letter to the plaintiff requesting verification of this debt.

Then wait to be assigned a court date. If the plaintiff does not produce a signed copy of the application or contract you go into court and state that you never applied for such a card and the plaintiff has not produced proof that he did and request a dismissal.

sav4000 · Apr 7, 2008, 03:56 PM

We went online and got his credit report, the discover card did show up on it and says that the card was opened in August 2004 and closed February 2006. Someone somehow opened an account with discover using all of his info (his social sec #, his address, his name,) and his own mother doesn't even know his social security, but discover told us that she authorized it. So apparently he opened the account and she authorized it (she was right there with us when we did all the calling to the card company). To make things even more confusing, when we called them back later this afternoon they told us that his grandfather and his father were on the account also, which didn't make since. First it was only his mom, now it's his dad and grandpa too. His grandfather passed away of cancer in December of 2006. We know that he never had any cards nor does his father. This makes it even more strange, apparently whoever opened the account had been paying it regularly from August 2004 up until June 2005. My fiancé was in college during that time and had no money in his account, so someone somewhere or something has been having the payments drawn out of their account and apparently they have run out of funds in June of 2005 and haven't paid on it since. We called the credit card company and asked for a record of charges, they said they will go back into their archives and we can call tomorrow for those records.

ScottGem · Apr 7, 2008, 06:45 PM

They say his mom authorized it. What proof do they have of it? You don't want a record pf charges. What you want is documentation of who opened the account, where statements were sent, etc.

sav4000 · Apr 7, 2008, 09:08 PM

They told us that since the payment agreement was that they would automatically withdraw money from whoevers account, they didn't send a bill or statement, so that explains why we didn't get any bills. But you would think they would contact us over the phone when the payments from whoever were passed due. They have his home address and phone number on the supposed account which happens to be where his mother, father and grandma live. His grandfather also lived here before he passed away. I will take your advice tomorrow and tell him to ask for the documentation of the account. Thank you very much you are very helpful!

ScottGem · Apr 8, 2008, 06:05 AM

If that was the payment agreement, then they have to provide proof of that. They also need to provide details of the account they were debiting this from. The request for documentation needs to be in writing. Has he sent in his Intent to Defend to the court yet? He has to do that right away. Then send a copy of that to the plaintiff with the request for documentation. You should not be using the phone for this, all correspondence should be in writing. If you do say anything on the phone, follow it up in writing.

JudyKayTee · Apr 8, 2008, 07:17 AM

Originally Posted by sav4000

They told us that since the payment agreement was that they would automatically withdraw money from whoevers account, they didn't send a bill or statement, so that explains why we didn't get any bills. But you would think they would contact us over the phone when the payments from whoever were passed due. They have his home address and phone number on the supposed account which happens to be where his mother, father and grandma live. His grandfather also lived here before he passed away. I will take your advice tomorrow and tell him to ask for the documentation of the account. Thank you very much you are very helpful!

This was a credit card but it was the policy of the company NOT to send statements, they just automatically withdrew the monthly payment from "someone's" account? In theory no one ever checked to see if the charges were, in fact, legitimate?

Makes absolutely no sense - something is missing here.

If the payments were made directly out of someone's account that account info will appear on the records and the mystery will be solved.

ScottGem · Apr 8, 2008, 07:51 AM

While some cards afre now offering paperless billing, I don't think it was as prevalent 3 years ago. Even with paperless billing, you would get an e-mail informing you that a statement was ready for viewing online. I think they will have a hard time proving that this your husband's account.

sav4000 · Apr 8, 2008, 12:44 PM

For some reason when we asked for the charge record or whose bank account its coming out of they keep sending us to their law firm. It's like they don't want to talk to us. Yesterday they said they would find the charge records and that we should call back today so they can go over it with us. So we called today and now they told us it would be 120 days until we can get the charge record, and every time we question it they send us to a law firm. We did however talk to the law firm and we setup payment arrangements in case we decide to just pay the amount owed ($5,089.11). But if it truly is an issue of this card not being his then we will defend in court. We have never received a card, nor have we received anything saying we were passed due on the card. We think that whoseever account the money is coming from has closed and they weren't able to withdraw money. It can't be my fiance's or his mothers, because their accounts are still open and they looked at their statements and neither of them have had anything withdrawn.

ScottGem · Apr 8, 2008, 06:53 PM

Originally Posted by sav4000

. We did however talk to the law firm and we setup payment arrangements in case we decide to just go ahead and pay the amount owed ($5,089.11).

NO! NO! NO! Haven't you been paying attention to the advice you've been given? You don't offer a settlement or payment arrangements until they verify the debt!! That can be construed as acknowledging the debt.

Have you answered the summons yet?

DO NOT call anyone anymore. Correspond in writing only.If you haven't already, ANSWER the summons. Then do what you were told and send a copy of your answer to the plaintiffs requesting verification of the debt. Then wait for the hearing.

JudyKayTee · Apr 9, 2008, 05:25 AM

Originally Posted by ScottGem

NO! NO! NO! Haven't you been paying attention to the advice you've been given? You don't offer a settlement or payment arrangements until they verify the debt!!! That can be construed as acknowledging the debt.

Have you answered the summons yet?

DO NOT call anyone anymore. Correspond in writing only.If you haven't already, ANSWER the summons. Then do what you were told and send a copy of your answer to the plaintiffs requesting verification of the debt. Then wait for the hearing.

The OP isn't listening because in my opinion there is more to this story. In one post the quote is: "So apparently he opened the account and she authorized it (she was right there with us when we did all the calling to the card company)." That sentence alone makes no sense - he opened the account but she (his mother) authorized payment from her account?

I can't imagine anyone who has so vehemently denied knowledge of a credit card and has found out it is and has been on his credit report being served and making arrangements to pay the over $5,000 balance in the event it really is his card after all - ?

I'm sure the OP is being referred to the law firm so that there is one version out there, one set of requests for information, one person handling the account.

Sorry but something doesn't ring true to me.

sav4000 · Apr 10, 2008, 01:24 AM

I've told him to do everything you have said. He is going to write a request of all information. I don't understand the whole thing myself, but I have tried to tell the story in the best way that I can. I'm sorry if it is confusing, because it sure is confusing to me!

JudyKayTee · Apr 10, 2008, 04:30 AM

Originally Posted by sav4000

i've told him to do everything you have said. he is going to write a request of all information. I don't understand the whole thing myself, but i have tried to tell the story in the best way that i can. i'm sorry if it is confusing, because it sure is confusing to me!

And this is way over the line and I admit it's off base but I would think twice before marrying someone who is so financially irresponsible. Or else keep separate bank accounts. If he tells you he knows nothing about this account but is willing to pay it for whatever reason... I'd be really cautious. It has nothing to do with being a good person - some people are just lousy with their finances.