Quick background story: I grew up a very spoiled girl. In high school I dated a not so great guy, my parents hated him. They cut me off financially. My solution was to get credit cards..Of course I had every intention of paying but like we all seem to know, it racks up and becomes out of control. They charged off, placed in collections, etc etc. Being 18, you dont really read the fine print, you dont know much about credit, credit scores etc.

( I'm not blaming my parents. He was a scumbag. But they cut me off to the point that I was buying every basic essential needed on my own. Working 18 hours a week-minimum wage/high school student, entering college, student loans=money owed exceeded money earned )


Currently I'm 21. I'm actually working at a collection agency. I know the ins & outs of credit now. I know people are sued frequently for money owed. With my check Friday i was finally able to budget myself to pay current bills as well as have some extra to pay off all my bad debt.


Today I get served with papers..Taken to court for one of my debts. I know they can essentially garnish my wages etc....

I'm just wondering if anyone has been in this situation..I'm not sure how to go about all this. Try and settle something out with the company? I cant pay the balance in full at the present time, but can do monthly payments..

If anyone has ANY advice at all please let me know

* I know this is a personal matter so if someone was willing to share feel free to pm me. *



This sitation along with DB's bad luck over there has made it one hell of a saturday!


Thank you for
:duh listening!

I would def. call the collection agency, they may be willing to work out a payment plan with you. It will save them court costs and oher costs it's worth at least trying.

Call the attorney office that is suing you and see if they'll agree to you making some sort of payments per month. It's called a Stipulation. If an agreement can be made with regards to the Stipulation, you may be alright. I do collection lawsuits quite often and if you can come to some sort of agreement, they won't garnish your wages unless you default (don't make a payment). If you have anymore questions, you can PM me.

Most collection agencies will offer two options - pay in full (often a slightly reduced rate) or payment plan where you pay monthly and pay the full amount owed. They get paid whichever you do (so long as you pay) so you should be able to set that up. I would call the collection agency and if they don't help you, call the creditor directly. Sometimes the creditor will put you on a payment plan (depends on the company though, some say once it goes into collections you have to deal with the collector). I'd figure out exactly how much you can definitely afford, and then call.

Frankly, a court would likely put you on payments anyway if you can't afford the lump sum so this saves them the fees. So long as you contact them and follow through with whatever you set up, you should be fine (but make sure they send you something in writing agreeing to whatever you set up or you might find you call back and they didn't notate it. That happened to someone I know).

:agree with the girls. I haven't been in that situation so I don't reallt know. GOOD LUCK

Thank you!!!

Thank you all so much!

:hugs just wanted to say good luck.

I avoid credit cards like the plague.... I'm addicted to shopping waaaay too badly. I made my DB confiscate my Macy's card because I got sick of making payments. Luckily I just paid it off :D

But good for you for doing what you had to in order to take care of yourself. I hope it all works out for you.... just remember, it's not the end of the world :) :hugs

If I were you I would google 'debt collection statute of limitations" and see what the length of time is in the state that you opened the credit cards and the state you live in now (if different). See if the statute of limitations has set in: if it has, then you can use that as your defense, either in court, or first I would write a letter to the collection's agency stating that you will use that as your defense. They will most likely drop the case altogether, knowing they would probably not win. (The statute of limitations is as low as 3 years in some states, so this could be the case for you.)

Then I'd google "debt validation" and "FCRA" and read up on it. Know your rights. If you haven't already accepted these debts as your own and started making payments on them you could have them removed from your credit report altogether.

When dealing with collections agencies, only communicate in letters and always send them RRR and keep the green card they sign when they receive it. If you send them a letter requesting validation of a debt and they simply do not get back to you within 30 days of when they signed the RR, then they legally have to stop reporting the debt to the credit agencies. You would be amazed at how often they just don't respond to your first letter!! It's that simple sometimes, but yet it may take you a few follow up letters letting them know you know your rights, and a letter to the credit reporting agency to get them to remove it.

To get your credit cleared up can take years - literally - and a lot of record keeping (save everything! take notes!) but it can be done with just a little work.

Oh - and even if you pay a debt off to a collection's agency, unless you have them stipulate IN WRITING that they will STOP REPORTING the debt completely, and not report it in the future, they will just keep reporting it as "paid in full" but it will STILL BE A NEGATIVE on your credit report - for SEVEN YEARS.

So make sure that if you do accept a debt as yours, and decide to pay it off, whether payments or in full, do not do so until you get a signed letter stating that once the debt is paid off they will completely STOP reporting it. Otherwise, you've paid the debt off and gotten nothing in return (your credit rating will still be bad).

Good luck, if you need more help, PM me!

Usually they're happy to be getting ANYthing from you- happy enough to delay any kind of legal action as long as they're getting something regularly. Debt sucks. You never feel secure while you're dealing with collections. Good luck!

I've never been in that situation so I don't have any great advice...but I hope you get things figured out...good luck!

You can call them directly and see if they will take away some of the interest fees or any late charges to lower the amount, then get set up with a payment plan at a lower interest. My mom used to be a third party arbitrator. They can help a lot with this kind of thing. They just want their money, and are usually willing to make a deal... Good luck!!

It totally depends on the company and how much you owe. I do this sort of defense work everyday (I did collections law for 2 1/2 years and now I do consumer legal aid work). I've noticed that a lot of companies aren't willing to negotiate good settlements anymore. It depends on the amount of the debt. If you PM me, I can give you a good idea of what they will want from you and what you can probably negotiate it down to. It's literally all I do, all the time.

One thing I do want to point out though is that a court is probably NOT going to put you on payments. Here in California, the judge gives judgments and that's it. You don't get payment plans unless your wages are already being garnished. Then you challenge the garnishment and can get payments set by the court. It's much easier to do a stipulation prior to settlment if you can afford the payments. BUT, if you fall of the plan they will take a judgment against you without taking you back to court and you're back to square one.

If you want more advice, PM me.

Ugh Debt. Don't remind me. I know so many 21ish year olds filing bankruptcy now.

I have been through the court process and the garnishment process if you have any specific questions that the others have not answered please feel free to pm me and I will be happy to help