Collection agency bought my debt, can they collect?

[chane]

Originally Posted by Flypilot

Heres the deal..... Yes we owe the debt. However, When the credit card company proceeded to raise our rate from 3.9% to 32.9% when we were not more than 14 days past the due date and then close the account on us after we gave them hell, I gave them a choice....

1) you can lower our rate back down and show the account on our reports as open and active

OR

Simply, were done making payments....

Our payment went from $450.00/month to $1,050/month.

There was no way to keep making the pmts...

Now it is charged off and shows a zero balance on the reports.


Flypilot

Yikes, that is a bad situation. You may find that teaching them a lesson will get you sued and add even more to the debt. It's possible for them to garnish wages if they get a judgment. This problem won't legally disappear until after the statute of limitations is up. That's usually 5 to 7 years. They can attempt to legally collect on it and even sue until that time period is over.

Hopefully they won't sue you. If they do, hopefully the judge won't make you pay them. If the judge makes you pay them, hopefully they don't garnish wages.

[creditwrench]

Originally Posted by chane

Yikes, that is a bad situation. You may find that teaching them a lesson will get you sued and add even more to the debt. It's possible for them to garnish wages if they get a judgment. This problem won't legally disappear until after the statute of limitations is up. That's usually 5 to 7 years. They can attempt to legally collect on it and even sue until that time period is over.

Statutes of limitations vary from state to state. The lowest I know of is 3 years and the longest I know of is 20 years

Hopefully they won't sue you.

Hopefully? They sue in the greatest percentage of cases and almost always win almost no matter what the defendant does or how he defends. Plaintiffs are almost automatically granted judgments.

If they do, hopefully the judge won't make you pay them.

The judge can't issue the judgment and order the defendant to pay at the same hearing in most states. It is usually necessary for the plaintiff to wait a certain period of time before proceeding to garnishment. That period of time varies from state to state as well depending on the state's rules of civil procedure

If the judge makes you pay them, hopefully they don't garnish wages.

The defendant can hope against hope but they can and will garnish bank accounts, wages and whatever other assets can be garnished. Some states forbid garnishment of wages but most will allow it.

[ewitte]

I was disputing the hospital fees for my wife and trying to get them to send me the proper forms and they sent to collections 3 times. As soon as I got the collections notice I sent them a cease and desist order telling them I'd only deal with the hospital. I was refusing to pay them more than 20% over what medicare would have gotten paid (court ruling this is the fair rate). Lots of hospitals want to charge the uninsured 300% or more. They kept sending to different agencies instead of dealing with me as I requested. Finally when the state (I filed a HIPPA complaint) got the hospital to send the papers it said it was written off on it. I still have about 2.5 years left on the statute of limitations for this state so holding my fingers it stays that way.