Charge off credit card

Question

I have an old account with credit union that was charged off July 2009. I contacted the bank and they refuse to speak in detail about the account! I was quickly given the number to collection agency who has the account. I contacted collection company a few years ago and per the rep she said I was sued for the debt and I didn't show up to court! She also stated its in public records! Because of that I have to pay original debt owed plus court fees and interest! I never got served with paper to go court! Public records on all my credit reports are 0! Not only that this collection company isn't on my report? The account is due to drop off next year! For the last few years I've done a good job obtaining accounts I constantly get pre approval letters but I don't need any more accounts! Should I pay or wait till it drops off?

Answer 1

UncleB wrote:
TiggerDat wrote:
I would call the collection agency back and ask for details such as the court it was filed in, the case number, and the date of filing or judgement.  You might find they won't be able to give you such info if they are simply trying to scare you.  Also ask for the information in writing and get their fax number and fax a request.  If they are not being honest with you then that is against the law.  A CA can't threaten you with a lawsuit, unless they truly intend to do so, however some of the less than up and up ones do it all the time.  I have been contacted about an old debt that I cannot be sued for about two years now.  It is for the same debt each time.  I send them faxes for a cease and desist and then some 'other' company calls me and starts the whole process over again.  They tell me they are going to sue, they tell me the debt is valid because I made payment arrangements, and they tell me other things too.  I ask for their physical address and most times they tell me they don't have to give it to me and that they will only give me a PO Box.  Sometimes they give me a physical address, which I Google, usually while on the phone with them, and point out that either that address doesn't exist or it is for a McDonalds.  (No it never has actually been a McDonalds, but it has never been a valid address for them.)  Even though it is a different name when the whole process starts over, I am certain that some of the representatives have the same name.  I think they use a name of another CA, or something similar, so if people ever can find an address it leads to a dead end.  The last time I got a call was on June 19 and I called them back and they said they would remove from their system.  Since then I actually haven't received another call.  I am waiting though. Once they said they were going to sue me and then changed it to the creditor was going to sue me.  The creditor was GE which is now Sychrony.  I guess Synchrony doesn't really care too much at this point because I have $4000 Wally World card, a $9600 PayPal Card, and now a $5000 Lowes Card with them.  Did your address change?  If so they could have simply served the paperwork to the old address, which is allowed by law if there is no forwarding address.  However, you might just find they are the likes as to what I have described above.  You might be surprised how many CAs don't actually follow the law and don't tell you the truth.  I had one which called one of my credit card companies and posed as me to find out my available balance and then offer to settle for that exact amount.  There is no way they could have known my available balance, as it was different than that which was on my credit reports!  They were more than willing to settle for less, much less when I pointed that out and told them that the bank was ready and willing to testify against them for my account having been accessed illegally, since the bank wanted to protect their own liability.  The bank never said they would do that, but I figured if they were going to do such a thing, then what harm would there be if I let them think the bank was willing to do so. I agree, except that if a judgement is already in place there's technically not a 'threat' of a lawsuit - the judgement means the lawsuit has already happened, and the OP lost by default (default judgement).  This is why I mentioned the option of checking to see if a lawyer can get it vacated, i.e. like it didn't happen, due to not being properly served.  The 'good news' is that even with a judgement, it's the plaintiff's burden to search out any possibly funds that can be used to satisfy the judgement; the court does not assist with this.  If it's a small dollar amount, it's not likely the creditor will even bother, but as always, YMMV.If, being the key word here, if there was really a judgement and the OP was properly served then it is doubtful that it can be vacated.  The OP does state later that they did not change addresses and this probably means that the CA was really just trying to scare them.  If the CA already had a judgement, they would have pursued it and started seizing funds or garnishing wages.