First Step

These companies purchase Debt Portfolios from banks that have deemed accounts uncollectable. As I have stated above these accounts are purchased for pennies on the dollar. Your account and name are then put into their system and the collection process begins.

First it will start off with phone calls. Don’t Answer the Phone. Then they will start mailing you collection notices. For those of you who choose to send the old Debt Validation letter if you get lucky and receive a letter back stating that they cannot verify the debt and have ceased collections fantastic! But for others we are now dealing with an answered Debt Validation Letter and a Lawsuit to follow.

For those of you who just ignore the collection letters depending on the company these letters and phone calls will continue for months maybe even years. However, some companies will wait until after the 30 days for you to dispute the debt has expired and put you into another part of the system that is awaiting a lawsuit.

Once you are put into the “Awaiting Lawsuits” file they start getting dirty and start checking your credit reports for assets.
The first sign that you are going to be sued is for you to monitor your credit reports and request an email alert for anyone digging into your credit. Once you start seeing inquiries made by Collection Lawyers it’s just a matter of time.

The Collection Lawyer is checking your credit report and looking for your Assets to see if you are worth suing or not. They will check to see if you are making house payments, other credit card payments, and car payments. Heck, maybe you even own a boat or some vacation property who knows they will dig into your credit report and chances are that if you own a home or a car they are going to sue you.

Capital One Bank© is well known for suing people regardless if they are worth suing or not! They’ll sue you for $100 they don’t care.

If you have messed up credit, late payments, don’t own a car or home, chances are they are not going to waste their time and sue you because you have no assets that they can put liens on.

After you notice the attorney was looking through your credit give it about 30-90 days before the sheriff comes knocking on your door with a lawsuit.

There is a huge difference between the bank you opened up your credit card with and the company that purchased your debt.

The Original Creditor is the Bank that you signed your Credit Card contract with. The bank is the one you agreed to all the fine print with.

A Junk Debt Buyer is a company who purchases thousands of accounts from that original creditor these accounts are all past due or charged off accounts that get put into what is called a Debt Portfolio and are sold off to companies , your account probably was included within that sale. The reason those accounts and yours are sold is because the original creditor wrote off your debt and sold it to this company because it was deemed uncollectable. So along with the write off the bank gets to make they also make thousands of dollars selling off these uncollected accounts to another company to make some more money.

These Junk Debt Buyers probably bought your account for literally pennies on the dollar. Yes people that means that if you owe $3,000.00 to your Original Creditor the Junk Debt Buyer probably bought that $3,000.00 account for around $10.00-30.00.

Now the way the Junk Debt Buyer works is they have a bunch of Collection Attorneys lined up around the United States. The bigger the company the more lawyers they have working for them. The Junk Debt Buyer who buys your account for $10.00-30.00 will turn around and send you a bill for the $3,000.00 you actually owed the original creditor, plus late fees and interest. Now that $3,000.00 turns into maybe over $5,000.00 with the late fees and interest tacked onto that bill.
If you call them to make payment arrangements or cut them a check for the full amount that Junk Debt Buyer just made a $4,970.00 commission. Scary isn’t it?

If the Statute of Limitations have run out you have every right to throw the letters away, and not answer the phone calls. The Debt Collection Company has every right to continue to call you and send you letters even if the debt is Time Barred though. A debt is a debt and they have the right to collect.

But they CAN NOT threaten to sue you nor can they file a lawsuit knowing this is a time barred debt. BUT SOME DO anyways. And that is when you tell the court that the debt is time barred.

Now as I have said with the annoying phone calls and letters some people just say heck with it I’ll pick it up to get these people off of my back and talk with the person on the other end. That’s what they want you to do, pick up the phone.

In some states making the tiniest payment toward that debt can re-start the clock. So let’s say you owe $700 and you make a $35.00 payment. The latest trick they are wanting you to fall for is to make that tiny payment toward your debt so that they can NOW SUE YOU. They hope you are stupid and make a payments. That sets you up to pay the entire BILL. Making any type of payment will have you admitting that it is your debt, and you owe them money. So think twice.

Alot of people do not know that in some states just making a tiny payment can re-start the Statute of Limitations which will open you up for a lawsuit. Put up with the annoyance of phone calls and letters! Let this thing die.

If you have OLD CREDIT CARD DEBT and you know that your statute of limitations have run out the best thing for you to do is put up with the old letters, put up with the phone calls ( or change your phone number ) but if it was me I WOULD NEVER EVER make any payment what so ever toward the debt because it is a total set up to re-start the clock. I guarantee once I made that payment within the next few weeks a sheriff will be knocking on my door with a Summons!

There are lawyers and people out there who are defending Collection Agencies saying basically TOO BAD if the consumer didn’t know that a tiny payment would start the clock again, that’s their problem, they owe the money and they should pay their debt. Collection Agencies will not let you know the debt is time barred that is up to you to know this. They are not going to help you. Just like a court can not help you by telling you the debt is time barred.

Time Barred Debts should be left to die not be resuscitated!

When you are sued for credit card debt depending on if it is the original creditor or a collection agency it really does make a difference. For instance, if you are being sued by an original creditor chances are they will have all the documents on file to prevail in court but they could easily slip up and break some court rules along the way giving you a win. Collection Agencies on the other hand really never have any documents to prevail in court.

Other things that matter when being sued for a credit card is how old the debt is. It could be beyond your Statute of Limitations. The older the debt the harder it is to prove.

Alot of Collection Lawyers think that just by giving you a Summons that they are going to win because they will assume you won’t hire a lawyer or fight the credit card lawsuit at all so they’ll win a default judgment. Please tell me you aren’t this stupid. You might as well write them out a check now if you are thinking about ignoring that Summons, that would be the biggest mistake you’ll ever make.

One of the many reasons I made this website is to inform consumers on how easy it is to win your credit card suit. Even though Capital One was the Original Creditor in my lawsuit I still defeated them. How? Because I became informed and learned my Court Rules and followed them. Capital One on the other hand did NOT follow them therefore bit the dust.

There is a ton of information on this website that can help you become informed about your own lawsuit not to mention the Defendant’s Package that is offered on this website than can help you WIN your lawsuit.

So many people just ignore their Summons and that my friend will land you in deep trouble. They could get a default judgment against you win all the money, garnish your wages and garnish your bank account, put a Lien on your house and do so much more damage not to mention embarrass the hell out of you. With a judgment in hand these guys won’t stop and if you think that just because you have no assets now that they can’t touch you just watch when the judgment is about to expire they will get it re-newed for another 10 years and continue to come after you. YES, they are this nasty.

In order to get out of this mess you either need to hire a lawyer or defend the lawsuit yourself and as I have said hundreds of times over it is EASIER than you think it is.

The Complaint would list Numbered Paragraphs with each paragraph stating a count against you and listing facts per the Plaintiff.

For example here is my Complaint from Capital One Bank this is the exact complaint that was given to me by Capital One the CASE that I WON:
COMES NOW the Plaintiff, CAPITAL ONE BANK (USA), N.A. Fka CAPITAL ONE BANK, by counsel, and for its claim for relief against Defendant(s) MY NAME WENT HERE.

(1) Plaintiff is a national bank authorized to do business in the State of Indiana and the Defendant is a resident of the county of MY COUNTY WENT Here.

(2) The Defendant opened a MasterCard charge account with Plaintiff, agreeing to make monthly payments as required by the terms of the Charge Agreement, for purchases charged to the Account.

(3) The Defendant did make purchases and charged the same to the account, but the Defendant failed to make the monthly payments called for on the account. There is an account stated in the amount of $—– See Client Affidavit as Plaintiff’s Exhibit 1.

(4) Plaintiff, declared Defendant to be in default and demands payment of the balance.

WHEREFORE, the Plaintiff prays for judgment against the Defendant in the amount of $—– plus costs and interest at the rate of 8% annum, pursuant to IC 24-4-6-1-101.

I would then use the Complaint that was attached to my summons and Answer my summons using each paragraph with a denial or admission and then list all of my affirmative defenses.

Consider my Credit Card Complaint pretty plain and simple. Others out there might have 20 paragraphs, 10 paragraphs or maybe even less. The less paragraphs the easier it is to answer the complaint.

After Answering the Summons with Affirmative Defenses I would file this with my court, send a copy off to the Plaintiff Certified Mail and then keep a copy for my records.

A Credit Card Complaint again will list the Plaintiff’s Reasonings set in paragraphs of all the counts and facts they have against you. It’s as simple as that.

Do you see what is wrong with saying that?

I’ll tell you why it’s wrong: First of all do you have any proof to back up that claim that even though you know for a fact that the debt is beyond the Statute of LImitations do you have any proof???

The judge will not dismiss your case because you say so.

Works both ways with the Plaintiff. If the Plaintiff says YES this debt is within the Statute of Limitations they must PROVE that it is. So EVERYONE please make sure you have something to back up your defense because if you don’t, remember, just by you saying that YOUR DEBT is beyond the Statute of Limitations you have totally admitted that the DEBT IS YOUR DEBT and that is bad and can blow your entire case.

Look through all your old files, call the Credit Bureaus, get copies of your credit reports, get someone from the Credit Bureau to sign an affidavit, find the last check you wrote to the Original Creditor. Back yourself up here people. Don’t jump the gun and assume that the judge is going to believe you with no facts.

Just as a Collection Attorney must prove his case with the proper Documentation you as the Defendant must prove your Defense as well.

I am not saying that you will lose, I am saying that you cannot go to a Hearing or File a Motion to Dismiss without the proper proof to back it up. Courts don’t just believe it because you say it. You must prove it. That is why it is so easy to win against Collection Agencies because 99% of them don’t have the Documents to prevail.

If you cannot prove the debt is past the Statue of Limitations remember to list this in your Affirmative Defenses and try and make the Plaintiff prove that it IS which they wouldn’t be able to do.

With Credit Cards the day your payment is due varies, your contract changes, your payments change monthly etc., So Credit Cards do not fall into the “Written Contract”.

When you are sued for an Open Account the first thing you want to do is check your Statute of Limitations under “Open Accounts” Click Here and see if the debt is past your Statute of Limitations. If it is and you have proof such as old checks made out to the original creditor, bank payments, old credit card statements anything to prove this you know you would be able to get it dismissed.

If the debt is still within your State’s Statute of Limitations that’s another story.

You would have to start by using your Local Court Rules to make sure that the Plaintiff has not broken any of those rules such as not attaching the Card Agreement/ Contract, the Assignment etc., each state has different rules in regards to what needs to be attached to your Complaint. Check those rules and start picking away because 99% of Collection Attorneys screw up right from the beginning.

If all is set there you would have to Answer your Summons and list your Affirmative Defenses and file a copy with the Court, send a copy to the plaintiff, and keep a copy for your own records. After a week or so you should hear back from the Plaintiff if they even want to bother with people who are smart enough to Answer Their Summons.

Another great thing to consider is checking your Court Rules under discovery to see if you can send discovery off to the Plaintiff the same day you Answer Your Summons that would give you a Great Advantage over the Plaintiff in regards to the Discovery Process. Ask them for all kinds of documentation. I asked them for documents I KNOW they didn’t have and had debt collectors folding left and right.

Beating a Lawsuit for an Open Account against a Collection Agency is very simple if you know your rights and understand what you are doing it can be as simple as a walk in the park.

As I say to all my visitors if you know your Court Rules those Court Rules can win your case for you right there all you have to do is read them!

I find it really funny looking around the internet at people writing articles or coming up with affiliate websites ranting and raving about dealing with Collection Lawsuits and they have no idea what they are talking about and what they throw out there can really be damaging to ones case.

When filing a Motion to Dismiss against a Collection Agency in regards to them not complying with a Court Rule:

People who do not know what they are talking about are the ones who will say ” MAKE SURE YOU PUT WITH PREJUDICE IN YOUR MOTION AND NOT PREJUDICE BECAUSE THEN THEY CAN’T SUE YOU AGAIN”.

Ok let’s get something straight if you are filing your very first Motion to Dismiss against a Collection Agency for failure to comply with a court rule and you put Wherefore, the Defendant, prays blah blah blah and that this Complaint be dismissed with prejudice and you really expect the judge to just sign that off Grant it with Prejudice you need to wake up.

Here you are telling the judge that the Plaintiff failed to comply with so and so court rule and you want it dismissed with prejudice, but if you really knew what you were doing you would keep digging into your own court rules and read them because almost every state allows the Plaintiff 30 days to Amend their Original Complaint to Comply with the Rule you said they did not comply with and the Motion you sent off to the Judge will be Dismissed without Prejudice because of that fact regardless giving the Plaintiff 30 days to Amend REGARDLESS.

The Judge will look at this and go OK the Plaintiff failed to attach the Contract so now I’ll give him 30 days to do so. Which means AMEND so NO you won’t get a Dismissal with Prejudice.

And if you just get a Dismissal without Prejudice in the mail and you don’t see anything about the judge giving the Plaintiff time to Amend that is a given. 

Without prejudice means that they can re-sue you for the same Debt. All they need to do is Amend their Complaint to comply and the Lawsuit is back on. With Prejudice means it is OVER they can never sue you again for that debt. They screwed up and lost. It’s O.V.E.R.

So read your Court Rules and learn how to ask for the proper Dismissal.

A little hint would be asking for the Court to Order the Plaintiff to Comply with that Court Rule by Amending their Complaint within 30 days and for Dismissal WITH Prejudice for Failure to do so.  Because now not only are you giving the Plaintiff those 30 days to comply(what they are entitled too anyways) you are also requesting that if they don’t comply that the court dismiss the case with prejudice.  Now you’ve given them one hell of a punch and are basically forcing them to comply and if they can’t SEE YOU LATER.  If the judge grants that and they fail to comply well ba’ bye they are D.O.N.E.

You could also ask for a Dismissal without Prejudice and get it but again they can RE-SUE you by Amending so why not ask for a Dismissal with Prejudice if they don’t Amend????

Something to consider………………

Remember how you word things to the Judge really does matter. You need to make yourself clear on what it is you are requesting from the court.

Check your credit report and you will see Charge OFF.

If you are lucky the bank that you opened the credit card with won’t send your account to their in-house collections department.  If you have not been sued by the bank within 2 years of your last payment well consider yourself lucky to an extent.  The bank will then in turn put your account along with hundreds of others into a Debt Portfolio and sell that off to a 3rd Party Collection Agency which is better known as the Dreaded Junk Debt Buyer.

Another year or so may go by maybe even more and all of a sudden you start to get phone calls and collection notices in the mail from the Junk Debt Buyer you bought your account from the bank that you refused to pay and that is where it just begins…..

Some people will choose to send a Debt Validation Letter in which they are suprised to find out that not only was it answered but a Summons came along right with it.

Other people will ignore the Collection Letters and Phone Calls and receive a Summons within a month of that Collection Agency snooping around your Credit Report.

What I’m getting at is regardless of what you do these guys want your money. They have only paid pennies on the dollar for your account and want to cash in the thousands of dollars they are going to make off of your lawsuit.

You will see the Amount you owe them plus interest and even Attorney Fees tacked on.. if the Debt is time barred they don’t care they want their money.

Junk Debt Buyers are connected to Collection Attorneys in almost every single State in the U.S.A. so it doesn’t matter where you live they will find someone to sue you.

Now if you ask me I’d rather be sued by a Junk Debt Buyer over Old Credit Card Debt than be sued by an Original Creditor for almost new Credit Card Debt because the older the Credit Card Debt is the harder it is to prove in a court of law.  Junk Debt Buyers will have a really hard time trying to come up with all the documents to win in court so 95% shoot for a Default Judgment.

If you are being sued for Old Credit Card Debt and it is within the Statute of Limitations to collect this should be an open and shut case for you if you know what you are doing. Chances are that these Junk Debt Buyers will not have any credit card statements, contract, cardholders agreement, and will simply rely on a crappy Affidavit signed by one of their employees which most likely won’t fly in court.

If your Old Credit Card Debt is time barred and you are 100% sure of that start digging for proof. Try and find the last check you made out to the Original Creditor, if you made payments online check your old Bank Statements those payments will show up on your statements, check your credit report and see what date is listed on there as your last payment.  You can also use the Statute of Limitations as an Affirmative Defense and get your answers through the Discovery Phase of your lawsuit.

Now you just can’t assume this is true. That just because a Collection Attorney is suing you in the Original Creditors name does not mean he’s not representing the Original Creditor. Banks do hire collection attorneys to sue you for the amount you owe them.

 I need to really blog about this because I have had people emailing me telling me that they are going to file a Motion to Dismiss because they looked up in their Credit Report that the Original Creditor Closed their Account and it is listed as Charged Off so they email me really defensive saying “I Ordered my credit report and this just proves that it’s the Collection Attorney pretending to be the original creditor because my credit report says this account was charged off!  I’m filing a motion to dismiss.” Well that isn’t TRUE. Does it say Charged Off-Sold to Another Lender?

Before you get all high and mighty here thinking you are correct and blow your entire case by filing that motion to dismiss you really need to take about 10 minutes out of your day and CALL the original creditor and ask them if they still own your account or if they sold it.

If you just pull your credit report and it states that it is a charged off account you need to also look and see if it says SOLD TO ANOTHER LENDER. That would tell you right there that a collection agency bought your debt.

However, any time you receive a Summons and it is from a Collection Attorney with the Original Creditor’s Name as the Plaintiff do not forget that the Collection Attorney could simply be representing the Original Creditor and the Plaintiff is the correct one.

I am not sticking up for Collection Attorneys here. There are tons of times when Collection Agencies will put the Original Creditor down as the Plaintiff when the Collection Agency is the TRUE Plaintiff. 

So regardless, if you receive a Summons that lists the Original Creditor as the Plaintiff and a Collection Attorney is suing you just think twice before you hurry up and file a Motion to Dismiss because that Collection Attorney can be representing that Original Creditor.

Simply CALL the Original Creditor and ask them and if they say they sold the debt well then you know you are in the right and if they say no we transferred this to our collection department well then you know that it is them suing you. Simply ask them HEY are you suing me?? They will tell you right then and there and just like that you have your answer and do not have to look all over the internet wasting hours of your time trying to figure out if it is the Collection Agency pretending to be the Plaintiff or is the Plaintiff true.

Once your account is Charged off the Original Creditor has every right to move your account on over to their own internal collections department and YES sell it over to a Third Party Debt Collector.

So just call them!