Last week, while my wife was at work, she recieved a call from a collection agency, telling her that I owed approximatley $7000, and that they had filed a judgement against me. I have never had a credit card with a limit of more than $2000. In 2004 I thought I had called the credit card company their card and 2 others had been lost or stolen. During this time I was going through a divorce. I lost a house and a couple of vehicles, because of this my credit has been "0". I have since remarried, and everything that is of value is in my wife's name. I pulled up a copy of my credit report, and in "04" I owed $1901 on the said card. I would be willing to pay $200 a month on this amount, but not on 7000. My questions are... What is a judgement? Can they take any personal property, such as an auto? If I don't pay what can they do? put me in prison? Does the credit card company keep records this long or how do I prove that I called them about lost cards?
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You have more than just a credit card issue - you have a judgment filed against you. The first thing you should do is find out why it is $7,000 for just a $1,901 debt. A judgment means they filed a case, served you, you may not have shown up, and a judgment was issued against you for said amount. They can place a lien on your property, garnish your wages, seize certain pieces of personal property and make your current existence unpleasant.
You may need to open this judgment which will take you time and possibly money. You might have a claim that you have (a) good reason why you didn't show up - improper service, and (b) you didn't owe nearly that amount of money and you should have a right to open the case. Even so, you're probably best off negotiating it and possibly mentioning the absurdity of this being a judgment for over 3.5 times the actual debt! Outrageous. You'll definitely get it overturned and they will need to hire an attorney just to deal with this process. Shortcut the case and figure out how much it is worth to them to settle and agree upon a figure that works for you (and remember - these guys want to get paid at least as much with some extra on the cost of the debt that they may have purchased.) Best of luck.
You may need to open this judgment which will take you time and possibly money. You might have a claim that you have (a) good reason why you didn't show up - improper service, and (b) you didn't owe nearly that amount of money and you should have a right to open the case. Even so, you're probably best off negotiating it and possibly mentioning the absurdity of this being a judgment for over 3.5 times the actual debt! Outrageous. You'll definitely get it overturned and they will need to hire an attorney just to deal with this process. Shortcut the case and figure out how much it is worth to them to settle and agree upon a figure that works for you (and remember - these guys want to get paid at least as much with some extra on the cost of the debt that they may have purchased.) Best of luck.
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