Sued Again
The Constable knocked on my door this morning to serve me with papers informing me that I’ve been sued by Eaton Group Attorneys on behalf of FIA Card Services again.
They (FIA) already sued me and obtained a judgment against me in another state when the account was being collected by Wolpoff Abramson Attorneys. Then it went to arbitration and the arbitrator removed the attorney’s fees, court costs, excessive interest charges, and eliminated future interest being charged on the balance.
Then the debt was sold to Eaton Group Attorneys, a local law firm downtown.
I don’t know why you can be sued multiple times on the same account. I guess everybody who buys your debt can sue you even though you’ve already been sued. And selling debt seems to be a very big business. It must also be profitable since there are so many collectors playing the game.
This whole mess is actually somewhat comical along with being a big pain in my backside. From the tactics collectors will use to get to you, make you mad or get you to pay them first, to using the court system, it’s a better reality show than Survivor.
Now there’s an idea! Let’s have a debt reality show and the winner will be the one who pays everything off first and the loser is the one forced into bankruptcy. There would be no shortage of contestants.
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Hi, I’m new to the blog thing, but not to the money thing! I’ve just been reading over all of the stuff you have to say about the Dave Ramsey plan, and you are right. I’m not sure I see a way out of this one. You simply can’t pay off that kind of debt with that income. I was wondering if perhaps you could do a post of all of your debts, and all of your budgeted expenses? Perhaps I might be able to figure something out… I just had a thought that you might call the Dave Ramsey show to see what advice he would have in this situation.
Best of Luck!
Comment by steph885 | January 15, 2008
I’ll repost a detailed list of my debts this month. I’m shutting my business down, so that income is gone and I’m doing whatever I can to bring in enough to live on.
I will continue to take business clients very part-time and only as needed. It will bring in a few hundred extra dollars each time I work with a client. The business never took off, and it doesn’t make enough to support us.
In the meantime, I’m researching different career paths, and I’ve picked up as many tutoring hours as I can schedule between the time school lets out and the libraries close. That’s 4-6 hours per day, Sunday - Thursday at $19/hr. Sometimes I can get more than that, sometimes it’s less, but that’s what I average.
I’m using the irregular income budget right now, and I start with food, gas for the car, utilities, then house payment, medical expenses, personal expenses, including what I still have to pay on the business that isn’t debt, and then debt payments if I have enough money.
When I have a more regular income again I’ll post my income and budget along with the debts. Right now we’re back in survival mode and I can’t do much about my debts.
As soon as I get on a career path and get some reliable income flowing, I’m going to work by phone and online with one of DR’s financial counselors. We don’t have one locally that is qualified to deal with my situation. I have a business, law suits and too many variables for a pastoral counselor to handle.
I know my problem is mostly an income problem, but it’s not all on the income side.
Thanks for your encouragement. I can use a lot of it right now.
Sherri
Comment by joubess | January 16, 2008
Hi again,
I know it can be scary not being able to pay your bills, but in this case I think it might be a good that you are behind…the companies will be a lot more likely to take a settlement. You would probably be able to get rid of a $20,000 debt for only $5k for example. Of course this is going to completely trash your credit, but it sounds like it already is.
Comment by steph885 | January 18, 2008
Ya, my credit is completely trashed, but when I’m out of debt I’ll be able to rebuild it enough to get a first mortgage should I need one.
I’ll rebuild it by paying my mortgage and utilities on time every month for a couple of years without owing anything else. Those are actually being paid on time every month now so far.
But my unsecured debt situation has my credit score probably as low as it can go. If it could go negative, I’m sure it would. I haven’t even checked to see what it is because I’m sure it’s too low to even bother. I check the credit reports for fraud, but to heck with the scores.
When I get my new career going, I’ll be in a position to come up with some lump sums to settle some of the high balance debts for pennies on the dollar. But until I can get that going I don’t have the money to settle anything. As time goes on I know they’ll be willing to settle for less and less.
Comment by joubess | January 20, 2008