Collection Question

So, I had a Capital One card in 2009. I think my limit was around $350. It was charged off and sent to a law firm / collection agency (Farrell and Seldin if anyone has been so lucky). Anyway, I paid them about half of the balance that had been turned over to them and then I had other things come up so I stopped paying. Around June 2011 they began sending a man to my door under the guise of "serving" me. I never answered the door or accepted any papers and the last time the guy came around in July, I think my husband scared him off.

This past Saturday, another man came to my door I didn't answer he didn't leave anything and this morning I got a phone call from the "law firm". I asked the lovely woman with whom I spoke if she would be able to send me correspondence so that I could take care of the balance and she replied "we will proceed with your case". This of course irritated me so I called back to see if they had again been sending someone to my house to "serve" me. She said that they had. I asked her what they were serving me with exactly, since I don't have a court date scheduled and she replied that the reason that I don't have a court date scheduled is because they have bene unable to serve me.

Now, having been served before, my understanding is that a defendant being served papers is pretty mucy a technicality, the court date has already been scheduled at that point and if the defendant doesn't show up then a default judgement will be entered against them.

So, my question is whether the collection agency is violating FDCPA by sending a process server for a non existent court date in order to get me to pay? I assumed it was and I already filed a complaint with the FTC but that was before I found this board so I just wanted to verify. Sorry for the long winded post, any advice is appreciated!

there is no court date until you respond to the summons.it sounds like in your county you have to be served personally.in that case their will be no court date again until you are served and respond to the summons.now since the law firm contacted you see if you can start paying again,or settle prior to you getting served.

I highly doubt someone would go through the trouble of taking you to court over a measly hundred something dollars. You would actually have a case against them for damages for harassing and threatening you.

Not so fast there...This is a credit card. Credit card accounts accrue interest. If the debt collector has not added any interest, and the OC didnt add any interest before charging it off and getting rid of the account, then I will be highly surprised.

To the OC--what state do you live in? Something does not sound right, because I have yet to see a jurisdiction that required service in person with no alternative. In pretty much every state, the court allows service by alternative methods if personal service has been attempted and was unsuccessful--service by publication is one commonly allowed method. What you need to do is check with your court clerks office ASAP and see if anyone has filed a case against you. If you find no case filed against you, then let us know. There has to be an alternative means of service allowed--think about it....if there wasnt, you could effectively kill off any lawsuit that would come your way. A summons has a time span in which it must be served or the case dies right there. So, all you would have to do is keep ignoring the knock at the door and the court would have to kick out every case. There must be an alternative means allowed. That alone tells me that you need to check your court clerks office ASAP because I think these guys are lying to you, and if they are sending someone to your house under the guise of a process server it is a BIG violation of federal law.

Thanks for the answers. I wasn't aware that in some counties you had be served prior to a court date being scheduled, because when I was served before, the court date was already scheduled and I was just served with paperwork notifying me of the court date.

That said, I really didn't want the hassle of process servers, legit or not, coming to my door so I called the company to verify my balance ($236!!) and make payment arrangements. They took my offer to pay $50 per month until this is paid off and the second woman with whom I spoke was much nicer than the first and said that she would email the legal department and let them know that I was on a payment plan and hopefully they would call off their dogs.

I'm just posting again to confirm, that yes, credit card companies will apparently waste time and money to try to collect a "measley hundred and something" balance. It's really amazing because surely they have spent more paying process servers and staff to try to collect on this account than the amount I owe.

"credit card companies will apparently waste time and money to try to collect a "measley hundred and something" balance. It's really amazing because surely they have spent more paying process servers and staff to try to collect on this account than the amount I owe."

That's because the economy is getting better and everyone is now paying their bills again so they have nothing left to collect

The credit cards dont waste the money filing law suits...those charges are tacked onto the judgment so the debtor ends up paying it.