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If you do not show up in court, you will get a judgement by default against you. There are many things that can happen from there, you can have your wages garnished, liens put on your property, and in some states they allow levies against your bank accounts.

Don't fail to show up in the court hearing. You should be able to arrange a plan in front of the judge by showing all your pay stubs, tax returns. The creditor will accept the arrangements made by the judge in your favor.

If you don't go to the court, there will be a default judgment in your name. You will be putting yourself in a worse situation.

I agree with the above posters. This happened to me in 2002. I had a car repossessed and was taken to court. I didn't show up and they filed a default judgement and garnished my wages. Big mistake on my part not to show up. I ended up having to file bankruptcy to stop it.

Don't let them win by default show up and represent yourself, this will forever haunt you until you take care of it.

At least by showing up you can maybe work out a suitable arrangement that you can afford, otherwise the have all control over the situation.

When you voluntarily surrender your collateral, it does not relieve the principle obligation in its entirety. The lender will sell the collateral at fair market, and then apply proceeds from the sale of vehicle to your unpaid balance. Any deficiency balance remains due and owing to the lender.

It is possible the SOL is about to expire, and they a trying to get a judgment before it is too late.

Unfortunately a sheriff, when serving a summons, does not always have to serve you directly. Most laws allow service to be made at the defendants home to any person who is over the age of 13.

If you think this is just a scare tactic, you should check with the court to see if the case is valid. If it is, don't ignore it. Once you have been served, if you don't show up to court then the lender can get a default judgment against you. Once they have a judgment, like other have said, they can garnish your wages and levy your bank accounts.

If you do show up to court, you can usually work out arrangements with the creditor's attorney before it goes to trial. Normally you would agree to some sort of regular payments and the case would be dismissed with prejudice. As long as you follow that agreement, no judgment will be entered against you. If you break that agreement, however, the lender can then go back and motion the court to vacate the dismissal and enter judgment.

PS your friends were wrong when they said all that could happen was a blemish on you credit.

Debtcruncher is right, Can you contact the original creditor and find out what they got for the vehicle. They will not take a loss, they will want the balance due when they repo, they resell and you are responsible for the balance.

If you don't take care of it now, some ca will pick up the judgement and come after you. May as well show up and try to work out something that is doable for you, could work out to your advantage. Goodluck!

Debtcruncher, do you think should he contact the original lender just for balance information? Could he make an offer to them at this point and show up in court with the arrangements? What are your thoughts?