Assest Acceptance Suing

Guest -

Take ALL documentation you have regarding this debt, if you have any.

I understand you said you never had a credit card account with WAMU - if you have no documentation, then I guess you can't take any with you.

Immediately overnight a debt validation letter to this company to get validation of the debt in writing. Take copies of the letter and proof that you overnighted it to court with you.

MOST IMPORTANT - DO NOT MISS THE COURT DATE. If it turns out that this account/debt IS yours, the judge will be forced to enter a default judgement against you if you do not show up. You probably won't receive a response to the debt validation letter before the court date, but take the copy of the letter and proof that you sent it with you to the court date, and it might not hurt to take a copy of your credit reports from all three bureaus (available at annualcreditreport.com for free, once per year) so you can show that the WAMU account does not show up on your credit report. If you'd had the account, and it was sent to collections, it would be on your credit reports.

You were just served papers yesterday and the court date is in a week? I though that you had like 30 days to respond to the summons, etc?


Is there a place, or something saying where you can respond to it? KAren

Yes, Bossy4455, that seems strange to me, as well. I used to work as a paralegal. All cases I know of require no less than 20 days from the date of service to allow the served party to respond and request discovery (in this case, allow the person to request validation of the debt). Of course, what I have read about AA on this board, these folks use underhanded tactics all of the time!

Well, if I was a underhanded collection agency and I was going to attempt to collect on a debt that I know doesn't belong to the alleged debtor that I'm going after. I would give no forewarning (dunning letter, CRA report, or phone call) and I would file the suit, have the letter post marked in a timely manner, then sit on it for a week or so until I mailed it. Giving them little to no time to respond with a DV or getting proper legal defense.

That's when I walk into court with a Motion to Continue! However, the postmark does not happen until USPS gets the letter in their hands, right? I guess with online purchases of postage and such these days, maybe that has changed. If it has, big loophole! I would be writing state representatives asking that a bill be passed indicating that proper service REQUIRES service by constable or process server for debt collection cases, and that the clock starts at the moment the person signs for it. Of course that would never happen, as we all know government gets kickbacks from the corporate world! Such a law would protect the consumer, but could pose a problem for corporate if they can't locate the debtor...it would force them to make sure they had the right person before seeking judgment!!

A friend of mine had such a problem at one point. He happened to have the same name as the person who really did have the debt. When the CA called, he told them he never had an credit card with the company they indicated, and asked them to give him the SSN they had on the account. When they told him the SSN, he insisted that this was not HIS SSN, but they were like, "Your name IS ______________?" Now, I'm sure they have people give them this line all the time. They asked him to send in a copy of his social security card and driver's license to prove that he was not the person they were looking for. This call was at work, and I remember hearing him say loudly, "Are you crazy? I'm not sending my identification information to you people! I am not the ______________ you are looking for!" How they got his information, he will never know! Luckily, they never sued him for the debt. We hope they found the right person, but chances are, they just moved to the next person with the same name on some list they got from directory services!

It is indeed interesting. The time varies state to state regarding the answer to a summons, 10 to 20 to 30 days. Could this be over an old Providian account? Washington Mutual bought them out.