How much time do I have?

No one knows how long you have. It's really a toss up as to when a creditor will strike. Depends on if you have a steady income, assets, bank accounts, the balance owed even sometimes. Some get sued in a few months of going past due other its years and even some--never. Can you give us a little more information about your situation like how much you owe and what you finances look like, that can help us give you a little more info. Reny

Well one of the letters came from a cc I have through a bank. I also have 3 accounts at that bank with credit line reserve accounts being used to the tune of 2400 dollars at the moment.

I am hoping to repay those because I don't know how those credit line accounts for overdrafts work. That CC has a balance of 19550.

The next letter came from Citi I am 2 months late , balance between 6 and 7 thousand.

I have another US bank issued cc that has 3000.

There is a GE money card that has between 8-9000.

Chase with 6-7000.

ATT Universal with 6-7000.

I am self employed, flooring sales and installer. I don't have taxes put together yet but I am thinking I could show 40000 plus income, but I am hoping to get it a little lower.

Its usually unlikely the first year to get summoned not that it cant happen though. Through my debt settlement process i did get sued one time an that was almost at the 2 year mark. But it is a toss up anything can happen, but the sooner you get it going and done the better your odds are. hope this helps!

I stopped paying in May 08 and started with a debt settlement program. I was sued by Citibank for a $7900 balance on a Home Depot account in Oct and by Target Bank for a Target Visa with a $2400 balance in Dec. I had two accounts issue by GE Money Bank, a Walmart with $2500 balance and Pay Pal Buyer Credit with $1300 balance. Both where sent to a local collection law office in my area in November. Likely would have been sued on those as well if I had not settled through my debt program. Good luck.

It really depends. some cards may just continue to send you letters, some may go to legal fast.

arb, when you got sued did you settle out of court or what happened?

I heard through my debt settlement company citibank is the hardest. They were the onese that sued me too. They said they always have trouble with citibank they are really hard to negotiate with. In my case they would not settle at all because i owed them 1,000.00 and they felt that it was a small amount and i should be able to pay it. My settlement company said they would keep persuing it if i wished, but i told them no, they were my last account and i just wanted it over. I went to court over it, but honestly my judge was not happy with them at all that they would not work out a arrangement with me or work with my settlement company. So all he did was order a lein on my home and told me to pay it when i could, no time limit or anything. So in the spring when i got my refund & the rest of my money out of my settlement account i just paid them scince i had it.

I had a default judgment against me on the Home Depot (Citibank). I'm paying that off in full over 24 months. No interest or other fees so that is the only good thing. The Target they only offered me to settle for 80%. I paid that cause it was the same law firm that sued me for the Citibank and they had served me already. These two were the worst...

As for a time frame, I have had experience with Citi. I think as far as Citi goes you should be able to pull on for a year at the least I would say. And along the way if the send letters, just respond in some way to show that your intentions are there to pay but you are genuinely in a tight spot. They will also waive a significant part of your dues if you negotiate well.

Do not give in easily.

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Yes different debt settlement companies have different relationships with the institutions. So that could help in getting you more time if you know the right agency.

that does make perfect sense, if a certain credit company dont like how a settlement company works, they may not be as willing to work with them. I never really considered that but i guess there could be some insight on that. I know that citibank was my hardest for my settlement company and they did call me regularly letting me know what was being offered was unreasonable.( i think this is a technique for my company i used,so that they counter offer, they offer very low amounts expecting a negotiation process)But in the end they refused to settle at all anyhow. All my other cards settled pretty quickly the first year my second year i only had i think 2 creditors 1 was citibank that i had ended up going to court over. There argument was that i only owed 1,000.00 and they were not gonna settle down. They were a real pain in the butt.

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