What exactly would happen were one to get sued by a CC company?

Well, if you get sued you would be served with a summon which needed to be answered within thirty days of receiving it. In the summon you can defy all the charges placed against you.

After replying to the summon you'd receive a date to appear before the court where you'd get the chance to defend your stand.

You may or may not hire an attorney to plead your case depending upon your situation but often you don't need an atty to represent you in the small claims court.

and if they win (if you owe them the money they will win) it depends on your state laws what happens next- but they could garnish your wages, seize any bank accounts with your name attached, put a lein on your house or any property you own (depending on the state and amount of the lein this could force a sale), in extreme cases they can even come to your house with a sheriff and take items to pay the judgement. Now what they actually will do depends on the amount and your state laws. One thing to keep in mind though is that judgements last a long time again depending on state law some 20 years, in some states they are renewable indefinetly, so even if you don't have the money now-they can collect later.

just keep in mind that you do have rights throughout this process.

Got it.
Well, I'm not there yet, I was just wondering what would happen if it got that far.
Right now I'm only at the stage where I've decided to stop making payments to try to force a settlement down the line. I have some oney stahased and am starting to stockpile more, and then I have an 'angel' on my side who is going to give me the rest of the funds I need to pay off the settlements and then let me pay her back whatever I can afford each month.
So here's hoping I can get them all to settle!!!!

I hear a couple of them are really hard core though, Amex and Advanta??
The other 2 are Citi and Capitol One.

i settled with capital one, i heard that they do sue, but i sent a dv letter to the collector and after they validated, i arranged a payment. good luck and let us know if you need any help along the way :)

Theres a lot of factors that go into them deciding to sue. Mainly the amount. They also want to make sure its worth thier time and they'll be able to collect, so they'll look at your credit report and see if you are paying other bills on time, do you own property, what other types of loans you have, what kind of job you have etc. Of course this is all just a guide- they can do whatever they want. I have heard that Discover especially is very quick to sue.

I did have cap1 and they were very difficult to work with. Probably the worst out of the ones I had-they never would settle-so eventually I filed bk and they got nothing-they should have settled- lol.

Who knows if it's even the amount? Probably more like luck of the draw. Many people settling their owns debts (on this board and elsewhere) have reported that the only creditor that sued them was the one with the smallest balance.

Much of the process is done via computerized scanning and automated processes, and we know how glitchy *that* can be...

Just be aware that settling your debts will trash your credit report to shreds. Did you try a hardship program with them first? (I only say this because you mentioned that you had "just decided" to settle and I would like to make you aware of the ramifications).

Click on "Do It Yourself" above and review your options first before you make a decision, and then stick with it, and good luck! Here is also the FTC page on Credit & Debt issues. Be aware of your rights, and *document everything*.

Hey, thanks.
Well, 'just decided' means that after about 8 months of hell, trying to negotiate my interest rate down, cutting back on all expenses to the point of barely living, not sleeping for trying to figure out how I can bring in more money to pay them off, actually getting 2 paid off ( yay!), selling stuff on craiglists etc....I've finally realized I just can't do this any other way. As hard as I've been working at this, the amounts just keep going up, and they are being totally unflexible with me because I've always made my payments on time. They WANT to keep me in this prison because I've been such a good customer. I know my credit will be trashed to hell, but right now my debt to income is so high I cant even get overdraft protection at the bank I've been doing business with for 12 years!!! So whats' the difference.
I can either take 6-12 months to get this straightened out and then start rebuilding my credit and hopefully have it back to decent in 4-5 years or so. Or I can file bankruptcy and be in the same situation ( though BK is not an option not really, for a variety of reasons), or I can continue to struggle and try to keep paying it off, but it's making me physically ill, and I'm in danger of losing my house if I do because I wont be able to make the mortgage payment. I HAVE to keep my house. Its the only thing I/we have left to fall back on in an emergency.

I've read the info you suggested, before I started posting here. Thank you. :) I'm going to follow that advice.
But the first thing I have to do, I think, is stop making payments so I get their attention. I've already sent one letter to one card company ( Advanta, who has been charging me 34.99% interest!!!! For no reason other than that they can, the beasts. That's what is getting me into this mess, the interest rates have gotten so high I cant make the minimums and no one will negotiate down at ALL.), and will probably copy it and send it to others in the next few weeks.
Once I get their attention, I'll ask for a hardship thingy. But right now they wont listen to me at all. The one even had the nerve to give me the phone number of a debt counselor...like I cant find that on my own, like I haven't thought of that. Such nerve.

I just dont feel like I have any other option at this point.
(edited to fix spelling errors)

you have to pick which option is best for you :) i think chrys just meant to look at all options to make sure you picked the one that best suits your current situation.
good luck and keep us posted :)

Oh I know that's what he was getting at. :) I did not mean to sound otherwise. I was just explaining my situation more full.
I'm really glad this place is here and all the folks who've gone before me down this road.

Ah, ok. It wasn't clear which is why I quoted. Advanta seems to love doing that to people. They site "risk of default" and then virtually force you to default.