debt consolidation vs court

Hi! to answer your question, if you got into a debt consolidation program and the councilors negotiated your accounts for you so that all of your creditors and collection agencys are happy with the agreed amount, and you make your payments every month, there shouldn't be a problem. If there is a problem, thats what the councilors are there for. so no, you shouldn't have to worry about court once you're in a consolidation program.

usually People have to go to court because they aren't paying their debts BUT sometimes it happens anyways. I have an account with sams club. It went into charge off. I started making payments every month to samsclub. no problems, they cashed my check and smiled while they were doing it. Then 7 to 8 months later, I have a knock at the front door, I have a summons to court from a lawyer representing samsclub. I call the lawyers, they simply wanted me to increase my payment. I said yes. that was that. BUT, since I had already got the summons and they had already contacted the courts. It was full steam ahead, Unless I paid the account in full before the court date. I couldn't do it, so now its on my credit report for the next 10 years. what BS. I was already paying the debt, they just wanted more money which I agreed to. This could have definitely been handled outside of court. so see, sometimes some kind of fluke happens and even when you're paying your debts, you just never know.
hope I have helped here. shirley

thanks shirley... what if the debt is being collected by a law office? is debt consolidation still an option?

yes it is. They can still negotiate the terms for you. check them out and see what they can do for you!! =)

thanks again shirley... you're a gem... nice to be with people who understand...

Since debt consolidation ensures regular payments towards your debts you can prevent your accounts from going to court. Once your creditor or the collection agency starts receiving money from you, they might not prefer going to court. So you should be attentive towards your accounts because once judgment enters your credit report, it stays there for 10 years.

Shirley, your case is an exception. They contacted court to increase installments that is very unusual. Can you contact the collector and negotiate them to report it as dismissed judgment? It won't hurt your score then. Your debts are very complicated I must say.

thanks a bunch, stanley... useful info.

hi again... thanks for all the info... was reading through posts and found this quote from a member/moderator that might relate to my question about calls from CA's and when they can place a judgement on the debt.

i understood from earlier readings that a Ca must have the debt validated before they can pursue it further, such as issue a judgement/court. seems this might not be the case?? i've had 3 msgs from a law office. upon returning the call a msg said it was an attempt to collect a debt. i didn't proceed, wanting to consider my response a bit first. can someone respond with advice. many thanks.

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hi again... does anyone have any good advice for me? thanks and appreciate your time...

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thanks stanley... appreciate the advice! i'm sort of reading 2 different things in your response... hate to ask you this, but just to be clear... so they won't have legal support by a court without validation by the debtor? if though they are authorized by the creditor, can they then proceed with judgement even if the debtor has not validated the debt?

yes, they can. some creditors consider a court summons as validation when debtor asks for validation. Kinda a smart @ss response. You won't actually get your validation but receive a summons to appear in court. often then, they will produce the validation to the judge in your presence. I think in the case of getting a summons without validation and going to court, if the creditor or collection agency can't produce validation for the judge ( after you prove that its been asked for and you haven't received it), then it is definitely in your favor. hope this helped with any confusion and didn't confuse you further. 'smiles' shirley

thanks shirley... appreciate your clarification.

It also depends upon the collection agency you are dealing with, the status of your account etc. Obviously they will loose their rules if your account is closed to SOL. So it's tough to give you a specific answer. What we can do is show you some avenues that you can follow.

Feel free to share your problems with this community; it helps us to improve our knowledge also. And consider joining this board, I'm sure you will like your stay here.

Shirley, you are great. Somehow our timings are not matching nowadays. When I'm here in the forum, you might have gone away somewhere else. Miss you :(

thanks to you both. will do. have gained great knowledge/advice by reading a few posts already.