Smith Debnam in NC

Yes, I have, but they are tough, very tough. What do you owe? How long has it been? I take it this debt is charged off?

On the original debt I owed 3182, but SD is asking for 4100 plus 500 for their attorneys fees. :-( I am about 10 months behind on my payments and Discover has charged it off. My husband was out of work for a whie and the cards were the thing we had to stop paying on. Did you receive a resonable settlement in the end? I was hoping to offer them 1500 dollars.

Let's back up here. Did you receive a court summons? Is it an actual court summons? Have you sent out a dv letter to this collection agency?

$1500 may be a little low. You could try it. Just make sure you get everything in writing. NO verbal agreements.

DV them first!

I have never been sued before - but it looks offical. I had to go to FedEx and sign for it when it came. I was going to write a response and try to buy myself an additional 30 days so I could try to come up with some additional funds if possible. Do you have any advice on what I should include in my response? Should I ask them for a DV in it, or do I do that before/after?

Thanks!

Does it have the courts address, phone number, case # on it? Call the court tomorrow and see for sure if indeed a complaint has been filed. Do this first!

If it has been filed with the court, whatever you do, make sure you answer it and appear in court. If you don't, a default judgement will be entered by the court and you will be liable for the debt.

Send them out a dv letter. Send it certified mail only. Do it ASAP. Do you need a copy of what to send out?

I will call the court tomorrow morning and find out. It does have a case #, but not the address/phone number of the court. It just says Mecklenburg County and has District checked.

The address for SD is on the form, but it is a PO box number - I didn't think they could send certified mail to PO boxes since it needs to have a signature? Is that correct/incorrect?

When you mentioned it I searched on DV letters and found one. Thanks for offering!

Yes. Send it to the collection agency certified. P.O. box is ok. Someone will sign for it when they go to pick up the mail. Send it out ASAP.

Also, if that summons is indeed real after you call the court, please make sure you answer it. I know it's uncomfortable, but it's better than a default judgement.

What state are you in?

I'm in NC - I'll definately answer it. I hope to be able to buy myself an additional 30 days - even if they wont take the 1500 dollars I have saved then hopefully they will take something lower rather then going to court. That has to be an expense on them since I am in Charlotte and their office is out of Raliegh

Just an update for everyone. Smith Debnam would not accept any reasonable settlement at all - they wouldn't even accept the original amount of 3182 - the debt had ballooned to around 4500 with fees and in order to keep it out of court they will accept nothing less then 3800 dollars. Beware if you have a Discover account that is placed with them. They are out to get you.

I work with Smith Debnam quite a bit. For a debt collection law firm, they are reasonably decent as far as collection law compliance, and I have a hard time catching them in enough violations to sue over.

It's not up to Smith Debnam what amount they'll take to settle--it's their client's (Discover) decision. By all means answer the complaint truthfully, and get a lawyer around your area if you can.

They are awful. I owed Discover about $3,500. I offered them $4,200 as a settlement and Smith Debman declined the offer. They wanted $6,839.48. I told them they would continue to get nothing and I'd file bankruptcy if I had to, they didn't care, they still would not budge. I called Discover card and spoke with the "section" that handles the discharged accounts and they patched me back thru to Smith Debman. I called Discover back and explained to them that thier "Client" refused to accept my offer and I was going to pay nothing or drag it out in tiny payments over the next ten years if I had to. Not to mention it took Smith Debnam four days to even tell me they declined the offer. Discover told me to call SD back and tell them $4,700. Well, SD refused that number. We ended up settling on $5,220. I figured I would end up paying an attorney over that $500 difference so I may as well go ahead and settle it and be done with it. You may have to work both sides to come up with a reasonable settlement. Get Discover card to force SD into being more "agreeable". Discover card is thier client, Discover does have the last say in the matter.

I answer my Smith Debnam summons and I sent discovery requests. SD motioned the court for 30 additional days to "futher investigate the matter." SD is full of it. They don't have any original documents. I got a feeling they don't. Otherwise, why would they ask for additional time.

Iv been through 3 of these lmao . Its been 4 years and couldnt do a damn thing because its a charge off.

I ignored there paperwork and a deputy just took my dirt bike and its threating to take my car. What should I do?

Harry - Have you heard anything else from them? We just received a court summons from them.

I got the pre-litigation letter Friday from Smith Debnam. I called them today, the attorney I was supposed to talk to was busy with someone and a lady named Melissa talked to me instead. I have to say I was very worried, but she was not hard to talk to. She listened, offered $3100.00 settlement on a debt that had ballooned to $4395.49. I told her my situation, that I couldn't get hold of that kind of money at all but that I had received an offer from Discover some months (probably a year) ago to settle for $2400 and that I could probably get a loan for that amount. She said "Let me see what I can do", put me on hold for several minutes, came back and said $2640.00 but you have to pay it right away, by Friday at the latest. My boss, bless his heart, gave me a huge advance so that I could get a cashier's check overnighted to them. He doesn't pay like my plant job did (layoff and closure, my job went to China) but he has a heart of gold and won't charge me interest. Melissa faxed me a settlement letter stating that their client would accept this as settlement in full on my account and that I would no longer have any obligation to their client regarding this account.
She was very nice to me, and helpful, I can't complain at all.
I am happy with this and feel a huge burden has been lifted off of me. I don't like not paying my bills, but I couldn't afford the payment with the job I have now especially since all but a few dollars every month was eaten up by interest. That happened because I was ONE DAY LATE due to a weekend or holiday, can't remember which now but I was working long hours and forgot I had to send my payment off early to be credited in time. Discover jacked me up for that, interest rate shot out of the roof. I stopped making payments in October? 2007 and the SOL would have run out this year so I knew they were serious about litigation.
Worried? I was terrified. But it worked out well for me, I feel I was treated very fairly.

Jerry is nothing more then a leaven. Fight him at every turn and always request for all documentation he has for your case. And if you are feeling frisky call him at his house (919) 571-8251

lady you way overpaid

well it seems its my turn to deal with these guys. what is weird to me is that they are representing the last debt collector who had my account not the actual credit card company. this is their first letter not a summons and i plan on replying but what should i reply with? debt verification?

I would reply with a payment. I ignored them and they took my brand new car. Didn't know they could do that...

I got called from them and they will take payments but will still place a judgement against me is that legal If I am paying the debt?

I am currently taking them on...got served sat morning for a discover card. They will recieve my answer, request for production of documents, and sworn denial this week.

Providing information.

Smith Debnam filed a suit on behalf of FIA Card Services for more than $8,000. I was personally served while on vacation seeing family, but did not debt validate, instead choosing to write an Answer to Complaint straightaway. With thought and research you can write a comprehensive Answer with resources on the internet. I denied all allegations and listed two affirmative defenses: 1. That the venue was improper, since they caught me at a relative's house believing I still lived there when in fact I had moved away years prior, and 2. lack of substantiation, stating that "the plaintiff has not proven the debt is valid or the amount of the debt is accurate. The plaintiff must prove that the principal, interest and any fees are all correct, agreed to by contract, and lawfully charged. Defendant also insists that the plaintiff come up with the contract, account statements and purchase receipts to prove the amount of the debt."

I continued by asking: "WHEREFORE, the defendant asks the Court for judgment: a. dismissing the complaint herein with prejudice."

In response to the answer, approximately 60 days later, they sent me a Request for Discovery, which is a legal document requiring you to list witnesses, evidence, and so on.
Nevertheless, approximately another 45 to 60 days later, because of the improper venue, the case was dismissed.

Discover accounts you can settle for 60 cents on the dollar, maybe 50 cents if it's an old account. FIA card services will go 50 cents, maybe 40 cents if you get lucky. Don't stress out people, if you actually have cash to settle with call them and try to settle, but don't tell them everything. Make them believe things are really bad for you and if they had any sense they will go down to numbers above. If no money to settle or if you want to try to get an even lower settlement, file an answer and a counterclaim, with the counterclaim information in the answer. Any law firms that get counterclaims filed usually always will try to settle the case for whatever you are offering or at least will give you their rock bottom figure for settlement.