If you have been delivered a summons or had a judgment awarded against you be a debt collector, you should still be able to reach an agreement to avoid garnishments or bank levies!
Financial circumstances beyond your control can be very stressful.
More often than not, your situation was caused by one or more events such as:
- Loss of employment
- Divorce
- Illness or Disability
- Fixed Income of Retirement
When this happens, your debts can be very difficult or impossible to keep up.
And, as you may know, sometimes these accounts are turned over to a debt collector. A debt collector may be contracted by the original creditor or may have purchased the debt for pennies on the dollar after the creditor decided to give up on trying to collect.
This is where the problem starts!
Most debt collection companies as well as the debt collector agent themselves are professional.
Like it or not, they do serve a purpose of trying to recover debt that is owed.
However, there are some, and you could say many debt collectors who do not act in a professional manner and violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
If and when you are contacted by a Debt Collector, you need to take action.
THE WORST THING YOU CAN DO IS TO IGNORE THE PROBLEM!
If you legitimately know that you do not owe the debt, you can demand that the debt collector VALIDATE the debt. But, you must do this right away.
Most letters you receive from the collector will state something to the effect that "If you do not dispute the validity of the debt, it will be deemed an admission that you are liable for the debt."
Here's a link to a blog I wrote about:
By the way, be very careful of a so-called "Credit Repair Company" that uses the "debt validation" procedure to challenge LEGITIMATE debts in order to try and raise your credit score. This is not only unethical, but may also be illegal!
OK, let's say you know that you owe the debt and the debt collectors are calling all day. Here's how to stop the calls:
If you cannot afford to deal with this debt now, you can put a stop to the never ending calls from a debt collector.
While you cannot stop the original creditor from calling, you certainly have the legal right to demand the collector from calling.
Click here for a "How to Stop Debt Collection Calls":
But, the problem is not going to go away!
If you do not make some kind of arrangement with the debt collector, they may elect to file a complaint with you county court in order to get a judgment.
The first thing that will tell you that they are very serious and are not going to just go away is that you will receive a SUMMONS.
Receiving a summons is unpleasant and a little scary if you do not know what to do.
I've written many blogs and articles about how to deal with a summons, so check out one of these at:
For this article, let's say that you ignored the summons and the debt collector was awarded a DEFAULT judgment.
A Default Judgment just means that the judgment was awarded to the plaintiff (debt collector) as you did not contest the claim in court.
When these type of judgments are awarded, in about 99% of the time, the defendant (creditor) did nothing, and thus, the judgment was granted to the plaintiff.
Now the debt collector, with the judgment, can take legal action to recover the debt. These may include:
- Wage Garnishment
- Bank Account Levy
- Lien on your Home or Property
If you have some funds or can afford a reasonable monthly payment, you should be able to avoid these actions.
The debt collector really doesn't want to spend the money or take the time to file for those legal actions above, but depending on your situation, should be willing to either accept:
- A Lump-sum (or in some cases a monthly term payment) Settlement
- A Stipulated Agreement whereby you repay the balance at 100% plus the interest allowed in your state. (Oregon is 9%, WA is 12%)
We have been helping people deal with the problems associated with debt for a long time (about 15 yrs.), and I can only recall two cases where the client received a wage garnishment or bank levy.
In both cases, this happened because the client refused to follow our advice.
But, in both cases, we were able to STOP THE WAGE GARNISHMENT and BANK LEVY.
If you would like a FREE CONSULTATION, with absoutely NO OBLIGATION, give us a call or click below:
