	AllExperts > Collections Law
	Search

About Creditwrench
Expertise
Debt Collections law, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), federal law, how to properly answer court summons for collection cases, how to prepare federal cases against debt collectors, how to deal with debt collection phone calls.

Experience
I've been an active consumer advocate for more than 40 years and have helped hundreds of people win cases against debt collectors as well as helping them defeat demands for summary judgment lodged against them by banks, debt collectors and defeat mortgage foreclosures and keep their homes.

Education/Credentials
Paralegal courses for the most part.
I have been teaching people how to deal with judgments, mortgage foreclosures and other such problems both on and off the internet for many, many years. I am a Richard Cornforth information provider ever since 2000 and worked with many other organizations and causes since 1980. I was Oklahoma State Chairman for the nationwide drive to defeat the Constitutional Convention which was proposed by various factions within our federal government such as the Council of State Governments and the National Organization of State Governors who were working hard to organize a Constitutional Convention to be held in 1995 for the purpose of rewriting our American Constitution to be more acceptable to the United Nations. I worked with Senator Charles Duke of Colorado and Senator Don Rogers of California and many others across the nation to keep them from getting the number of delegate states required to lawfully hold a Con-Con and we were successful. I have worked with many other legislative issues in Oklahoma and have always been very successful.

You are here: Experts > Business > Corporate Law > Collections Law > credit card collection statute of limitations

Collections Law - credit card collection statute of limitations

Expert: Creditwrench - 11/4/2009

Question
Hi! I live in Georgia. Today I received a summons for an old credit card account and I need advice on the best way to handle the situation. According to credit reports that I have, the last payment date was 4/05 and the acct was charged off as of 5/06. There have been sporadic "form letters" of settlement offers in the past few months. Among my questions are: What is the statute of limitations for this type of debt in GA.? I am finding conflicting information of both 4 yrs and 6 yrs. How do you calculate the start of the SOL? If I am still within the SOL, what are my options for handling this - can there be payment arrangements within the court system or will it have to be one pymt, and what if I can't pay it at one time? Another question that I have - the summons states "The Defendant in indebted to Plaintiff in the amount of $(amount) as principal and $.00 as interest." - does that mean that they are entitled to the amount that was my balance at the time the acct became delinquent, or the amount after adding interest until the time it was charged off? [One credit report shows the charged off amount as being one figure (about the credit limit on the card) and the other report shows the charged off amount as being more than twice the credit limit]. I'm afraid I don't have any of the old documentation for this account. How should I proceed at this point? Thanks in advance for all your help!

Answer
Statute of limitations in Georgia is 6 years. No need for you to worry about that at this point because any chance you had of avoiding it expired when they filed the lawsuit. Not much use in worrying about how much you owe at this point either unless you have the money to pay it off. Whether you have the money or not don't make a lot of difference at this point. You have much more to worry about than that. You need to worry about how to respond to the complaint unless you want to get a default judgment which would be almost impossible to fight off later. There are many things for you to be worried about right now and they are far more important than how much the judgment is for. Among those thing are responding properly and doing it within the time limit allowed, protecting your assets from being grabbed, bank accounts from being frozen and wages garnished. If those things concern you then let me know as I might be able to help you

Add to this Answer Ask a Question