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Collections Law/Summons for Discover Card debt

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Expert: Creditwrench - 6/9/2009


Question
I have two Discover accounts that have been sent to two different law firms that specialize in collections. I just received a summons today regarding one of the debts (now up to $16,000 because of continuing interest hikes and late fees). I live in NJ. I have offered to settle this account or make payment arrangements with Discover, but they have never been willing to work with me--they just threatened to send my account to a lawyer, which they've now done. What are my choices to deal with this if I cannot afford to pay the full amount. I want to pay them, but realistically I could not pay more that 40-50% of the total debt. I have managed to settle or arrange payments with every other creditor, but Discover has just been unwilling to budge since the beginning of my financial troubles.

Answer
You are asking me to make a guess and I can't do that. You say that you want to pay them but can't afford to pay the full amount. Why do you want to do that which you can't afford to do? Simply because you know that you have a moral obligation to pay? That's commendable of course but not very practical. Truth is that you might be able to get them to settle for maybe 80% or so. Maybe less but 80% is just about average.You would have to work out the details with them.

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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.

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