Starting clean up

[Anonymous]

Back in late 2012/early 2013 my life kind of fell apart. I tried to make ends meet but in the end it was just too much and I ended up with 3 credit cards being charged off as bad credit.

I've been aware of this debt and just kind of rebuilding my life to the point where I could comfortably tackle the debt. I'm finally at that place, and coincidentally, just as my credit score gets back in to the 620's my husband and I are served by a collector over a medical debt that is about a year and half old for around $500... this is actually my husbands, and not on my credit report but since we were married at the time the cost was incurred I'm being sued as well. We have a lawyer friend whose going to help me write an answering letter within the 20 days. I'm hoping we can just pay PIF wihtout haveing to go to court and it turning into a $1000+ bill, but we'll see.

As of right now, I have one account in collections with Portfolio Recovery for about $306

I have an account charged off as bad credit with Chase for ~$1989

I have an account charged off as bad credit with Citi for ~$578

I have a mortgage at $79,445 that is current with 3 late payments of 30 days, the last late payment being January 2014

I have a victorias secret credit card with no balance, this card is about 9 years old with no bad history

I have a Captial One secured card that is about 6 months old, no late payments, paid in full every month and they just raised the limit on this card

Overall I don't think I'm sitting too bad.

At this point I want to wait and see what happens with the law suit before handling the Portfolio Recovery account. The other two charge offs still seem to be with the OCs.

So yep, I'll be lurking around and reading up on the best ways to handle all of this.

[nate79416]

Curious as to why wait to see whats going on with the PFR lawsuit? What effect would it have on consumers, I have a collection with them aswell, lol should I wait too 

[nate79416]

Curious as to why wait to see whats going on with the PFR lawsuit? What effect would it have on consumers, I have a collection with them aswell, lol should I wait too   

[Anonymous]

I'm just waiting because while the original amount I'm being sued for is around $500, the amount they are trying to get is in excess of $1000, and while I can afford to pay one account in full I could not afford to pay both in full. Portfolio Recovery hasn't really been bothering me, so I don't mind waiting a month or two to pay them in full.

Oh, Portfolio Recover is not the one sueing us, that's a local collection company.

[Anonymous]

What state do you live in?

[Anonymous]

Washington State

[Anonymous]

Oh I was wondering why they served you both.
You live in a community property state

[Anonymous]

Yes, which is something I really should have thought about back when I told him to handle his own accounts... lol not complaining just, hindsight is 20/20

[Anonymous]

I would contact the law office that served you by phone and ask if you can pay the full balance.
Even ask if you pay in full now will you avoid the law suit and will it be removed from his credit report.
Getting the collection removed from his report later if necessary is easier than getting a judgement removed from both of your reports.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I've been reading about people paying in full the amount owed to dismiss the suit, and the only reason I hesitate is because there is a notice on the summons and complaint that states:

"The full or partial payment of the amounts sued for might result in an award of costs" and then it goes on to exlain the rights of active military (not applicable to us)

I want to talk to the lawyer we know before doing anything else, he was out of the country last week, but is back this week, and we have until the 12th, being 20 days from the day we were served.