Facing Arbitration with Jefferson Capital Systems....Need advice

[Anonymous]

On 9/25/14 I was served with a summons from Jefferson Capital Systems, LLC. They are suing me for a charged off Emerge credit  card for the amount of $1,444.74, 0.900% annum from 08-14-12 and attorney fee's. It states the card was issued to me by Atlanticus Services Corprations f/k/a Compucredit corporation. I do remember having a Providian Visa card at that time and it then changed to the Emerge Mastercard. I had made payments to the Emege card but stopped after I had health issues and was unable to pay. I had never heard from Jefferson until receiving the summons. I no demand 30 days prior to the summons like stated in their complaint. I checked my Equifax credit report and saw that they made a report on me with a new account number 11-20-12, showed that scheduled payment was $50.00 and actual Payment amount is $46.00. The total amount due was the $1444.74.Then within just 30 days, the total amount grew to $1648.00 I disputed it on Equifax, seeking validation. I received my dispute response this morning, it shows they are validated and the activity is correct. It also now says Date of Payment 10/2414???? After I was served, I filed an "answer" with the court, denying their summons letter, as a free half hour consultation with an attorney said I should do. Now, it is going to arbitration really soon and I need to have the fee sent and a letter to the arbitrator next week. The attorney for Jefferson is a state away. When this all happened, I thought for sure it was a scam after reading up on Jefferson Capital and then when I looked up the address for the attorney it was a wrecking/towing yard. So,  I thought for sure it was a scam. Evidently it is not. I have already paid $158.00 to file my answer and now, my half of the arbitration fee is $375.00. After getting my report back from Equifax saying it is legit, I am afraid now I do not have a leg to stand on. I don't know whether to call their attorney and try and work out a payment plan or what. I can't afford the arbitration fee. I think it wrong that they showed up on my credit without my knowledge, they have never contacted me about this debt before and now suing me. Any advice? Please and thanks!

[LShawn08]

BUMP!

Sorry your going through such a hard time. Hopefully one of the more experienced and informed contributors will chime in. Keep bumping your post every couple of hours or so if you get no responses.

Make sure you know your states limitations on credit card debt and your date of first delinqunecy on that card.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the advice and kind words. Not sure if I should contact their attorney or not, the arbitrator's letter  says we should talk before the aritation takes place. I really did not think it would come to this. From what I have been reading about Jefferson Capital Systems on the Internet and this forum, they are very hard to deal with and even if you pay them off, they don't go away.. My state is 6 years on credit card limitations and from what my credit report says, my first date of delinquency was 02-20102. This card was listed in the 2008 FTI ruling, but since this was 2012, I am wondering if it would still qualify in the ruling. I do not remeber when the card switched over from Providian to them. IShows on my credit report I had had it since 1995. 

[LShawn08]

I've heard that also. Do you have any spareable income to push them back from this arbitration ? They are ofcourse vultures, the possibility of money might fend them off for a little ?

So you card was in good standing until 2012 ?

[Anonymous]

Yes, my card was good until then. I never used it, just kept on paying to try and pay it down but never seemed to gain on it. 

Do you mean offer them a lump payment? I may be able to borrow some from a relative. I do not make enough for them to garnish but I do not want to have a judgement against me either because the the debt is acurring daily now and I have no idea what their court costs could be but this looks like it could turn into a very large debt in a very short time. I just did not think this was legal to all of a sudden, out of the blue, get sued by someone I had never heard from. I should of been more into checking my credit report more often and I would of saw them listed there. 

[LShawn08]

Yes, maybe settling with them for a smaller amount might do the trick. The way there adding interest to you like that might also be a issue. As I believe, they are only allowed to add interest if the original company allowed such occurences after they chagred it off.

Check if they did, otherwise Jefferson is only allowed to get back the original amount.

Have you tried filing with the BBB or FTC ?

There is a post from 2012 on MYFICO about the same scenario, try reading that, see if there is any useful information.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I have filed a complaint with both and have not heard back from either one of them yet. This was on 11/7/14. Not sure if I mentioned the extra interest they are adding on me or not. On my credit report dispute findings, it says, Date of Last Payment as 10/2014. I never paid them anything, ever. I am writing a letter to Equifax to investigate more but I am running out of time as something needs to be done this week according to the arbritration attorney letter.

Thank you for getting back to me on this. 

[LShawn08]

May I see that ruling ? Your welcome, Im trying to keep your thread close to the top, as to wait for someone who can give you better tools to work with.

Like I mentioned before, the interst there adding sounds fishy, they can only add interest, if the original creditor says they can but maybe there trying to get over on you, thinking you have not heard of the ruling and there trying to "fix" your last delinquency. Do you have any old credit reports, that show any information on this account ?

[RobertEG]

You need legal and procedural advise that can only, in my opinion, come from an attorney.

[LShawn08]

Ummm... the calvary sorta came but they got busy and had to go to a gun fight instead. lol

I have no powder left in my Smith and Western but I hope you figure something out before you have to go to court. Just keep to the ground and find any information you can.

Sorry I forgot to mention. I did find something on that other post, that did say, the only cards that the rulling pertained to, were cards issued between 2008 through 2010.