SOL for credit card debt exceeded in TX?

[paralyzingdebt]

What is the name of your state? Texas

My last payment was 2/12/2001. I received an original petition suing me for this credit card debt on 4/26/2005. Best I can tell, this means it has been 4 years and 72 days since the last payment.

Am I eligible to cite SOL as a defense? If so, where can I find wording to put in my Answer? I don't have any money to pay a lawyer and am going to have to put this Answer together myself.

Thanks in advance to anyone who will be so kind as to help me!

I would like to add that I really wish I could pay off this debt. If I could I would. And if I could go back and just never have accrued the debt at all, I would do that too. But of course that is not possible.

 

[Debt Guy]

You should be able to use SOL as an affirmative defense.

The dates are really tight. The SOL begins to run from the date of first default -- not the date of last payment. Now, generally the date of first default is 30 days after the date of last payment -- since that is when the next payment was due and not paid.

You should try www.creditinfocenter.com or www.artofcredit.com to see if you can find samples. Also, try www.nolo.com.

 

[Debt Guy]

this may help

http://whychat.5u.com/answer.html

 

[paralyzingdebt]

Sounds like i need to find out EXACT extension of SOL

Thanks, Guy.

I'll try those links to see if I can find out anything on whether or not I have a prayer. It sounds like everything is going to be riding on the laws of the State of Texas in re the SOL and what is exactly to considered to be the beginning and ending of it.

I mean, if I can't win, then why spend next week's grocery money on filing for a lawsuit I can't win? In that case I should instead just be preparing to live without ever having a bank account again.

That is what would happen, right? Since I don't have money they can't get it now even if they win; I have nothing to liquidate and no money expected other than near-poverty level income. Would they be able to seize my bank account for the rest of my life? This is so weird. I feel as if my life has just entered into a science fiction movie...but I refuse to eat the soylent green, haha!

 

[Ladynred]

Yah.. you don't want the soylant green !!!

Would they be able to seize my bank account for the rest of my life?

Well.. more or less. Judgments in TX can be renewed and renewed so they could keep trying. I'm not certain if a levy is a one-shot at a time deal or not in TX, meaning a levy only works once, then they'd have to do it again later on.

With the dates you posted, I think you ARE beyond the SOL. That link to WhyChat's site is a very good source on how to do your Answer for an out-of-statute debt lawsuit.

 

[paralyzingdebt]

Okay will check that out

Thanks for the pointers. I'll look into that site some more. So much to do and so little time!

But is there any way to find out FOR SURE that they're outside the SOL? Because I have run across postings with talk of the SOL being the X number of years plus up to 80 days. I refigured, and this one is 4 years plus 60 days. I just don't want to spend a lot of time and money (for me, the filing fee alone is a LOT of money) on fighting something I can't win. I would rather buy groceries.

 

[Debt Guy]

I've never heard of x-years plus 80 days. Every reference I have says x-years.

Again, everything is key to when the SOL started. You need to know for sure when the date of first default occurred. You sound pretty sure of the date of your last payment -- so this should be just arithmetic.

I think the suit is outside the SOL. Only you can make the decision how to spend your money.

Question. Can you prove when you made the last payment? That will be key to convincing the judge. I know -- it is the responsibility of the plantiff to prove everything but you sure would like to have an ace in the hole in case they try to blow smoke.

Let me know how this comes out. Just send me an email.

 

[Ladynred]

What you MAY have heard regarding SOL and '80 days' is the REPORTING period for negative items on your credit. The reporting period is 7 years plus 180 days from the date of delinquency that immediately preceeded placement for collections. I'd bet you're confusing the two time periods. They are NOT related at all.

 

[paralyzingdebt]

Thanks you guys!

Well, my only "proof" of when the last payment was made is that I could show copies from a year or more worth of bank statements and every single month would show a payment to the Creditor until March 2001. Then I could show as many statements as they want beyond March 2001 to show that not one more time did I pay the Creditor. The only way I ever paid was through my only checking account which was and still is always the same bank.

It's kind of hard to prove something is not there. How can you take a photo of "nothing" to prove something? Haha.

The main hole I see in this argument is that by showing all those payments and then the last payment it is like admitting I owe the debt, isn't it?

The only time I have ever paid for something with a money order is when (for instance on eBay) the receiving party would not accept a personal check or my debit card. So yes, I am certain, absolutely, that that was my last payment to them.

I wonder if I need to attach copies of all these statements with my Answer? Or would that come later when they are doing Discovery?

P.S. I ordered my credit reports today from all 3 of the big companies for that, and was able to access just one of them through the Internet today -- through Experian. On the Experian report dates are very lacking! The only date given on the part of the report that lists my Original Creditor is "Date Open: 9/1/2000." Now I REALLY can't figure out what that is supposed to mean, because my account with them started many months before 9/2000. What does "date open" mean on a credit report? I'm going to go check my 2000 bank statements. My memory says I would have been making payments to them in the spring of 2000. I'll let you know what I find out!

 

[paralyzingdebt]

Okay. I checked, and they're right -- the account began in 9/2000. It must have (had to be) a deal where they opened the account with me in a deal where I moved my debt from another card over to them. I know that something like that happened that year. It seemed like all the credit card companies wanted to take over debts that year. My very first payment to them in October 2000 was for $178.00, and every month after that, through February 2001, was the same amount. Then my income dropped because my highest paying client suddenly had no work for me either at the end of 2000 or beginning of 2001.

So, I only paid on that account for 5 months, but had paid on that particular debt on a different card before that.

How do people usually prove when their last payment was?