Postal Letter

Will a Credit Card company sue and garnish wages over $1500 in bad debt?

I know they have to contact me to sue me, but I have moved and they don't have my new address. Can they sue me without me actually knowing? ie send a letter to my old address, and I not receive it. I have the postal company forwarding my mail, but haven't received anything from them.

Public Comments

1. Will a company sue? Yes, because if they prevail then they can claim court and legal fees, so it will turn that $1500 into around $2000+ that you would have to owe. Can they garnish your wages? This depends on the state you live in. Some states do not allow garnishment for CC Debt, others they can garnish up to 25% of your gross pay. The link below gives you the rules of garnishment for each state. But even if garnishment is not allowed, they can still take other actions such as attaching your bank account(s) and/or placing liens against any real property you may own. Can they sue you without you knowing? This depends on the state you live in and the requirements for serving(notifiying) you. In some states they just have to attempt to serve you at a known address. In other cases they must serve you in person. There is a good chance that if they are going to sue you, they know where you live and/or work. This is because even though you have not told them, they will usually hire "skip tracers". These are people who basically get paid for finding out where you are. Since you are having your mail forwarded there is a good chance they already know.
2. Every creditor is different and will respond differently to defaulted debt.....They might just charge-off this debt and sell it to a collection agency for pennies on the dollar...or they might try to get a judgment against you. The worst case scenario is for them to send a court summons to your old address and it doesn't end up being forwarded to your new address....That would mean you wouldn't show up in court as you wouldn't be aware of the court date...No show = default judgment. To be safe...I would at least forward the new address...You don't have to give them your phone number...that way you would receive any important notices. Why not make a pre-emptive move and offer a settlement amount of $750 to them? If you do this, get the terms IN WRITING from them prior to paying them one penny.
3. I say pay up. They will end up writing off the debt, sell it to a collection agency..that will find you and screw up your credit.
4. If the post office is fwding your mail the credit card company will know whree you are soon enough. "address service requested" on thier envelope tells the PO to send them a card with your new info on it. they ahve to serve you or a person of reasonable age at you residence in order to have a vaild suit against you. And yes, they will attempt to do it for $1500.00