Start My Answer
loading...

How Does the Statute of Limitations on Debt Work? Expert Attorney Explains

The Debt Hotline | September 19, 2025

Summary: Filing bankruptcy may actually improve your credit score if you're already behind on payments. Most people see their scores recover to the 600s within one to two years and can reach the 700s within two to three years post-filing. Solo can help you respond to debt lawsuits, and Upsolve offers free Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing assistance.

Summary: The statute of limitations on debt is the deadline by which creditors must file a lawsuit to collect. After this period expires, you can use it as a defense to get the case dismissed, but you must still respond to any lawsuit filed. Solo can help you respond to debt lawsuits and check statute of limitations in your state.

Are you confused about whether you can still be sued for an old debt? The statute of limitations on debt might be your key to getting the case dismissed, but only if you know how to use it properly. In a recent episode of The Debt Hotline, consumer protection attorney Greg Anjewierden explained exactly how these laws work and why so many people miss their chance to use this powerful defense.

Greg, who used to work as a debt collection attorney before switching to consumer protection law, knows the system from both sides and shared critical insights about when collectors can and can't successfully sue you for unpaid debts.

Settle with SoloSettle

Make an Offer

Understanding statute of limitations prevents collectors from suing you forever

The statute of limitations is essentially a deadline that prevents creditors from filing lawsuits indefinitely. As Greg explains, legislatures created these laws because evidence deteriorates and memories fade over time, making it unfair to allow legal claims to persist forever.

Each state sets different time limits for different types of debt. For example, written contracts typically have longer statute of limitations periods than oral agreements. Credit card debt, medical debt, personal loans, and other debt types each may have different deadlines within the same state.

The clock typically starts ticking from your last payment date, not when you first missed a payment or when the debt was charged off. This means making even a small payment can reset the entire timeline, so it's crucial to understand your situation before taking any action.

Respond to debt collection lawsuits fast with Solo.

You must still respond to lawsuits even after the deadline expires

Here's where many people make a costly mistake: assuming that if the statute of limitations has expired, they can simply ignore any lawsuit. Greg emphasizes this critical point: "I think it's really important that any time you get sued, even if the statute of limitations has run out, you need to respond to the summons and the complaint that gets filed."

The judge won't automatically throw out the case just because the deadline has passed. You must file an Answer and raise the statute of limitations as an affirmative defense. If you don't respond, the judge will likely enter a default judgment against you, meaning you lose automatically, regardless of whether the debt was legally collectible.

Filing a motion to dismiss based on the expired statute of limitations is your responsibility. The court system assumes the lawsuit is valid unless you prove otherwise.

Selling debt to collectors doesn't restart the statute of limitations

A common misconception is that when original creditors sell debts to collection agencies or debt buyers, the statute of limitations clock resets. This is false. As discussed in the episode, when debt gets sold, the statute of limitations continues running from the original last payment date.

This means that if you made your last payment on a credit card five years ago, and your state has a four-year statute of limitations, a debt buyer purchasing that debt today still can't successfully sue you since the deadline has already passed.

However, be careful about making any payments to new collectors. Even a small payment can restart the statute of limitations period in many states, giving collectors a fresh opportunity to sue you.

Different states and debt types have different time limits

Greg highlighted how dramatically statute of limitations periods vary across states and debt types. For instance:

  • Louisiana personal loans: 10 years for written contracts, but only three years for personal loans according to the Solo calculator
  • Texas medical debt: four years
  • California personal loans: six years

These differences matter significantly. A debt that would be uncollectible in Texas might still be actionable in Louisiana. Additionally, within each state, different debt types have different limits. Written contracts typically have longer periods than oral agreements, and credit card debt may have different rules than medical debt.

Solo's statute of limitations calculator helps you determine the specific deadline for your situation by inputting your state, debt type, and last payment date.

Collectors often continue pursuing expired debts through calls and letters

Just because the statute of limitations has expired doesn't mean collectors will stop trying to collect. They can still contact you and ask for payment. They just can't force you to pay through the court system.

This situation came up during the episode when Asia called about an eight-year-old medical debt from Texas. The collector was still texting her about a $900 medical bill, even though Texas has a four-year statute of limitations on medical debt. Greg pointed out that collectors may continue texting and calling precisely because they know they can't successfully sue due to the expired statute of limitations.

In cases like Asia's, you can send a cease and desist letter requiring collectors to stop contacting you. Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, they must honor this request and can only contact you again if they decide to file a lawsuit, which they're unlikely to do if they know the statute has expired.

Let's consider an example.

Example: Sarah had a credit card debt from 2019 that she stopped paying during the pandemic. In 2025, a debt collector started calling her about the $3,000 balance. Sarah lives in a state with a four-year statute of limitations on credit card debt. Since more than four years have passed since her last payment, Sarah can send a cease and desist letter to stop the calls. If the collector sues anyway, Sarah can file an Answer raising the statute of limitations as a defense and likely get the case dismissed.

Moving states doesn't change which statute of limitations applies

Another caller asked about a situation where he had taken out a personal loan in California but was now being sued in New Jersey. Greg explained that typically, the law of the state where you incurred the debt applies, not where you currently live or where you're being sued.

This often comes down to choice of law clauses in your original contract. Many credit agreements specify which state's laws govern the contract. If your contract doesn't specify, courts generally apply the law of the state where the debt was created.

However, this area can get complex when dealing with interstate debt collection, which is why it's important to examine your original contract and potentially consult with an attorney if you're facing a lawsuit in a different state than where you incurred the debt.

Take action to protect your rights

Understanding the statute of limitations is just the first step. If you're being contacted about old debts or facing a lawsuit, you need to take action to protect yourself:

First, determine if the statute of limitations has expired using Solo's statute of limitations calculator. Input your state, the type of debt, and your last payment date to get an estimate.

If you're being sued, file an Answer regardless of whether you think the statute has expired. Solo helps you create a proper response to a debt lawsuit that includes all necessary defenses, including statute of limitations.

For debts where the statute hasn't expired, consider using SoloSettle to negotiate a settlement before collectors decide to file a lawsuit. This can help you resolve the debt for less than the full amount while avoiding court proceedings.

Remember, the statute of limitations doesn't make the debt disappear, but it can give you a powerful legal defense if collectors try to sue you if you know how to use it properly and respond to any legal action taken against you.

Connect with expert help

To listen to the rest of this conversation with attorney Greg Anjewierden, including more detailed caller questions about complex statute of limitations scenarios, check out the full episode of The Debt Hotline on your favorite podcast platform.

Greg Anjewierden is the founder and CEO of Debtbrief, a company that helps people who are sued for debt with consulting, legal representation, and other resources. You can learn more about his services at his website.

For immediate help with debt lawsuits, Solo provides tools to respond to lawsuits quickly and negotiate settlements directly with collectors, helping you protect your rights and resolve debt issues efficiently.

Transcript

George (00:00:01):

Hi folks. This is George, founder of Solo, and this is the debt hotline we have Greg with us today. Greg, welcome to the show.

Greg Anjewierden (00:00:11):

Thanks for having me.

George (00:00:13):

Fantastic. So Greg Anjewierden is a licensed and practicing attorney who used to work as a debt collection lawyer collecting unpaid medical debt. As such, Greg knows all the inner workings of debt collection litigation system and how it can be very unfair for people who can't afford a lawyer. Greg is also the founder and CEO of Debt brief, a company that helps people who are sued for debt with consulting, legal representation, forum courses and other resources. Greg, thanks again for being on. Always glad to have you as a regular guest.

Greg Anjewierden (00:00:46):

Yeah, I love being here. Love answering these questions.

George (00:00:50):

Nice. So folks, if you have a question, just go ahead and call into the debt hotline at 801-613-8181. That will skip you ahead of the queue of questions. We have lots of questions from people who've written in. If you want to skip ahead and make sure that your question gets answered by Greg and myself, just go ahead and call 801-613-8181. All right, so the general topic for today is what is the statute of limitations on debt? Greg, how about you just go ahead and give us a little brief review of what the statute of limitations is?

Greg Anjewierden (00:01:32):

Yeah, so the statute of limitations is really like there's a deadline by when somebody has to file a lawsuit by. The theory behind this is if we just leave claims for money or whatever, really any kind of lawsuit, just outstanding forever evidence kind of tends to get scale memories go bad. So really legislatures in each state will say for this type of a claim, in our case it's going to be debt collection. We're going to set a timeline, and if you haven't filed your lawsuit by this deadline, then you lose the ability to file that lawsuit. If you do file that lawsuit, then the defendant or the debtor in our case can ask the court to dismiss the case and you don't have to pay that. So that's generally what a statute of limitations is. It's important for debtors to know this because a lot of times these cases do get filed past the statute of limitations and you have the ability then to get that case to dismissed and not pay the outstanding debt.

George (00:02:34):

Fantastic. Folks, that's the rundown on the statute of limitations, right? So basically it's the deadline by which you can't be sued, you have to be sued before the deadline of the statute of limitations. Basically, Greg, if you're sued after the statute of limitations has expired, are you going to automatically win your case? Did the judge just kick the case out for you, take care of you?

Greg Anjewierden (00:03:01):

No. Yeah, so I think it's really important that anytime you get sued, even if the statute of limitations is run, you need to respond to the summons and the complaint that gets filed. If you don't, the judge honestly doesn't even look at the lawsuit. If you don't respond to it, the judge will simply enter a default judgment against you if you haven't responded. So I think one of the first things you should do when you get that summons and complaint is look and see has the statute of limitations run? And if it has, then I'm going to be filing a motion to dismiss. You've got to file that motion to dismiss in order to make that statute of limitations effective or to get the judge to throw out the case. The judge is not going to do it on their own with no input from you.

George (00:03:44):

Right. Okay, great. Yep. So if you are being sued after to the statute of limitations, you still got to respond and make that your defense, in which case you will win. You just need to break that up as your defense. Alrighty, let's see what questions we have here today for us. So we have some questions from people who wrote in before the show began. We have a question from Bruce in la. What is the statute of limitations in Louisiana on a personal loan? That is a tough one. Greg is not licensed in Louisiana. Not guessing that he knows the statute of limitations offhand, unless I'm wrong. Greg, what do you think?

Greg Anjewierden (00:04:33):

I don't know it off the top of my head. I know SOLO has a really good chart. I know you guys have got it on your website, so I'm kind of pulling it up now and it kind of depends on what the loan is I guess, and if it's a written document with the terms of the loan on it, it looks like according to you guys' chart, that's going to be 10 years, which is on the longer end of statute of limitations. Most states have shorter statute of limitations, but I think that brings up an important point, which is that the statute of limitations is going to be different in every state and even in each state, different types of debts are going to have different statute of limitations. So like an oral contract could have one statute of limitations and a written contract could have a different statute of limitations, and a credit card could have different statute of limitations and medical debt could have different statute of limitations. So it's really important that you got to be careful when you're Googling this type of stuff to make sure that you know you're in the right state with the right type of debt. And that website you've got up there I think does a really good job of helping break that down for people.

George (00:05:54):

Fantastic. Yeah, folks, so the calculator that Greg referenced, right? We have a great chart of statute of limitations. You can go to our site and find the statute of limitations calculator you just punched in your state. So we punched in Louisiana, I punched in the debt type, punched in personal loan, and then you just select the last day you made a payment. Let's say you made a payment on the debt today. That's the main factor here. It's spinning out here. The statute of limitations has not expired. Statute of limitations for personal loan debt in Louisiana is three years statute of limitations. Expiration date in this case would be September 8th, 2028. You made a payment today, it'll be three years into the future and then mentions that some exceptions and nuances may apply. And then here is the code that references this. Never be afraid of the code. The code is really the law. Don't be afraid to just dive in and read the law. This is the Louisiana Civil Code article 3, 4 9. Four is the statute limitations for Louisiana. There you go. Next question we have here is Timothy in California, if a debt is sold to a collection agency, does the statute of limitations start over?

He with us still looks like Greg is frozen in an incredibly realistic and live looking fashion. Greg, go ahead and let us know when you are back here in a minute folks. So just answering that question. So if a debt is sold to a collection agency, does the statute of limitations start over? No. The statute of limitations does not start over if it's sold. Statute of limitations is primarily based on when you made your last payment. That's like the general blanket concept. It differs depending on estate and the nuances of the code. That's the general idea. So if you made a payment last month, statute limitations is five years. The expiration date, unlike that lawsuit is going to be five years from last month.

Alright, so that's the general idea. Folks. If you have a question, just call the debt hotline at zero eight zero one six one three eight one eight one. And now is a good time to highlight our we debt payoff giveaway. If you are in debt, like pretty much everybody listening to this show is you might be interested in our dance in September. Debt payoff giveaway, you can enter for a chance to win up to $4,700. So if you are in debt, we will, like many people love the song September by Earth, wind and Fire, and it's all about dance in September. So if you have debt, you can go over here and enter. It is free to enter, you just enter some basic details about yourself, click here, enter a giveaway, and then you could win 4,700 bucks. We're also giving $500 away to people that enter as well at different points throughout this month. Alrighty, great. So jumping into the next question we have is from Scott In New Jersey.

While a resident of California, I took out a personal loan and failed to make a payment on it. Section 3, 3 7 of the California Code of Civil procedure states that the action must be brought within four years. From the date of last payment, I moved New Jersey and now the law firm that purchased the debt is suing me in civil court. The loan originated in California and I left California four years after getting the loan. What do you think the judge in New Jersey will rule? Greg, it looks like you're back. How you doing?

Greg Anjewierden (00:10:58):

Good. Sorry about that.

George (00:11:00):

Nice, glad to have your back. Sorry, things dropped. So we have this question here from Scott in New Jersey. So you're saying he used to live in California, Scott looks like he moved to New Jersey from California. There you go. And you're saying the statute of limitations in California is for four years, and that law firm that purchased the debt is now suing you in civil court and you're being sued in New Jersey. So you're wondering what the judge in New Jersey is going to rule? Well, let's find out what the statute of limitations is in California. Let's take a quick look at that. Sorry, I'm just just going to select California here. Our handy debt calculator. Let's see. It's interesting. For some reason I'm having,

Okay, here we go. California. And then does it say what kind of debt it is? It took out a personal loan, so we're going to call it a personal loan. And then you left California. It doesn't seem like the person here, Scott, doesn't look like you say what year you stopped paying, but let's just imagine that it was in 2021 in January four years ago, and we'll go ahead and calculate that saying statute of limitations has not expired yet. Statute of limitations for personal debt in California is six years. So only four years have passed. You still have quite a while before the statute of limitations is going to pass. So the judge is probably going to rule that you can be sued based on the statute of limitations. Greg, what do you think? You want to chime in here?

Greg Anjewierden (00:13:23):

Yeah, yeah, I agree with you on that. I think the thing that's interesting to note here is that the debt was incurred in California and he's being sued in New Jersey. So the question is what statute of limitations applies? And that's really going to be for the most part, does your contract have what we call a choice of law clause? And does it say that the law of our contract is California law and you entered into the contract in California, so most likely, even if it doesn't say the law of California is going to apply even though they're suing you in New Jersey. So it can get kind of confusing what statute of limitations applies here, but just keep that in mind that it might not be the state you're sued in. It might be the state that the debt was incurred in and things like that.

George (00:14:18):

Exactly. Yep. Totally, totally matters what state you're in and what state the lawsuit is from. Alright folks, if you have a question and you're listening here live, just call the hotline at (801) 613-8181. It looks like somebody who's calling in now.

Lemme see if I can plug her in. Looks like we have a live call that's calling in. We'll get them plugged in here shortly. In the meantime, we have a question from Kelly in Minnesota. I tried to upload a ring camera pick, but it would not let me. Can a debt collector who is trying to serve me papers dress up as an Amazon delivery driver to disguise who he really is? I guess maybe saying she took a picture of the guy serving her and she couldn't upload it in our form. I think that's what Kelly's saying Anyhow. Yeah, so Kelly sounds like you're served by a dude dressed up as an Amazon delivery driver. Very exciting. Greg, what do you think?

Greg Anjewierden (00:15:38):

I mean, first of all, clarify and say there might be certain laws in certain states that might be different, but generally, yes, they could dress up like an Amazon delivery driver. Frankly, they could be a real Amazon delivery driver. In most states, it's got to be someone that's an adult that isn't the lawyer or the actual creditor, right? So I guess, yeah, they could do that. And I think a lot of people get caught up in how they got served and certainly you want to pay attention to that, but if you learn about the lawsuit, I think you need to take some action to defend yourself or you could end up in a default judgment right now, maybe that means you want to file a motion to dismiss and say that service was improper, but I think you don't ever want to assume that, well, they didn't serve me properly so I don't have to.

George (00:16:36):

Is the judge going to make sure they automatically win if they're served improperly,

Greg Anjewierden (00:16:42):

Right? No, they're not. Right. So they're going to assume that service was proper until you are able to tell them that it wasn't. Or at least there's a real risk of that right now. I have seen judges where they say, I looked at this and I don't think service was proper. I'm going to make you do it again. I mean, it's happened to me where I tried to serve somebody and the judge says, that's not good enough. Go try it again. So the person didn't happen. What I guess I'm saying is even if the defendant didn't show up, that has happened to me as a creditor trying to sue. But I think you never want to assume that's going to be the case because far more often than not, the judge is just going to say, well, they told me they served, so I'm going to assume that's true. And here's the default judgment,

George (00:17:29):

Right? Do you hear about service people using disguises much?

Greg Anjewierden (00:17:41):

I mean, I don't, that seems more like a thing that happens in the movies than anything else. That's not to say that it doesn't happen. And I think part of the reason for that is, okay, so when I was doing debt collection, we would send out a process server and then maybe somebody's trying to avoid service, but it's obvious that somebody lives there. And based on our research, it's probably obvious that the person we're trying to serve lives there. So instead of going through all these crazy efforts to hand them the documents, I'm just going to go back to the court and file a motion for alternative service that says, here's what we did to try and serve them. Here's how they're trying to avoid service. Here's all of our research to show where we think they are. Will you please just let us tape a copy of the summons to the door? And then the judge almost always will say, yeah, I think you've made sufficient efforts. Go ahead and tape a copy or put a copy in the mail and I'm going to call that good. So while certainly it can happen, I've never seen

it happen just because I didn't think you need to go through that to get them served. There was just easier ways of doing it,

George (00:18:54):

Right? Yeah, I helped a friend, I helped out a friend trying to serve somebody. She was just doing it for a few bucks. We had nothing better to do. Tried serving somebody. I think divorce papers when I was living in Arizona a few times. I think we tried two to three times, but the person really dodged, man. It's a dodge service, it seemed. Greg, what is the process server? I think the person asking this question, Kelly, a little bit confused. What is the process server? How does that relationship work?

Greg Anjewierden (00:19:30):

Yeah, so yeah, when you start a lawsuit, you file the lawsuit in the court and then you have to serve or basically hand the papers of the lawsuit, which is, in our case, the summons in the complaint. You've got to hand it to the other side so they know they've been sued. So as a lawyer, if you're suing somebody, I'm going to hire somebody called a process server, and basically their job is to take those papers and to hand them to people, and they can get creative in doing that. A lot of times maybe they're in gated communities or in apartment buildings with a manager or security out front, but they basically need to, their job is to make sure that they get those documents from their hands into the defendant's hands, and that's what they do, right?

George (00:20:18):

Yeah. And I bring that because Kelly is asking, she was saying the debt collector disguised as an Amazon Amazon delivery driver, and it's important to note here, Kelly, the process server isn't the debt collector process server has no skin in the game on this lawsuit. They do not care what the lawsuit's about, what's happening, et cetera. They're just getting paid probably, what is it, Greg? Like $20 probably. They get paid by the surface, I think.

Greg Anjewierden (00:20:42):

Yeah, it ranges. It depends on the efforts that they have to go to. It can depend on how far they have to travel to find you. But yeah, I mean you're usually in the range of 20 to a hundred dollars,

George (00:20:55):

Right? Yep. That's the rundown there. And it very well could just be an Amazon delivery driver doing it as a side gig. All right, Greg, we have somebody fallen in here. Let's go ahead and plug them in. Oh, (00:21:20):

Hey, this is George. How's it going?

Guest 1 (00:21:22): Hello?

George (00:21:23):

Hello. Tell us your name.

Guest 1 (00:21:27): Asia, Nicole.

George (00:21:28):

Asia. Hello, Asia. How's it going?

Guest 1 (00:21:31):

Fine.

George (00:21:32):

What's your situation?

Guest 1 (00:21:36):

Well, I had a question. So if you have a debt, a person has a debt that is about eight years old, the amount, it's not too high, but you still can't really afford it afford, but they still are. They're sending you text messages and all that. So what can you do if you can't really afford to pay off that debt right away, especially since you just lost a job. So are there any options or anything?

George (00:22:19):

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So in your situation here, so you're saying you're being sued for debt, you've lost your job recently, is that right?

Guest 1 (00:22:29):

Well, no, no, no. Suing the debt is about eight years old, but how much ime did you say the debt's for?

George (00:22:41):

Time did you say the debt's for?

Guest 1 (00:22:44): It's a medical debt.

George (00:22:47):

It's a medical debt. And how much is it for, you said

Guest 1 (00:22:51): It's like over $900

George (00:22:55): A little bit over 900.

Guest 1 (00:22:57):

Yes.

George (00:22:58):

It's eight years old.

Guest 1 (00:23:00): Yes.

George (00:23:02):

So you're wondering what to do with the collectors are actively calling you about it?

Guest 1 (00:23:09):

Right now it's just text messages and I did receive a letter. I think it was a verification letter, but I did try to dispute it to gain more information.

George (00:23:30):

Okay, so you disputed it. Did you send them a debt validation letter?

Guest 1 (00:23:36): No, not yet.

George (00:23:40):

How did you just feel?

Guest 1 (00:23:43):

There's multiple ways you can call or electronically send one or send it through the mail.

George (00:23:54):

Okay. And how'd you get into this situation?

Guest 1 (00:24:02):

It was some years ago. I did go to the doctor. It was unexpected. It was a ruptured ovarian cyst and it was there right around the time that I moved. So yeah, it was completely unexpected. And I think, was I working? I can't remember if I was working. I was working at the time, but I didn't have health insurance because I was working.

George (00:24:40):

Okay, sorry. Sorry to hear about the situation here. Greg, what do you think?

Greg Anjewierden (00:24:51):

I mean, if it's eight years old, then you probably ought to look at has the statute of limitations run and there may be a reason that they are continuing to text you and bug you but not sue you. And that may be because they know the statute of limitations has run, and so they know they can't file that lawsuit, and so they're just going to bug you and hope that you pay. So if that's the case, if you look at it and you say the statute of limitations has run, then you probably don't need to do anything at all. Frankly, you might send them a stop collection letter so that they have to stop contacting you without filing a lawsuit, and that might be the end of it. Now, if the statute of limitations has not run, then one thing to do is you could also send them a stop collection letter and that's going to force them like, okay, look, we can't text or call or whatever until we file that lawsuit.

And then knowing that that's probably means they're going to sue. You could reach out and try and negotiate a settlement, use a tool like Solo settle and trying to negotiate some kind of payment plan. You can't afford $900 right now, but if you could get on a small payment plan, maybe you could pay that off. If you do something like that, again, that's assuming that the statute of limitations has not run. So that's kind of the approach that I would take is look at the statute of limitations. If it's run, tell them to stop contacting you. If it hasn't run, probably try and negotiate some kind of a settlement.

Guest 1 (00:26:28):

And how do I figure out the, because I live in a different state, I know each state is different.

George (00:26:38):

Let's take a look at our handy calculate. What state are you in?

Guest 1 (00:26:41): Texas.

George (00:26:43):

Okay, let's take a look at Texas. We've got medical debt. Texas, you're saying you've never made a payment on the debt, right? It originated eight years ago in

Guest 1 (00:26:57):

I think I did. It was a charge, but I think I may have done it. I can't remember. I've been having this debt over my head.

George (00:27:08):

Was it in 2017 that you might have made a payment or some other time? Probably. Probably 2017. Okay. Let's just plug in June 20th, 2017, our calculator saying the statute of limitations has expired. The statute of limitations for medical debt in Texas is four years. The statute of limitations, expiration date is May 30th, 2021. If you made a payment in May 31st, 2017 or June 1st, 2017, then here is the code that you can look at and find out more about it. Yeah, so I mean, eight years ago, Texas statute limitations looks like it's four years

Greg Anjewierden (00:28:00):

And this is exactly why they continue to call you, right? Because in some ways it's like $900. Why don't they just file a lawsuit and come after you? Well, it's because they know that a lawsuit's going to be unsuccessful, right? So the statute of limitations doesn't mean they can't ask you for the money, they just can't force you to pay it. So I think in this case, what I would do is just send them a letter that says, please stop contacting me about this, and they should stop contacting.

George (00:28:29):

They're legally, they're legally required to honor a cease and desist. Yeah.

Greg Anjewierden (00:28:36):

Unless they decide to sue you, which we know that they probably can't do because the statute of limitations is probably expected.

George (00:28:41):

And that'll all get you resolved here. Asia, what's your financial position right now? Are you earning money? What kind of money are you earning?

Guest 1 (00:28:53):

None. I'm living off of my savings account right now. I'm trying to, I've been looking for a new position, a new job. It's been quite difficult.

George (00:29:06):

You are employed from time to time.

Guest 1 (00:29:08):

I'm not employed at all. That's the problem.

George (00:29:11):

When were you last employed? Was it several years ago or is it a few months ago?

Guest 1 (00:29:18): Last year, May, 2024.

George (00:29:21):

Yeah, like a year.

Guest 1 (00:29:23):

Yeah.

George (00:29:24):

Okay. Yeah. Yep. So that's one option for you. Another option with Solo, we are dedicated to helping people improve their net worth. Really helping people go from rock bottom, which is oftentimes being sued for debt and helping 'em go all the way to positive net worth and build their wealth. Something that you can consider here, if you really want to get this debt fully behind you and resolved, you can, when you try to earn more income and then pay this thing off, just pay off the debt and be done with it, get it behind you, and then tackle other debts that you might have and try to build your positive net worth. So those are kind two options for you that are before you. Very good chatting with you and thanks for coming onto the show.

Guest 1 (00:30:19):

Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you.

George (00:30:22):

Good luck one. Yep. So folks, sometimes statute of limitations really are expired, right? And I think what Greg mentioned, or they can keep on contacting you unless you send them a cease and desist is an important part I think of that equation. Alrighty, we have, yeah, go ahead.

Greg Anjewierden (00:30:49):

Lemme just add something too on that sometimes they're just going to contact you and like, oh, well they can't make you do anything, right? So in some ways just ignore them and the statute of limitations has passed. You don't have to pay, so just don't fret it until it really starts to become burdensome with their contact.

George (00:31:09):

Indeed, we have another live caller that is getting queued up here. Folks, if you have a question you want to make sure that we answer, you can call in through the debt hotline at 801-613-8181. We have lots of people watching live, so you'll want to go ahead and call that number and we can get you plugged in. Let's see here. And also folks, if you are being sued for a debt currently, which many people are, you can use this link here in the chat to respond to the lawsuit. That link will support Greg for coming on the show.

So go ahead and check out that link in the chat. You can use that to respond to your debt lawsuit of able to get a lawsuit settled or any other type of debt they want to get resolved. We have question from somebody who wrote in early from Ricardo in Georgia. I received notification from third party firms via mail soliciting me to pay for representation that I'm being sued for by B of an old $10,000 charged off credit card debt from 2023. I have not been served yet. I looked online and the suit was valid. So I contact them to try to settle beforehand or should I wait to be served before I engage the firm representing Bank of America to see about a settlement or payment plan? Thanks.

Greg Anjewierden (00:33:10):

I mean, really you can do either on this, right? Sometimes you want to see, look, I'm not going to do anything until they sue me and maybe they'll just go away and you can wait and that'll be fine. And then I think sometimes it's, look, I know I owe this. I know I'm not going to have any good defenses and I'm going to reach out before I get sued and just try and get it resolved. And so I really kind of think it depends on the circumstances, whether you understand that you owe it, whether you think they have proof that you owe it. And so I'm going to kind of take that on a case by case basis. There is what my response would be to that.

George (00:33:54):

Yeah, that sounds pretty on point, Timothy, if you're being sued, it sounds like you're being sued for this debt. It might be a debt that you are familiar with, right? It's 10 K, it's not that old, it's just from a few years ago. You can, in our experience, it's usually going to be better to settle as early as you can upfront. You can get things wrapped up on Solo settle if you want to. And people usually feel best when they are paying back money that they owe. Oftentimes you can just pay it back at a discount, find a way to increase your income and get this thing fully paid off. The best outcome, best resolution for people is going to be paying off the debt at some kind of a discount so you can fully get it behind you so that the debt is satisfied so that your credit report will get that boost so that you'll feel good about yourself just paying off your debts that you owe and you can move on with your life and build positive net worth in your life. Alright, we have a question from a live caller. Here is Dennis. Dennis, how's it going? This is George.

Guest 2: Dennis (00:35:26):

Hey George, how are you? I don't know if you can hear me.

George (00:35:29):

Yep, we can hear you. Great. Go ahead and tell us about your situation.

Guest 2: Dennis (00:35:34):

It's a little complicated for me anyway, but you guys probably fully understand this. So the brief version, I lived in South Carolina and owned a business and in 2014 we defaulted on our mortgage. They put a judgment against me in 2015, November of 2015 in the amount of, well a lot over $450,000. I haven't heard from them since. And moved to Florida in 2017, completely rebelled my life and retired, I'm actually calling you from Ecuador. They must have sold the judgment to one of these really big debt collectors who domesticated the judgment without telling me, garnished my Wells Fargo account took $70,000 and is now garnishing my IRA accounts and I need this money desperately for my retirement. So my first question is, the original judgment I believe expires in less than two months. How does that apply? If I fight this case in Florida, will they, if I get it quashed because they never notified me, will they be able to refile after the statute is expired in South Carolina and continue this forever?

George (00:37:00):

Hey Dennis, I'm sorry to hear about the situation, man, that sounds like a bummer spot to be in. So you've retired to Ecuador, congrats on retiring to Ecuador. That sounds awesome. Sounds like a great time. Thank you. But it's a little bummer that they're coming after you for this judgment from a long time ago. So you're saying, so just recapping the situation. So you were foreclosed on in 2015, is that right? And then they got a $400,000 judgment against you. A deficiency. Yeah. So deficiency, mortgage judgment, right? So folks for listening in what will happen? So Dennis, right, you said you owned a home, you had a mortgage, you had equity in the house. Let's say the house was like $600,000, you owned, what are we saying? Like $200,000 in equity and then you missed some payments, the bank forecloses on the house, the bank takes the house and then sells it for a lower rate, and then they got a judgment against you for the remainder basically. Is that right? The difference between what they sold it for and

Guest 2: Dennis (00:38:27):

No, that's not what happened at all.

George (00:38:32):

Tell us a little more.

Guest 2: Dennis (00:38:32):

The basis was I owned a business, we had an office they foreclosed on that never filed a deficiency judgment for the amount that they sold the property for. So the judgment that they assigned to this other company is still for the full amount without the adjustment. They never filed a deficiency judgment in South Carolina. And this other company was assigned it last year and filed a judgment, again, domesticated it to Florida while I was in Ecuador and began C, all my assets.

George (00:39:06):

So this wasn't for a home, this was for a business property like the office building that you owned, correct?

Guest 2: Dennis (00:39:11):

Yes

George (00:39:13):

That's correct. You said the business shut down was the bankruptcy or did you just closed the business?

Guest 2: Dennis (00:39:20):

We closed the business. I never believed in bankruptcy. I really wish I'd have filed it now

George (00:39:27):

You closed. Okay. Yeah. So you wound down because of economics, the business was kind of going under.

Guest 2: Dennis (00:39:36):

Yes, because of the economy and people defaulted on all their payments to us. Yes. Kind of business advertising and marketing.

George (00:39:55):

And so you own

Greg Anjewierden (00:39:57):

This office?

George (00:39:58):

Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead Greg,

Greg Anjewierden (00:40:00):

If I can jump in. So if I'm understanding you correct, there was a judgment and then they've domesticated it now in Florida, and you're saying that the original judgment is about to expire. And so you're saying if I fight this in Florida because it wasn't properly served, and in the meantime if the judgment expires, are you going to be able to not have the judgment domesticated in Florida? Am I understanding that right?

Guest 2: Dennis (00:40:25): That's exactly what my question is.

Greg Anjewierden (00:40:27):

Yes. Okay. So I mean the thing is is that to order to domesticate the judgment, there's just got to be a valid current judgment. So I guess it depends. Yeah, you should fight this in Florida and if you can get it overturned, great. If in the meantime the original judgment expires, they probably are going to have a hard time then domesticating it in Florida, right? So yeah, trying to delay that is probably a good idea. Now here's the thing, if I'm them, what I'm going to do is actually South Carolina was the original judgment, right?

Guest 2: Dennis (00:41:07): Yes. And you can't.

Greg Anjewierden (00:41:08):

Okay, well that was going to be my next thing. If I'm them, I'm going to try and renew that judgment. If the judgment can't be renewed, then yeah, this might be something that works. I think the thing is that it's a little bit out of your control and because it kind of depends what they do, how fast they do it. And again, I don't know the law in Florida, sometimes there are things that can save if you've filed something but haven't served it properly, sometimes the judge will not dismiss it but make them just reserve so the case doesn't get dismissed, it gets re-served. And so yes, what you're describing could work, but I think it's not guaranteed to work. So you may want to make alternative plans. I definitely would go through that process, but you may want to make alternative plans of what to do with your money in case that doesn't work. Does that make sense?

Guest 2: Dennis (00:42:07):

Absolutely. So my only follow up question on that is what type of attorney do I need to handle this? Because I've called so many attorneys and they all just want me to file bankruptcy, but of course I can't easily file bankruptcy, it'll take the rest of my funds. So are there specialized attorneys that fight judgments and garnishments?

Greg Anjewierden (00:42:37):

Unfortunately that's kind of like a gap and I think that's why companies like Solo came about because there just aren't a lot of attorneys that do debt defense work specifically because quite frankly, from an attorney's perspective, it doesn't always pay very well. So what I would say is you can probably find an attorney that does some debt collection work or maybe just a general practice attorney that just kind of a local neighborhood person that kind of takes all comers. My guess is if you're willing to pay them upfront, you would be more likely to find someone who's willing to help you with it, going to have to pay them hourly for this type of work. It's not going to be like a contingency type of case. So to find someone, it probably is going to take a little legwork on your part to find someone willing to take the case and it's probably going to take you paying them a retainer upfront for them to be willing to do.

George (00:43:27):

That's exactly right. The retainer for this that you should probably expect is going to be at least one to $3,000 into a retainer, and then you're just going to have to pay them hourly, whatever their hourly rate is, which is probably going to be anywhere between a hundred to $500 an hour to do this. I think Greg, you think he has a case, right? Greg? Is that what we're saying here? It seems like there is some kind of a chance to get this wrapped up.

Greg Anjewierden (00:43:59):

Yeah, I think this is a good plan. I guess what I'm saying is that if the judgment's not expired yet, it may not work. They may figure this out and fix it before the judgment expires. You may file some motion to get the Florida judgment set aside because you weren't properly notified and they may go, oh man, he's got a good chance of winning that motion and that could dismiss the case. And so they may try and fix it really quick with the court before their South Carolina judgment expires, right? So yeah, I think you do have a pretty good case on that. I just don't think it's a guarantee and some of it's a little out of your control if they figure it out before that judgment expires.

Guest 2: Dennis (00:44:52):

Okay, understood. Thank you.

Greg Anjewierden (00:44:56):

And in the meantime, you may want to be doing something with your assets to protect them, right? Because if this happens, they're going to keep taking that money. So moving around is something you may want to do sooner rather than later.

Guest 2: Dennis (00:45:14):

I would like to ask one quick follow up and that is are they allowed to seize your IRAs? I thought they were protected.

Greg Anjewierden (00:45:23):

I don't know the answer to that specifically right off the top of my head, but it probably depends on the type of IRA, the nature of it. They can get at a lot of stuff and there's ways for them to get at money. I mean even you think about one that everybody talks about is social security disability can't be garnished or veterans benefits, those kinds of things can't be garnished, but as soon as you get that money, put it in a bank account, they can come take the money out of the bank account. And so I would definitely look up what type of IRA you have. I would research the law in Florida as to whether they can take that specifically. And if you think they can't, then you're going to make that file a motion in the court to remove the garnishment because you think that they can't take that kind of

George (00:46:19):

Greg, it's going to be Florida state law that applies here primarily. Is that right? If not South Carolina,

Greg Anjewierden (00:46:25):

It would be Florida, statewide. Yeah. If they've got the garnishment in Florida, it's going to be Florida Statewide

George (00:46:30):

Even though he lives in Ecuador and it's domesticated, it's governed by Florida

Greg Anjewierden (00:46:36):

If it's domesticated in Florida. Because what they've got to do is they've got to get the, presumably the IRA, whoever your account has offices in Florida, and so they're going to get that garnishment a Florida garnishment and serve it on that account bank or whoever in Florida, they have to take that garnishment. You file a motion for garnishment and the judge signs the order, you then have to take that order and serve it on the person you're garnishing. So we talked about Bank of America, if I've got an account with Bank of America, they get the garnishment and then they serve it on Bank of America and Bank of America has just spun. So really you're trying to serve the bank wherever the bank is, if that makes sense. So it doesn't matter that you are in Ecuador if your bank is in Florida. I understand.

George (00:47:31):

Dennis, a few other questions and comments here. Greg, what about this adjustment? So Dennis is saying the business, I think if I understand Dennis right, you saying that the mortgage or the loan for the property was worth around $400,000 and then the property was foreclosed, it was sold for some amount. It was probably sold for around four to 600,000 I would guess. And then, but the adjustment wasn't made. So this should be a deficiency judgment where it should be the loan balance owed minus the foreclosure sale price or the fair market value. But it sounds like they're coming after him for the full amount. What do you make of that?

Greg Anjewierden (00:48:22):

Yeah, so what I'm going to do in that case is let's assume that your whole plan on getting rid of the judgment and then it expires in South Carolina doesn't work and they get the judgment, but it's for the full amount and you say it should be less than that. What I'm going to do is file a motion, I don't know, you could call it different things. Motion to amend the judgment motion to alter the judgment. And in that document you're going to provide proof that the judgment is not for the full amount, but it's for a lower amount. And ask the judge to reduce the amount of that Florida judgment.

George (00:48:56):

And he would make some kind of a request for documents regarding the sale price or the fair market value of the property so that you can do the mass form.

Greg Anjewierden (00:49:07):

Yeah, provide whatever proof that you have in your motion and then try and convince the judge to reduce the amount of

George (00:49:12): Judgment. Dennis, who is the collector on this? Sorry, go ahead. Dennis, who's the collector?

Guest 2: Dennis (00:49:20):

It's one of these giant companies called SMS Recovery out of Arizona. I did some research. They're like a $650 million company, so this is their specialty and they're very powerful.

George (00:49:35):

Lemme say one other thing too, I'm not as familiar with them. Yeah, go ahead.

Guest 2: Dennis (00:49:40):

Sms, like Text.

Greg Anjewierden (00:49:43):

Yeah, I'm not familiar with them specifically either, but I do some quick Googling while you're talking here. Again, I'm not a Florida, right, and I'm not your attorney, so this isn't help point you in the right direction. If I just do some quick Googling, you might want to take a look at Florida statute 2 22 0.21, which may protect your IRA. So take a look at that. If you think that applies in your situation, you may want to file a motion to set aside or stop the garnishment. Again, I don't know if that will work. I haven't done research, I'm not licensed in Florida, but that might be a resource at least to start looking at.

George (00:50:29):

Yeah. My other point for you here, Dennis, is that my understanding is IRAs are protected up to $1.5 million in bankruptcy.

Guest 2: Dennis (00:50:41):

Yes. So that's something to consider as well. And then how much you have in the IRA, it might decrease the pleasure of retirement, but it is pretty solid protection.

Guest 2: Dennis (00:51:00):

Understood. Thank you again.

George (00:51:02):

Hi Dennis. Thanks. Thanks a lot. We will have Hannah, wonderful. Listen on the show follow up with you about potential Florida attorneys. It does sound like you might very well want an attorney and it might make sense for you financially aid to actually hire an attorney, Pam hourly to help you out. And that is a common problem that we hear is that they oftentimes want to do bankruptcy, but it does seem like your situation might merit just hiring somebody on the hour. Let's have Hannah follow up with you after you hop off. Thanks a lot.

Guest 2: Dennis (00:51:37): Thank you. Have a good day.

George (00:51:41):

Alright Greg, that was an exciting one and quite the sticky situation there for Dennis International law. Yeah, it's not the usual time that you, how many mortgages do? Very exciting, very exciting, and definitely hope the best for him. It sounds like folks, something to point out, right? It sounds like he came out, he's come out on top here. Right? Retirement in Ecuador is a great spot and many of other people are more in the position that Dennis was in back in 2015 where they're getting foreclosed on, but you can totally come out positive over time. Alright, we have another live call. This is our last one. Going to plug you in now. Hello, this is George with Solo. How's it going?

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:52:35):

Hi. It is going. It's going

George (00:52:38):

Great. Tell us your name. Is it Rain?

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:52:41): Yes, it's Vanessa.

George (00:52:43):

Vanessa. Hello, Vanessa. Tell us about your situation.

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:52:48):

I had a bank that I had 18 years worth of history with, bought four cars, completed the loan, had good credit. COVID kind of set me back and got behind on stuff. I had a credit card and they tried to garnish me. What, last January. So they took me to court and I got an attorney and everything and they did take the price down, but I've noticed now, and I'm almost due paying it off like $6,000 within under two years. But I've noticed that they said they were the original creditors. But in that time I've gotten a lot of credit, credit card offers from Capital One. And I looked at my credit report and I was like, well, where is Capital One? I never applied for Capital One. So my question is, is the bank the original owners or is Capital One the original owners, did they not tell the truth and do I have a case?

George (00:54:03):

Okay, interesting. Yeah, let's go ahead and dive into that here. So just clarifying some points. So you've been sued, you were sued for this debt already?

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:54:15):

Yes. Yeah.

George (00:54:18):

Did you lose your case?

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:54:21):

We reached a settlement.

George (00:54:23):

You reached the settlement, you settled it with a lawyer. You hired a lawyer and the lawyer settled for you?

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:54:27):

Yeah, and they said there were the original creditors. So I'm thinking that's who I remember getting.

George (00:54:35):

So who was the collector? Who was suing

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:54:40):

You? It's Oma.

George (00:54:42):

Oma was suing you?

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:54:44):

Yeah.

George (00:54:45):

Who is Oma? How do you spell that?

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:54:47):

It's a bank.

George (00:54:49):

Oma Bank.

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:54:50):

That's M-E-S-O-M-A-M-A-Z-U-M-A.

George (00:55:01): What state are you in?

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:55:03): I'm in Kansas City, Missouri.

George (00:55:05):

Okay. Are they pretty popular in Kansas

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:55:07):

State? Yes. Yes they are.

George (00:55:11):

They're a credit union?

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:55:13):

Yes. And

George (00:55:15):

So you're saying Mazuma sued you and

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:55:20):

Claiming to be the original creditors

George (00:55:23):

Which I mean you tell me who was the loan you're familiar with this loan? This was for a credit card with Mazuma?

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:55:31):

Yeah.

George (00:55:35):

So you had the credit card with Mada who works with them for a long time. They were good to you until they sued you, right?

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:55:43):

Yeah, and I mean I had more

George (00:55:45):

How does Capital One come into the picture?

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:55:47):

So where does Capital One come? My question as well, I did not apply for Capital One. My agreement was with Mazuma. You see what I’m saying?

George (00:56:02):

Capital. What did Capital One send you?

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:56:04):

They've been sending me all these updates and then when I checked my credit report, I noticed they're on there as if I applied with them and got the credit card. But I never signed any contract with them. I only signed with Mazuma.

George (00:56:19): I see.

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:56:22): And another thing,

George (00:56:23):

You're currently being garnished.

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:56:25): Yeah. Yeah.

George (00:56:29):

What happened to the settlement? So you made it a settlement with a lawyer and then

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:56:32):

I'm sorry, it's not, you feel me? They're not garnishing me. I agreed on a settlement, so I've been paying.

George (00:56:39):

You're just making monthly payments?

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:56:41):

Yes. I'm almost like I'm under a thousand dollars paid off.

George (00:56:48):

You said the debt was $6,000, is that right?

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:56:51):

It was probably a little over that.

George (00:56:55):

It was a little bit over six K and now you're down to a thousand dollars on the balance.

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:56:59): Less than a thousand dollars.

George (00:57:02):

Okay, so you just have a few hundred dollars left to pay. How much are you paying?

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:57:05):

Like $900 and I pay two $50 a month.

George (00:57:10):

Okay, so you're going to have this behind you in just four more months?

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:57:15): Yeah. My thing is this

George (00:57:17): Congrats.

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:57:19):

I feel like they kind of did me wrong. And there's another backstory to this. They repoed my car at COVID. Remember when it was on the news that they were repoing cars as soon as you were late? Well, they took mine and in that course of time I've learned a lot about, I've took it upon myself to learn what the laws were and I didn't understand that. They actually never told me how much they sold the car for, which is against the law, which they should have notified me that the car was sold

George (00:57:52):

After they repossessed it.

Guest 3: Vanessa (00:57:53):

Yes. And so they should have notified me when that car was actually sold. And for how much and what

George (00:58:08):

Looks like we lost Vanessa. Vanessa, hopefully you can join back in. Greg, do you want to weigh in on what we know about her case so far?

Greg Anjewierden (00:58:22):

Yeah, I mean, I guess I'm a little confused because if she's reached a settlement and she's making the payments, I'm not sure where Capital One comes into this. I guess she's making it sound like Capital One's showing up on the credit report or whatever. I mean, my initial, without looking at everything and understanding it completely, my initial reaction is like maybe there's Capital One's separate from this altogether and it's sort of a separate thing. And sometimes these companies will send you credit cards in the mail and you use it once and you don't have to sign anything necessarily to enter into a credit card agreement. And I don't necessarily know that's what's happened or whatever. I mean, I don't know if there's any relationship between Mazuma and Capital One, but my thought is look, keep records of the settlement with Mazuma and when you pay it off, get your case dismissed or whatever and keep records of that.

And then if Capital One comes after you for the same debt later, your response to that lawsuit is going to be, I have already paid this to Mazuma and here's all my proof of that. But until Capital One sues you, I guess there's really nothing to do, at least from a legal perspective, from a credit report perspective, I guess you could pull your credit report and go to the bureaus and try and dispute those if you're just like, I just don't know what these are. But I think that's sort of a separate issue from the settlement itself. The settlement itself seems like it is going according to plan, at least the way she described it.

George (01:00:12):

Right. It looks like Rainey is back. I'm going to plug her in now.

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:00:20): Okay,

George (01:00:21):

Vanessa, how's it going? You're back.

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:00:23):

Yeah. Okay.

George (01:00:25):

You're about to tell us the big reveal about what happened Capital One here.

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:00:29):

Yeah, this is taking advantage of a single mom that doesn't have access to attorneys. So what they did was they sold the car, did not give me notice. I was just able to access my account and realized that they had paid off the other debt. I had like $200 here or a $900 loan there. They sold the car for more than what it was worth. But the law states that they should have sent me a check. They should have not used that money for what they wanted to use that money for. That's the reason why I didn't get that last notification, which is against the law. So I'm debating under whether I should actually pursue a lawyer for the damages that they've done. And when I contacted them and I asked them, I said, I'm having a hard time with my credit.

So if you would've 18 years of dealing with you, paying off three cars with you, obviously I'm a reliable person. So I asked them out of grace and hardship if they would remove the repo and they didn't want to deal with it at all. They didn't want to talk about it. They didn't really want to deal with it at all. And I was like, well, why would they not want to work with somebody who's trying to work with them? I'm the reasonable, even though I'm in the situation that I am. And I just think that it's like the reason why I want to fight this is because I feel like they've done so many people wrong and by doing nothing, they're just going to keep doing it. You know what I mean? And somebody else that's going through something like this alone and not and can't afford an attorney, how many people have they ruined their life? Yeah, I've worked in education since 1999, so I'm close to retiring and I just feel like it just makes me upset when they take advantage of people's situations to do these things. You know what I mean? It affects people's lives gravely and how many more people are going to have to go through situations like this because nobody's saying anything. So I'm just kind of debating on whether I should actually pursue a full on lawsuit. Like, Hey, you're not going to do anybody else. You need to not do nobody else like this.

George (01:03:11):

You said you're an educator, you're a teacher.

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:03:15):

Yes, I am.

George (01:03:17):

God bless you. I think that's a honor role. Occupation for your love teachers. What do you teach?

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:03:26):

I teach all the way up to sixth grade

George (01:03:29):

Elementary school.

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:03:31):

Yes.

George (01:03:34):

Okay. So you're saying that

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:03:38): They just kind of

George (01:03:39):

Feel like Mazuma foreclosed or not foreclosed, Mazuma repossessed your car prematurely took the money. So the car was, was worth $5,000. They sold it for $6,000, then they took the extra money and put it on something else.

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:04:01):

Oh, totally. The car was probably worth 15,000. So they probably took, they probably what I had remaining balance on it. Well, I mean I probably paid half of it off. Like I said, I'm a pretty reliable person.

George (01:04:19):

So, what kind of car was it?

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:04:22):

Was this happened in 2020? It was like a, what is it, 2018 Chevy Cruze, 2019. It was probably a year old. It was probably a year old when I had it.

George (01:04:42):

Yeah. Okay. So they took the money and then paid off other debts that

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:04:49):

Yeah, and they didn't realize I saw Still

George (01:04:52):

Back to you.

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:04:52):

Yeah.

George (01:04:53):

Okay. So I guess just jumping into things here, it sounds like Capital One probably warrants a bit more investigation sometimes what we find is that consumers can be quite confused in this situation and they might think something's happening, but something else is happening. Probably if you look into things closer, capital One probably isn't tied up with this Mazuma thing. I'm not sure what's happening, but it's probably not tied up. Capital One is a bank. They issue their own credit cards. They don't do deals with credit unions, does issue credit cards on payment networks like Visa, discover or MasterCard. But Capital One's just a totally different thing. So we have a really hard time seeing how that might add up, but you might want to investigate. You can pull your credit report for free with Solo and we give you quite an in- depth look. So you can do that and look into the accounts with more detail if you'd like to and try to get to the bottom of that.

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:05:53):

Okay. Now, I mean the car is reporting zero balance, but it's just still hurting my credit, you know what I mean? There's no balance due. So the car was completely paid.

George (01:06:03):

The $0 balance on Capital One

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:06:07):

On the repo.

George (01:06:09):

On the repo. I see interest on the credit card.

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:06:11):

On the credit card. I think it's $900 left on there. So yeah, so maybe I'm getting Capital One because my credit is getting better. I don't know. I don't owe 'em anything. I don't owe anything. My credit is bad because when that happened to me, I pulled away from all credit stuff. So my credit is bad because when I'm done with the credit card paying that off, then I'm going to get rebuilt my credit. But I refuse to get another credit and still be paying on this credit. You see what I'm saying?

George (01:06:45): Yeah.

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:06:45):

So my credit is damaged because of not building, not getting those small credit cards, and I don't want to mess with that right now.

George (01:06:54):

Well, just so you know, Solo's dedicated to helping people grow their net worth. So you can go on to Solo, you can check your credit report for free, you can chat with our AI and get personalized tips to situation to manage your budget, improve your credit, get more specific on some of these things. Greg, what are some of Vanessa's options here in regards to dealing with this past repossession?

Greg Anjewierden (01:07:25):

Yeah, I mean, my initial gut reaction, and again, I'm not a lawyer in your state, so you're going to want to look into the law in your state and certainly talk to a lawyer in your area. But my initial reaction is you may have waived that argument. What typically happens is you get sued for a debt and as part of that, you may have arguments that look, well, you violated the law as part of this. And sometimes when you have claims that are in response to their claim against you, you have to raise them at the time that you are sued.

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:07:59):

That's what I did. I did that.

Greg Anjewierden (01:08:02):

Okay, so did you file a counterclaim then?

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:08:06):

I didn't even know about a counterclaim at that time. My attorney was, yeah.

Greg Anjewierden (01:08:14):

So what happens is you raise that. Now the problem is you reached a settlement on the claim. Right. I could see it going either way, honestly, because you may be able to say, look, I still have this claim against you. And certainly if you can find an attorney and do that, I mean you should. But ultimately what I think their argument is going to be is like you waived that argument when you entered into the select agreement because we've settled our claim, all of our claims against each other. And so it could go either way. I'm not telling you not to try.

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:08:51):

Well, they said that they said I'm in good standings other than this, so I don't have any more debt with them past this.

Greg Anjewierden (01:08:58):

But this would be you suing.

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:09:01):

Them. Yeah. Yeah.

Greg Anjewierden (01:09:02):

Right. And their response to that lawsuit may be, well, you've waived that claim because we were fighting with each other in a lawsuit and we reached a settlement. So all of those claims are gone replaced by our settlement agreement.

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:09:19):

That's what their argument, yeah, I see what you're saying. That's where it's like for the most common person that has nothing to do that doesn't know that rights, that's where it's like you hire an attorney and you think that you got to, I don't know.

George (01:09:34):

You got to get a good attorney. Greg, what are her options besides legal, besides the litigation?

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:09:43):

The attorney didn't want to, she said that's what happened. She said that she was going to be leaving the office and she wouldn't be able to take it to trial.

Greg Anjewierden (01:09:56):

So she was kind of pushing for the settlement and I didn't know all the laws. I learned this along the way.

Greg Anjewierden (01:10:06):

Sure, other options are going to be, look, just finish paying the settlement and be done with it.

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:10:12):

Right. And part of that is that's going to happen. It's just that, it just upsets me like so many people that, like I said, when you're in a situation where can't, people are not in a position to pay for somebody to fight for you and you get stuck with stuff, you get treated any kind of way.

George (01:10:32):

Vanessa, some other options that are available to people are filing complaint with attorney general filing complaint with consumer protection organizations in your state, et cetera. Those are things that people can take action on outside of litigation Solos here, we maintain good relationships with collectors, also with consumers, and we help people come to al resolutions. Oftentimes, collectors are the vast majority of collectors that we see are acting in ethically and trying to do the best thing for their clients, who oftentimes they are in a relationship with their clients. But things do happen. Things do fall through the cracks and those are some options that are available to you. So you have a broad spectrum here. Congrats on almost getting this thing paid off.

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:11:24):

Yeah, like I said.

George (01:11:25): Debt free

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:11:27):

The credit card was up to already 10, $15,000. It's just kind of just all wipe wipe.

George (01:11:34):

Yep. Congrats. Congrats on getting your way out. You're looking forward to retirement. And again, thanks for educating our children, so fantastic. Great to have you on the show. Take care.

Guest 3: Vanessa (01:11:46):

Thank you. You too.

George (01:11:50):

Alright folks, that is all we have time for today on the Debt hotline. You can use Solo to resolve your debt, respond to debt lawsuits, get your cases settled, get tips on your credit report, building wealth, et cetera. Greg, thanks so much for coming on the show. Take care.

Greg Anjewierden (01:12:09):

Yep. Thanks for having me.

How to Answer a Summons for debt collection in all 50 states

Here's a list of guides on how to respond to a debt collection lawsuit in each state:

The Ultimate 50 State Guide

Guides on how to resolve debt with every debt collector

Are you being sued by a debt collector? We’re making guides on how to resolve debt with each one.

Resolve your debt with your creditor

Some creditors, banks, and lenders have an internal collections department. If they come after you for a debt, Solosuit can still help you respond and resolve the debt. Here’s a list of guides on how to resolve debt with different creditors.

Settle your medical debt

Having a health challenge is stressful, but dealing medical debt on top of it is overwhelming. Here are some resources on how to manage medical debt.

Guides on arbitration

If the thought of going to court stresses you out, you’re not alone. Many Americans who are sued for credit card debt utilize a Motion to Compel Arbitration to push their case out of court and into arbitration.

Below are some resources on how to use an arbitration clause to your advantage and win a debt lawsuit.

Stop calls from debt collectors

Do you keep getting calls from an unknown number, only to realize that it’s a debt collector on the other line? If you’ve been called by any of the following numbers, chances are you have collectors coming after you, and we’ll tell you how to stop them.

Federal debt collection laws can protect you

Knowing your rights makes it easier to stand up for your rights. Below, we’ve compiled all our articles on federal debt collection laws that protect you from unfair practices.

Get debt relief in your state

We’ve created a specialized guide on how to find debt relief in all 50 states, complete with steps to take to find relief, state-specific resources, and more.

Debt collection laws in all 50 states

Debt collection laws vary by state, so we have compiled a guide to each state’s debt collection laws to make it easier for you to stand up for your rights—no matter where you live.

Statute of limitations on debt state guides

Like all debt collection laws, the statute of limitations on debt varies by state. So, we wrote a guide on each state’s statutes. Check it out below.

Statute of Limitations on Debt Collection by State (Best Guide)

Check the status of your court case

Don’t have time to go to your local courthouse to check the status of your case? We’ve created a guide on how to check the status of your case in every state, complete with online search tools and court directories.

How to stop wage garnishment in your state

Forgot to respond to your debt lawsuit? The judge may have ordered a default judgment against you, and with a default judgment, debt collectors can garnish your wages. Here are our guides on how to stop wage garnishment in all 50 states.

Other wage garnishment resources

How to settle a debt in your state

Debt settlement is one of the most effective ways to resolve a debt and save money. We’ve created a guide on how to settle your debt in all 50 states. Find out how to settle in your state with a simple click and explore other debt settlement resources below.

How to settle with every debt collector

Not sure how to negotiate a debt settlement with a debt collector? We are creating guides to help you know how to start the settlement conversation and increase your chances of coming to an agreement with every debt collector.

Other debt settlement resources

Personal loan and debt relief reviews

We give a factual review of the following debt consolidation, debt settlement, and loan organizations and companies to help you make an informed decision before you take on a debt.

How to repair and improve your credit score

Debt has a big impact on your credit. Below is a list of guides on how to repair and improve your credit, even while managing major debt.

How to resolve student loan debt

Struggling with student debt? SoloSuit’s got you covered. Below are resources on handling student loan debt.

Civil law legal definitions

You can represent yourself in court. Save yourself the time and cost of finding an attorney, and use the following resources to understand legal definitions better and how they may apply to your case.

Get answers to these FAQs on debt collection

How-to debt guides

Learn more with these additional debt resources

Contents

Contents

Contents