How to reply to a summons for breach of contract may not be a topic you want to think about. However, if you have defaulted on payment of your credit card balances, you could receive a summons for breach of contract.
Credit Card Debt Defaults
This legal matter may happen to you years after you have defaulted on the credit debt. This is due to the reselling of debt in secondary investment markets. If you failed to pay $10,000 on a credit account three years ago, you may think the lender has written off your debt as uncollectible.
What the lender may have done is sell that uncollected debt as part of a package of debt securities. The buyer may be another bank or, more likely, a collection agency or small financial company that specializes in collecting past due accounts.
If you have enough skills and know how to respond to a summons for breach of contract you have some protections. For example, if that debt was included in a bankruptcy filing it is possible you owe nothing. When the bankruptcy is approved by the court the debts included in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy are to be cancelled.
Debt Dismissed by Bankruptcy
The bankruptcy court has agreed you do not have the ability to pay those debts and has provided you with the potential to rebuild your financial life starting with a clean slate.
You will suffer loss of credit rating as the bankruptcy will remain in your file for ten years and will make it difficult to obtain credit going forward.
Should the lenders involved in the bankruptcy fail to correctly write off the credit card debt you may find yourself being called frequently by collectors who are determined to make you pay that old balance.
It is critical that you know how to protect yourself by answering a summons for breach of contract of credit card debt.
Credit Card Breach of Contract Suits
It is estimated that 34 million people in the US have been late with credit card payments in these challenging economic times. In addition, economists say 18 million credit card holders have totally failed to make payments.
There was a time when your credit card lender would negotiate with you to pay a lower amount or might delay payments if you were suffering from a medical emergency or temporary loss of income.
Today, the problem of non-payment and late payment of credit card accounts is such that lenders are increasingly focused on collecting as much money due them as possible. To this end, the collection department of major lenders will call you daily demanding payment.
Smaller lending banks often hire outside collection agencies to collect the debt you owe. In that case, the banks is paid a percentage of any funds recovered while the collection agencies keeps a portion of the amount collected.
The lender may also file a civil suit against you in an attempt to collect the debt through a court ordered payment. If this happens, it can be frightening and intimidating to those who are not accustomed to being served with legal papers.
If you know how to actually respond to a summons for breach of contract, you can protect yourself against such a civil suit.
Filing an Answer to a Breach of Contract Summons
This is not a problem to be ignored in the hope it will go away. Failure to answer the summons will result in the court granting the lender’s claim.
There may be extenuating circumstances. If you filed bankruptcy and the lender did not properly record the bankruptcy granted, answering the summons can result in the claim being dismissed by the court.
You may also be able to prove a total inability to pay the amount due or file an answer where you allege the lender has violated fair credit laws or is in error.
An attorney can help you fight a civil suit and answer a summons for breach of contract.
Summary
If you are unable to pay credit card debt you may face a civil suit filed by the lenders. Beside adapting strategies like consolidation or debt settlement, knowing how to reply to a summons for breach of contract can solve your debt problem once and for all.
