If you are in debt to one or more credit card companies and are wondering if they can sue you, the sad news is that they can indeed. As can anyone that you legitimately owe money to. However, the fact that they can sue you does not necessarily mean that they will wish to. That decision depends on many factors. What they are interested in is getting their money back from you, or as much of it as they possibly can. They will choose the course of action that they think is going to get them the best result.
When they are deciding whether to sue you for the debt or not, they will weigh up things like how much you owe, whether you are working, how long you have lived in your current home, how old you are and how much it will cost them to go to court to sue you.
They look at these things because they will help them to build up a picture of how capable you are of paying back the money, or how likely you are to do a runner. Someone who has a job and has been in the same house for some years is far less likely to disappear than someone unemployed who has moved around a lot. Similarly, if the information suggests that you probably do have enough money to pay and are just choosing not to, they are quite likely to sue you.
Can A Credit Card Company Sue You - Suing For Debt In The UK
The details of legal processes obviously vary from country to country, so the advice in this article relates specifically to the UK. The general process of being sued for debt in the US is very similar. If you receive a Default Notice from the credit card company, the first thing you need to do is take proper legal advice. Such a notice means that the company can take you to court to sue you.
It is possible at this point to apply for something called a Time Order, which can stop the interest and penalties being added to your debt until the court action is over. It may even result in setting a lower amount for your repayments. Before you apply for a Time Order you should approach the credit card company with an offer of payment.
It is advisable to include a personal financial statement which shows your exact situation and demonstrates how the amount you are offering to pay really is all you can afford. If the credit card company turn down your offer, that is when you should approach the court to get a Time Order, and the court will make a decision about how reasonable your repayment offer was.
The name of the mechanism used by the credit card company to sue you for money owed is a Money Only Claim and the company will do this through the County Court. If the credit card company do decide to sue you, you will receive a form from the court, which you need to complete and return. At this point you really should take legal advice.
If this process is successful and the court upholds the credit card company's case, the result will be a County Court Judgement against you. What a County Court Judgement actually means is that the court will look at your finances and put a plan in place for you to repay your debt. They will decide how much you can afford and will set your payment amounts. In theory this should not be set at a level you really cannot afford.
Can A Credit Card Company Sue You - Make Sue You Comply With The Judgement
Once the court has made a judgement against you and ordered you to pay a certain amount back each month, it really is important that you stick to this order, because if you do not, the consequences can get a whole lot more serious. Defaulting on the payment plan set by the court can mean that the credit card company are then allowed to use bailiffs to take your assets and sell them to pay off your debt.
Other possible nasty consequences are further court action to make an Attachment of Earnings, meaning that money is taken directly from your salary. Failure to comply with this order gets more serious again, and includes possibly being sent to prison.
Can A Credit Card Company Sue You - Final Thoughts
The initial process and consequence of having a credit card company sue you for debt are not actually too horrific. The trick is to avoid letting things get that bad to start with, and if it is too late to avoid that, be absolutely sure that you do not default on the payments set by the court.
There is practically no debt problem that you cannot deal with yourself with the right advice. Dealing with debt definitely does not mean borrowing more money or spending money to pay someone else to deal with your problem. The real long term solution is always the same - make sure you let your creditors know your situation, prioritise your debts, understand your exact financial situation and negotiate with your creditors to pay off the debts at a rate you can actually afford.
Read advice and guidance on credit card debt settlement here.
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