I'm stumped. I'm not so sure what is the right answer to your question. I'll do some poking around and get back to you if I bump into an answer. You should email the people at Lending Tree as they probably could give you an answer..

Sometimes I wonder if Amex hires it's help from the those who can't even get hired by First Premier, Centenial, and Direct Merchants. The slime of the slime..

I have known more people to get hung out to dry from Amex than anything! I think that is why they still have the prehistoric net erms in 30 days. just so they can go rape people who don't pay. Considering that their big tout is that they have no preset spending limits. Uhh,, thats a crock of bs. have had a couple family members with the card and they pay their bills anally and obsessively o time every time, and yet they still have had incident to fear charging anything big on their Amex for fear of denial and the subsequent embarassment. these are people who have paid over $10,000 to them for one months bill and the next have to contact customer service at point of transaction because Amex is giving them grief over a $1200 purchase.

So I have seen grief on either side. the people who pay their Amex on time and those who didnt. Didnt matter, they screwed them over more times than not..

I know some people have obviously had no problems with them and thats great. But the impression Iget is they are perched and waiting for the first time you screw up and will never let you live it down or have peace. stay away from them unless you can deal with their terms...

Myndi,.

I couldn't be in agreement more! But how do I get this noose from around my neck. I can't ignore it any more. As I see it, I either have to file with the court, negotiate with the attorneys, or both... any advice... anyone?..

From what Ive seen with a friend back when I lived in the east. She was into them for over $30K and they were of course quite intimidating. But bottom line being is do they see any money in you and they are calculating that given a judgement against you they will get it. Of course things do happen. people lose jobs. other things.

I know many people with judgements and none of them ever faced an actual garnishment. Don't misinterpret! there are plenty paying out the rear in garnishments. But there are plenty who aren.'t. Ultimately most creditors just want cash of course and it depends on their interpretation of your willingness via trickery or intimidation to get it. Since each incident is unique in itself and beyond knowing that much of what creditors do even with threatened litigation and judgements is all pretty much smoke and mirrors..

Despite Amex having you in court, if you sell your home I would make sure everyone else is happy first. Keep your car credit reasonably clean. A lot of folks with pretty rotten credit scores are getting into cars these days, But I and many others who have let past auto credit slip have found it more difficult..

Also, from what I understand, SOME lenders tend to put Amex in a class by themselves. They know the company is basically comprised of a bunch of psueo-elitests and realize fols can often get buried under that 30 days net terms. Some lenders will be more forgiving in review of an Amex screw up. Mortgages and cars are important ones to keep happy. though as we all know a $18 collection that a person may refuse to pay out of whatever principal may be as annoying to a credit report as a $5,000 charge off. since many times the computer is making the descision a black mark is a black mark.

Best of luck..

So what's my next step... do I.

A) File a response,.

B) Call the attorney and try and negotiate,.

C) Both!.

What should a response look like... I have no clue where to begin!.

Jim..

I would say "C". Keep something in mind. If the win they can file a lein against your house. That'll have to be satisfied before you can transfer ownership. ALso, if you intend to buy a new house soon you don't want a judgment on your credit report. Paid or unpaid, they sink your score if they're recent..

See if you can negoiate something out of court...

Thanks Keepmine.

I suspect you're right..

Also, if I file the response, it stalls everything until July. By then the house will be sold and they will be paid..

If I call and negotiate, does that stop the case if we come to an agreement, or do I still need to file a response?.

Can anybody provide a sample response? How do I defend myself in the response... I owe the money!..

Since you do own a house (glossed that one, sorry) you do have to keep them at bay or tied up in litigation until your house is transferred. But to properly tie them up in court you will dish out some good cash to an attorney. Amex will indeed put a lien on your property. If they are going to get it one way or the other then it is best to avoid anything wreckless and keep them from throwing a bigger stone against your file. try to work a deal of some kind.. though Id guess they are going to follow through on litigation unless they see a check before then.

Real estate), it's best just to get them paid and out of your hair with as minimal damage to your file as possible. They will take great relish in ailing you to the wall one way or the other, but there is truth in the words of judgements hurting the file. Not that the damage they will leave will be much better in any event. But better a black mark from them in the form of late but paid, rather than that plus a judgement. just adds to the pile of garbage you have to work on deleting down the road...

TY Myndi!.

Just wondering about a strategy... What if I were to pay the debt down to $4,999? Does that remove it from the superior court and put it in Small Claims, thus causing them to start over?.

Any thoughts?.

BTW I put a call in to the attorney for AMEX... left a message. I'll try again tomorrow!..

Id avoid contacting them.. at least by phone. just my personal uneducated opinion. If you do show them you'll pay something, they will likely suck harder than ever to get the rest. Even if you managed to get it down to small claims, a judgement is a judgment for all practicle purposes of erroneous credit reporting. They basically want your ass on a block and realize you have real estate.

Ive seen them suck onto smaller amounts than 5500..

If you have it to pay, or will have it to pay, the best thing to do is negotiate. They realize if they do get their judgement that will take time. And more expense. Not that they really care, but if they get a soon to be writeoff and potential court victory, they may be willing to cut costs and strike a deal. Under the circumstances of not being unemployed and having no assets you would be at an advantage to get more of what you want. But since you do have assets you arent in much position to get any real discount.

If you will indeed soon have the ability to pay them, they may be willing to strike a deal. At this point and circumstance all you can really hope is to minimize the damage of what they will leave behind to haunt your file. They are sticky pains in the ass and tend to get their way more times than not. But if you happened to have a quick $3800-4400 to offer them , they might bite on it. but if they did you would want to bargain in some removal of derog status..

I am trying to get my file cleaned, but am trying to learn as much as I can. I have a repo that is only a year or so old, so I don't want to get anyone perked up to lunge a lawsuit on me. I am going to try to remove older trades and then attack half a dozen medical bills, and then address the hard stuff (newer credit cards and repo). I figure Id give it a good shot before taking the chapter 7 dive...