BackFromTheDebt

I don’t know anything about the CA general denial form. But yes, you need to include a copy of the agreement with any MTC

Cap 1 ended arbitration in 2012, but it might still be used for accounts which were opened before then.

Again, I am not an expert on CA. Some folks are here. What is done in MOST states is to use lack of venue due to election of arbitration as an affirmative defense, and then to file an MTC.

Stop for a minute. Citi has an exemption for small claims courts. I don't know jack about the CA courts, so I have no idea if a $7k debt would be in small claims or not. I don't even know if CA has small claims. If this is NOT small claims, the arbitration strategy may work. If not, it won't. Since this appears to be a suit by a JDB, arbitration will probably work. Either way, you should check out the threads on the California cases, Apparently Cali is the state where it is easiest for the consumer to win a case. Good luck!

Well, cases are a lot easier for the debtor to win in California. Unfortunately I have no knowledge of how to pursue a case in Cali. Look up some of the California threads.

Depends on your state. In most states, the cheapest option at this point is to negotiate a settlement. You can often negotiate a better settlement before they actually sue. Ignore that if you are in California

Important— when did you open your Cap 1 account? If it was after 2012 you won’t be able to arbitrate

Look into arbitration

There have been a number of threads on this subject, although most were in the "other", now defunct, forum. Yes, if you still have the bank account you used to pay them, they will know that bank account. Realize that things change very quickly. In the past, it used to be recommended that the debtor clear out his/her bank account before garnishment. So, if a debtor's exam were scheduled, the advice (esp on the "other" forum) was to truthfully answer all questions, then as soon as you leave the exam clean out all accounts and put the money elsewhere. It was also advised that local banks were easier to find than non-local banks. Some people would clear out of their local bank, and put the money in some internet based bank. Sometimes advice has been given to take out any excess money and spend it, such as pre-paying rent or mortgage for a while. I mention this advice is old, and may or may not still be valid. Note that direct deposits and withdraws make this sort of strategy difficult. Before clearing out the money, all those things would have to be dealt with. There are other options, but be careful. I know a guy who hid thousands of dollars in some old newspapers around the house. His wife got fed up with nagging him about throwing away his old newspapers, and, ... I think you can guess the ending of this sad story. I swear this really happened. I know the family quite well.

Actually, I don't know if there is such a site. I made it up. But you are correct. The gold fringe argument is spread by the so-called "sovereign citizens". Helpful hint: judges truly hate the gold fringe argument. Never, ever try it,

Perhaps from the Gold Fringe site. That was for the old timers. There were some threads in the old days about how using a gold fringe argument was the best way to lose a case big time. Here are the facts, simple as A,B,C. A. Strange conspiracy theories travel the internet at the speed of light. (*) B. Some people believe these theories, even when told otherwise by folks with more knowledge. C. People who try out these weird theories in court often get slammed hard by judges. (*) Yes, I know the speed of electrons is actually slower than the speed of light, but the difference is undetectable to your web browser.

I can tell you a little bit about what happened after the financial meltdown a little over a decade ago -- It helped in some situations, but not others. For example, at one point some courts were so swamped with foreclosures that some foreclosures were waiting many months, or even years, to be heard. But eventually the backlog wore off. In some cases attorneys were so swamped they simply weren't filing cases. I had one case sit in the drawer of a law office for a long time. I sent in a DV with a demand for arbitration, and the lawyer left the firm. Eventually the new attorney found the case just before SOL. I did a preemptive arbitration to demand the Delaware SOL, and they eventually gave up the case right before the arbitration hearing. Lesson -- the court proceedings will be delayed, but not stopped. Some will get to live in their homes a while longer. In a few cases, the SOL might pass on debts, in others the Delaware SOL might pass, so watch choice of law provisions. Other examples -- many of the debt collectors were just swamped. I had over $60k in various debts to a large American bank. It kept bouncing around from CA to CA. The bank was too busy for debt validation, so I played a game a whack-a-mole with DV letters. That might have been due to bad records, see below. In some cases, they got swamped and made careless mistakes that hurt their cases. I won a few that way, even against a bank that NEVER loses, except to me. Lesson -- careless, stupid mistakes are random events, and cannot necessarily be predicted. I expect far fewer of them this time, since they learned a lot from last time. However, look at the Midland/suicide thread to see that unbelievably stupid stuff still happens on rare occasions. Stressed out situations may increase the number of stupid mistakes. There are some two things that helped some of us enormously back in the old days, but the banks learned their lessons. So don't count on this. Big change #1 -- bad records. In the old days, some banks just had plain crappy records. I won a case in court due to bad records, between $10-15k. I had other banks simply give up because of bad records. It is possible the American bank that walked away from over $60k did so because their records were really bad. One poster on CIC beat a foreclosure case because of bad records. Kept his house. My current job makes me one of the people insuring that this doesn't happen again. Federal regulators are incredibly strict these days. I know of cases where banks have spent millions of dollars to fix holes costing them thousands. I even know of a recent case where a bank walked away from over $100 million because their records were bad. I cannot tell you details, but I know this for a fact because I worked on the case. Lesson -- do NOT count on the bank's records being bad. These days they are almost always solid gold. They rarely make mistakes, and they are very proactive about fixing the mistakes. Big change #2 -- arbitration. In the old days, the arbitration landscape was changing month by month. It went from a total pro-bank scam to complete chaos to the weird system we have these days. I was able to win some cases in the chaos period. Also, I had some law firms give up cases just because I used the "A" word in my replies. They avoided arbitration like the plague, until the figured it out. Lesson -- the banks and their lawyers know the system a lot better than you do these days. It used to be the other way around. When I was in my 3rd or 4th arbitration against lawyers who had never seen arbitration before, I had an advantage. These days you are the newbie, and they are the professionals.

The answer to all the questions is yes

More precisely, what you get from this board is as close to the truth as we can. Correct, nobody called the OP a liar. I sometimes come over as less skeptical than most, because I feel it doesn't hurt me to assume what I am being told is the truth. If someone is making stuff up, well, no big deal. At least people reading the forum might learn something. There are certain things that happen on very rare occasions that are so weird they boggle the mind. For example, over a decade ago, a collection agency broke federal law and put a nasty note in the mailbox of someone who posted here. At our advice, this person sought out an attorney and got a settlement of a few thousand. Only a few were here back in the days of the Buffalo bully boys, when collection agencies, esp. those based in Buffalo, NY, used all sorts of unethical and bullying tactics. Then-NY AG Andrew Cuomo shut down the Buffalo bully boys, and the combination of the CFPB and FDCPA law suits took care of most of the rest. From personal experience, I can say it was not pleasant to deal with the Buffalo collection agencies. It seemed a bit mind-boggling for Midland, a company that had been hammered hard by the CFPB and FDCPA lawsuits, to resort to this behavior. Not just the one-off remark, but the constant bullying. The experience of most people lately has been reasonably fair and polite behavior by Midland. They really did seem to have mended their evil ways. We can't fact check over the internet. You make a statement, we can't tell if it is true, or slightly exaggerated, or completely made up, or a fantasy. We have seen people who were not completely stable come in here. We have also seen people who told tall tales that turned out to be true. Actually, in some cases I WAS able to fact check over the internet. At one point someone was kicked off this forum for bragging about fantastic results he was getting with an unproven tactic. I was able to access his cases online, find out he was telling the truth, and I contacted him to learn the tactics, which I used even after I got kicked off this forum in my previous name for advocating arbitration. All we can do is suggest the best plan assuming what you say is true. And everyone one agreed that the best plan is for you to see a lawyer. You have an appointment on Tuesday.

I am not that familiar with TN courts. I have relatives in TN, and I think there has been at least one relative in the TN Bar for about 100 years or so. Relatives have been involved in some of the most famous cases in TN My family has been in what is now called Tennessee for longer than anyone can calculate. Tennessee is a rather conservative place. This is not like the Bronx, where juries hand out large verdicts. That is a large part of why I was skeptical of a six figure settlement. The OP has already scheduled a talk with a real member of the TN Bar. The attorney’s opinion is probably more accurate than what any of us can predict.