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Hi everyone, I'm totally new to the forum so hi and hello. Bottomline, I am in complete PANIC mode. In the last few months, I have 4, yes FOUR account charge offs. I had two accounts with Capital One, and two accounts with First premier Bank and they have all, now, charged off. This year was a tough year for me financially; i made a lot of mistakes and did some overspending last year and it seems this was the year everything came around to bite me in the butt. Obviously hind sight is 20/20 and I see now all my mistakes---shouldn't have got the cards to begin with, should have paid more than the minimum, should have done automatic payments yata yata..... but here we are. I have had HUGE bills these last few months which truly left no extra money at all. Im in my 30s and I support myself completely. My own place, my own car my own BILLS :(. So as I'm feeling like this is the end of the world; Does anyone have any success, advice, or encouragement?? These are the only (and I don't say Only lightly...) negative items on my report. The other accounts I have (car, an online store card, student loans) are all current and paid on time. These 4 cards are the 4 things I could just not stay on top of. My Capital One balances are 1270 and 700, my first premier are something like 800 and 700, I believe. Ive been disputing, hasn't been working of course. I just feel so discouraged.

Hey gang, it's been a while since I was a more active member here. I have been lax about cleaning up my wife and my credit and only casually monitoring our credit reports through CreditKarma.com. So, it was no real surprise when we were served papers for a lawsuit in early to mid-December (2015). Although the summons did not have a case number printed on it, I knew that in Colorado the case number isn't assigned until the Defendants have been served, so I didn't hurry to check the docket since the answer wasn't due until January 22nd. The plaintiff in the case is Velocity Invesments, LLC, who until I received the papers had never heard of (they are being represented by Machol & Johannes who I have tangled with in the past semi-successfully). The Complaint claims that Velocity Investments, LLC is an assignee of Santander Consumer USA who we had a car loan through starting in November 2010. In June 2011 I started hearing rumors that my entire department was going to be laid off in September, so we turned in the vehicle voluntarily to avoid an involuntary repossession from appearing on our credit reports. We knew that being less than a year into the loan we would be upside-down and would have a deficiency balance, but decided to worry about that when it happened. As evidence attached to the complaint, they included our initial "Retail Installment Sale Contract" from the dealership that assigned the loan to Santander and the letter of "Explanation of Calculation of Surplus or Deficiency" dated 8/31/2011 that Santander sent after the vehicle had been sold at auction and showed a deficiency of $4646.23 (the unpaid balance of our loan was $15174.73 and they got $10900 for it - the $371.50 difference between the sale and what we owed was for costs associated with putting the car up for sale). I vaguely remember getting the letter for the deficiency, but again, figured I would deal with it at a later date. At the time, we were fast approaching the expected layoff date and I was more worried about keeping a roof over my family's head. Since receiving the "Explanation of Calculation of Surplus or Deficiency" letter, I had received a handful of calls from Santander reminding me about the debt (none of which I answered or returned), but nothing else and when I started using CreditKarma about a year and a half ago, the entry for Santander showed the account was charged off, the debt had been sold to another company (no name mentioned), and the balance was $0. I never saw another listing on my credit reports for the deficiency and thought maybe I'd get lucky and be able to wait out the SOL on it (obviously, no such luck). December passed and I didn't do anything with the summons, including mounting a full-on defense. From my past dealings with M&J I didn't want to tip my hand too early and both work and home life were pretty busy with the holidays and I didn't have the time or energy to really get into it. I can say that my past experiences calmed my nerves and I wasn't panicked or worried about the answer because I knew I had time to answer and that they didn't really have a case as long as I didn't capitulate to anything. Unfortunately, I should have put everything together sooner because the week before the court date on the summons, my wife's father fell ill and she had to travel out of town to be with him and it left me as a sinngle parent for the week of the court date and I was finishing a huge project at work at the same time. I didn't put my answer together until the day before the court date when I had to make the drive from Loveland to Littleton to file my answer in person because I was not going to be able to attend court the following morning. As a result, my answer was short, but hopefully enough to keep them from an MSJ and a default judgment. My answer used two affirmative defenses: Improper Venue and Lack of Standing. Although the contract was entered into in Arapahoe County, I currently live in Larimer County. Article 15 Section 1692i(a)(2) prescribes that court actions must occur where the contract took place or where the defendant(s) live and recommends to Plaintiffs that unless they want the Defendant to object, they should file where the Defendant Lives and not where the contract was signed. I figured it was a longshot and not being there in person to defend it would make it difficult to persuade the judge, but I figured it was worth trying. For lack of standing, although the Complaint identified Velocity Investments, LLC as the assignee of Santander, there was absolutely no supporting evidence included with the summons and complaint. Additionally, they are not listed on my credit reports and I do not recall ever receiving any notice from them that they had been assigned the debt or other attempts to collect it. Unfortunately, case dispositions are not available online for Arapahoe County and I have not received a response to my documents request from the court yet, so I don't know how it played out. I'm posting here because I would like your opinion on how I responded to the complaint and what you think my next steps should be. I think I have answered all of the usual 16 questions for new case posts, but will look over them tonight and post the questions and answers tomorrow. Thanks!

1. Who is the named plaintiff in the suit? Citibank 2. What is the name of the law firm handling the suit? (should be listed at the top of the complaint.) Silverman & Borenstein 3. How much are you being sued for? ~ 6k 4. Who is the original creditor? (if not the Plaintiff) OC 5. How do you know you are being sued? (You were served, right?) Served 6. How were you served? (Mail, In person, Notice on door) Personally 7. Was the service legal as required by your state? Yes Process Service Requirements by State - Summons Complaint 8. What was your correspondence (if any) with the people suing you before you think you were being sued? Received dunning letter; timely sent validation letter; received a response giving me the name and address of the creditor. 9. What state and county do you live in? colorado . La Plata 10. When is the last time you paid on this account? (looking to establish if you are outside of the statute of limitations) Never - but attached statement has a date within SOL 11. What is the SOL on the debt? To find out: - It's within SOL Statute of Limitations on Debts 12. What is the status of your case? Suit served? Motions filed? You can find this by a) calling the court or looking it up online (many states have this information posted - when you find the online court site, search by case number or your name). Served about 10 days ago. There isn't a case file yet, but clerk said they usually file electronically a few days before the response date (June 10). 13. Have you disputed the debt with the credit bureaus (both the original creditor and the collection agency?) I recently sent a dispute to Equifax. Still waiting to get Trans and Exp via mail. 14. Did you request debt validation before the suit was filed? Note: if you haven't sent a debt validation request, don't bother doing this now - it's too late. Yes and they responded with the name and address of the creditor. 15. How long do you have to respond to the suit? (This should be in your paperwork). If you don't respond to the lawsuit notice you will lose automatically. In 99% of the cases, they will require you to answer the summons, and each point they are claiming. We need to know what the "charges" are. Please post what they are claiming. Did you receive an interrogatory (questionnaire) regarding the lawsuit? I must file by June 10. Here is an example of what the summons/complaint may look like: Sued by a Debt Collector - Learn How to Fight Debt Lawsuits 16. What evidence did they send with the summons? An affidavit? Statements from the OC? Contract? List anything else they attached as exhibits. They attached an affidavit and a statement. The affidavit looks to be robo signed. Should I attach a redacted version?