[Tonchi]

Bri, first of all, be honest about this. You KNOW you owe them that money. The card is maxed out. You have not been paying what you were supposed to and you did not respond to their constant letters demanding some action on your part. You also ignored any correspondence warning you that it was turned over to a collection agency and you did nothing when that last letter came telling you that they would take you to court if you didn't respond in -x- number of days. This could not have been something out of the blue. Be honest with yourself and us, and then let's go on from there.

The first thing to do is to call the law firm which is listed on the Certified Letter. There is a date they have given you in that letter so you better do something NOW. Be very calm (and not anesthetized) when you call them. All they want is an agreement from you to pay the money and a time frame. You MAY NEGOTIATE the amount that you agree to pay. However, don't come right out with that suggestion right off the bat, work into it. I assume the card is cancelled so that is not the issue, but even so, cut the damn thing to pieces and resign yourself to not being given another one for at least 8 years. Tell the lawyer how sorry you are, you have had lots of problems because of _____ (insert good story) ____ and you are an honest person and bla bla bla but you are totally overwhelmed. Tell them how much you can pay monthly (and you better DO what you promise) and work on from there. I really doubt anybody will insist on the full payment, it serves them nothing to have your debt written off as uncollectable because then the lawyers and collection agency get no money either. They can't get money out of somebody who does not have it, so they will take what they can get. They don't want to have to pay for that lawyer to go to court and find out that it was going to get them nothing. Play it cool and be cooperative, but insist that you have had such terrible reversals that you can't pay it all and you might get a happy surprise. Your credit rating will still be ruined afterwards, but so what, it was ruined anyway.

The important thing is - CALL THEM. You still have time to avoid the worst consequences so do not delay anymore.

And yes, I HAVE been through this. I ended up having to get a lawyer and spend $2,000 of my own money to prove that I did not owe a $6,000 medical debt from a company who neglected to file the insurance claim after one of my hospital trips and thought they would just collect the whole amount from me instead. Got quite a legal education in the process.