In recent years an new industry has developed around the purchase of old and defaulted credit card debt. Financial instiutions who are the original issuers of credit cards will bundle defaulted accounts into huge Portfolios and offer them over the open market to bidders who purchase these accounts for "pennies on the dollar." The bidders or purchasers of these portfolios refer to themselves as "distressed debt buyers." We refer to them as something less flattering. These portfolios typically contain thousands of accounts. Upon purchase the debt buyer will begin dunning the individual consumers to the extent that an account for which they paid

(on the average $10) may result in the demand of the original face value of the account before sold which may be $1000 or more. True, a large number of these accounts are uncollectable yet, if there are enough of them which are collectable, this is a very profitable business. Unfortunately, prescious little information and documentation is passed along about the individual accounts and account holders that are contained in these portfolios. Typically, these will not include the credit card agreements and other account documents which support any claim which might be brought on these accounts. This explains how these accounts are obtained so cheaply. Yet the lack of these documents does not appear to be much of an impediment to asserting claims against consumers for non-payment. These distressed buyers, by necessity, will align themselves with large debt collection lawfirms prepared to file thousands of lawsuits within your state which, obviously, cause a great amount of congestion to an already seriously clogged court docket. 90% of the time these collection lawsuits will result in default judgments which is anticpated. 

 Before you contact the debt collection firm and throw-in the towel, it is worth it to call our office to see if the claim sued upon is valid or if you have a defense.There are many ways to attack these suits that are available to you as a consumer. First, if nothing else, we always start-off with the premise that the amount sought exceeds what is actually owed.