wage garnishment

[hunter00]

What is the name of your state? VA

Collection agency is threatening to take me to court to sue for repayment on a credit card bill. She is talking about wage garnishment. In the state of VA, what percentage can they garnish from your paycheck??

Thanks in advance for any help..

[Ladynred]

First of all, collection agencies themselves usually cannot sue you, but they'll certainly use that threat to try and make you pay. IF a suit does come, and you have no assets they can take, then garnishment is typical. The VA law is as follows:


"Except in cases of a support order, an order from a bankruptcy court, or for the collection of state or federal taxes, the maximum part of an employee’s disposable earnings for any workweek subject to garnishment may not exceed the lesser of twenty-five percent (25%) of the employee’s disposable earnings for the workweek, or the amount by which the employee’s disposable earnings for the workweek exceed thirty times the federal minimum wage. “Disposable earnings” is that part of an employee’s earnings remaining after the deduction of any amounts required by law to be withheld"

Second, in order to garnish, they have to take you to court and win a judgement. You would get plenty of notice of a suit so it wouldn't suddenly happen.

Question.. how old is the debt ?? If its been a long time since you made any payments, the statute of limitations could apply and, in that case, they couldn't sue anyway. SOL for credit card accounts is THREE years.

[hunter00]

It has only been about 1 year since I have paid on the credit card.

Thanks for your help. The lady from the collection agency was telling me that in the state of VA, that they can garnish 75% of my weekly earnings. If that was the case, I wouldn't be able to pay anything else.... They tell you anaything they can to scare you.

[Ladynred]

She's lying thru her teeth. As you can see, they can only take 25% of your earnings or 30 x the federal minimum wage, whichever is less. They will do anything to scare you.

Something else you should do is read up on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Collection Agencies are bound by this law and there is much they are forbidden from doing and saying. Go to [url]www.ftc.gov,[/url] then go to Consumer Protection, then Credit, look in the list for the Act and read up on it. The CA may have already violated the law, and, in which case, you can threaten to sue them. With most scum-sucking collectors, if you let them know that you know your rights and their limitations under the law, they will either back off or at least tone down their bull.

Collection people that make rediculous statements like that, will never sue you. They are just trying to scare you.

I'm a collector in IL. If they have the opportunity to go legal then if they call at all its only to get the payment in full. Anything else to them is a waste of time. So the threats are empty is what it sounds like. If and when they do decide to pursue legal, your first notice of this will probably be in the form of a certified letter or a court summons. My advice, if they can be civil like they should, work out a reasonable payment. If there is no civility, pay what you can when you can.