How long do the credit companies wait before suing for debt?

How much time does it take for the banks to sue a debtor for credit card debt and how long does the process take in court?

How long do the credit companies wait before suing for debt?
the process... 30 days to get a judgment on you, if the jurisdiction doesn't have a backlog, and the cc company can serve you





realistically, unless you owe $5000 + and have some solid assets, the cc company knows it's wasting its time suing you, as a judgment is just a piece of paper if you have no assets or remarkable income for the cc company to actually COLLECT. And filing, travel, and attorneys cost the company even more money ... if it were you, what would YOU bet on?
Reply:Lots of factors here.


How old is the debt?


do you have a job?


Any assets?


how much is the debt? 2k or greater the chances grow


creditors only have a window of time to sue someone, its called the Statue of Limitations, this starts from the time you defaulted on the loan. most states has a 5 year SOL. If you want some good advise in here provide the details.
Reply:Credit card debt is unsecured debt, and they rarely, rarely sue. Regardless of the balance. Once it gets charged off and sent to a collection agency (which it virtually always does) you won't be sued--you never did business with the collection agency, no contract exists between you and the collection agency, so all they can do is harass you. When they call, tell them to only contact you in writing, and they HAVE to stop calling. Yep, your credit will be shot, but you know, there are other things in life besides the heroin needle called credit.
Reply:Some corrections on the above answers. While the higher the debt the more of a chance you will get sued, there is no set minimum. I have seen suits on amounts as low as about $600. It is not rare, you can search this site and find several questions each week about people who have just been served and are being sued for a credit card debt. And yes you can be sued once a debt has been turned over to a collection agency. Either because the original creditor only assigned the debt to the collection agency, in which case they took it back and filed suit. Or they sold the debt(which is legal) and the Collection Agency can then sue you.





As for the Statue of Limitations, there is no standard SOL as it does vary by state. For a Credit Card Debt(Open Account) it can be anywhere from 3-8 years from the date of the last delinquency. The link below will give you a list by state for the SOL. Also, in response to answer that most states have a 5 year SOL that is incorrect. Actually only 5 of the 50 states have a 5 year SOL. A majority of them actually have an SOL in the 3-4 year range.





As to when they will file a suit, this really depends. As long as the suit is filed before the SOL then it is a valid suit(in terms of the SOL). Often they will wait until the SOL is almost expired so they may not file until just a couple of months before it expires. However, if you have a lot of debts you may find a creditor who files sooner to be "at the head of the list", in things such as Wage Garnishment(if allowed in your state), or attaching your bank accounts.





Once you are sued, it will take anywhere from 15-60 days to go through the court process. This is more dependent on how busy the courts are than you or the creditor. Once the case is heard it can then be another 30-90 days if they want to start either wage garnishment or attaching your bank accounts.

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