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cell phone debt
Sent to Legal Experts October 23 03:04 PM

i had a 2 yr contract with cingular wire for a cell phone i got into some financial diffulculty and could not pay them everymonth.now i have a collection agency who is bullying me. i paid 50.00 the first month then i tried it again and they would not accept it. they wanted 198.00 so i emailed them and said i could not pay it. now i get calls everyday. i called them today and got into a fuss with them. i went on line and used a cc to pay 200.00. can they garnish my wages if i can't pay the 200.00 monthly? i live in atlanta ga

 

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smyrna, Georgia

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internet

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October 23 3:30 PM (26 minutes and 16 seconds later)
         
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Hello,

In short your efforts to pay the debt are reasonable, and as such it would be very difficult for them to successfully get a court order to garnish your wages. In order to do that they would first have to have a judgment against you, and then demonstrate you are not paying your judgment.

In Georgia the way the debt collectors can attempt to collect is restricted by this law (HERE)

I would suggest that you ask for a long term settlement in writting, Tell them that you are prepared to pay $50/month, and that is your financial limit.

Make sure you are not rude, and you are not aggresive. Tell them you understand it is your debt, but money is tight, and this is the only option.

Ask them for the settlement to be made in writing. If they refuse, I would suggest you put $50 a month into a separate account, (this is like an escrow), If they refuse to accept your reasonable settlement attempts, and they go to court the judge will ask you what payment you have made.

If you can show they would not accept the $50/month and you saved it in a sepearate account for them, the judge will probably get very irritated at them.

As long as you are Polite, take responsibility for your debt, and make reasonable attempts to solve it, you will be fine.

Keep notes on what you tell them every time you talk to them. Dont avoid their phone call but get into a routine of saying the same thing. Keep up the $50 payments.

Good luck



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