By Sean A. Kelly

Most of us have credit card debt but for many of us in these difficult times, it is unfortunately ballooning beyond our control. Managing a mounting debt is bad enough, but if you receive a summons for credit card debt, it can indeed be frightening. In case you still default on payment even after receiving the summons for credit card debt, you may actually invite prosecution from the collection company that may try to obtain a judgment against you. It is therefore, of utmost importance that if you receive a summons to attend court, you do not ignore it and immediately take proper legal advice. The court hearing will proceed anyway, and if you choose not to attend the hearing, the case will go against you by default. But there may not be an undue cause for worry about what might happen to you at court. Unless there is a court order against you already for your debt, there is practically no chance that you will be given a custodial sentence.

In the event that the credit card company wins their case against you, a court order will be made against you. This will involve the court firming up the terms on which you have to repay your dues. Since you can’t be forced to pay money if you don’t have any, the court will look at your finances and set a repayment amount that is within your means to pay. Also, since this would be a legal order for you to pay, you would need to be extremely careful to do exactly what the order says. Not complying with the terms of a court order in letter and spirit can lead to more serious consequences than those that are possible at the original hearing as this would be considered breach of the court order. This would also give your credit card company additional leeway to seek further legal redress which can include a plea for deducting money directly from your wages, or even your imprisonment. The best course of action in case you have not yet had a summons, or if there are other credit card companies that you owe money to, would probably be to be seen by them to be taking action to rectify your situation and pay them back what you owe.

If you find yourself drowning under credit card debt, it is always advisable that you take visible action and assure the credit card companies that you want to resolve the situation to the best of your ability. A good way to do so can be to consider signing up for a debt management plan. A debt management plan can be used for all your unsecured debts and would mean that your debt from different creditors can get consolidated into a single debt and you would have only one single monthly payment to remember. Depending on your financial situation, a debt management plan can be one of the options for you to avoid bankruptcy. Bankruptcy and credit cards do seem to be related to each other!

Your debt management company can also provide you with all the credit card help information that you may need and would probably assign you a debt advisor who would negotiate on your behalf with the card companies to change the agreement about how you must repay your credit card debt.

There are various debt management companies in the market today and they provide a range of services including debt consolidation as well as settlement services. It is advisable that you apply to a few different ones before deciding which one you prefer.

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