My Husband found out he had Testicular cancer in 2004. He was unable to work during treatment and as I was a stay at home mom at the time we were already living pay check to pay check. Not only were we crippled by medical debt but had several months where we had no income coming in. We fell seriously behind and where unable to pay our credit cards. Most of them had doubled in no time due to fees.
In 2005 we took an early hardship withdrawal on my husbands 401K to try to pay some of our debt off. I had 2 credit cards with Capital one. One was originally for $2,000. The other was $500.00. I settled the $2,000 card for $1,000 as payment in full (The balance was over 3,000 by that time) The $500.00 refused to settle.in late January I received a 1099c from Capital One They cancelled a debt in the amount of $941.00 which I claimed as income on my taxes. This amount was close to the amount on my last collection notice for the $500.00 dollar card and the account number did not match what I had so I assumed it was that debt.
I February I started receiving calls from Stillman. I promptly sent them a letter disputing the debt and requesting validation. I also requested that they communicate with me via phone or email. When they called the next week I told them I was disputing the debt and had sent the letter. They stopped calling me and I didn't hear back from them so again I assumed that it was taken care of.
In May I recieved a summons that they are suing me. I sent the 1099 and serttlement information to them again as well as Capital One. And sent an answer to the court. Last week I recieved a mediation notice. I again faxed Stillman asking they verify the debt and that if it was valid I would make an arrangement with them. Again no response I tried calling Capital One. A guy in their customer service said he is showing all of my accounts at a zero balance. He transferred me to collections and I asked them to verify what the 1099c was for and they transferred me to Stillman who I talked to their office manager who said they would talk to the lawyer and have him call me back. AGAIN No Response.
I will be calling to set up mediation soon. Any guidance would be GREATLY appreciated!!
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