Friday, April 15, 2011

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Capital One Credit Card Lawsuit Sworn Affidavit in Support of Attorney's Fees


IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF XXXXXXX COUNTY, XXXXXXX

CAPITAL ONE BANK (USA), N.A.
Plaintiff,

v.

XXXXX X. XXXXX AND XXXX, INC,
Defendants.

AFFIDAVIT OF C. VANCE MCBRAYER, JR.
IN SUPPORT OF ATTORNEY'S FEES REQUESTED



Before me, the undersigned Notary Public in and for said State and County, personally appeared. C. Vance McBrayer, Jr., and after being duly sworn under oath by me deposes and states as Follows;

I. I am an attorney licensed to practice m the State of Alabama. I make this Affidavit based
upon my personal knowledge of the facts herein set forth. I have been practicing law for a number of years, and am currently employed by the law firm of NATHAN & NATHAN, P.C.

2. Based on my personal knowledge, I know and hereby state that the law firm of NATHAN & NATHAN. P.C. serves as counsel for CAPITAL ONE BANK (USA), N.A., Plaintiff in this case, and the present action is a suit for Breach of Contract in that the Defendant(s) has defaulted under the terms of a Payment Agreement by failure to make proper payment. My practice is devoted to collection of disputed accounts. I know from personal knowledge what constitutes a reasonable fee for litigation of this nature.

3 Numerous unsuccessful efforts were made to resolve this matter without litigation. Such fruitless efforts lead to the instant litigation and it is likely that post-judgement action will be necessary to collect the judgment against the Defendant(s).

4 Based upon my review of the pleadings in this case, I know and hereby state that the attorney fee sought in this case, namely $3,6l8.I0 is both fair and reasonable under the circumstances.

FURTHER AFFIANT SAITH NOT.

C. Vance McBrayer, Jr. (MCB013)
Attorney for Plaintiff

SWORN TO AND SUBSCRIBED before me,
A Notary Public, in and for said County in said State, this 21st day of January, 2011.

Suzanne MacLeod
Notary Public

Capital One Credit Card Lawsuit Sworn Affidavit - Margaret Parton


CAPITAL ONE BANK (USA), Na.,
Plaintiff,

v.

XXXXX X. XXXXX,
Defendant(s)




AFFADAVIT

The undersigned, being duly sworn, makes the following oath:

l. 1 am over 18 years old and competent to make this affidavit. l am a Litigation
Support Representative and an authorized agent of Plaintiff CAPITAL ONE BANK (USA),
N.A. ("Capital One") for purposes of this affidavit. I am duly authorized to make this affidavit,
and because of the scope of my job responsibilities, I am familiar with the manner and method
by which Capital One maintains its normal business books and records, including computer
records of defaulted accounts

2. These books and records are made in the course of regularly conducted business
activity (1) at or near the time the events they purport to describe occurred, by a person with
knowledge of the acts and events, or (2) by a computer or other similar digital means, which
contemporaneously records an event as it occurs. The contents of this affidavit are believed to
he true and correct based upon my personal knowledge of the processes by which Capital One
maintains its business books and records.

3. The books and records of Capital One show that Defendant(s) opened an account
with Capital One for the purpose of obtaining an extension of credit. The aforementioned
records show Capital One issued a credit card to XXXXX X. XXXXX with account number
xxxxxxxxxxxx1852. Defendant thereafter retained the card and used or authorized the use of the
account for the acquisition of goods, services, or cash advances in accordance with the Customer
Agreement governing use of that account, Further, Defendant(s) has/have breached the
Agreement by tailing to make periodic payments as required thereby.

4, The books and records of Capital One show that Defendant(s) is/are currently
indebted to Capital One on account number xxxxxxxxxxxx1852 for the just and true sum of
$27054.41 as of 10/05/2010, plus interest accruing From said date at an annual percentage rate in accordance with the Customer Agreement. currently 29.40%, and that all offsets, payments, and credits have been allowed. The Customer Agreement entered into between the parties also authorizes Capital One to recover from Defendant(s) reasonable attorneys' fees and costs to the extent permitted by law.

5. I declare under the penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct and if called as a witness I would competently testify, under oath, thereto.
Given under my hand on

10/13/10 Margaret Parton

County of Chesterfield, to wit:
Commonwealth of Virginia

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN TO BEFORE ME, THE UNDERSIGNED Notary Public in and for the jurisdiction aforesaid, by Margaret Parton, who acknowledged before me his/her signature to the foregoing Affidavit.

Given under my hand and this seal the 13th day of October, 2010

Barbara S. Edwards, Notary Public

N00000036142650
78954385
A337

Nathan & Nathan, P. C.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Five steps to dealing with a credit card lawsuit

So I was served with a lawsuit over a credit card that I defaulted on. Most of defending yourself in a credit card lawsuit is paperwork.

Step one: File a response to the complaint.

Step two: File a sworn denial.

Step three: File a Motion to Dismiss.

Step four: File a Motion to Strike Affadavit.

Step five: File a Set of Interrogatories, Request for Admissions, and a Request for production of Documents.

Ideally, the plaintiff's attorney will voluntarily withdraw the suit at this point. The principle at work here is that most collection lawsuits are won with a summary judgement, because the defendant does not respond to the initial complaint. This is the bread and butter of the collection lawsuit business. By responding, and making the attorney actually work for the judgement, you dramatically increase your chances of the plaintiff's attorney throwing up their hands and walking away.

Think of it like this - If you're with a group of people in the woods and you're being chased by a bear, you don't have to be the fastest runner to escape - you only have to outrun one person. The collection lawsuit business works the same way - by putting up some degree of fight and forcing the plaintiff's attorney to actually *prove* their case, you're making them do more work than they're used to. They don't like that, and they don't want to mess with you.

My game plan is this - if I can keep them at bay until the statute of limitations runs out, then I've won the game. In my state, the statute of limitations for credit cards is three years, so I'm nearly two thirds of the way there.

Paid Claimants

Paid Claimants Paid Claimants Total Amount Paid
Total Unique Claimants 170,709 $ 3,507,265,006.47
1. Quick Pay / Full Review / Interim Payment 98,016 $ 929,586,288.59
a. Individual 77,727 $ 394,162,457.84
b. Business 20,289 $ 535,423,830.75
2. Emergency Advanced Payment (EAP) 168,923 $ 2,577,678,717.88
a. Individual 123,124 $ 1,047,239,978.50
b. Business 45,799 $ 1,530,438,739.38
Separate Fund for Real Estate Brokers and Agents $ 60,222,089.75
Total Paid: $ 3,567,487,096.22
Quick Payments
Claimants with
Filed Claims
Paid Claimants Paid Claims Amount Paid
Total Quick Payments 98,261 94,907 94,935 $ 877,875,000.00
1. Individual 77,380 74,736 74,743 $ 373,680,000.00
2. Business 20,881 20,171 20,192 $ 504,195,000.00
Interim Payments
Claimants with
Filed Claims
Paid Claimants Paid Claims Amount Paid
Total Interim Payments 61,280 2,507 2,507 $ 33,879,375.65
1. Individual 45,045 2,403 2,403 $ 13,515,398.87
2. Business 16,235 104 104 $ 20,363,976.78
Full Review Payments
Claimants with
Filed Claims
Paid Claimants Paid Claims Amount Paid
Total Full Review Payments 94,193 602 602 $ 17,831,912.94
1. Individual 78,877 588 588 $ 6,967,058.97
2. Business 15,316 14 14 $ 10,864,853.97
Offers Made Amount Offered Offers Accepted Amount Accepted
15,955 $ 145,726,443.71 4,972 $ 50,590,110.60
6,677 $ 63,015,788.64 1,509 $ 16,286,685.18
9,278 $ 82,710,655.07 3,463 $ 34,303,425.42

Friday, March 4, 2011

Stupid eBay questions

Potential Bidder: If this item doesn't sell at this price, will you re-list it at a lower price and email me?
Me: No, I won't email you and I won't relist it. I'll give it to Habitat for Humanity. And I've blocked you from bidding on my auctions. Have a nice day.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Cell phone dilemna and analysis

Me: Just got a cellphone bill and I went way over on my minutes. Goodbye iPhone & AT&T.

L: That rots. Too bad we can't donate minutes. I can't use mine up.

K: Yeah I got a 500 dollar about 6 months ago for the same thing....changed my family plan and went from 700 minutes to 1400 minutes for 20 bucks more and now I am all good as I worked my roll over minutes to over 2000 again. Also Kirb you might want to look online at the ATT site they have a friends plan now where you can add 10 numbers that are non ATT and the calls will be free.....kind of like friends and family...this also helped a great deal cause apperantly I was calling a lot of non ATT users like my brother which was killing me.

L: Yeah, the 10 non-ATT numbers are cool. I can't use up my minutes now. And I'm on the 700 minute plan sharing with 2 other people.

Me: Good idea. I'll take a look. My long calls are to my mother on her landline. One of those calls was $45 - yipes!

My 2g iPhone is getting lines across the display - looks like the screen is starting to go out. Would love to get a Nexus One, but the point is to < the monthly spend. L: Oh, geez, yes, add your mom's # to your free call list. They call it A-List. My brother is on Verizon and now we both just don't worry about it. Me: I wonder if they've changed their nights and weekend hours or something - started using up my rollover minutes in December. I've only got 500 anytime minutes, so I don't qualify for the A-List. Gonna talk with AT&T, Tmobile (nexus one) and Cellular South. K: Oh so you have to have a certain plan to qualify for the Alist Me: Yup - It's gotta be > 800 minutes or somesuch.....

K: load of crap

Me: Paying a visit to the Cellular South store.

Me: Service plans appear to be designed such that one cannot compare apples to apples (pardon the pun).

Me: Or should I say Apples to HTC's?

L: They really are difficult to compare. I stuck with GoPhone for a LONG time because it kept me from worrying about overages. I had a $60/month plan with 600 minutes (actually slightly less, it was $.09/minute). Free nights & weekends and when I went "over" I just paid again. No surprises, always 9 cents a minute. Might be a decent option.

If you do get just a basic phone, Apple has instructions for turning the iPhone into an iTouch. So it will still do everything it does now, just no phone or Edge. You don't really have to say goodbye to it.

Me: Good times at the tMobile store.

Me: I'm going to attempt to summarize my findings. AT&T (iPhone) vs. Cellular South (HTC Hero 6520) vs. TMobile (Nexus One). This may challenge the character limit. Hope it doesn't get truncated.

To stay with AT&T, I'm looking at:
1400 Shared Anytiime minutes
$80 first line
$10 second line
$30 unlimited text (across both lines)
$30 iphone data plan
$15 tax (or so)
$165 monthly
Also, because the screen is going out on my iPhone, I need to buy a new one $99.

Cellular South
Unlimited everything (except multimedia SMS)
$120 for both phones
$12 picture messaging (both phones)
$13 tax (or so)
$145 monthly
But I've got to buy two phones $150/ea (after rebate) +$72 in activation fees = $372
And CS doesn't have 3g coverage in this area. The guy told me it's coming soon.

TMobile
500 anytime minutes (incl unlimited web and sms)
$80 for the nexus one. Can't get it on a family plan out of the gate. Called TMobile and was told I can't upgrade to a family plan for 90 days. Nexus one out of the running.
$179 to buy the Nexus One with two year commitment.
If I were interested some other phone from TMobile (which the guy in the store and the guy on the phone both recommended), it would look something like this:
1500 shared anytime minutes
$130 - both phones
$13 tax
$143 monthly
Then I've got to buy two phones for about $150/each, so $300 out of pocket.

The constraint on this system is that I have two lines and need to keep them together.

AT&T = $3960 service for two years +$99 phone = $4059 tco
Cellular South = $3480 service for two years+ $372 phones = $3852 tco
TMobile = $3432 service for two years + 300 phones = $3732 tco

Color commentary: Strong argument for sticking with AT&T. Cellular South = not the phone I want, and no 3g coverage here. TMobile - If I wanted some lame phone, I wouldn't spend this much for it - prepaid cellular at walmart is $50/month per line for unlimited usage.

L: The 1400 minute plan is actually more than we can use with 3 phones. I've got 2 iPhones, 1 reg and the monthly bill is about $200.

You will save $$ switching, but not a hell of a lot. And AT&T lets you have an iPhone.

L: And make sure you call AT&T and explain to them that you are going to have trouble with this bill and are thinking of leaving. They actually credited an $800 data overage for me once.

Me: I did leave one relevant fact out - the guy I spoke with at the AT&T store called me after I left and offered to remove the overage amount - around two hundred bucks. If I include that in the TCO mix, then the TCO for AT&T drops to $3859, or about a 3% price differential between the low and the high. Not much of a premium to roll with the iphone.

Me: I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at Sprint, too. Monthly charges are significantly the same and there's a $499 one time charge. No thank you.

L: Whoa! Screw that!

There is a lot of AT&T hate out there, and it really pisses me off that I can't tether with my iPhone. Hell, I SHOULD be able to use it as a wifi hotspot.

But that $800 data overage was a legitimate bill. I didn't threaten to leave or anything, I just called and said "You're going to have to work with me. I can't pay this bill. I expected it to be maybe $200. I've been a customer for a long time. What can we do?" Three days later I got a call telling me the whole amount was removed. That bought some loyalty.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Paypal's secret shipping link

I ship a lot of stuff using the US Mail and UPS. Sometimes even Fedex. Most of it is stuff I sell on eBay, but sometimes I need to send a package to my mother or brother, or anyone that's not an eBay transaction. Using Paypal.com's shipping makes it easy to weigh and print my own shipping labels and pay for the shipping directly from paypal. That allows me to skip going to the post office, standing in line, and all that jazz.

But it could only be used for eBay transactions, or so I thought. I poked around on paypal.com, trying to pay for and print a shipping label, but just couldn't find it.

Later, I was moaning about this to friends and someone mentioned a "secret shipping link" on paypal that would let me print my own shipping labels for the US Mail and UPS without any eBay involvement. She didn't know the link offhand, but sent it to me a few days later.

Bingo - Like magic I'm now empowered to print my own shipping labels for anything I want, not just eBay purchases!

Here's the link:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now

You'll have to login to paypal, but it takes you right to your default shipping method and you're good to go.

Like magic!

Now if I could only integrate this with Quickbooks!

Amazon.com customer service phone number

Wow - I love Amazon - I've been buying stuff from them since either '97 or 98 - I'll have to take a look at my purchase history...

Now that they sell clothes and hardware, I'll never have to leave my house again...

Heck, they even sell lava lamps...

Anyway, a friend at work was stumped and wanted to call rather than email, so I shared this phone number from my vast archives - now I share it with you...

800 201 7575

Make it a great day!

I used to spend a lot of time in the UK

And this gal I worked with told me over breakfast (that’s the best meal to eat in the UK!) “Happy Guy Fawkes Day!”....

So I asked and she told me that he was a guy who put a bunch of gunpowder in the basement of the parliament building and was going to blow it up, but was caught and put to death. So I asked if it was his plot that is celebrated by the holiday, or if the celebration is because he was caught. She wasn’t sure…

That’s my kind of holiday…