I agree with some of the others:

1) Get your repayment plan of $200 a month before you go to court.
Do you know the name, date and time of the telephone conversation of the lady you spoke with making the repayment plan? Request a letter stating your repayment agreement of $200 a month. Ask for it to be faxed or e-mailed to you as well as a hard copy being sent to you in the mail.

2) If you can't get your repayment plan verified, call and ask to speak to the supervisor/office manager/shift leader (whoever is in charge.) State your case. Try to get the plan agreed to with the fax/email and hard copy. Make sure you make a note of the supervisor's name and the date and time of the conversation.

2) Make a $200 payment NOW. This will show the collection agency/cc company that you are serious about repayment.

3) After you have made the payment, call the collection agency and ask to speak with a supervisor. Then, try to make arrangements to avoid court.

4) If you have a repayment plan in writing and one payment of $200 already made, they may be more willing to negotiate.

5) If you can't negotiate out of the court date, you MUST show up at court. Non-attendance will signal to the judge that you are not serious about this matter. The collection agency/cc company will certainly send a representative to court. If you are not there, the judge will be more likely to rule in their favor. The credit card company/collection agency will certainly NOT present your repayment plan to the judge. They are trying to get you to pay it off in one lump sum. You must be present even though you are scared to show good faith and to protect yourself as much as possible.

Good luck.

Thanks for everyone's input. I just called the law office for the credit card and spoke to another woman that gave me her ext. number and a 1 800 # so I wouldn't have to pay long distance trying to get all this straightened out. She was so much nicer than the other woman that I had talked to previously. I asked her if their was any way we could settle this out of court and she said if we make a settlement offer for a lump sum that we could pay right now that she would in turn call the credit card company and see if they approve it. If so that would help because right now as each day goes by we are being charged interest. It would also help our credit it being settled out of court. I have to talk to dh and see what we could do at this moment. I was thinking $500 because before the interest and late charges that is what we owed. Has anyone got advice on the amount that we should try and negotiate ?

I don't know about what amount of settlement you should ask for. But
I know they can really give you a big break if your going to pay it right away
in one big lump sum. I hope this helps and I hope you get it settled without
having to go to court.

They said they wouldn't do $500 but would do $800. As long as we pay $400 before the court date then they would issue a continuance whatever that means. I'm totally ignorant to alot of this stuff but I did say before we pay anything that I want it in writing so they are mailing us the agreement. She said legally they couldn't tell us wether we have to go to court or not but since we are willing to work with them that will make alot of difference. I am still stressed because I'm juggling bills to fit this into our budget and I'm really considering gettting a job at another daycare in town if they will work out the hours with me because we only have one car. Sadly we can't make it on my dh's income alone especially since I never know exactly what he's going to make.