Are you facing debt collection from Midland? This page will explain some of the most common questions we see when Midland hunts down Florida residents in court or in debt-collection communications, after Midland buys stale, charged-off debt from credit card companies and tries to squeeze money out of people who never borrowed any money from Midland.
Most Important Questions About Midland:
- Midland wants money. Should you just pay them?
- Who is Midland and why are they suing?
- Can Midland garnish your wages?
- Can Midland take money from your bank account?
- Can Midland take your car?
- Why is Midland sending letters?
- Why is Midland calling?
- Can Midland put you in jail for not paying?
- How much will they settle for?
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- Don’t pay a DIME to Midland without first talking to a lawyer who knows how to put them in their place. Here’s why.
Midland is a junk debt buyer and a debt collector. That means they buy old, stale charged–off credit card debt from a number of different credit card companies (including Synchrony, Discover, Capital One, and other like them.) Midland buys these accounts for pennies on the dollar and then they try to extract nickels, dimes or even quarters out of you, because you’re the person who’s named in that credit card account. They might nor even have, or be able to show you, the paperwork to prove they have the right to collect. But they think they can make you pay by writing you letters, or by calling you on the phone, or even by filing a lawsuit against you.
Midland and companies like it file thousands of lawsuits every month across the state of Florida. They sue people who are listed in those accounts even if they don’t have the documents to prove that they really have the legal right to collect. They use those lawsuits to extract money out of people baaed on fear and lack of information, because those people are more likely to just try and “settle” with them by entering into disastrous long-term payment plans, even if they don’t owe anything at all to Midland.
If Midland is suing you, you need to know the right way to respond, and the right time to respond. Because if you miss those two deadlines Midland can get a judgment against you—which means they can drain your bank account, garnish your wages, and they might even be able to seize property you own.
You definitely don’t want that to happen.
So make sure that you respond in the right time and in the right way to avoid getting that judgment entered against you.
- Who is Midland and why are they suing?
Our firm handles cases like this all the time, where Midland sues someone in Florida for a debt that Midland supposedly bought from someone else—even if they don’t have the paperwork to show it.
We see too many people make this fatal mistake—they just want to “make it go away” so they enter these agreements with Midland that end up blowing up in their faces. Small monthly payments that last forever? We hate to see that. Here’s why.
These agreements almost always have a kicker—if you miss even one payment no matter how good your reason, it’s game over. Bank error? Game over. Temporary illness or injury? Game over. Tax problem? Game over. Fired for no good reason? Game over. Global shutdown due to an unforeseen pandemic? Game over.
These agreements often contain hidden booby traps that spring only when you miss those payments, no matter how good your reason is. Instead of a monthly payment plan, now you’re looking at a judgment for the full amount—and they can use that judgment to drain your bank accounts, take huge chunks out of your paycheck, or seize property you own like cars and real estate.
But you don’t have to agree to these booby-trapped settlement offers. You can defend, you can fight, and you can even win, if you know what you’re doing or get someone on your team who knows what they’re doing.
When junk debt buyers like Midland see people defending in the right way, they make a decision based on the money—how much will it cost them to fight, and how much will it cost them to just walk away. And if they think you’re a threat to them—if they think you might cost them money—they just might walk away from your case for good.
You probably want to know more. Definitely keep reading.
- Can Midland garnish your wages?
Midland sues thousands of people across Florida every year, and they take in a BILLION dollars every year in revenue. A big chuck of that—and we don’t know exactly how much—comes from them taking money out of people’s paychecks against their will—a process known as garnishment.
Midland can try to garnish your wages if they get a judgment against you. And there are three ways they get a judgment:
- you fail to properly respond to the lawsuit, or even worse, “admit it” when they sue you, and the judge enters a judgment based on your failure to fight,
- you fight them in court, lose, and they get a judgment against you, or
- you agree to a booby-trapped settlement that has lets Midland get a judgment if you miss a payment for any reason, no matter how innocent.
Once that judgment is entered, Midland has the right to file what’s called a “Writ of garnishment”, which is essentially a court order to your bank or your employer to take some of the money that you’ve earned and hold it, so they can give to Midland.
When faced with garnishment, you do have rights, but you have to know how and when to raise your garnishment defenses in order to get your money back.
Under Florida law, you could lose as much as 25% of every paycheck if you don’t know how to stop it.
So yes, Midland can garnish your wages if they get a judgment against you, which is why you should do everything you can do to stop that from ever happening, and to fight it if it’s already happened.
- Can Midland drain your bank account?
Just like losing big chunks of your paycheck, you can also lose big chunks of our bank account if Midland has a judgment against you. And like wage garnishments, there are defenses to bank-account garnishments but only if you know how to present them to the court.
Bank account garnishments are harder to defend in Florida than simple wage garnishments. you have to be able to trace funds to an exempt source, document every exemption, and convince the judge that you qualify for protection.
If you’ve never done that before—and especially if you’ve already lost and have a judgment against you—it may seem impossible to do on your own.
But you can get help. You can save your bank account and your paycheck. And you can fight off Midland and just maybe solve your debt-collection problem for good.
- Can Midland take your car?
If Midland gets a judgment against you, they get powerful rights to take things from you against your will—your paycheck, your bank account, even things like your car! So unless you want to ride the bus to work, pay attention to any Midland problem.
Even thought hey might be able to take your car from you, there’s good news. You can fight garnishments and other post-judgment collection attempts. You have legal rights and legal protections, if only you know how to present those defenses to the court.
If you’ve already suffered a judgment, it may not be too late. We help people after judgment protect themselves from losing their property against their will—and in some cases, we can even help solve the problem permanently.
- Why is Midland sending me letters demanding money?
Now that you know who Midland is, you probably aren’t surprised to find out that they’re going to collect money from you in any way they can.
That means sending you letters and making phone calls to try to convince you to give up your hard–earned cash.
And the techniques that debt collectors like Midland use are meant to pull every emotional lever and push every emotional button they can like you’re a cash machine and all they need to do is punch in their PIN to get money from you.
Will you pay if you feel guilty? They’ll use that. Afraid? They’ll use that, too. Angry? You’d better believe they’ll use that.
And the letters they write are designed to create those emotions in you—mostly fear and uncertainty—so that you’ll do anything—pay them anything—just to get them off your back.
Don’t be scared of a letter. The worst it can do is give you a paper cut. Instead, fight back. Armor yourself with knowledge. And fight others who can fight side-by-side with you so that you don’t have to do it alone.
- Who is Midland and why are they calling me demanding money?
Midland is going to use every tool in its toolbox to try and get your money from you. Sometimes they’ll use letters, but what they really like is to get you on the phone.
On the phone, there’s no record of what they say to you when they’re trying to squeeze money out of you.
Notice the difference between what they tell you their letters and some of the nasty things you might hear on the phone.
We’ve had clients tell us shocking thing they heard from Midland on the phone. Things that, if they were in a letter, might get someone in trouble.
We don’t recommend you talk to Midland, or any other debt collector, on the phone. Ever. Because nothing you say can help you and anything you say can be used against you. And the things they say—well, they are cleverly designed to push every emotional button you have so that you give up the money they want.
Don’t talk to Midland on the phone. Don’t waste your time or get jerked around by someone who doesn’t care about you—only about their billion-dollar bottom line.
And if you need help, now’s the time to get it.
- Can Midland throw you in jail?
We’ve heard horror stories from client who say some debt collectors will threaten to have them thrown in jail if they don’t pay their “debts”—and some who even got tricked into making payments they didn’t owe, probably to scammers.
No, you can’t go to jail just because you owe money. That’s called “debtor’s prison” and Congress banned them in 1833. The US Supreme Court has even ruled them to be unconstitutional.
If a debt collector ever threatens you with jail, they’re breaking the law, and you should be prepared to fight back. Find out exactly who you’re talking to. Don’t given them any information about you. And then call a lawyer who can help you, because just making that false jail threat is itself breaking the law.
And we sue debt collectors who break the law. We can do it for you, if this has happened to you.
So please, don’t fall for false, illegal threats. Don’t make payments to someone you never borrowed money from. Don’t become a victim.
Fight back.
Let us know if this has happened to you, and we’ll tell you how we can help.
- How much will Midland settle for?
The more you pay, the more money Midland makes. That’s why Midland wants you believe that the best they can do is maybe 90% of the balance they claim.
And they’ll take advantage of your fear and uncertainty to try to squeeze money out you—far more than you really have to pay even if debt is real.
We’ve had clients tell us that Midland claims they won’t negotiate. That Midland tells them “don’t get a lawyer” because it won’t save them money.
You see through that now, don’t you? Of COURSE they don’t want you getting legal help. Of course they don’t want you to know your rights. Of course they don’t want you to get help.
Because then they get less money out of you. If you’re in the dark, scared, not knowing the right answer—they win.
The truth is, Midland settles for a lot less than you’d expect, but only if you know three things:
- How to ask
- Who to ask, and
- when to ask
When you’ve done this as much as we have, you already know that. If this is your first Midland case (or even second or third) you probably haven’t gotten to that point yet.
But we have.
If you want to find out just how much you can save from Midland’s sky-high demands, give us a call and we’ll tell you what’s possible.
- Don’t pay a DIME to Midland without first talking to a lawyer who knows how to put them in their place. Here’s why.