My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: Texas

I have quite a pickle. I was served papers by an officer to my home around 6:30 in the morning on September 2, 2008. I am being sued by a debt collector for an old credit card debt- which has been sold two times. Upon doing some research in my file cabinet, I came across an old checkbook. In my checkbook, I came across 3 checks-all written in the same ink (which happened to be a marker, so not your typical pen ink). I have determined that the checks were pay-by-phone checks, so I never had to send them in. The first payment was taken and made on 7/9/04 in the amount of $25, the second check was written for 7/23/04, in the amount of $500, and the third payment, written on 8/20/04 in the amount of $300. Here is where it gets complicated!

Under Texas Law, the Statue of Limitations for credit card debt, is 4 years. I ordered a copy of my bank statements. Upon doing some research from that, I determined that my check for $25 did clear on 07/12/04 (written 7/9/04). The second check, instead of the amount being $500, was keyed to be $100 (by the original company, not a mistake I made) and came out of my account on 8/12/04 (written 7/23/04), and the LAST check, written in the amount of $300 NEVER processed-as in, the original company NEVER posted the check-it is completely MIA! Which means that the previous check written on 7/23/04is the one in question here. Is this considered outside of the statue of limitations, because it didn't clear my account until 8/12/04 and the lawsuit was filed on 8/8/08. Everything I have read states "when payment was made". I need something clearer then that. If we are going on when the payment was TAKEN then that would be over the phone 7/23/04. If we are going by when it came out of MY bank account, then that was 8/12/04 and the suing party is just inside the SOL by 4 days and is within their rights to sue me. So, what constitutes "payment" here?


I am working by myself to try to get this resolved. I DID file an answer, but I believe I didn't elaborate near enough in my answer because I didn't speak anything about the "evidence" I have nor of it possibly being outside the SOL because I'm not sure it is! What should I do? I answered a month ago, can I add any other information? How do I do that? And how long does the other party have to respond with their evidence? AND should I try to get the judge to throw out the last 2 payments because of the one being a different amount, and the other never processing?

Sorry this is long, as you can tell, everything is sooo borderline, I simply do NOT know what to do or how to handle this! I spoke with a lawyer-before I had all of this evidence, furthermore, using one is just too expensive for me right now.