Please consider the following merely preliminary advice and guidance based on the limited information presented by your inquiry. I would suggest consulting with a attorney who would be better able to advise you based on all of the relevant facts and circumstances.
If a judgment (a default judgment in the event you did not respond to the complaint) was entered, you have 30 days in which to appeal. If the judgment was entered at the district justice or magisterial level, the appeal is one known as de nova - you have an automatic right to appeal to the common pleas court level. If the judgment was entered in a court of common pleas, if there is a basis to do so (you did not get proper service of the complaint for instance), you could have an attorney file a petition to open or strike the judgment but to do so, you need to act quickly since such petitions must be timely filed.
Any judgment will impact your credit worthiness. Thus, another consideration could be attempting to negotiate a payment plan on the judgment or a lump sum payment in order to have the judgment marked satisfied. Otherwise, although generally wages cannot be garnished in Pennsylvania, if the credit card company wanted to execute on the judgment, they could put a lien on any property you own, execute on the judgment and have the property sold and/or could garnish your bank accounts.
Again, as I do not have all of the relevant facts and circumstances, I would recommend that you consult with an attorney who would be in a position to more properly advise you. The above merely provides some general guidance and options.
Marla D. Sones
Answered on Feb 14th, 2012 at 8:04 AM