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CANADIAN question: I have several hundred (but less than one thousand) in unpaid bills to both Hydro Quebec and an internet company in Quebec. The Hydro bills are from this past year, and the internet bills are from 2 years ago. The internet debt was sold to a collections agency who called me daily for about a year, but I changed phone numbers, and haven't heard from them since. I get letters in the mail from Hydro Quebec monthly, but I've ignored them to this point. Given the amounts, and given that I plan to move to move back to Ontario within the next year, what would be the implications of continuing to ignore the debts? And what would be my 'best' course of action at this point? Any advice appreciated.
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Jun 21, 2010 08:41
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Bookish posted:No, that's not true here. There's no court hearing unless the defendant objects to the garnishment. True, but the defendant is still notified of the garnishment and given the opportunity to object. That was the point I was trying to make. I just left out a step. Thanks for clarifying for me.
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Jun 21, 2010 15:14
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Cubs, odd question, hoping you can help. I'm doing some research but my competency over reading legal documents is questionable. Now this isn'y my debt, I just want to help a friend who's having a hard time. If the money in collection request was a college grant, is this not absolutely bogus to ask her to pay? The grant was extended and accepted by the University, the person was expelled, and the grant money was supposedly forfeit, making this person thus be left with the tuition charges. Surely there's something fishy here that can be worked with.
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Jun 21, 2010 22:24
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Fiction D posted:Now this isn'y my debt, I just want to help a friend who's having a hard time. If the money in collection request was a college grant, is this not absolutely bogus to ask her to pay? Are you saying she's being held liable for both the grant and the tuition? And a question of my own. If you need to stop paying the full balance on a CC, with the hopes of working something out with the company after 90 days, does it matter in the long run if you make partial payments (say, 10-20% of minimum payment), or will they treat partial payments the same as none at all?
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Jun 21, 2010 22:36
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cocteau posted:Are you saying she's being held liable for both the grant and the tuition? Are you sure that they will even accept partial payments?
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Jun 21, 2010 22:46
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cocteau posted:Are you saying she's being held liable for both the grant and the tuition? Just the tuition it seems. I'll get more information tonight.
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Jun 21, 2010 22:52
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Rusty Shackelford posted:Are you sure that they will even accept partial payments? Well I assume if I sent them money, they'd accept it. Just not sure if it's worth bothering or not. Fiction D posted:Just the tuition it seems. I'll get more information tonight. If your girlfriend (yes I saw your other thread) was enrolled and then got kicked out, she is still liable for the tuition costs. She has to pay either the school or the grant back, but I can't imagine she'd be on the hook twice (in other words, if the grant was from federal financial aid, the school would be paid but the government would want the money back; if the grant was rescinded, the school would want the money). If the semester had already begun when she was expelled, I don't think there's anything fishy. If, however, she paid for a future semester and then discovered she was expelled, and this was prior to the first day of class, she might be able to argue the debt. It really depends on whether or not she was considered enrolled for the semester and when the expulsion took effect... and of course on individual school/state policies and laws.
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Jun 21, 2010 23:06
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cocteau posted:Well I assume if I sent them money, they'd accept it. Just not sure if it's worth bothering or not. That would defeat the purpose of a minimum payment, wouldn't it? Seriously though, I doubt that a credit card company would accept a payment below the minimum for a variety of legal reasons. They would probably send your check back.
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Jun 21, 2010 23:09
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I suppose I can still tell her about the 30-day deal and about settling. She's under the impression that they won't do anything to make this easier or lessen the debt. I have a feeling she has probable cause to even file a lawsuit against the university, because they forced her in unemployment while also asking her to pay (job was considered on-campus).
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Jun 21, 2010 23:11
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Fiction D posted:I suppose I can still tell her about the 30-day deal and about settling. She's under the impression that they won't do anything to make this easier or lessen the debt. I have a feeling she has probable cause to even file a lawsuit against the university, because they forced her in unemployment while also asking her to pay (job was considered on-campus). I dunno about the lawsuit... if enrollment was a condition of employment and she did something to cause her to be expelled, I don't think there would be much she could sue over. Then again I'm no attorney, just saying it sounds pretty weak. I think the best angle she could explore was if she was expelled before the semester began and they still charged her the tuition.
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Jun 21, 2010 23:16
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Rusty Shackelford posted:That would defeat the purpose of a minimum payment, wouldn't it? Seriously though, I doubt that a credit card company would accept a payment below the minimum for a variety of legal reasons. They would probably send your check back. They'll accept any payment. If your minimum payment is $120 and you send them $20, next month your minimum payment will be $220 instead of $240. And it would still be reported as late. That said, it makes no difference, I honestly wouldn't bother. Unless you have a high enough balance that a partial payment will make a significant dent in the interest you would be owing on it for 120 days or so. They're going to hit you with a $35 or so late fee every month regardless, plus an overlimit fee if you are in fact over the limit. Just stop paying and deal with the phone calls/mail. They'll eventually offer you a payment plan of sorts.
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Jun 22, 2010 06:31
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A long time ago (2000) I had a card that got bought up by BOA, so anyway this card went default, and through at least 2 services that I know of, then I started making payments back directly to BOA in approx. 2007, now it's back in collections. They sent me direct statements after years and I'd been through various debt collection services, so what i want to know is how easy they can reclaim this bad debt.
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Jun 22, 2010 10:18
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Just received a summons yesterday, still trying to figure out how to answer and fight it. Cubswoo, I would totally take you up on your offer for help preparing my files for court...if you're still interested that is. I just want this nightmare to be over. It's a summons in California, being sued for approx. $7000 by a Junk Debt Buyer, and am willing to fight this to whatever end.
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Jun 22, 2010 20:06
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hackeychicken posted:Just received a summons yesterday, still trying to figure out how to answer and fight it. Cubswoo, I would totally take you up on your offer for help preparing my files for court...if you're still interested that is. I just want this nightmare to be over. If you still have time before your court hearing, email me at goondebtrelief at gmail and we can work something out.
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Jun 24, 2010 09:11
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membranoid posted:A long time ago (2000) I had a card that got bought up by BOA, so anyway this card went default, and through at least 2 services that I know of, then I started making payments back directly to BOA in approx. 2007, now it's back in collections. They sent me direct statements after years and I'd been through various debt collection services, so what i want to know is how easy they can reclaim this bad debt. It depends on how they sold it. Usually an original creditor can recall the debt (especially if the JDB's have not had any luck in wringing money out of you) without much effort. If you want to pay it back, talk to them and make sure they're the only ones claiming the debt on your credit report, and that they'll recall it from anyone else who can claim it from a prior sale. RaoulDuke12 posted:They'll accept any payment. If your minimum payment is $120 and you send them $20, next month your minimum payment will be $220 instead of $240. And it would still be reported as late. This is correct. Credit card companies will take any money you give them (unless you're massively OVERPAYING, which is a huge flag for money laundering and will get your account frozen very very quickly.) If you cannot make a serious dent in the debt in your current situation (after removing luxuries, other frivolous expenses) it is usually to your benefit to stop paying on a debt and wait for a deal. It's already late. It's already dinging your credit. If you can't fix it with what you have, wait it out (and save!) until you can.
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Jun 24, 2010 09:19
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I've been following this thread for a long time and finally, I find myself in a position where I can use the information, but I do have an inquery-- Today, I found a collection letter in the mail telling me I owe $170~. I first couldn't even think of where I would have generated this debt but it dawned on me that it was probably from an overdraft bank account I completely forgot about maybe 2-3 years ago. It's not a lot and while I could pay it without flinching too hard, it's still a decent chunk of money for some college kid and I'd like to know what my options are. I already sent them a request to verify the debt and if they respond, I'm wondering what I should do to pay for delete. The thing is, the letter they sent was rather professional. It listed some of the rights discussed here and looked a lot less sleaze-bag than I would have imagined. I think these guys will probably verify the debt. So how should I go about paying as little as I can for a delete? Do you suppose they would settle for 50%-ish? If it helps, the collection agency is Capital Accounts out of Nashville TN. Thanks for your time and for this thread!
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Jun 24, 2010 22:33
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Canine Blues Arooo posted:I've been following this thread for a long time and finally, I find myself in a position where I can use the information, but I do have an inquery--
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Jun 25, 2010 03:47
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antwizzle posted:If it was for a checking account, I'd say your biggest worry is being in Chexsystems. It was. What exactly does this mean for me and can I get it removed from Chexsystems?
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Jun 25, 2010 13:46
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Canine Blues Arooo posted:It was. What exactly does this mean for me and can I get it removed from Chexsystems? Start by getting a free copy of your Chexsystems report at https://www.consumerdebit.com/consumerinfo/us/en/index.htm. You might have lucked out because sometimes banks gently caress up and don't report you, just write off your debt. Entries will fall off after five years, but it is possible to get it removed earlier if you pay the original bank (NOT the debt collector it's sold to) in full, although they are under no obligation to remove the info, although they are obligated to mark it paid in full, which may satisfy a of of banks enough to grant you an account. Sometimes you can even just dispute it with Chex and they will remove it, although this is rare. Creditboards has some great advice on the topic. Whatever you do, don't just pay the debt collector. Often people think if they do this they'll be able to open a new account however just paying the debt collector will barely do anything for your credit report unless you do a pay-for-delete, and it will do nothing to remove you from Chex. $170 is a laughably small debt all things considered, you should probably attempt to do a PFD, or just wait it out. seacat fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Jun 25, 2010 |
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Jun 25, 2010 22:35
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I only have one debt, but I appear to have three different debt collection agencies attempting to collect. The first, I sent your example response to their dunning letter and haven't heard from them again, but now I am hearing from an additional company, and possibly a third (they did not identify themselves on one call). How do I deal with these new guys if they haven't sent me a dunning letter? I understand that that is an FDCPA violation. I just can't shake the fear that I'm making things worse. I don't want to get caught in the open because I was greedy enough to hope for some settlement like the OP's. I've got another question also, my coworker recently told me that he and his wife have had so much debt, and they ignored it and apparently had default judgements laid against them. He's been living without bank accounts for years and has his brother handle his affairs. Is there anything he can do? He has kids and is married. Would divorcing his wife and having her take on the debts clear his name?
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Jun 26, 2010 03:06
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Dog Dick Ridiculous posted:I only have one debt, but I appear to have three different debt collection agencies attempting to collect. The first, I sent your example response to their dunning letter and haven't heard from them again, but now I am hearing from an additional company, and possibly a third (they did not identify themselves on one call). You're doing things right. You certainly can't make things 'worse' by having another company violate the FDCPA in their attempts to contact you. Document everything in case they're dumb enough to sue. If they call you, say you're not talking to them without a dunning letter and hang up. As for your coworker, that's kind of beyond the scope of what I know. Have them talk to a good divorce lawyer.
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Jun 26, 2010 08:28
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Redirected from the legal thread to here: Should I send a Debt Validation letter, Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested, to a creditor who sent me a summons to court without any warning at all? I can't even really tell if the summons is legitimate as there is no printed court date, nor do they give me the address of the court, only the address of the creditor. They're saying I owe over $800 plus interest from a very old Chase account. I looked up "Mel S. Harris and Associates, LLC" and supposedly this guy is the most hardballin no bullshit bottom of the barrel lawyer in the history of lawyers. They're cracking down on debt after some big thing in the financial industry that happened on June 22nd, from what I understand. I'm a bit worried because, as there is no posted court date, I'm wondering if this summons is actually legitimate and I'll wind up missing my court date.
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Jun 28, 2010 16:53
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antwizzle posted:Chexsystems As a follow up to my post, I did have a charge-off from TFC bank on my Chex report. I figure it's only going to be on for another 8 months, so I will wait it out instead of paying a debt they sold years ago.
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Jun 28, 2010 17:50
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Tostito posted:Redirected from the legal thread to here: Call your county courthouse - they'll tell you if you have any hearings pending. Even if there is something pending, save that summons. If they attempt a default judgment or anything else, you've got a slam-dunk case to have anything vacated based on improper summons, if not a countersuit. And yes, send the verification letter, and if you're feeling bold, pack in an Intent to Sue as well. CubsWoo fucked around with this message at 07:57 on Jun 29, 2010 |
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Jun 29, 2010 07:53
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So I sent off a DV letter to Regent Asset Management Solutions. It arrived there on the 24th, and today I received a letter, also dated on the 24th, stating this: "To Whom it may concern: We have received your reqeust for validation of debt. We have confirmed with our client the accuracy and correctness of this debt. Sincerely, Customer Service" Unsigned. What the hell? It does have claim details stating the original creditor and an account number, but I still fail to see how they arrived at the massive $1098.75 in debt from a coupl eof overdrafts apparently. I recently got a chexsystems report. it's not on there or on my credit report. Are they full of poo poo or what? What do I send them now? A letter saying not good enough? The debt is over 3 years old at this point, by the way.
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Jul 3, 2010 01:49
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LorneReams posted:Oh cool, I have a court order from AT&T to pay me from small claims court ($350). How can I have Randall Stephenson arrested? This is from a little bit ago... but can't you get your county sheriff to go down to your local AT&T store and yank $350 out of their registers? You have to file something to get it done obviously.
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Jul 3, 2010 09:31
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RaoulDuke12 posted:So I sent off a DV letter to Regent Asset Management Solutions. It arrived there on the 24th, and today I received a letter, also dated on the 24th, stating this: Respond with a demand for one of two things: - Detailed accounting of the debt, how they came to that amount, and how they came to be the owners of the debt - To stop contacting you about the debt under threat of a lawsuit if they continue harassing you. Send that off and see if they're dumb enough to continue trying to collect.
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Jul 6, 2010 08:22
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So maybe something like this? To Whom It May Concern: In response to your letter dated June 24th, confirming that you have validated my debt with the original creditor, while I appreciate that you feel simply stating you have done so is adequate, I am requesting evidence of this validation in the form of a written, detailed accounting of the debt, including the ledger from the original account, a document showing what you have added to that original amount, if any, and evidence that you have both legally purchased this debt from the original creditor, and are licensed to collect that debt in my state, the state of California. Should you be unable to provide this form of evidence to me, I am respectfully requesting that you discontinue all forms of collection activity, including phone calls, mailings, legal action, and the reporting of this as a valid debt to any credit agencies. Should you, despite my request, refuse to provide any evidence of my alleged debt, and then continue to attempt to collect, report on, or fraudulently validate this debt, I will be forced to pursue legal action to the fullest extent provided by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Regards, Raoulduke12 and certify that as well?
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Jul 6, 2010 08:34
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Just received a Dunning letter regarding a debt with the original creditor listed as "Associates" and a previous creditor listed as Midland Funding LLC. Never heard of them, nor should I have any debt. Called their number but they refused to give any information without the last 4 of my SS#, which I'm certainly not giving out to some shady Nevada collection agency (First National Collection Bureau). So from reading this thread, I assume the smart course of action is to send out a Debt Verification letter and visit one of these credit report sites and figure out if there's other shady charges people are trying to get away with. They're only asking for $369.46 at this point, which is not something I can't pay if I actually owe the debt, nor something I'd avoid paying if I owe it since good credit is more important to me than a few hundred dollars, but since I haven't dealt with any business known simply as "Associates", nor any business in Midland, they're not striking me as trustworthy.
Shovelmint fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Jul 8, 2010 |
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Jul 8, 2010 23:09
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Is there any kind of frequent-flier miles for sending poo poo CMRR or do you have to pay the 5 bucks for every letter? 
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Jul 12, 2010 22:33
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I had an auto-loan that defaulted, the vehicle was repossessed, and after a while I had a collection agency calling me frequently. I checked my credit report and this collection agency isn't showing up, whereas an older debt (Hospital bill I never knew about. Paid it off) from a different collection agency does appear. Any idea why this newer collection agency doesn't show up on my credit report while the older one does?
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Jul 13, 2010 09:36
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Alright, so I have $8000 on a Chase card that I haven't paid for about seven months. I finally talked to a creditor (while it was Creditors Interchange, she said the debt is still owned by Chase), and while they offered $2996, I couldn't get them to agree on a pay-for-delete. She was also saying "you should pay now because I can't guarantee that the bank won't charge it off tomorrow," but I'm pretty sure she's just feeding me a line. Regardless, should I try to take the letter route and send either Chase or these guys a PFD letter? She said that Chase doesn't do deletes...
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Jul 13, 2010 19:46
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My girlfriend moved out of her apartment about 8 months ago and apparently the landlord decided she owed money for repairs but never tried to contact her. Long story short it went into collections and the collection agency had the wrong phone number so we didn't know about it until we found it on her credit report.. It's been in collections for nearly 6 months and is about $500. We have already had them send us verification of the debt in writing, should the next step be to offer a settlement with a pay for delete? We don't mind paying some as long as it comes off her credit report. Would $300 be a good starting point? We have talked to two different collection agents over the phone and they both claim the company deletes the item once it is paid in full as a courtesy, but obviously we don't trust them. The company is ProCollect
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Jul 14, 2010 01:21
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Get some free/cheap legal aid through a tenant's/renter's rights group in your city and see what else can be done before throwing away $500 on a bullshit 'debt' she was never told about. Even if you can afford it, just out of principle I'd want to find some way to tell them to gently caress off.
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Jul 14, 2010 01:46
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I guess I forgot to pay my last power bill at my old apartment, and it went to collections. The power company couldn't find me, but the collections agency sure could! Anyway, it's a legit debt and I do want to pay it, can I/should I pay the collections agency or the power company? I'd rather not pay the debt collectors because they're generally scum.
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Jul 14, 2010 04:04
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evensevenone posted:I guess I forgot to pay my last power bill at my old apartment, and it went to collections. The power company couldn't find me, but the collections agency sure could! Anyway, it's a legit debt and I do want to pay it, can I/should I pay the collections agency or the power company? I'd rather not pay the debt collectors because they're generally scum. http://creditreportscrub.blogspot.com/2008/07/sample-pfd-letter.html As CubsWoo pointed when it comes to collections agencies, a "paid in full" tradeline on your credit report does gently caress all for you and may even make your situation worse, since the time clock on the tradeline resets to 7 years when you pay it. I had the same situation, a medical debt of 100$ that had been charged off and paid it - if I had just waited out the time clock, it would be off my credit report already, but since I paid them in an effort to do the right thing it won't drop off my credit reports until mid-2011. If they won't delete, then don't pay. Edit: the power company no longer wants anything to do with you since they've written off the debt. In some cases you can get them to recall it but I doubt anyone would go to that much trouble for the amount of 1 light bill.
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Jul 14, 2010 05:07
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glorp posted:Alright, so I have $8000 on a Chase card that I haven't paid for about seven months. I finally talked to a creditor (while it was Creditors Interchange, she said the debt is still owned by Chase), and while they offered $2996, I couldn't get them to agree on a pay-for-delete. She was also saying "you should pay now because I can't guarantee that the bank won't charge it off tomorrow," but I'm pretty sure she's just feeding me a line. Regardless, should I try to take the letter route and send either Chase or these guys a PFD letter? She said that Chase doesn't do deletes... Can CubsWoo or someone knowledgeable should chime in on the subject? I'm also curious on what the dynamics are of a collection agency handling your debt while the original creditor (OC) still owns it. That said, from what I've been reading, PFDs with credit card OCs seem extremely rare. My understanding is you are left with a "charged off" tradeline with the OC, and you should negotiate a settlement in writing for a PFD (instead of "settled") on the additional tradeline if the account is bought by a collector. Is there a way to have the OC TL deleted or changed to "settled" when you settle with a CA after your account has been sold off? lokigoesrawr fucked around with this message at 05:18 on Jul 14, 2010 |
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Jul 14, 2010 05:15
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I have a rather unusual case in that a debt I am not responsible for was sent off to collections, and I'd really like to get this collections agency to stop loving calling me. Basically what happened was I took my kid in for some allergy bloodwork, the doctor drew the blood and sent it off to a lab for analysis. All covered under insurance, everything's great. Then I start getting bills from some lab I've never heard of claiming I owe them 75 bucks for said analysis. Figuring this is just my lovely employer once again delaying payment on some bill or other (they are so bad my dentist will give us 10% off up front if we pay in full in cash and wait for our insurance to reimburse us, which usually takes upwards of SIX MONTHS) I ignore it. Then eventually some collections agency starts calling. I ignored those at first too because we get wrong number calls for people like 'Wanda Simpson' or whatever all the time from collections agencies for some reason, but when I finally let one play through I noticed they're mangling our last name and call them back and find out about this. As by this point I have no memory of anything about this and certainly don't remember going to any lab, so I call my insurance company, and we figure out what happened: basically my doctor's office billed the insurance company for the same tests that this lab claimed to have done. Now whether the doctor's office did their own tests AND sent them to this lab or if they accidentally billed for the bloodwork but since they got it in first the insurance co. reimbursed them and then denied the second claim from the third party lab company as they'd already paid it once, I don't know, but what I do know and what the insurance company backed me up on is that I was NOT responsible for this bill; this was between the lab and the doctor's office. When the lab got denied for the claim they decided to try and bill ME for it on the off chance I'd just pay it or something, apparently, and not ask questions. So I told the collections company this and they told me that if I just paid them I could figure it out later with this lab (ha, right) but they weren't going to stop trying to collect on it unless the lab took the charge back or whatever they call it. I've had my (ironically extremely helpful and sympathetic) insurance company contact both the collections agency and the 3rd party lab to tell them this is NOT my responsibility but until that third party lab retracts the debt or whatever, this collections agency will quite happily continue to call me until doomsday. So what the gently caress can I do in this situation? I have paperwork, sent to me by the insurance company at my request, that states that this is not a patient responsibility, they also sent a copy to the diagnostics lab, but this collections agency is STILL CALLING ME. How the hell can I get this lab to stop trying to collect on a debt that is not mine? And how the hell can they get away with this poo poo in the first place? Can any company just arbitrarily decide to bill someone and then send them to collections and not be able to be questioned? What the hell?
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Jul 14, 2010 15:13
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Oracle posted:I have a rather unusual case in that a debt I am not responsible for was sent off to collections, and I'd really like to get this collections agency to stop loving calling me. I had something similar happen once. It was due to an ER trip I made, and I was getting bills from doctors and from the hospital for piddly amounts (like $30-75). Like you, I ignored it at first because I knew I didn't owe any of it, since insurance should have picked it up. (Humana  ). Finally I got letters threatening to take me to collections, so I paid one bill. Then I got a grip on reality and reminded myself that this was not my debt. I made a packet with copies of every single bill and letter, attached a cover sheet that explained that this was not my responsibility, that I was tired of getting the bills, and that someone needed to figure it out (and I wanted my $35 back). I sent the letter to my employer's benefits office, to Humana (any and all addresses that seemed relevant) and every different entity billing me. Essentially I said, I'm sick of dealing with this crap, you guys sort it out. A couple weeks later I got a letter from someone saying it had been handled, and a check for $35. Not saying your luck will be as good, especially since a collections agency is involved, but it might be worth a shot.
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Jul 14, 2010 15:57
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Oracle posted:Wow, why am I not so lucky. Ask for verification of the debt (in writing through mail), prove it's not your or your responsibility, ask them to stop contacting you about it (again in writing) and then start recording calls after you get the green cards back. After 10 or so calls, tell them you have proof they violated the FDCPA 10 times and you will be filing suit for 10K. File suit, settle for 5K with a liquidated damages provision for 20K or so. Hope they are dumb enough to contact you again. When they do, invoke the provision and collect 20K, or settle for 10K and add a higher liquidated damages provision.
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Jul 14, 2010 16:07
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