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Tomorrow I'm going to the city clerk's office to deal with this but I just thought I'd see what you guys said about it. I stopped being able to pay on my Capital One credit card, it fell into collections, etc. I moved a few times between then and now, but always kept my address up to date with mail, banks, everything. Recently I checked my credit report and had a default judgment entered against me for $700 by CapOne in 10/09. I'd never heard about this, so I called the court and asked. They said that I was served in 07/09 at an address I hadn't lived at for a year from the date I was served. The description of the person served did not match me at all, to top it off they said I had glasses, which I didn't. I know for a fact that the people living there at the time were all girls. I would have gone to court and paid this off if I'd known about it but they didn't communicate with me at all. They didn't call about this either and they had my phone number. Basically all I have to show the court tomorrow are some bank statements, pay stubs, some shipping invoices, a letter from CapOne about the account dated 3/09 sent to a more recent address than the one served, a receipt from my first eye exam and first pair of glasses I ever got which was months after I was served, my driver's license which had the correct address on it which I had renewed a month before I was served. If they'd looked at the DMV records they would have had that too. Lastly, I spoke with the landlord at the building I was served at and he drafted me a letter explaining when I lived at the property and his info if they had questions. I hope that this will be enough so that I can file for vacation of judgment and then pay it off afterward. Does anyone have any advice? Does what proof I have seem legitimate enough?
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Nov 3, 2010 02:59
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I was hospitalized last year with a head injury. Long story short, I had insurance coverage from another state but no proof because of an error on the state's part, I followed up with the hospital with my insurance information and documentation for the delay and was assured they would file, they never did, and last month (a year later) I get a collections letter for $763--the hospital had some sort of grace program that knocks off a lot of the balance but it left that much on my statement. I sent a DV letter and they responded with a typewritten account of all the hospital charges, but none of the other stuff I asked for--proof that the debt was purchased legally, that they can legally collect in my state, copy of my signature, etc. Is this valid debt verification? Do you think it's likely that they will sue (West Asset Management, if you're at all familiar)? I'm not too keen to settle or pay with it because I'm pregnant, a grad student, and leaving the country in six months and am not terribly concerned about one blip on my credit score. Yes, I'm a bad person who doesn't want to pay my bills. I get money taken out of my paycheck for insurance premiums for a reason. Should I send another letter back showing I had insurance at the time and explaining that it should have been filed, or just ignore it? I'm mostly worried about being served before I leave, on the off chance I have to come back here. If I can leave without being sued it'll probably be long past the statute of limitations if and when I do come back. Edit: How long did it take in most cases to go from first collection letter to court summons? I didn't ask them to cease contact, only to not call any phone numbers. LuckyDaemon fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Nov 16, 2010 |
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Nov 16, 2010 01:25
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I guess this is a good place to ask this. I looked at my credit report and there's a few accounts there that aren't mine, but I'm pretty sure they belong to my parents. They're had some problems with credit cards in the last few years. Does their stuff show up because we live at the same address? It's also possible they used my SSN... And I checked my credit report in the first place because someone else might be using my SSN, so it could be that too :/
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Nov 16, 2010 05:07
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Charleston Jew posted:I guess this is a good place to ask this. I looked at my credit report and there's a few accounts there that aren't mine, but I'm pretty sure they belong to my parents. They're had some problems with credit cards in the last few years. Does their stuff show up because we live at the same address? It's also possible they used my SSN... And I checked my credit report in the first place because someone else might be using my SSN, so it could be that too :/ Are you over 18? If so, sounds like someone is fraudulently using your credit. You unfortunately have a tough decision if it is your parents. You'll have to press charges against them most likely before the credit card company will remove any debt attributed to you. You do need to do something about this though to put a stop to it right now. Ask your parents about it. If they deny it, then let them know you're glad because you're going to report it to the police and dispute the debt with the credit card companies. But you should probably give them a chance to own up to it and fix the situation if you think it could be them.
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Nov 16, 2010 06:23
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LuckyDaemon posted:I was hospitalized last year with a head injury. Long story short, I had insurance coverage from another state but no proof because of an error on the state's part, I followed up with the hospital with my insurance information and documentation for the delay and was assured they would file, they never did, and last month (a year later) I get a collections letter for $763--the hospital had some sort of grace program that knocks off a lot of the balance but it left that much on my statement. There's a slightly different process for medical collections that is quite a bit more stringent for CAs because of HIPPAA regulations. I suggest your check this out if you don't get good info here.
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Nov 16, 2010 15:32
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dvgrhl posted:Are you over 18? If so, sounds like someone is fraudulently using your credit. You unfortunately have a tough decision if it is your parents. You'll have to press charges against them most likely before the credit card company will remove any debt attributed to you. You do need to do something about this though to put a stop to it right now. Also, see this thread - http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3118607 for someone that's been through it and come out on top 
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Nov 16, 2010 17:10
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dvgrhl posted:Are you over 18? If so, sounds like someone is fraudulently using your credit. You unfortunately have a tough decision if it is your parents. You'll have to press charges against them most likely before the credit card company will remove any debt attributed to you. You do need to do something about this though to put a stop to it right now. Its also quite possible that they just confused you with your parents. I went to school with someone who has the same name as his father and grandfather and he had accounts on there at random from both generations. Though, in his case that caused his credit score to be over 800.
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Nov 16, 2010 18:28
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Its incredible you had to go through this, op. I "owed" at one time in my life probably $10,000 to multiple credit card companies/banks. Never over $2000 to any one entity. I lost my job, couldn't pay and got phone calls, letters threatening lawsuits, etc. I never responded to any of them, or when I did simply denied I owed the money. For me this worked fine. I was never sued by anyone, and after the statute of limitations on collection passed, I firmly asserted when I received notices, that the debt being described was over 7 years old, and uncollectable, and at any rate I deny ever owing it at all. This got them to stop, and my credit eventually just recovered on its own because of this. Just my experience with owing to debt collectors. And like the OP I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice, just my story.
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Nov 17, 2010 11:21
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Well, I tried to PM the OP but he apparently doesn't have plat, and I didn't really want to spill all of this out in a public forum, but whatevs. I'm currently about ~10k in debt from student loans. I got the loans when I was 17, and they were co-signed by my mother. I left college to join the military, and was told that since I was in the military all of my loans were deferred until after I got out. I assumed this was an automatic process, and didn't think anything about it. Fast forward about a year and I start getting phone calls from a debt collector trying to collect on it. I had heard absolutely nothing about this until the phone call. They were sending my mail to a "family friends" house, who subsequently threw it all in a big rear end pile and let it sit there. Now I'm out of the military, but the debt is keeping me from getting into school to use my GI bill. At first they wanted like $300 a month from me and "couldn't take any less than that" but I finally got them talked down to $50/mo a while back and paid on it for a while until I got out of the military a few months ago (and wasn't/am not making enough to keep paying even that) What is the best way to go about handling this? I obviously can't just pay the whole thing off or I would (and the only family I have left is too poor to do anything about it, though they've offered to try and help.) thanks bros. 
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Nov 17, 2010 12:06
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invision posted:Well, I tried to PM the OP but he apparently doesn't have plat, and I didn't really want to spill all of this out in a public forum, but whatevs. I'm not entirely sure here, so don't take my word as legal advice, but if these are true federal student loans there is nothing you can do, but call them and talk to them about an economic hardship deferment. That or actually enroll in school--say at a community college--because your loans can be deferred for being a full time student. As I recall my "entrance" and "exit" interviews for my student loans from my undergrad days, the only way to get out of the debt was: 1. Pay it off 2. Die 3. Total and permanent disability (this was described as being in a persistent vegetative state by the person conducting the "interview")
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Nov 17, 2010 22:42
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ZombieLenin posted:As I recall my "entrance" and "exit" interviews for my student loans from my undergrad days, the only way to get out of the debt was: 4. Flee the country and never return so they can't collect. Not worth it over $10,000, but for people whose debt hits six figures that can start to look like an attractive option.
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Nov 18, 2010 00:01
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About 3 years ago I was totally irresponsible and let my car get repossessed for defaulting on the loan. At the time I owed about $10.5K on it. It went to auction and fetched about $5k, and then NMAC set me up on a payment plan for the other $5,500. I dutifully paid it every month until it was all done, and they sent me a letter certifying it was paid in full. Is there a snowball's chance I could call them up and get them to delete it from my report? It still shows as a Charge-Off but also shows Paid in Full. Or have I lost all bargaining power since it's been paid off more than a year?
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Nov 18, 2010 21:35
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gregday posted:About 3 years ago I was totally irresponsible and let my car get repossessed for defaulting on the loan. At the time I owed about $10.5K on it. It went to auction and fetched about $5k, and then NMAC set me up on a payment plan for the other $5,500. I dutifully paid it every month until it was all done, and they sent me a letter certifying it was paid in full. You could contest it with Expirian,etc and hope they don't bother confirming it since it's paid off.
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Nov 18, 2010 22:09
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duz posted:You could contest it with Expirian,etc and hope they don't bother confirming it since it's paid off. Thanks. I've done this and we'll see where it goes. I have a mortgage account on my credit report that was previously my mother's who passed away recently. About 2 years ago she transferred the property to me and the bank agreed to add me onto the mortgage. She was late on about 10 payments in all, but all less than 30 days. The account rep at the bank who handled this opted to put "Contact for status" on the "STATUS" line for that account on my credit report, so that my mom's late payments would not reflect badly on me. Upon learning all this, the bank rep checked again with someone else at the bank who doesn't believe those late payments would reflect negatively on me at all since they were not that late. I am wondering if it's worth changing, if "Contact for status" in any way is already affecting me negatively and I'd be better off the other way. When I pulled my report a few days ago it did say that there was some missing/incomplete information on that account, which is the only reason I noticed it.
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Nov 19, 2010 23:59
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I'm currently a junior in college, my credit is pretty terrible. When I was 18, I had to be hospitalized because of Mono. Somehow the roughly $200 in copays didn't get paid, and now there are two accounts open for collections from 2007. I was on my Dad's insurance at the time, but being 18 the visit was technically my debt to pay. Secondly, my Dad bought me a car, and in my stupidity I agreed to sign something (I'm not sure what, at this point, I'm assuming it was the contract for the financing). My Dad then proceeded to make payments sometimes as much as three months late on the car. It eventually was paid off, but I now have multiple missed car payments on my credit report on a closed account. I will be home in December - would my best bet be to go in and plea my situation to the car company to have it removed? We have a pretty good relationship with them despite the bad business. How do I go about removing these from my report, since they occurred so long ago? Would a pay-for-delete work with the medical bills? They sent a collections letter to my house in 2008, which I have since misplaced - though I do have the company's address and account numbers from my Experian report. I need to be able to rent an apartment next summer, so getting this fixed is a big priority for me. Thanks goons
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Nov 20, 2010 17:24
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Chef Bromden posted:1) The parking lot is private property that we lease, is the tow truck allowed to come onto our property to collect a car without informing us? I know they don't have to inform the trainer until up to 24 hours after they collect it, but what about us? Assuming your parking lot is not controlled in any way, then I guess they may have implied consent to enter the lot. If it is controlled (gate, barrier or guard) and they tailgated/broke/blagged their way in, then you may have grounds for trespass. Regardless of the situation, you may be able to have the tow truck driver (and his company) trespassed from your property by the police, with the warning that if they return ever again they'll get arrested. Which should be fun A sign stating that access to the lot is allowed only for employees and customers should suffice for removing any implied consent, but you'd be best consulting with a land shark first for the applicable law in your location. "Sir, are you classified as human?"
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Nov 20, 2010 22:59
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I just stopped paying any of my debts(3500 split across three credit cards an ~20k in student loans) about 4 years ago and haven't heard a thing from anyone about any of it since then, not one call or anything. If it's going to catch up with me it sure is taking it's drat time.
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Nov 20, 2010 23:55
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Gaff Tape posted:I'm currently a junior in college, my credit is pretty terrible. Anybody?
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Nov 28, 2010 19:20
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Gaff Tape posted:Anybody? The car may be set in stone, but if you can dispute the late payments on your report with the credit agencies, the car dealership may not dispute it has been paid by now. As for the medical bills, send a DV. When/if they validate, offer a pay for delete.
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Nov 29, 2010 03:08
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Don't follow the same procedure for validating medical bills as you would other consumer credit. Medical billers are not allowed to sell past due bills to collections as it violates HIPPA regulations. When dealing with medical claims you only deal with the original hospital/facility even if they've mistakenly sold your claim. I posted the procedure to follow before but you can find it here.
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Nov 29, 2010 04:27
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TouchyMcFeely posted:Don't follow the same procedure for validating medical bills as you would other consumer credit. Medical billers are not allowed to sell past due bills to collections as it violates HIPPA regulations.
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Nov 29, 2010 11:26
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antwizzle posted:Hi, this is absolutely not true. Hospitals and other healthcare providers can absolutely write your debt off to third party collectors; it's happened to me and tons of people I know. Selling the debt in and of itself, is not a HIPPA violation. They will generally offer much more reasonable repayment plans than any other creditor you will deal with, although if after all is said and done you still owe 60K you might as well just declare bankruptcy. From what I've read and what I took away from it, the violation is that selling a medical bill is considered a disclosure of medical information which is a violation of HIPAA. I did, however, just find this HIPAA Basics page that says I'm wrong. That page also sent me to this HHS page that says, HHS posted:However, the Privacy Rule requires a covered entity, or its business associate, to reasonably limit the amount of information disclosed for such purposes to the minimum necessary, as well as to abide by any reasonable requests for confidential communications and any agreed-to restrictions on the use or disclosure of protected health information. So I guess the rub is whether or not the CA is following the minimum necessary information rules which I'll have to take time to read over. I would still follow the procedure outlined on the CreditBoards.com forum though. I was wrong on the disclosure part but there are still a different set of rules that medical collections goes through that regular collections don't. Thank you for the correction.
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Nov 29, 2010 16:13
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I am enjoying this thread. No real debt problems of my own. That being said, I work at a hosted dialer company which a lot of the biggest debt collections agencies (many of them mentioned in this thread) use. We're always running into issues where they are not leaving messages correctly, they are being sued because their message is not ACA-style, etc. So I guess, if you have any questions about what a proper ACA formatted message is and what their side looks like, I might be able to provide some minimal insight.
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Dec 2, 2010 21:23
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Sorry to have abruptly abandoned the thread a few months ago - I was getting pretty litigious with one of my (ex)-creditors and under advice from my lawyer I stayed out of debt-related threads. But without saying too much, now that their check has cleared, I'm OK to come back to the thread. Some quick points from stuff I see on this page: - Student loans are the devil. Can't be discharged in bankruptcy, your collectors have the right to both go after your paycheck and your tax returns, don't have to abide by most of the FDCPA/FCRA, and a whole host of other lovely issues. The only silver lining is there may be some kind of 'student loan bailout/forgiveness' program in the pipeline over the next few years if more and more people default due to the economy. - As others have said, dispute anything on your credit report you might want removed. Some creditors, once you've paid, will ignore disputes from the reporting agencies and can make 'paid - late' or other negative marks fall off the report much sooner. - A note on service. Most process servers don't give a gently caress who they talk to at an address as long as they can shove the service papers in somebody's hand and report back that the service was delivered. About a year ago a creditor attempted service at my mother's condo when I hadn't lived there since ~2002. They tried to get my current address out of her, and when she wouldn't say where I lived, tried to guilt her into it. After that, the server just pushed the papers into her hand and said "Well, make sure this gets to him, he's due in court in two weeks." and drove off. Don't duck a service if they know where you live/work, but always challenge improper service. In most courts you don't really need 'proof' of any kind to contest a default, the creditor can be called back in to verify proper service. And a lot of judges nowadays are siding with the debtors thanks to the whole foreclosure mess. EDIT: Creditors are getting super desperate with the economic downturn and are very, very willing to make a deal if you just want to pay-for-delete. I've talked to people who have been getting full deletes for paying as low as 5% of the balance owed. Quite a few companies are telling their agents to accept anything the debtor offers (and even the offers from the companies themselves are falling - I saw a first offer from a JDB start at 75% off the amount owed.) CubsWoo fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Dec 2, 2010 |
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Dec 2, 2010 22:00
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Glad to see you're back, CubsWoo. A couple questions. I'm to the stage of just PFDing some things. I'm just wondering if I get a proper PFD from a creditor, I still need to dispute it with a CRA, correct? What if I've already gotten the frivolous dispute letter on that item? Also, where do I start with challenging judgments. I was stupid and allowed a few to go to default judgment and paid them off. Now I'm realizing I didn't get properly served for any of them. Where do I go from there?
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Dec 2, 2010 22:25
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tensai posted:Glad to see you're back, CubsWoo. A couple questions. I'm to the stage of just PFDing some things. I'm just wondering if I get a proper PFD from a creditor, I still need to dispute it with a CRA, correct? What if I've already gotten the frivolous dispute letter on that item? Re-dispute. They're not going to tell the CRA to delete it. quote:Also, where do I start with challenging judgments. I was stupid and allowed a few to go to default judgment and paid them off. Now I'm realizing I didn't get properly served for any of them. Where do I go from there? Check with your county court. You can usually call the clerk's office and get information on the procedure.
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Dec 2, 2010 23:02
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I accidentally wrote a bad $65 check at a grocery store this summer. I know that I was called at least once about it, but I never had any money to pay them. I may or may not have gotten notices from them in the mail - I'm horrible at checking my mail and getting stuff like this. I'm going to copy and paste the log that I've made detailing what has happened in the past 3 days: Tuesday 11-30, I received a call from a process server. He said he was outside my apartment and asked if I was home. I was not and said "no". He asked if a spouse or family member was home I said "no" (there was none). I asked what it was regarding, he told me that all he could say was that XZY Credit was the plantiff and I was the defendent. We agreed that he would come by the next day, Wednesday at 500PM and I would get the paperwork. Wednesday 12-1, At 505pm the process server had not shown up or called me. I called him. He seemed confused, asked who I was, and then admitted he was in [another town] and would not be able to meet that night. We agreed to meet Thursday night "for sure". Thursday 12-2, At 600PM the process server had not shown up or called me. I called him and got his voicemail. I left him a message saying basically that I would not be arranging any more times to meet with him, I was tired of moving my schedule around and waiting on him only to be "stood up". I said that I would be trying to contact XYZ directly and that I would be informing them of how he stood me up twice. Friday 12-3, At 305pm I called XYZ Credit at 888-XXX-XXXX. My call was transferred to a man. I got a reference number of #######. He asked for my XYZ acct number, I did not have one. He looked me up by my name. He asked why I was calling, I said I was being pursued by an incompetent process server and wanted to pay them what I owed before the process went any further. He pulled my account and said that it was for a $65 bad check. I knew this. He said he had to calculate "court costs", put me on hold for a minute and came back to tell me the total amount owed was $460.30. I was obviously surprised by this and asked for an explanation. He told me that "Colorado laws are harsh when you write bad checks, you are responsible for treble damages" he explained that this meant three times the amount of the original debt, but that there were also "fees", "court costs", a cost to "stop the process server" and "attorney costs". I asked him if I could do payments, he said no and said I could pay in full today or show up to court. He said that if it went to court the costs would be even higher because of additional attorney's fees. Sometime around this point he asked me where I work. I told him I did not want to tell him. He said that in that case I could show up to court, he needed to update my records. He again said that if I couldn't do that then I could just show up at my court date. Eventually I caved and told him I worked for ABC County School district (one of several). He eventually coaxed out of me that I work at the high school in a specific City as a Teacher. At each step of the way when I was hesitant he said that I could "just show up at court". It felt very threatening. Finally I said that I guessed I would pay it, since going to court would incur more, and he couldn't budge on the amount or on making payments. I just said that if I were to pay I would need some kind of proof that I had paid in full. I added that I needed this because I read online reviews of XYZ credit that said they had taken money from people who had already paid in full, and I didn't want to be pursued in court or charged for something that I feel I was already paying too much for. At this he raised his voice and told me that I had offended him, that his company was honest and he said "You'd better take that back". I balked and said that I was "just going by what I read, is providing proof of payment in full that hard?" He said that his company is BBB A+ and that I shouldn't believe what I read. He said "are you going to take it back, or will we see you in court?" At this I finally caved and (didn't technically take it back but) backed down and said that admittedly the reviews are possibly not reliable, offered to give him the site I found it on so he could follow up or have it removed. Through all of this he kept asking for my "card number" as well. At least once he interrupted my question about explaining the fees and said "are you going to give me your card number?" and mentioned that essentially if I didn't, I would have to go to court. He said multiple times that if I didn't pay in full, $460.30, I would need to go to court and it would be considerably more money. Eventually I did pay, gave him my information and was transferred to a verification dept. They verified and charged my card $460.30 at 321PM (when my card notified me the transaction had cleared via email). After I paid I looked up the law and found that in Colorado: "The treble damages provided under the said statutory provision does not permit the holder of a bad check to assert such right unless and until a final judgment is determined by a court of competent jurisdiction in a civil action. (C.R.S. 13-21-109(5).) 13-21-109". Since no judgement was made against me, I feel that the fair debt collection act was violated, specifically: USC § 1692e. False or misleading representations A debt collector may not use any false, deceptive, or misleading representation or means in connection with the collection of any debt. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct is a violation of this section: (2) The false representation of— (A) the character, amount, or legal status of any debt; or (B) any services rendered or compensation which may be lawfully received by any debt collector for the collection of a debt. I have a couple calls in to attorney's, and one responded that it seemed like I may have a FDPCA case, but I'm curious what you think...?
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Dec 4, 2010 03:11
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I am by no means an expert, so please take this with a grain of salt, but from what I understand, yeah, they can't say they're taking you to court unless they are actually in the process of taking you to court. They can say they MAY threaten with legal action, they can dance around it, but if they say "we're taking you to court over this debt" and they're not actually in the process of doing it, then that's a violation. Rule of thumb is, they can't lie to collect a debt. The guy was just trying to scare and bully you into paying a ludicrous amount of money, thinking either you'd panic and pay it all, or else beg for a lowered payment, in which case he'd still be getting a profit. Regardless, this guy's shady as all gently caress about it.
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Dec 4, 2010 18:29
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I just got sent to collections on a medical bill of $1100. On my statements from the medical place the original bill was $1100, along with a -$973 which was credited by my poor people's insurance (not really insurance, but medical program for poor people). The amount due stated $127. The collections note I received says I owe the entire $1100. Do I want to mention all of this in the dispute letter? Or do I just want to dispute the debt entirely and use the statement if/when they reply or take me to court? Edit: I just talked to my mom who works as a medical biller and she said that I could call the original medical place and offer to make my payment and that they could call the debt collector and call it off. I was under the impression once I was turned over to collections that they owned the debt and the original creditor has nothing to do with it, but she insists that this happens 'all the time.' Is she crazy? uG fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Dec 4, 2010 |
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Dec 4, 2010 20:00
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Crappy Jack posted:I am by no means an expert, so please take this with a grain of salt, but from what I understand, yeah, they can't say they're taking you to court unless they are actually in the process of taking you to court. They can say they MAY threaten with legal action, they can dance around it, but if they say "we're taking you to court over this debt" and they're not actually in the process of doing it, then that's a violation. Rule of thumb is, they can't lie to collect a debt. Well, they were FOR SURE taking me to court, the process server just hadn't met with me yet - so that part wasn't a lie... But it seems as if the debt can't be for treble damages, court fees, etc until they have a judgment based on my state's bad check law. They clearly don't have a judgment, so they misrepresented the debt... I think...
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Dec 4, 2010 20:21
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20 to 1 odds that what the guy means is that the agency has already filed a lawsuit against you, but they have not yet served you with the complaint. So yes, legal action has been commenced against you, but technically at the moment all the legal burdens lie with the other side until you are served with the complaint. -e- You need to ask your question in the legal questions mega whammo, this thread gives terrible advice once lawyers are involved (It's fine for pre-litigation debt activities).
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Dec 5, 2010 16:45
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SWATJester posted:20 to 1 odds that what the guy means is that the agency has already filed a lawsuit against you, but they have not yet served you with the complaint. So yes, legal action has been commenced against you, but technically at the moment all the legal burdens lie with the other side until you are served with the complaint. Right. Well, I'm talking to a lawyer tomorrow. My view of the law says that they misrepresented the debt because (wherever they are in the process of serving me or filing), they do not have a judgment and thus have broken the law by asking for treble damages, as well as possibly by asking for court and attorney fees.
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Dec 5, 2010 22:49
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Definitely talk about that with a lawyer. Consumer law is not my area of practice, but I can imagine that they would argue that they are not asking for treble damages, but making a pre-complaint settlement demand that happens to equal that amount, and that the FDCPA or any other law does not have the authority to abridge their right to make a demand in a civil action. I think that'd be a fairly compelling argument.
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Dec 5, 2010 23:07
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SWATJester posted:Definitely talk about that with a lawyer. Consumer law is not my area of practice, but I can imagine that they would argue that they are not asking for treble damages, but making a pre-complaint settlement demand that happens to equal that amount, and that the FDCPA or any other law does not have the authority to abridge their right to make a demand in a civil action. I think that'd be a fairly compelling argument. That wasn't the amount they were suing me for, though. I have no idea what the lawsuit amount was, the large amount was what they told me I owed when I called up and asked how much I owed (what the amount of the debt was). Hmmmm. I'll let you folks know what the lawyer says.
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Dec 6, 2010 15:30
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Has anyone had any luck getting a 'settled' or 'paid' line removed from their credit report by disputing it and hoping the creditor doesn't respond? I'm currently in a settlement payment plan with BoA, and I'm hoping to be able to have it removed via disputing. They were adamant about not doing a PFD, and nonpayment isn't an option.
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Dec 8, 2010 00:49
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I've had about 25% luck with disputing settled accounts. However, the ones that were taken off were 4 or 5 years old, so they really had no reason to respond.
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Dec 8, 2010 01:13
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I have a 3 year old debt with HSBC for a guitar center card which I acquired while living in NY state. I checked my credit report a month ago and they still owned this debt. I haven't heard anything from them in a while, and while I intended on paying this debt I needed a little time to accumulate funds after relocating. Today I received a call from Kirschenbaum & Phillips (http://collectlaw.com/index.htm), allegedly a law office. They did give the mini miranda "this is an attempt to collect a debt ect" at the beginning of the call, so I think they're a collection agency, not a legitimate law office? They said that they are moving on an action to sue me, and that they had sent me a letter about this already, which I haven't received. I just moved from NY state to Philadelphia, PA for a job, but I had mail forwarded and anything that went to my old address would have came here. I asked where they had sent it since I had recently moved, and he started abusing me with "You're just trying to delay, you're going to tell me you have the wrong address" He told me the letter was sent on 10/25 and told me the address which was correct, but that was 2 weeks before I moved here, before I even knew this address existed, I hadn't even looked at the apartment yet. He asked if I would settle on the debt which was $1299.02 and I offered $800 with a pay for delete on my credit report, which he accepted, but then I said I would need 20 days and he totally flipped out saying he went to bat for me and how he would need my checking account and routing number right away or else I was screwed and they were going to move forward or something. I told him I was only comfortable sending the check in the mail and he told me I was being stupid so I told him I'd call back tomorrow. So I'm wondering: Are they actually a law office, or a debt collector? I thought anyone that called you and said "this is an attempt to collect a debt any information obtained will be used for that purpose" was a collection agency. I read about them and results seemed to vary. I actually called them with my Google Voice number and the automated answering service said that it was a collection agency. What are my options here? I want to deal with this but I'd really rather not have this go to court, but I cannot pay off the full balance until the end of next week, unfortunately. What kind of complications do they face because I am no longer in New York state?
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Dec 10, 2010 00:20
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I can follow up more later but before you send them ANYTHING at all, make sure to get the $800 settlement details and Pay For Delete agreement IN WRITING from whoever they are. They're probably just a collector. Who cares if they flip on you. Stay calm, ask for the agreement in writing to your new address. When/If they send one, do not send a personal check or give them your routing and account number. Do not do this. For the love of god do not do this. Send them a money order or cashiers check by certified mail with return receipt. Don't give them your account details. Don't do it. Also if this guy is dickish to you, record him. It can't hurt in case he threatens you or lies. Edit: Here's more. Call them back. Say you've thought over the agreement and you will immediately send the funds to them, however, you don't trust them just like they don't trust you, so you'll need the agreement faxed or sent by US Mail to you immediately. Don't budge on this. Record the call if you can. They can humm and haw all they want and threaten to "take action," but keep your cool and stick to your guns. SixPabst fucked around with this message at 00:28 on Dec 10, 2010 |
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Dec 10, 2010 00:25
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mintskoal posted:I can follow up more later but before you send them ANYTHING at all, make sure to get the $800 settlement details and Pay For Delete agreement IN WRITING from whoever they are. They're probably just a collector. Who cares if they flip on you. Stay calm, ask for the agreement in writing to your new address. I forgot to mention: He did ask me where I work, what I do for a living, how much I make in a month, where I bank, stuff like that. I didn't give him any info, but I thought it was strange that he asked. He said he was trying to help me with the settlement and gave a bullshit explanation.
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Dec 10, 2010 00:41
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BusinessWallet posted:He said that it would be "settled in full" and I would have to fax the record to the 3 credit bureaus and it would be taken off my credit report in 4-6 months. This sounds fishy to me? It doesn't sound like what has been talked about in this thread. To me, it sounds like they are trying to railroad you into giving them money. Do not give them a dime until you get a dunning letter and you send them a validation letter, showing you that they have the right to collect on the debt. I can't stress enough that you should *NOT* ever deal with a debt collector over the phone. You need every thing to be in writing and have a record of it.
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Dec 10, 2010 01:23
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