some texas redneck posted:

Federal savings bank, but USAA mostly targets military and family and generally operates at a pretty low profit margin. Their checking/savings products are open to everybody, I think everything else requires some form of military affiliation. Their "free checking" really is free - ATM fee rebates up to something like $10-15/month, free checks for life, no monthly fees.

Wells Fargo wouldn't give you an account if you're on ChexSystems unless it's a "second chance" account, which has some pretty lovely restrictions - At least 2x/month direct deposit totaling over $100 per deposit, laughable ATM fees, no ATM deposits, mandatory transfers to savings every month, online banking only (at least at the branch I used). They forced me to "second chance" as soon as I mentioned I might have some issues in my history, but never ran a ChexSystems or credit report. Only reason I wanted to use them is they had a branch on UNT's campus.. Even Chase wouldn't send my account into a negative balance if there wasn't enough to cover a monthly fee; WF sent both accounts into the negative for the monthly fee then had the balls to charge me daily fees on top of that once it'd been a few days.

hitension posted:

I have a similar, but milder problem. I posted earlier about planning to do CMRRR debt verification letters for a debt that was not mine. Experian was basically like "Our automated telephone called this person and they said this debt was yours so we're not removing it". The green slip I sent to the company itself I never got back. I just got a yellow slip saying the mail is undeliverable. What am I supposed to do if I can't contact the place by mail and Experian refuses to remove it?
I want to emphasize that it's not my debt and I have no idea how it got on there, I too have a common name.

VickiCJ1358 posted:

Stuff

Os Furoris posted:

My question is wether this is allowed and what recourse I have at this point. I can clearly prove I requested debt validation and received it after the judgment against me. Do I need to just pay the debt and lawyer fees which are around 6k?

skipdogg posted:

I'm confused. You say " I did have a Cap One credit card which was last paid on in 2007; it was charged off in 2010." They can't take 3 years to charge something off (to the best of my knowledge). In my experience the month after you miss your payment you go into internal collections and roughly after 6 months of non payment the Cap One charges the debt off, sells the debt to a collection agency and has to write it off it's books.

The reason I bring this up, is the date the debt was charged off makes a big difference. If it was charged off in 2010 you're probably hosed if they have their ducks in a row at trial.

skipdogg posted:

When was the last payment made on the account? When was the debt first transferred to a debt collector?

Roger_Mudd posted:

*** I'm not your lawyer, probably not licensed to practice law in your state ***

Steps to take:
1) Go to the court the case is in, tell the clerk that you are "pro se" and need a form to file an "answer" or "denial" in the case. (The form will vary from state to state and court to court). If you don't file an answer, they win automatically.

2) Answer the Interrogatories as "Deny". Note, if you lose the case the other side may be able to ask for additional legal fees in the case if they have to prove something you denied. If you "Admit", you lose the case. If they've requested any documents, just state that you don't have any. Send your written discovery and interrogatory answers to the law firm via certified mail (not the court house). If you don't respond to these requests, they win automatically.

3) You've bought yourself some time now. The Court date might not be for 6 months. Hire a lawyer to represent you. If you show up to trial in person, the opposing lawyer will call you as a witness, swear you in, and you'll lose the case if you answer truthfully. In my state, the defendant doesn't need to be present if they've hired a lawyer. If you or a lawyer don't show up to trial, they win automatically

What they are doing:
They fill hundreds of these law suits a month. It takes time and money to get the evidence needed to win at trial. Their goal is to structure the proceedings so that you'll lose without them having to have evidence. If they show up to trail without evidence they'll either 1) lose the case or 2) non-suit the case. A non-suit generally means they can sue you again (after paying court costs and serving you again) but you may have stalled out the Statute of Limitations (varies from state to state).

woozle wuzzle posted:

The lawsuit process is separate from the validation/dispute process. Were you served with the lawsuit? Your request for debt validation doesn't slow or stop the judgment. If this was very recent, there may be a process for you to undo the default judgment and request a retrial. But I wouldn't be super optimistic that you'll get out of it once they're at the point of judgment.

Roger_Mudd posted:

*** I'm not your lawyer, probably not licensed to practice law in your state ***

Steps to take:
1) Go to the court the case is in, tell the clerk that you are "pro se" and need a form to file an "answer" or "denial" in the case. (The form will vary from state to state and court to court). If you don't file an answer, they win automatically.

2) Answer the Interrogatories as "Deny". Note, if you lose the case the other side may be able to ask for additional legal fees in the case if they have to prove something you denied. If you "Admit", you lose the case. If they've requested any documents, just state that you don't have any. Send your written discovery and interrogatory answers to the law firm via certified mail (not the court house). If you don't respond to these requests, they win automatically.

3) You've bought yourself some time now. The Court date might not be for 6 months. Hire a lawyer to represent you. If you show up to trial in person, the opposing lawyer will call you as a witness, swear you in, and you'll lose the case if you answer truthfully. In my state, the defendant doesn't need to be present if they've hired a lawyer. If you or a lawyer don't show up to trial, they win automatically

What they are doing:
They fill hundreds of these law suits a month. It takes time and money to get the evidence needed to win at trial. Their goal is to structure the proceedings so that you'll lose without them having to have evidence. If they show up to trail without evidence they'll either 1) lose the case or 2) non-suit the case. A non-suit generally means they can sue you again (after paying court costs and serving you again) but you may have stalled out the Statute of Limitations (varies from state to state).

VickiCJ1358 posted:

Thank you - I will do that -I'm going to just offer a statment to the effect of "I deny the plaintiff's claims" and see what happens. Since I live in Texas and pretty much my credit is as hosed as credit can possibly be and I dont' have a checking account, really not sure what they think they can get. Although I'm really going to look into suing them for not answering my debt validation request last year!

VickiCJ1358 posted:

OK, talked to the clerk at the JP's office and she said they have no forms and to just submit in writing...can you tell me, is this sufficient and is it in decent form so as not to piss the judge off?

woozle wuzzle posted:

The lawsuit process is separate from the validation/dispute process. Were you served with the lawsuit? Your request for debt validation doesn't slow or stop the judgment. If this was very recent, there may be a process for you to undo the default judgment and request a retrial. But I wouldn't be super optimistic that you'll get out of it once they're at the point of judgment.

Roger_Mudd posted:

Yeah, Texas and Florida have generally the best exempt property (dating back to when we were Spanish colonies). The lovely thing about a judgment is that they can keep it around for as long as you are alive. Open a bank account 10 years from now? Get a raise and buy some cool non-exempt toy? Try to sell your house? (in Texas they can't foreclose on your house but they can put an "abstract of judgment" in the property records, generally speaking they'd get paid what they are owed upon sale).

I'm also in TX (DFW) and I return phone calls. Shoot me a PM if you'd like additional help. If you aren't in DFW, look for a lawyer here: http://www.naca.net/find-attorney

I've been in court on days where every single person with an attorney won their case and ever person who represented themselves lost in 30 seconds.

Roger_Mudd posted:

I'm also in TX (DFW) and I return phone calls. Shoot me a PM if you'd like additional help.

50 Foot Ant posted:

I've read through a LOT of the thread, and decided to ask a few questions based on something that has been going on for 3 months or longer.

In 1992 I bought some furniture from a (looking back) kind of skeezy place.
In 1993 I left Fort Hood, and thinking it was a local place and not a chain, I walked in to pay off my balance (TDY money in hand). They were in the process of switching store locations. I paid it off, and never thought anything about it.

Between 1993 and 2010 I must have moved 20 times. We went through a house fire, a tornado, a flood that came up to the roof, and all those fun times you get in 17 years.

Then in 2010 the company called me, saying I owed them money from back then, and now it was up to $2500. I told them I paid it, they told me too bad, their records showed I didn't.

Three months ago they started calling me with an autodialer.

Between 0800 and 0810 I get the first phone call. The next one comes within a half an hour afterwards.

The phone calls continued at one or two an hour, SEVEN DAYS A WEEK, despite my almost begging them to stop.

I told them I had a pregnant woman in the house with a high risk pregnancy and that they were stressing her out.

They told me to pay my bill, and they'll stop calling me.

I'm at wits end.

I refuse to give them double payment.
I feel like they are blackmailing me.

Tomorrow I'm going to send a certified letter with reciept request and a cease and desist to them. I warned them I would today.

I also told them that I have a 3 day old infant in the house as of today, can they please stop calling.

They told me to pay the bill.

I warned them again about the cease and desist and that they were causing mental anguish to people. I asked them to stop calling.

Instead, they called me every half hour all day.

Is there ANY way I can make this stop?

My kids flinch when the phone rings. They fill up my answering machine by noon. They wake up the newborn with their calling.

I'm at my wits end.

pseudonordic posted:

'92 and '93 should be old enough that the statute of limitations has aged out the debt beyond recovery. If you can get their mailing address, you can send them a registered letter stating as such and requesting all communication be done through mail if they insist on contacting you further.

quote:

If you're still in the military, can't you contact a legal services group about this?

50 Foot Ant posted:

I tried stating it was a 20 year old debt and to only contact me through mail, and the calls went to every half hour for a week, like they were mocking me. I also never got confirmation they received the letter.

Left the military in 1997.

quote:

To Whom It May Concern at [REDACTED];

In April of 1992 I closed my account with your company by paying it in full. At that time the store was changing location and/or undergoing renovation. From that point until 2010 I received no contact with your company. However in 2010 your company called me to inform me of a supposed debt that you claimed I owed. You have denied knowledge of my payment, demanding to be given a receipt from 1992.

Since that time you have threatened me with the following:

• Destruction of my credit score: “I hope you never intend on buying a house!” “Hope you don’t want any student loans.”
  
• Legal Action: “We will take you to court in Virginia where you will have to pay to fly out and hire a lawyer, as well as have to pay our legal fees.” “We will sue to take possession of your SSI.” “We will start legal action to collect from your Veteran’s Disability Compensation.”
  
• Illegal Collection Activities: “We will garnish wages.” “We will put a lien on your property.” “We will have representatives come to your home and appraise the value of your possessions for auction.”

Additionally, you have performed the following:

• Called my cell phone repeatedly until I had to shut it off. This is in violation of federal law regarding calling a cell phone.
  
• Called my house via auto-dialer seven days a week, from 8AM to 9PM (on several occasions as late as 9:30 PM), every half hour to an hour.
  
• Told me to pay or the calls would continue when I called to complain about the frequency, stating it was “the company’s legal right to call as often as they desired at a reasonable time usually between 8AM and 9PM.”
  
• Told me that if I did not pay, if and when I gained employment, or should my wife or “pregnant kid” gain employment, you would “call my supervisors and managers and have my wages garnished as well as inform them of my unwillingness to pay a debt and dishonesty.”
  
• When I informed you that I would not pay a debt I do not owe and discharged responsibly your company then began calling me every half hour for a period of two weeks.
  
• When I requested in writing, via certified mail, that you no longer contact me regarding a debt that had been paid in full and responsibly, the letter was returned unopened on all five occasions, displaying full knowledge that your company knew what the letter contained and wish to avoid any appearance of wrongdoing.
  
• When the date that the letter was delivered arrived you called my house two to four times an hour for up to two weeks, confirming you had seen the letter, knew what it was in regards to, and were punishing me. When I requested during those times that the calls stop, I was told to "pay your bill and we'll stop the calls." showing clearly hostility and knowledge of harassment and extortion.
  
• When I informed you that we had a high risk pregnant person in the house and to please stop calling, you called 2-4 times an hour for almost a month.
  
• When I informed you that an infant was now in the house, you threatened to keep calling unless I paid.

This letter is to inform you of the actions I will be taking on behalf of myself and my family, which you have harassed for over two years.

I have contacted the Oregon Attorney General’s Office in regards to your behavior and tactics and they have advised me to make a formal complaint, which I have done, as well as contact an attorney.

I have contacted an attorney in regards to the blatant harassment tactics.

It is my intention to begin litigation for the following:

• Harassment
  
• Violation of FDCPA and the TCPA.
  
• Recompense for having to break my cellphone contract due to your harassment
  
• Mental anguish on behalf of the pregnant woman and the infant.
  
• Mental anguish on behalf of my family.
  
• Verbal threats to livehood.
  
• Maliciousness
  
• Attempted extortion

Additionally, I am hereby requesting that no more telephone communication take place.

Finally, you have until 30 days after I receive confirmation of this letter being received or the letter is returned to me unopened to reply, after which I will proceed with legal action in the Oregon Courts.
Signed:

50 Foot Ant posted:

How does that look for a firm gently caress OFF letter?

Or should it just be "Quit calling me, assholes?"

Roger_Mudd posted:

Should get their attention.

Tae posted:

50 Foot Ant posted:

Good. It was waking up the baby and the gleeful attempt at extortion that was the straw that broke the camels back.

I'm loving sick and tired of their bullshit.

BusinessWallet posted:

Hey dudes,

I just wanna know:

I currently live in and am a citizen of PA, but was living in the state of NY when I defaulted on a Cap One credit card it was charged off and closed 04.05.2009, would I be under the statute of limitations for NY, or PA?

Futhermore, it is a debt of $965, and they have offered me a settlement of $675 with a credit report trade-line of Settled, with the remaining balance shown, or, I can pay the full balance and they will report it as paid in full. Can I get some guidance? Thanks!