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Icii posted:Wages and Bank Accounts are immune to garnishment in the state of Texas. You will never see a lawsuit if you are in that state. Yes for private debt but not for child support or Federally backed student loans. In other words you can't move to Texas to get away from child support or defaulted student loans.
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Dec 4, 2009 12:44
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CharlieX posted:Yes for private debt but not for child support or Federally backed student loans. In other words you can't move to Texas to get away from child support or defaulted student loans. Not sure about child support, but for Federal student loans, they WILL take your income tax refund. It takes a few years after defaulting, but it will happen. They got me 8 years ago. After the first refund was taken, I still owed about ~$1000. Around March I started getting calls from collections again. I figured that they would just give up and continue taking my tax refunds until it was paid, which would be the next year. I told them that I wasn't going to give them a dime, and that they would have to wait until next year and you can have my tax refund for the balance. I never told them not to call, or to cease communication, but I always thought it to be strange, they knew my situation, knew I should get a decent refund and all would be paid. They still called once or twice a week. I did owe the money, so I didn't mind, but sometimes you count on that check for things, and they hadn't told me it would happen.
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Dec 4, 2009 16:11
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They called you and didn't tell you that they'd take your tax refund because 1. They wanted the money now. 2. They didn't want you to amend your W-4 (takes 1 minute in your HR office) to eliminate the refund, preventing them from collecting. So yeah, you could've adjusted your withholding to get your refund in your paychecks instead of lending it to Uncle Sam at 0%. You then could've used the extra take-home pay to make the payments on your student loans as agreed and not even been in default.
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Dec 4, 2009 16:39
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SlapActionJackson posted:
I'm self employed, so I have no deductions from my 'paycheck'. I didn't make much at the time, so between my deductions and three kids along with EIC, I get a refund. For a few years, they got my refund. I'm older and wiser now, and only default on auto loans.
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Dec 4, 2009 18:41
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Question for OP (or for the debt lawyer): In the last place I lived I would get phone calls at 6 in the morning saying that someone owed such and such a debt. The calls were all from an unlisted number, and every time I called their number and gave them the twenty digit code they mentioned every time, I would get routed to someone in India who would immediately disconnect if I told them I was not the person they were trying to contact, if I asked what the name of their company was, etc. That has to be some kind of violation, but what is there to do in that situation? I ended up just unplugging the phone every night and plugging it in every morning when I woke up.
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Dec 4, 2009 22:35
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How exactly doesthe statute of limitations figure in? For example, I live in Texas(4 years), but let's say a defaulted card balance is sold to a collector in Delaware (6 years). Do they have 4 years to sue me or 6? What if you move to a different state with a longer SOL? I've read that the FDCPA only applies to debt collectors, not original creditors. Does this mean that it is legal for the OC's collections department to call you at work or at 1AM, call 25 times a day, make threats of physical harm, etc? Is there any legislation dealing with original creditors?
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Dec 5, 2009 00:31
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CubsWoo posted:Keep an eye on your reports and see if someone claims that debt. If nobody has claimed the debt and it's not reporting, it's probably best to ignore it until someone tries to claim it and collect/the statute runs out. It also may have changed names for some reason - any large debts you don't recognize? Dispute them. Thanks dude. I did some disputing yesterday, despite my total lack of records. First thing I do when I move is get a scanner and stay on top of that. Equifax also thinks I have my dad's birthday - looks like I have to dispute that somehow as well. The others are otherwise fine. On Tuesday I'm going to try to track down the missing $5k debt and maybe get in touch with the $20k guys and ask them to prove I owe.
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Dec 5, 2009 03:54
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antwizzle posted:How exactly doesthe statute of limitations figure in? For example, I live in Texas(4 years), but let's say a defaulted card balance is sold to a collector in Delaware (6 years). Do they have 4 years to sue me or 6? What if you move to a different state with a longer SOL? Typically the statute that applies is the one where you live. Some lawyers will try to argue a longer statute applies, there's case law both ways. Most of the time moving does change your statute if the new state is different. The FDCPA applies to anyone trying to collect a debt. This includes original creditors, collection agencies, junk debt buyers, and lawyers representing any of the above. Smerdyakov posted:Question for OP (or for the debt lawyer): In the last place I lived I would get phone calls at 6 in the morning saying that someone owed such and such a debt. The calls were all from an unlisted number, and every time I called their number and gave them the twenty digit code they mentioned every time, I would get routed to someone in India who would immediately disconnect if I told them I was not the person they were trying to contact, if I asked what the name of their company was, etc. That has to be some kind of violation, but what is there to do in that situation? I ended up just unplugging the phone every night and plugging it in every morning when I woke up. This can be difficult to track down, you may want to contact your phone company and see if they can trace the blocked number.
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Dec 5, 2009 04:36
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CubsWoo I just wanted to say thank you for all the good information in this thread. Although not all of it applies to me it's got me thinking and planning for the future. I pulled my freecreditreport.com report today, and I also bought a Suze Orman book about being young and in debt. I noticed a lot of her information regarding this stuff is pretty in line with what you're saying. So far here are my goals for this month: 1.) Get a secured CC, and possibly get one of my parents to cosign for a real CC for me, just to start doing good things for my report. I hear sometimes after 6-9 months they will turn your secured card into a real CC with a low limit. This would be awesome for me since currently I can't get a CC at all. 2.) Make some loving calls. I need to make some calls and offer to make payments on things, or to pay them off. The problem here is I don't know who to contact, and ALL of my accounts are in collections. 3.) Find out if any of my debt is so far out that it should be removed from my credit report due to the time limitations. So I guess my big question here is, how the gently caress do I find out who to contact about this stuff? I see phone numbers and offices listed on my report, but all of the accounts say "Closed" with a payment status of "Seriously past due date/assigned to attorney, collection agency, or credit grantor's internal collection department". Should I just call these numbers? The bottom line is that I need to clean up my report. Is it better to just pay these things off from smallest to largest, or should I be offering to make payments? And can you even make payments on a collection account? I assume if you do that it won't come off your report until it's fully paid off- but maybe this is just me being misinformed. If you have any advice as to how I should start making contact with these people as to not gently caress myself over, I would greatly appreciate it. PS: My credit score is 586 and it says I have 7 accounts listed negative, 4 collections accounts, and $3k in installment debt/$100 in revolving debt. If that helps at all...
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Dec 8, 2009 23:08
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Squared posted:I pulled my freecreditreport.com report today Make sure you remember to cancel the recurring billing and use annualcreditreport.com next time.
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Dec 10, 2009 00:08
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you could have used all this effort avoiding your obligations and screwing over the people who lent you money when you needed it but didn't have it coming up with ways of obtaining money and paying them back
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Dec 10, 2009 01:59
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quality management posted:you could have used all this effort avoiding your obligations and screwing over the people who lent you money when you needed it but didn't have it coming up with ways of obtaining money and paying them back Nobody's saying that walking away from debts is a good thing to do, but by the time debt collectors start coming after you, chances are the company you originally owed money to has already written off your debt and sold it to someone who may or may not have an accurate record of how much you currently owe, for what, and to whom. In that situation, it's foolhardy not to find out about your legal rights and exercise them. If you just take the word of whoever says you owe them money, you may end up paying two or three different people for the same debt that they all claim they now own.
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Dec 10, 2009 05:24
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Okay. I owe about 30k on five different cards, with balances from 4k to 16k. Currently I pay about 900 a month in minimum payments (also includes about 25k in art school educational debt), which is more than all my other monthly expenses combined. The debt was acquired mostly by acruing medical and educational expenses- my entire last year of college at a 40k/year university was paid on credit cards. I've considered consolidation (would knock monthly payments down to 600 and completely shut down my credit and gently caress up my credit rating), and I've considered bankruptcy, but have always managed to scrape together enough to avoid so much as missing a single payment to these assholes. This irregardless, the minimum payments are going up (one card's minimum payments just jumped up to 400/month from 150/month for no real reason), and the interest rates are climbing to embarassing heights (one card just hit 29.99 for No Good Reason). My credit score is still good. I just lost my job. It wasn't much, but now I'm finding myself busking tarot cards on the street and doing under the table moving jobs to make ends meet. The truck is breaking down, the streets are getting too cold to busk, and all the arts admin and photo jobs that I'm slightly over-qualified for and applying for (six or seven a day) aren't calling back. Should I just stop paying everything but my student loans, and get cash advances from my one reasonably open line of credit to make lump sum settlement payments? Or what? How hosed am I?
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Dec 10, 2009 08:56
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ClearWhiteLight posted:I just lost my job. It wasn't much, but now I'm finding myself busking tarot cards on the street what are you being serious here
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Dec 10, 2009 17:00
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I am having a issue with my former apartment. They are trying to collect 744 from me. They are trying a collections agency and a lawyer. I sent them both the biggest validation I could find. Here are some fun things I requested. Please provide me with the following: # What the money you say I owe is for; # Explain and show me how you calculated what you say I owe; # Provide me with copies of any papers that show I agreed to pay what you say I owe; # Provide a verification or copy of any judgment if applicable; # Identify the original creditor; # Prove the Statute of Limitations has not expired on this account # Show me that you are licensed to collect in my state # Provide me with your license numbers and Registered Agent They have 30 days I believe. It is going to be funny to watch this. Do you know how to start the process of getting my deposit back? They did not follow Code by the "evidence" they provided. How do I go about this?
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Dec 10, 2009 17:03
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quality management posted:you could have used all this effort avoiding your obligations and screwing over the people who lent you money when you needed it but didn't have it coming up with ways of obtaining money and paying them back This is a good point! A better point is that by the time I was able to earn the money in question, paying the people back who claimed I owed them money was not going to benefit me in any way! This is further proven by the court case I just closed last week that stops a collector from trying to collect on one of the larger accounts (~$7000) and may, if I want to, put about $3000 in my pocket that I will use to pay creditors that actually play by the rules! Squared posted:If you have any advice as to how I should start making contact with these people as to not gently caress myself over, I would greatly appreciate it. Generally the people listed on your credit report are those who are currently reporting as owners of your debt. You can sometimes find the contact info on your credit report or you can just Google the names of those companies. Dispute all the records as not valid and see if they confirm, that'll get them to start sending you letters and such and you can go from there. duz posted:Make sure you remember to cancel the recurring billing and use annualcreditreport.com next time. annualcreditreport.com is great but if you're going to do dedicated credit repair I don't mind paying the monthly fees for the bureau subscriptions, they make it very easy to process disputes and get nearly real-time updates on the items on your report falling off. ClearWhiteLight posted:Should I just stop paying everything but my student loans, and get cash advances from my one reasonably open line of credit to make lump sum settlement payments? Or what? How hosed am I? You might want to walk away from that amount of debt if it's pulling you underwater. If you can keep paying and comfortably live, do so, because defaulting on that much is going to murder your credit for a very, very long time. If you can live with that, walk away from it and ignore the calls/change your phone number while you sock away money to deal with later settlements or court costs. If the student loans are federal, keep paying, because those defaults can't be discharged in bankruptcy and they'll just garnish your tax return if you stop paying. Loco179 posted:I am having a issue with my former apartment. The validation looks good - as for getting your deposit back, check the tenant laws for your state. I've never needed to do that before, so I can't really help.
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Dec 10, 2009 18:13
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Wow, this is very interesting. My husband has some old debts that have been sold to collections agencies. His credit is not that great, which has been a hassle for me when trying to get car loans, apartments, etc. We are also in Illinois. My husband says that since these debts are past the statute that allows them as collectable he does not need to pay them, and in fact SHOULD NOT pay them because that will bump the record back up on his credit report, which is close to dropping off at this point. IIRC the collection is only for a few hundred dollars ($1k max), but I'm sick of getting letters, and would also really prefer for his credit to not suck. Do you think we should wait it out like he thinks, until it drops off the report and his score crawls back up, or would we be better off trying to fight it like you have?
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Dec 10, 2009 19:35
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What about Business Cards? Apparently I may be on the hook for CC cards that were issued to me from a business I was involved in. It's total bullshit and has hosed me hard. Personally my stuff is perfect and in order save for some student loans. In other words, five cards want ME to pay the entire debt of a small Corporation that went out of business 4 years ago. This fight has been going on for ages. I would demand validation and they would sell it off to somebody else. I was sued in July by a card that I have no record of, either on that stupid credit report or anywhere else. My lawyers (consumer lawyer, btw) demanded discovery and apparently the Agency got an extension into January. Honestly I will say this: the whole experience has made me hate the credit industry like nothing else. Scum and slime are good words to describe the poo poo I have gone through. Never even made money of the loving business all this was attached too. The guy who owned it is seemingly off the hook and he's the one who lived off the cards. The worst part is that I followed the rules like many of you are talking about but they always got out from replying to my demands. To be honest, I am pretty pissed and stressed over the whole thing; have been for years. I have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get anything done, my insurance raised my rates through the roof (I canceled and got a better deal anyway, but still) all because I was issued credit cards as an employee. The whole system is so hosed. Anyway, sorry for the rant, I would very much like to hear you opinion on the Business CC angle though, as I am still in the process of dealing with it.
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Dec 10, 2009 22:09
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EVG posted:Wow, this is very interesting. If you have the money why not do a pay for delete? You'll pay a small portion of it and it will be gone forever.
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Dec 10, 2009 22:16
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EVG posted:Wow, this is very interesting. If the debt is outside of statute, their attempts to collect are violations of the FDCPA, and if they're trying to re-age (change the last date of delinquency so that the debt appears to be in statute) that's a violation of the FDCRA. Send them a letter demanding they stop trying to collect or you plan to sue because they're trying to collect on a time-barred debt. Do not pay them anything. If they're trying to collect on a time-barred debt, you can be almost 100% sure they won't honor any settlement pay/delete agreements. Burning Beard posted:What about Business Cards? Apparently I may be on the hook for CC cards that were issued to me from a business I was involved in. It's total bullshit and has hosed me hard. Personally my stuff is perfect and in order save for some student loans. In other words, five cards want ME to pay the entire debt of a small Corporation that went out of business 4 years ago. This fight has been going on for ages. I haven't ever needed to deal with a business/corporate CC, but from others I've heard it can be maddening once the debt has been sold to the junk buyers. You'd probably get better advice asking over on creditboards or one of the other dedicated sites - the companies who've been buying that debt have been playing this account smart by selling it to someone else when you demand verification and trying to sneak through a suit to land a default judgment. Talk to your lawyer about counter-suing once this case is over to try and recoup any attorney fees plus damages - and have him look for an arbitration clause in the contract language, that could win you the case tomorrow.
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Dec 10, 2009 23:10
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quality management posted:you could have used all this effort avoiding your obligations and screwing over the people who lent you money when you needed it but didn't have it coming up with ways of obtaining money and paying them back The credit card companies will do anything legal to gently caress over their customers so they can make a higher profit. Usurious interest rates, deceptive billing and contracts, hidden fees, etc. It's only our obligation to repay the favor! Also nobody forces these companies to lend money to them. They throw $5000 credit limits at 18 year old college kids with no concept of personal finance, it's a risk they're knowingly taking. Not repaying them isn't wrong, it may be borderline virtuous considering some of their practices. If they didn't want to take that risk, they shouldn't have lent the money.
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Dec 10, 2009 23:26
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Incredible info so far. voted 5. I have a couple questions. How do you know how long something has been on your report? For instance, if I have a 800 cell phone bill that was charged to my report 5 years ago, should I just wait out the 7 years? Or try to pay for delete? How do I know how to contact these people? I have a couple things dragging down my score all in the 500-1500 dollar range and all from at least 3 years ago, what would you suggest I do to help get my credit score back to normal? I know you can get a free credit report something like once a year, and i've done that recently although I wasn't sure exactly what I was looking at on each of the three branches. Is there a number to the agency that currently owns my papers? Is there anyway to know how far down the line it is? Like whether its a 'junk' CA or the original? If you are never 'served' in person is it possible to still be sued and auto settled against for no show if you never knew it happened? Or can the court date not be set until it is confirmed you have been notified. Any help would be appreciated, especially general advice based on my situation. Thanks.
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Dec 11, 2009 01:53
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ville2ville posted:
The date where you stopped paying is considered your date of first delinquency, and it's the day the clock normally starts on the statute of limitations/the 7 year clock to have it fall off your credit report. The older a debt/transgression, the less impact it has on your score. As for the cell bill, with its age and low amount, you might be able to get a PFD for $100 or less if you play your cards right. The name of the collector on your credit report should be the one who owns it - send them a validation letter and dispute the listing. If they validate properly, work with them for a PFD. Do this with your other cards as well, and if you now have the disposable income to pay them off, do so and get those negatives deleted. Just make sure the reporting dates on your report are correct - many companies will re-age accounts to try and make them seem in statute when they aren't. If you've kept good records you should know when your last payment to that company was and can cross-reference that with the report. If that's wrong or been moved up, you're dealing with a scumbag and can probably get the report deleted without paying by collecting FDCPA violations and threatening to sue if they don't delete. quote:I know you can get a free credit report something like once a year, and i've done that recently although I wasn't sure exactly what I was looking at on each of the three branches. Is there a number to the agency that currently owns my papers? Is there anyway to know how far down the line it is? Like whether its a 'junk' CA or the original? Google the names of the companies who claim your debt. Most original creditors will show up as their name or their DBA (Chase, Cap1, AT&T, public utilities, it'll be a name you recognize.) Most of the others like Asset Acceptance, Midland, LVNV, and so on are the junk debt buyers. Most of their Google searches will show Ripoffreport complaints and the like. Generally a debt gets sold 3-5 times before it falls out of statute (and then it gets sold 2-3 more) but normally there's no real way to know how many hands it's passed through besides seeing how little they'll settle for. quote:If you are never 'served' in person is it possible to still be sued and auto settled against for no show if you never knew it happened? Or can the court date not be set until it is confirmed you have been notified. YES. And it's against the rules. Many of the scummy buyers/lawyers will try serving you in ridiculous places (at schools, abandoned properties, a home you lived in years ago) and say you were served/supply fraudulent proof to get a default judgment. They need to follow very precise rules (file suit in the county you currently live in, most counties require personal service to the defendant or a family member, some allow for mailed services but not all - check your county court, the summons must have the complaint and in most states, the evidence they have on you) and not getting served is an easy way to get a judge to vacate the judgment and start the process all over. It's also a FDCPA violation, even if it's not malicious (but it is malicious, since they proceeded with the suit knowingly without a proper summons, but whatever) so you turn around and tell the plaintiff/their lawyer that you're suing if they don't stop legal action on you.
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Dec 11, 2009 03:59
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Wow, thanks for the info. Since i've read this thread i've got my 3 annual reports from the bureaus (well I haven't got my Trans yet because they locked me out after I didn't answer a question right). Do you think you could take a look at them and let me know what you see, if anything? Maybe this is something you aren't supposed to do and that's fine. Or if it's asking for something that is normally charged good money for, that's fine too. But let me know.
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Dec 11, 2009 04:31
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ville2ville posted:Wow, thanks for the info. Since i've read this thread i've got my 3 annual reports from the bureaus (well I haven't got my Trans yet because they locked me out after I didn't answer a question right). Do you think you could take a look at them and let me know what you see, if anything? Maybe this is something you aren't supposed to do and that's fine. Or if it's asking for something that is normally charged good money for, that's fine too. But let me know. Thanks for your confidence in me, but I'm not comfortable looking over someone else's credit report. Go read up on creditboards or https://www.debt-consolidation-credit-repair-service.com on how to go over your report, or see if your area has a free consumer counseling center/program to get more help.
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Dec 11, 2009 05:44
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Icii posted:Wages and Bank Accounts are immune to garnishment in the state of Texas. You will never see a lawsuit if you are in that state. The battle for Texas Independence from Mexico was fought by a large number of people running from debts in the NE US. <- fact  If your state doesn't have wage garnishment you can send a letter to a collection agency stating that they should never contact you and to get hosed. By the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) they have to stop the harassment, but if they don't you can file complaints and sue them. If your state does have wage garnishment you have to work something out or move to another state. Since bankruptcy reform there is no magic resolution to debt now that Chapter 7 isn't available. Also, credit counseling is a simple non-profit collection agency, which also will show up on your credit report as a charge off or that you settled with them for less than the full balance, which most people don't know about (or to ask). UfoRia fucked around with this message at 16:26 on Dec 11, 2009 |
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Dec 11, 2009 16:22
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I had an old-as-gently caress bill from 1995 that some collection agency has begun calling me about. One of their reps told me if I didn't pay it off, it would go back on my credit report. Can they do this?
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Dec 12, 2009 04:08
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Iron Squid posted:I had an old-as-gently caress bill from 1995 that some collection agency has begun calling me about. One of their reps told me if I didn't pay it off, it would go back on my credit report. Can they do this? No. Tell the guy you know he's lying and to gently caress off or you'll come after him and his company with a suit. That should get them to stop.
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Dec 12, 2009 05:42
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CubsWoo posted:No. Tell the guy you know he's lying and to gently caress off or you'll come after him and his company with a suit. That should get them to stop. Can you provide me a legal reference for telling them to cease or I'll sue, for the state of California? Somehow "Stop calling or I'm calling my lawyer" is something they probably hear a hundred times a day, 99.9% of which is a bluff. But if I can say "You are in violation of California statute blah blah blah...", it'll probably strengthen my arguement. I've also asked them to cease calling me, but they have told me point blank they refuse to do that. I've read elsewhere that I need to put this request in writing. Unfortunately this same company is not providing me their address to do so. Is this legal?
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Dec 12, 2009 06:50
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Iron Squid posted:Can you provide me a legal reference for telling them to cease or I'll sue, for the state of California? Somehow "Stop calling or I'm calling my lawyer" is something they probably hear a hundred times a day, 99.9% of which is a bluff. But if I can say "You are in violation of California statute blah blah blah...", it'll probably strengthen my arguement. If they want it in writing, look up their phone number on Google, find their corporate address, and send them a letter that looks something like this: quote:To whom it may concern: Sign it, date it, and send it certified mail/return receipt to them. Or just cite the FDCPA and the CA Civil Code over the phone.
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Dec 12, 2009 07:16
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CubsWoo posted:Sign it, date it, and send it certified mail/return receipt to them. Or just cite the FDCPA and the CA Civil Code over the phone. 15 U.S.C. § 1692c(c) says all such requests must be made in writing, and nothing about suing them if they continue to call my cell phone. California Civil Code § 1788.17 just says to obey federal law, as far as I can tell. So if I just verbally tell them over the phone to cease calling, they can ignore it until they receive it in writing? Also, I don't think I really have grounds to sue them over them calling me unless they call at odd hours or make threats.
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Dec 12, 2009 08:18
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Iron Squid posted:15 U.S.C. § 1692c(c) says all such requests must be made in writing, and nothing about suing them if they continue to call my cell phone. California Civil Code § 1788.17 just says to obey federal law, as far as I can tell. I've been able to successfully sue (well, threaten to, they opened up their checkbook well before it reached trial) over calling my cell phone after being told not to in writing, and most judges have interpreted the FDCPA to consider cell numbers as home numbers for the purposes of cease communication letters. Most collectors will stop if you cite the FDCPA over the phone, but you're dealing with someone who's collecting on a debt nearly 9 years out of statute so this may not apply. Not to mention them saying the debt can go on your credit report is considered misrepresenting the status of a debt and a FDCPA violation as would them trying to re-attach it to your report. Send a validation letter alongside your cease communication and you're hitting them twice with the need to stop contacting you about the debt. Have you even received a dunning letter? CubsWoo fucked around with this message at 13:46 on Dec 12, 2009 |
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Dec 12, 2009 13:42
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I have a debt from a company that recently went over the seven year statue earlier this year. Part of the reason I have never paid it was because the amount they want has changed over the years, and when you really get down to it, some of it was outrageous, like $2000 for a cable box I never ordered. It has gone through several agency's and I have had credit for a couple of years while my score is decent but not great (670) I still feel that it's probably is a key reason why I can't seem to raise my score much higher. So far for the past year or two it's been with one agency that occasionally sends me mail every six months asking for payment, usually around $600 bucks. Since this year was year 7 I expected it to pick up but I finally got one a few months from year 8 where they are willing to settle for $100. I know not to just send them the money as it will just make it show up on my credit again, but I also don't want to do anything to get them to really try to get their money. How do I go about saying I'll give them the hundred if they agree to remove it off my credit?
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Dec 12, 2009 15:40
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Cubswoo, A friend of mine has about $25,000 worth of cash advance limits on several cards. He claims he can take out the cash advances to the max, then make one payment, then use the money to travel, and it won't be fraud. He claims it's only defaulting on CC debt. Is this true? He just might do this. I have advised him not to. He does not care if his credit is ruined. Is he correct?
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Dec 12, 2009 16:55
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CubsWoo posted:I've been able to successfully sue (well, threaten to, they opened up their checkbook well before it reached trial) over calling my cell phone after being told not to in writing, and most judges have interpreted the FDCPA to consider cell numbers as home numbers for the purposes of cease communication letters. Most collectors will stop if you cite the FDCPA over the phone, but you're dealing with someone who's collecting on a debt nearly 9 years out of statute so this may not apply. Not to mention them saying the debt can go on your credit report is considered misrepresenting the status of a debt and a FDCPA violation as would them trying to re-attach it to your report. Send a validation letter alongside your cease communication and you're hitting them twice with the need to stop contacting you about the debt. Have you even received a dunning letter? I will give that a try, thank you. And I don't believe I have received a "dunning letter". What is this exactly?
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Dec 12, 2009 19:58
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Ryokurin posted:I have a debt from a company that recently went over the seven year statue earlier this year. Part of the reason I have never paid it was because the amount they want has changed over the years, and when you really get down to it, some of it was outrageous, like $2000 for a cable box I never ordered. It has gone through several agency's and I have had credit for a couple of years while my score is decent but not great (670) I still feel that it's probably is a key reason why I can't seem to raise my score much higher. If it's out of statute, and thus time-barred, they can't do anything legally to collect the debt. It should be off your report, too - dispute it as a time-barred or out of statute debt and it should disappear. If you have proof the debt is >7 years old, you can talk to the bureaus and make sure it stays away. If they try to put it back or re-age the debt you have grounds to start legal action against the collectors. The Big Rhino posted:Cubswoo, He is correct. I don't even think he needs to make a payment. It's probably going to be harder than he thinks, though, since generally credit cards have a daily limit on how much you can take out in cash advances and they're quick to pull the plug on his card/limit if he thinks he's trying to drain the card and walk away. This is a somewhat common thing for people to do, though, write one of those checks that come in your statement out to themselves, deposit it in their bank account and use the money. He can be pretty sure that if he does this, though, his bank will probably be very quick to file a civil suit for the balance and have an excellent collection of evidence to win with. So it'll be risky, but if he wants to do it that's his choice. I wouldn't ever recommend intentionally running up credit cards, though. Iron Squid posted:And I don't believe I have received a "dunning letter". What is this exactly? A dunning letter is a letter sent from the collector letting you know that this company/agency has purchased or acquired your debt and is attempting to collect. A proper dunning letter will tell you your rights as a consumer, that you have 30 days to dispute the information, and a disclaimer that says their communication is an attempt to collect a debt. Things like that. CubsWoo fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Dec 12, 2009 |
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Dec 12, 2009 20:03
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Very informative read, I was hoping for a Canadian story as well but I'll be keeping my eye on the thread. Six years ago, I went belly up on an unsecured line of credit with a major Canadian bank for ~15K. I also had another 2K on a Visa with the bank. The minimum payments got out of hand, blah blah personal story nobody cares about that ultimately results in being irresponsible. I received a couple of letters around the 90 day mark, but ended up moving, and moving again several times over the next few years. It's almost 7 years now and I haven't heard a peep. Three years ago one of the big box stores gave me a $500 card through hsbc, I actually worked at the store too so I was familiar with the financing options. Someone hosed up the promotion code when I was buying something, and I didn't end up with 6 months no int/no pay, and got a letter asking where the payment was after a month...on a deferral. I wasn't pleased, raised hell with the financing company, who blamed the store. I disputed it with the store, they basically said "too bad." Got letters for awhile on that one, haven't heard from them in quite some time either. I'm not sure how the system works in Canada, but it seems banks can look at each others records. I don't know if they all tie into the same database, but my current bank RBC was able to tell me all about what happened with the line of credit mentioned above, and went as far as to tell me it was "written off." I haven't had a look at my Credit report, and know that is step 1. We can go as far as to assume its ugly. The "pay for delete" option in the US is very intriguing. I was making 50+K a year for the last 2 years, and couldn't get even a $500 secured card, which is incredibly limiting when it comes to online transactions, traveling, etc. It's kind of sad driving a brand new vehicle and being unable to book a hotel room! Any Canadian credit expert goons able to lend some insight?
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Dec 13, 2009 11:25
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I received a dunning letter almost 2 months ago from a lawyer for CACH LLC, a company that bought the debt (~17k) I owed to a credit card company. Being the unmotivated person I am, I didn't do any research on the subject and took no action. I haven't been sued or anything yet, though. Since its been way over the 30 day limit to dispute, is there a point to sending a debt verification letter? What should I do? Also, according to my mom, someone claiming to be from the lawyer's office has been calling her workplace and leaving messages on their answering machine regarding my debt. Is this a violation of the FDCPA and if so do I just need the recorded messages to file suit? Is there anything specific they have to say in order for me to use it as evidence? Since I'm from Illinois too, anything state specific would help. keelem fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Dec 13, 2009 |
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Dec 13, 2009 15:44
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The Big Rhino posted:Cubswoo, Tell him to save a couple thousand to pay his bankruptcy attorney. He is going to need some good advice.
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Dec 13, 2009 19:09
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keelem posted:I received a dunning letter almost 2 months ago from a lawyer for CACH LLC, a company that bought the debt (~17k) I owed to a credit card company. Being the unmotivated person I am, I didn't do any research on the subject and took no action. I haven't been sued or anything yet, though. Since its been way over the 30 day limit to dispute, is there a point to sending a debt verification letter? What should I do? If it's past the 30 days, your options are a bit more limited but you can still force them to verify by sending the DV letter and at the same time disputing the debt with the bureaus. If they don't mark the debt as disputed - violation. If they continue collection on a disputed debt - violation. Once they validate, though, they can continue collection, so add in a cease communication along with the DV language to get rid of the calls. They may be calling your mother's number because it's the only connection to you on file (probably obtained through a Nexis/skip trace search) but you can't really sue unless they're knowingly talking to a third party about your debt (generally, a "please call X number regarding your account" isn't sufficient to sue, but it can be if they're not saying something along the lines of "this call is an effort to collect a debt" or other similar language) but if your mother picks up and tells them you're not at that number and not to call again, as long as that's recorded, it's something to add to a pile of violations. I probably wouldn't try to sue just on phone calls, though - those that violate calls will do other violations when talked to/in writing.
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Dec 14, 2009 00:40
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