|
Worth mentioning is each state has it's own set of laws regarding contracts, and things like that. To get the best information you'll want to list what state you live in if you ask questions. Here in Texas, a creditor isn't getting poo poo from you. They can sue you but they can't garnish your wages or lien your homestead for it. Also the Texas Finance Code is extremely consumer friendly. Much more so than the FDCPA or FCRA. rjsnyde posted:It's nice to see other people have been hosed over in one way or another by creditors / collectors. I made some poor decisions when I was younger, coupled with some bad luck with work, and now have a sub 500 credit score and no money to even think about paying things off. The major things are medical bills and a couple of car repos. Everything else is small stuff, less than $500 that I think has been given up on. The first one I wouldn't worry about. The BHPH place made a profit off of you and coming after you just costs money. They took the van back, prettied it up and sold it off to someone else making even more money. As for the 2nd repo, things depend. Have you gotten any mail from them? It'll probably come certified. Have they sold the van yet? Who was the financing company and what state do you live in?
|
# ¿ Dec 3, 2009 17:57 |
|
|
# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 07:35 |
|
kstatix posted:Does anyone here have any experience with Lexington Law's credit repair services? They seem to be rated as the top in their industry. My girlfriend has been preparing herself to deal with some major credit issues she's been having and I would like to know if this is a viable option. She's looking to pursue the whole DV / PFD process, would a company like Lexington Law be just as good if not better at doing so? A co-worker of mine used LL to repair his credit. It took about a year, but his credit reports are sterling right now. Went from a sub 500 to a 740 in about 18 months or so. It did cost him about a grand in fees though, and all of his debts were older which makes credit repair easier. Things that are still fresh are much harder to repair.
|
# ¿ Feb 20, 2011 20:26 |
|
DontBurnthePig posted:Thanks for the thread. I'm getting ready to try and settle ~75K of credit card debt as well as letting an 85K house go. We attempted to file a chapter 7 bankruptcy, were advised by our attorney that we would qualify, and now we are about to be dismissed. (It's a long story, will post details if there is interest. Bad attorney + a Supreme Court decision after filing and before discharge.) We have the option to convert to a chapter 13, but do not feel that 5 years in a payment plan of ~$1100 is the best way to go. We have no assets beyond our house which we have vacated. We live in NC which is a no garnishment state (beyond child support, taxes & student loans). I don't really have any questions at this point as we are just waiting for our bankruptcy to be dismissed before we can move forward, but wanted to introduce myself... Why didn't the Chapter 7 go through? If your in a no garnishment state just walk from everything and say gently caress it.
|
# ¿ Feb 20, 2011 20:28 |
|
lapse posted:Do you have any idea what kinds of methods they used for him? Anything beyond what has been covered in this thread, in other words? It's nothing that hasn't been covered on CreditBoards, the old Art of Credit site, or whatever other sites are hopping right now. You're paying it to make it their job. You can do it yourself, but its very time consuming.
|
# ¿ Feb 20, 2011 22:45 |
|
Roundboy posted:no garnishment states often let bank accounts get raided. Not really, it's really easy to survive without a bank account. If you can't pay the bill at a local grocery store or Wal-Mart you can easily purchase a money order and a stamp and mail it in. My sister has lived bank free by choice for over 13 years, she's never once had an issue from not having a bank account.
|
# ¿ Feb 21, 2011 07:45 |
|
samizdat posted:I lost my job and then I ran out of savings. I couldn't pay my credit cards, so I didn't. Now I'm hosed. A BK attorney is going to cost you at between 800 to 1000 dollars for their services, if your total debt is 2,000 dollars it doesn't make much sense to use your 1 every 7 years magic reset button on 2K. They can't garnish your wages, so why stress about it? The worst thing you could have done is got that judgment though, those things are bad news. Bide your time, get into a better position and then pay it off when you can. They can't do anything to you, so you've got to stop stressing out about it.
|
# ¿ Apr 4, 2011 16:12 |
|
ashley posted:So, my boyfriend does not make the best choices. In 3/2006 he got a $5000 line of credit with Wells Fargo, which he stopped paying on in 9/2006. This April he received a letter from a law firm stating that they represent SACOR Financial (I guess a collector?) and that he had 30 days to pay the accrued balance of approx $10000 or legal action might be taken. He promptly ignored this letter. Written contract debts in AZ have a 6 year statute of limitations which is coming up soon which is why they're making the move to sue. The WORST thing you can do is ignore this. IANAL but pretty familiar with AZ debt collection laws. I think it's too late to DV the debt, that should have been done in April when he got the notice he ignored. If they're serving papers they probably intend to sue. I would recommend the boyfriend contact a competent attorney. You could go to court and Wells Fargo might not be able to prove anything. They also might settle for 10 or 15 cents on the dollar. Remember though, ignoring it is the worst thing possible. He ignores this, doesn't show up for court, they win by default and he gets slapped with a judgement for the full amount plus interest. cr0y posted:I have a student loan with wells fargo and my sister is a cosigner. poo poo has gotten rough lately and her credit report is getting dinged because of my loan. Is there ANY way to get these items removed from her report? Nope, she's hosed to put it bluntly. If you can't pay it's up to her to pay, that's the whole premise behind a co-signer. If she has great credit she might want to explore helping you out with this until you can pay her back. Talk to your sister about it.
|
# ¿ Jul 13, 2012 21:01 |
|
cr0y posted:I am paid up, the money isn't the issue, I don't want her credit affected. Has her credit been affected yet? If you pay late, it'll show up as a late pay on her report. Most places don't report late pays unless it's 30+ days late though so her credit might not even be affected. But to answer your original question there is no way to get her off of those, short of refinancing the debt.
|
# ¿ Jul 13, 2012 22:28 |
|
Dealing with the original creditor is a different ballgame than dealing with 3rd party debt collectors. If they went through the effort to send you that big stack of stuff thats a bad sign in my opinion. I don't know what state you are in, but if I were in your position I would start thinking about negotiating and taking care of this. Especially if I was in a state unfriendly to debtors (high garnishment amounts, long statute of limitations) If they get to the point where they sue you they'll be going after the full amount plus fees on their judgement and they will start garnishing your wages if they win. Getting in front of it you might be able to negotiate 50 cents on the dollar or something and setup a payment plan on your terms instead of getting garnished at the state's rate. Standard disclaimer applies. Not a lawyer, no idea what state laws are applicable to you blah blah blah
|
# ¿ Jul 15, 2012 02:39 |
|
Once again, not a lawyer, but Discover seems to be on the ball about this. I would say ignoring this would lead to a lawsuit which they will win for the full amount, a judgement against you, and wage garnishment. Then you get to involuntarily pay it. If you're hellbent about not paying this you should consult a bankruptcy lawyer. If your credit is already trashed and you have a significant amount of debt you should just Chapter 7 if your eligible.
|
# ¿ Jul 15, 2012 20:59 |
|
PTM, Chapter 7 BK isn't a big deal anymore..with the down economy many folks are having to do it. After 2 years of positive credit you can get an FHA housing loan at the exact same interest rate as someone without a BK on their record. Honestly people are less of a credit risk post BK because they can't file again and have hopefully learned their lesson. The day after your discharge goes through expect a dozen credit card offers in the mail and about 4 new car offers from different dealerships. Interest rates will be high, but there is plenty of credit out there after a BK, including mortgages. A local lawyer should be able to do a cut and dry Chapter 7 for about 1,000 bucks including filing fees.
|
# ¿ Jul 16, 2012 16:27 |
|
I think something that gets lost in this thread is dealing with fresh/new debts and original credits is much different than dealing with Fucktard Collections Inc that is coming after you 5 years after you defaulted on your first 500 dollar Cap One card freshman year of college. Totally different ballgame.
|
# ¿ Jul 20, 2012 19:08 |
|
Depending on how bad your overall financial picture is, you might want to discuss Chapter 7 with a BK attorney. It can remove a lot of the stress in your life. (assuming your current financial position causes you stress). Roger_Mudd posted:Cap One is doing a "test" here in our jurisdiction and suing people for 2-3k when the initial credit card had a $500.00 limit. You're in Texas right? How does this play out? I have an old car repo that's past SOL.. The balance on it should have been at most 11K (and even then I dispute that number), but I'm sure by now it's up to 17K with made up fees and interest. In pretend land, if I were to get sued would a judge knock it down to the original 11K or would they win the whole 17K?. On a fun side note the current holder of the debt sent me a settlement letter for 10% of the made up balance. 1600 cash to settle 16K of debt. Of course I recognize you are not my lawyer and you are not giving me legal advice.
|
# ¿ Jul 30, 2012 20:15 |
|
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. If it was charged off in 2007, you could be outside the Statute of Limitations on the debt and it might be noncollectable. When was the last payment made on the account? When was the debt first transferred to a debt collector?
|
# ¿ Aug 24, 2012 03:26 |
|
When was the last payment made? I'm making some assumptions as we don't have the complete picture but it sounds like they may have you dead to rights on the debt. I would do whatever it takes to avoid the lawsuit/judgement/garnishment route. You might want to start thinking about payment plans or settlements.
|
# ¿ Sep 12, 2012 03:58 |
|
Depends. Like Mudd said, Cap One likes to sue, if they think they have a chance at recovery they may take a crack at you. They might not. With Texas being a non garnishment state I would think they have some kind of internal process to determine if the costs of going after a debtor is worth it or not.
|
# ¿ Oct 5, 2012 18:18 |
|
They can keep trying to call until you tell them to stop. Answer once, make sure there is a real person on the line, and record the phone call if you can (one party state), tell them "It is inconvenient for me to receive phone calls at any time, please send all correspondence to me via mail". He's probably going to argue with you, repeat that statement, and feel free to hang up. If they call again after that, then they're in trouble. But it's my understanding (as a layman and not a lawyer) they can call until you tell them not to.
|
# ¿ Oct 18, 2012 21:26 |
|
DavidAlltheTime, You don't have enough solid info in your post to give any informed advice. I want to clarify a few things though quote:She's learned that if these companies break any laws, the case (and debt?) is dropped and forgotten. Not exactly. There can be damages associated with violating provisions of the FDCPA and other applicable laws, but there's no "hey you messed up so nanny nanny boo boo you can't catch me". quote:1 - What are our odds of negotiating with this company to buy out the debt at anything below the full amount? Or even to pay it off at a reasonable monthly payment. We can probably scrape something together for them on a monthly basis, but if they demand the lump sum full amount, we're screwed. Depends. Not enough details. How old is the debt? When was the last payment made? Who was the original creditor? All these things matter. A 1 year old debt with Capital One is going to get different advice than a 6 year old debt from American Express. quote:Edit: after a day of googling, it's strange to me that these 'collection papers' were served, instead of being served with papers with a court date. Has anyone here ever been served with papers that just said 'sort this out in twenty days, or we'll set a court date'? Unfortunately, getting to see the papers via any method other than regular mail will be difficult, so we're flying blind. Different states have different laws. I'm not familiar with PA law, this may be a requirement there prior to filing a lawsuit. I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not familiar with PA law at all, but my instinct here says these guys are gearing up to sue to your wife and get a default judgement and then try to go after whatever monies or assets they can. This is the last thing you want to happen. I suggest trying to work something out if possible. Being in Canada you'll probably need to find a consumer debt lawyer in PA, or possibly a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy attorney if things are as bad as you make them out to be. Debt is scary, but this isn't rock bottom. The WORST thing you can do is ignore this. Get informed, get council, and get in front of this problem. I suggest getting a copy of those papers any way you can. Can they fax them to you? Take a camera phone picture of them? Take them to kinkos and have them scan them to a thumb drive. Try to find a way. Saint Rockhopper, It sounds like right now the hospital still owns the debt and is having a 3rd party try to collect their money. The 3rd letter is more than likely saying we're going to tell the hospital we tried to collect the debt but couldn't at which point the hospital may sell the debt to a medial collections company, or try more aggressive collection methods. IANAL but I don't think a civil lawsuit can stop you from leaving the country. Honestly your best bet at this point is to get in front of this debt and try to work something out. Hospitals are very flexible in my experience but you have to talk to them and try to work something out. You just can't keep ignoring it. Well you could. typo demno posted:I recently received a dunning letter for a medical bill slightly over three years old. I requested validation and received a copy of the billing history in return; should my next step be a pay-for-delete offer? Is it even on your credit report? Pay For Delete is useful for people trying to repair their credit. If it's not on your credit report I wouldn't worry about the PFD part of it.
|
# ¿ Jan 17, 2013 23:53 |
|
There's a lot of misinformation out there from internet folks on different websites. Original Creditors also have different rules and rights than Debt Collection Agencies. These laws were written to prevent innocent folks from being harassed about debt that isn't theirs, now there are ways to use these laws to your advantage when you have debts and people are coming after you trying to collect. The debt doesn't go away because someone makes a procedural error, or doesn't respond to something in the time frame you read about online. Basically at this point like Trillian said, the DCA can't try to collect from you until they validate. The debt is still valid, BofA can report the negative trade line all day long. You might have some luck getting the collection agency trade line off your credit report. This isn't going to just go away though. BofA will just farm it out to another agency and the dance starts over again.
|
# ¿ Feb 4, 2013 20:22 |
|
Tide posted:Sorry about being unclear, so I'll repost the time/chain of events: There really is no next move. BofA can legally report the debt for 7 years, nothing you can do about it as rules for the original creditor are much different than for debt collectors. Almost all the advice in this thread is for dealing with debt collectors. If the collection agency puts the account on your credit report you could dispute it, but removing the original creditor is hard.
|
# ¿ Mar 12, 2013 22:37 |
|
Roger_Mudd would have better advice, but you have to get the bank to admit the error in writing, dispute with CRA again and if they don't correct, you sue them.
|
# ¿ Mar 25, 2013 18:53 |
|
T-Shaped posted:Silly questions - If I file a dispute on an account through all three of the credit boros, does that also count in terms of having disputed a debt against a collector? No. You have to inform the debt collector directly that you are disputing the debt.
|
# ¿ Apr 8, 2013 23:05 |
|
Going to recommend talking to a lawyer that knows about housing laws in your area. The lack of a current lease may or may not mean much, and tenant law varies so much between different parts of the country. As for the credit report, he probably hired some kind of collection agency that reports to the credit bureaus. I don't think joe blow can report to the credit agencies directly. Stuff like this is what the dispute system is for. I can take sue you in court for 5 gajillion moon dollars you supposedly owe me, but I have to prove it in a court of law, nothing stops me from the initial suit though.
|
# ¿ Apr 22, 2013 02:24 |
|
2 years post BK you should be able to buy a house with an FHA loan.
|
# ¿ Apr 28, 2013 15:52 |
|
Cuck Everlasting posted:I've let myself get into some pretty obnoxious medical debt over the last few years, and I've been dealing with the repercussions since. I was sued by a debt collector for a few thousand, defaulted and paid them in full. Lesson learned, right? Not a week later I get a notice regarding another balance they're trying to collect. I tried a different approach this time, asking for proof in writing and such. Unfortunately, they complied as they have all their ducks in a row. Stupidly I let time go after they responded to me, and they're suing me for this balance now. They're a law firm that specializes in debt collection, and they've been doing so for decades, so I don't really feel comfortable going against them in small claims court by myself. The account is a little over $2,400, by no means something I can pay even a fraction of up front. How should I smartly proceed from here? Is it worth lawyering up, or is fighting it in small claims court by myself an easy enough feat? My hang up is that I can't really argue against the debt, and the collectors have done nothing illegal in their interactions. I would greatly appreciate any advice. If the debt is valid and the company can prove it, I personally think working something out with them is the best course of action. I would take whatever stakes are necessary to avoid court and judgements/garnishments. Call them and try to work with them. Have they already filed the lawsuit? If so, you're basically screwed if they can prove to the court it's your debt. It's always better to get in front of these issues than ignore them. Depending on your state, they're going to go to court, win a judgement and then go after whatever asserts of yours they can. Bank accounts, wages, etc up to the state limits. Most of the advice in this thread is for older collection accounts that have been passed around a few times. If Joe Collections Inc sues you for a 5 year old 1K Mastercard you had, they probably can't prove to the court that you owe the money.
|
# ¿ May 8, 2013 18:36 |
|
Generally you want to avoid court if at all possible. If a creditor has you dead to rights, work something (anything!) out and avoid the judgement and wage garnishment.
|
# ¿ May 17, 2013 17:44 |
|
CaptainJuan posted:So I still have the same checking account I had when I was like 17 years old. The account was in name only a joint account between myself and my mother, but I'm the only one who has ever deposited or withdrawn any money. My parents are in considerable Not a lawyer, not familiar with Wisconsin state law, but I have a feeling your screwed. With your mom being joint on the account, she has access to the account and any monies in there can be considered her funds as well. Doesn't matter she never contributed anything to the account. She had joint access to the account, and could have taken all the money out if she wanted to, so they're going to attach it. I suggest removing your parents from any other accounts you may have, closing them and opening new ones. A long conversation with them is probably also in order, along with a referral to a Bankruptcy attorney. If they're in the hole so bad it's past the point of judgements it's probably time to file. I hope you're OK financially after this mess, that's a hosed up thing that just happened to you. Kill your direct deposit as well if that's how you get paid.
|
# ¿ Jun 18, 2013 18:16 |
|
Not really. Valid reporting sticks around for 7 years. If any of the trade lines being reported are wrong or incorrect you can get them removed, but the credit report is serving its purpose by reporting valid trade lines in the last 7 years. There are some tricks you can try to clean up your credit reports that fall into a grey area, but they're not discussed here really. You can look for credit repair companies online, or at credit messageboards like creditboards.com for information on how to do that.
|
# ¿ Jun 20, 2013 17:09 |
|
CaptainJuan posted:Thanks for your suggestions! Turns out that working directly through the collection firm was sufficient, and my money is back in my account. Gonna go ahead and close that one out though. Happy this is working out, at least a little bit. drat! Glad that worked out for you.
|
# ¿ Jun 20, 2013 18:54 |
|
Polishguerrilla posted:I am in a very similar situation. I have 3 credit cards and it amounts to a little over $10,000.00. I am in school and am finishing up my last year of my chemical engineering degree. The reason for my debt was the loss of a job. I do not have a phone and when it was on I got phone call after phone call. My question is, is that I have not received any debt collection letters and I have missed more than 5 payments on all the cards. My problem is how do I properly defend myself in court when the process server shows up serving me my court date? My credit score went from an 820 down to a 607 and its continuing to plunge. I feel like this is a too good to be true situation. I can provide any details you need if it helps me in my case. I just want this nightmare to go away. I was considering just filing for bankruptcy. In your opinion is that a better promise for me to see the end of this situation? Considering your situation I would recommend that you file a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy before you finish school. 10K isn't a lot of money to file on and I wouldn't normally suggest hitting the once every 8 years reset button, but I think it's the best thing for you in your particular situation. My reasoning behind this is: 1- Your income is probably very low to non existent right now. You have no asserts to attach, or wages to garnish. A Chapter 7 case will be very cut and dry and relatively cheap to have done. Not sure what the going rate in MI is, but I would expect 800 to 1200 dollars for a basic Chapter 7. 2- Assuming you finish your Chem. E. degree you'll probably be looking a lucrative employment after school. Chem. E. can start 60K+ from what I've read which will disqualify you for a Chapter 7 BK and force you to a Chapter 13 which may take 3 to 5 years to finish, then stick around on your credit report for another 10, affecting you well into your 30's. If you don't take the BK route, you'll be a juicy target for a wage garnishment as they can garnish 25% of your disposable income. If you have normal expenses and student loan payments, an extra 25% off the top can make things tight even if you're pulling in 60+K a year. Statute of Limitation on debts in Michigan is 6 years. They have 6 years to sue you for the money. 3- Your negative credit report and debt history will be a red flag when looking for employment. Many companies are checking your consumer credit before offering employment, and someone with bad credit can be seen as a less than desirable employee. Chapter 7 BK will wipe the slate clean. It's much easier to say I was careless in college with money and filed BK than answer why you have all these accounts in collections and haven't done anything about them. A few other words. Much of the advice in this thread is for older debt that has been passed around between collection agencies a few times. There's a big difference in giving advice to someone who owed a credit card company 2,000 bucks 4 years ago and now has Jimmy's Collections of Hoboken calling him at 2AM every night versus someone who has missed 5 payments to American Express. Defending yourself in court boils down to 1 thing. Making them prove you owe them money. The lawyers for the collection agencies count on you not defending yourself and them winning by default. Once a debt is sold the paper trail tends to get lost and the lawyer can't prove to the court you actually owe them money. Some creditor are better about this than others. I've read stories where lawyers come to court with copies of charge slips, canceled payment checks, a signed credit agreement and they win the suit. Most are so busy they don't come with anything and if you show up they drop the case since they can't prove anything. There is no magic fix to this situation. The way I see it you have 3 options. 1- File Chapter 7 BK right now or in the immediate future 2- Ignore it and hope it all goes away (It won't) and try to wait out the 6 years from being sued and 7 years until it falls off your credit report 3- Try to come to some kind of payment arrangement, preferably with the Original Creditors.
|
# ¿ Jun 24, 2013 17:15 |
|
Tiny Chalupa posted:Am I better off seriously considering bankruptcy? Depends on your situation. Things like what state you live in, your marriage situation, current income, prospect for future income, total amount of debt, how old that debt is, and other factors can affect how BK may or may not help you. The best advice is to talk to a BK lawyer in your state. If you have a significant (25K+) amount of debt, don't make much money and can pass the means test for a Chapter 7 I usually recommend doing it. Without a complete picture of your situation though, take my advice for what it's worth, a stranger on the internet said...
|
# ¿ Jun 24, 2013 18:36 |
|
That's a question best answered by your lawyer I would think as BK laws differ from state to state. If I recall you're in Georgia which has it's own set of BK exemptions. You can exempt a vehicle worth up to 3500 dollars in Georgia, and possibly layer other exemptions on top of it up to around 9100 dollars. Now the court might ask how you bought a car but can't pay your creditors, but I don't think there is much they can do about it. As for car loans, it'll be difficult between the time you file and when your case is discharged, but the day after your BK7 is discharged your going to get so many offers in the mail to buy a car or open a credit card it won't even be funny. You'll get a dozen offers the first 2 weeks. They know you can't file again, and there isn't much risk loaning you money for a car at 17% interest when they can always come get it if you don't make the payments. If you have family, you can always have them keep a car in their name that they let you 'borrow'.
|
# ¿ Aug 14, 2013 19:28 |
|
I don't know that I would worry about it too much with a cut and dry Chapter 7 case. Those guys could do one of those in their sleep. Looking at Atlanta Craigslist the going rate seems to be in the 900 to 1K range for a BK attorney plus filing fees.
|
# ¿ Aug 16, 2013 17:00 |
|
Give them a call and work something out before the hearing.
|
# ¿ Oct 30, 2013 17:52 |
|
You need to talk to a debt attorney. There are too many variables at play here. Honestly they've got the judgement, they're going to get every red cent of that judgement, so a cash settlement probably won't apply. Usually those happen before they go through the motions of getting a judgement. quote:I do not believe we were ever properly served papers for the court date. Are you sure, if the court records say your wife was served, are you sure she wasn't? She neglected to tell you a lot of other things... just sayin' quote:I don't understand why they waited 2 years to garnish her wages without contacting us at all in that time period. Doesn't matter, maybe they didn't know where she banked until then. I'd close all the account she has a name on if I were you. If she's joint on your savings account or something they can come after those funds as well. quote:I know for a fact they did not reply to my validation letter. So what? There's this massive misconception on the internet about these letters. Everyone thinks they're some magic bullet that stops everything and they can't touch you. Did they try to contact you or collect on the debt after you sent the letter? If the answer is no, then it doesn't matter if they responded or not. They are well within their rights to file a lawsuit against the debtor at any time. They don't need to answer your DV letter to do so. In fact sending a DV sometimes pushes the account into lawsuit status. There's a lot of hungry lawyers out there and things are different than they were 5 years ago. If they can gather the paperwork to take you to court these days, they're probably going to do it. Honestly on debts within statutes of limitations and in states where wages and bank accounts can be garnished the best course of action for legitimately owed debts is to get in front of the problem and try to work something out. The internet is so chocked full of debt collection bullshit though people end up worse off than if they would have just gotten in front of the problem.
|
# ¿ Nov 5, 2013 00:45 |
|
The laws are different for the Original Creditor vs. a Debt Collection Agency. The Original Creditor (AMEX) has a lot more leeway than a 3rd party debt collector. Generally the FDCPA doesn't apply to the Original Creditor (AMEX). This is the problem with all this internet advice about debt collectors and I DEMAND PROOF OF DEBT and all this other nonsense. Yes there's good information out there, but it doesn't always apply to your particular situation. If AMEX still holds the debt, the FDCPA doesn't really apply. They're probably using the last valid contact information they had for her (the ex husband's house maybe?) to try to contact her. Honestly the best thing you can do is get in front of this problem, open a line of communication with AMEX, give them proper contact information so your family members aren't getting harassed unnecessarily and try to work something out. Depending on your state, state laws may have guidelines or rules that apply to Original Creditors. California has something on the books that apply s to OC's and DCA's. That's something you should look into or talk to a lawyer familiar with debt collection laws in your state.
|
# ¿ Dec 27, 2013 19:31 |
|
If you want better advice, provide the following information 1: How old is the debt? When was the last payment made? 2: Who holds the debt? Is AMEX contacting your or is it a 3rd party like Jimbob's Debt Collections? 3: What state are you in? State laws sometimes are more broad than Federal laws. State laws also come into play when the court system gets involved. Amex doesn't play around, if they have a shot at garnishing wages or levying bank accounts they will go after you.
|
# ¿ Jan 2, 2014 18:48 |
|
BraveUlysses posted:Bankrupcy is not an option. Would it be worth it to get a lawyer? Depends... it can't hurt to talk to a debt attorney though. If the debt is valid and in the statute of limitations it is probably in your best interest to negotiate a settlement before they go to court and get a judgement.
|
# ¿ Jun 5, 2014 19:44 |
|
|
# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 07:35 |
|
dxt posted:I have some medical debt from ~3.5 years ago that I had completely forgotten about, got a notice today that it would be sent to Revenue Recapture which would be taking it from my state tax returns, I'm in MN. It's about $3700. Is there anything I can do about this? I don't live in MN, and IANAL, but I don't think so. From looking at the Revenue Recapture websites, it looks like the state can collect debts from other state/local agencies without going through the standard go to court and get a default judgement, process. There should be some info on the notice you get on how to contest it, you might only have 45 days or less to do so if you want to. If your income was below the poverty line when you got the medical services you might be able to avoid the recapture as well. I'm just going off info from the MN website. https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/revenue-recapture-related-information I'm guessing there isn't a ton to stop it at this point though.
|
# ¿ Feb 21, 2023 21:17 |