Money back from collection agency

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Quote: Originally Posted by ccbob I also wouldn' t hold my breath on seeing the money for a while. Well, maybe and maybe not. I think that depends on how you go about it. If I were doing it I think I would probably prepare my case and an intent to sue letter asking them whether they want to pay up or would they rather you filed the case in court. I'd point out to them that if they prefer that you file the case against them you will be only too happy to do so but the costs will escalate dramatically. So if they pay up now they can pay just $400 but if you file there will be court costs of about $200 (or whatever the cost actually is) plus $50 for service of summons and 5 hours of attorney time at $200 an hour which would make the total come out to $1650 plus interest at the legal post judgment rate until collected. If you case is well prepared and looks professional they just might capitulate quicker than might be imagined. If not then go ahead and pull the trigger. I've found that to be a pretty effective tactic. I've never used that against a collection agency but I'm about to do so rather than just go file a federal case. Of course, if they don't want to settle for the statutory $1,000 then I will do just exactly what I threaten to do and won't waste any time doing it. This time it is against the collection agency that tried to collect $116 from me for an ATT phone bill. I sent them a demand for validation and they sent me a really great set of proofs direct from ATT showing exactly what the charges were for. I refused to pay and when I refused to pay they sent it to another collection agency. I got the initial contact letter from the second collection agency offering to settle the claim for $45 yesterday. Of course, I'll send them a validation demand before the 24th of January and see how many violations they want to commit. __________________ Cap1sucks links page

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Our economy is in the crapper

cap1sucks

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Originally Posted by glass Listen, I'm judging because our economy is in the crapper due to this irresponsible attitude about money. I suffer when you make dumb choices.

You need to learn what has actually caused our economy to get dumped into the crapper. It wasn't due to people not paying their debts at all. That had nothing to do with it. What caused our economy to go to pot was a combination of several things that the American people had no control over whatever. It actually started back in the 1970s when Levi Strauss and Co. was allowed to move it's production facilities to Mexico. They started the NAFTA movement and our idiot politicians thought that was a great idea. By 1980 American factories were going south in droves and you could drive through the Maquilladora section of Juarez, Mexico and other border cities and it looked like the Who's Who of American corporations. But they soon had a big problem because the Mexicans wouldn't work for the pittance they paid for labor. Many of them worked 10 and 12 hours a day 6 days a week for as little as $22.50 a week. The American factories stayed there for only about 10 years and then started their move to South America and the Asian countries where people would work for even less than that. The loss of Levi Strauss & Co. dealt a major blow to the El Paso economy. Unemployment was rampant and other businesses were failing too.

Then fast forward to 1990 or thereabouts. The banks and the real estate people figured out how to monetize the mortgage industry by selling their notes to investors world wide through the Securities and Exchange markets. It wasn't long before they also figured out how to keep track of all their notes and mortgages through a corporation known as MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registry Systems) and make them the assignees of all their notes. That way they could avoid paying taxes each time they sold a note. Saved them untold billions of dollars which the state and county governments rightfully had coming to them. They also figured out how to sell homes they didn't own and notes they didn't have buyers for at the time they sold them to the investors and an insurance company named AIG to guarantee the loans. In order to fill those empty houses and put an actual person in them they illegally inflated the values of the homes by using appraisers who would appraise the home for whatever they wanted it to be appraised for and then sold it to people who didn't have the money and couldn't possibly qualify had their incomes been truthfully stated. When they defaulted another sucker was skillfully inserted into the foreclosed home.

Everybody thought the good times would never end and home prices would always escalate. We would never have another depression. Government kept on rolling the presses and printing more and more money, financing their wars and overburdensome public assistance programs by selling trillions of dollars worth of government securities to other nations and foreign investors.

When all of that is considered it is no wonder we are losing half a million jobs a month. When that many people lose their jobs, their source of income and have to be supported by government it is small wonder that our economy is in the crapper. If people had jobs and a strong economy they would not be defaulting. They could go to Nieman Marcus or anywhere else they wanted and have no problem paying their debts. That's what has caused the problem. The greed of big business and the stupidity of our elected officials. Not the average joe.

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And then you have the nerve to BRAG about them.

No, wrong again. What I have is the nerve to tell big business to behave like the good citizens they expect us to be and and government to Pay your(it's) bills and quit thinking that they can go anywhere in the world, buy anything they want and pay for it with funny money backed by the jobs they sent elsewhere and if their creditors don't like that they can meet face to face with our army, navy, air force and marines who are mostly young, halfway educated and falsely led to believe that they are fighting and dying for their country.

Give us our jobs so we can produce and earn and we will pay our bills. No problem.

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And cap1, keep your religion out of my face, thank you very much. Go worship Santa Claus on your own time. This is about money. Not your personal rituals.

Wrong again. Nobody in America over the age of 3 worships Santa Claus. Yes, it is about money but more precisely the lack of it which is not our fault. And if you want me to keep my religion out of your face then keep your sanctimonious preaching out of mine.

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United Collections Bureau

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(302) 360-8448

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Originally Posted by jmartin724 Looking for advice here. I just had United Collections Bureau post a negative to my credit report for a $150 collection. It dropped my score 60 points. I have no idea what it is nor have I had any correspondence with these people regarding any unpaid bills. I'm not late on any of my bills. I truly don't know what it could be. I need this off my credit report asap as I will be house shopping this spring.

If it dropped your score below about 680 you can probably forget about buying a house this spring or any other time in the near future. Even if you can find a lender who will lend with a lower score than that they will probably make you pay it off before they will loan money. I'm sure that $150 isn't going to put any huge dent in your wallet so that isn't the problem. The real problem is that with that on there most lenders will charge you more points thereby raising your monthly payments and the total price you pay for the home by thousands of dollars.

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If these people have ruined my chances of getting a loan, I will be taking whatever legal action I can to make them miserable.

They may or may not have kept you from getting a home but at a bare minimum will most likely have raised the total price you pay greatly. So I wouldn't wait for spring to do something about it and paying them is the last thing I would do even if the bill were only $1.50 let alone $150. The damage is now done and paying them will only cement the damage.

So what to do about it becomes the question. First of all look for violations of federal law. Have they ever contacted you by letter or phone? They had 5 days from the time the report appeared on your credit report to have a demand letter in your hands. If that didn't happen then you already have your first cause of action against them.

when was the first time they appeared on your credit report? How many months ago? How many reports does it show up on and how many months on each report? Each report their listing shows up on is a new $1,000 violation times the number of months on the report times the number of CRA reports they put it on. So each month times 3 is $3,000 a month (if in all 3 reports). That amount, whatever it might end up being is your statutory damages.

Now let's look at your actual damages. Start lender hunting now so you find out how much your loan would have cost without their listing and how much it is going to cost because of it. The difference in total end cost of the home is your actual damages. How much do both your statutory and actual damages amount to? And that is just your FCRA damages. That don't count statutory damages under FDCPA. Those can add up to several thousand more.

You have a year from the time you discovered their violations to file under FDCPA so I wouldn't be in any hurry to buy a house this year because the longer you wait the more damages you have. So their first violation of FDCPA has already happened. Have they contacted you by phone or by letter? If not, wait until they do and start racking up another few violations and you can end up with a nice fat settlement check you can use to make the down payment and get them off your credit reports and your score back up so you get better interest rates.

Maybe you will get lucky like a friend I have RI. who sued a bank for $90,000 over FCRA violations. They have been fighting bitterly and my friend demanded a deposition hearing. He scheduled deposition of two of the bank's lawyers for yesterday afternoon. They didn't show so he called me wanting to know what to do about it. The answer I gave him was simple. File a motion against each attorney to show cause why they should not be sanctioned by the court and file another motion against the bank itself to show cause why it should not be sanctioned by the court for acting in bad faith. They have shown bad faith in many other ways as well but this one is the corker or should be.

He should now be able to escalate those damages to well over $100K. Bet you could use that kind of money to make a nice down payment on your new home now couldn't you?
And of course he is doing it pro se so he gets the lawyer fees on top of that. The more they fight the more lawyer fees he can tack on top of the settlement price. You can do the same.

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What kind of a company does that to somebody for $150 without contacting them???

The kind I'd just love to do business with. (LOL)

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Pretty bad business ethics if you ask me.

So much the better for you. Here you are crying about it when you should be preparing to cry all the way to the bank with their money in your pocket.

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I'll be calling them tonight to find out what this is about.

What for? Let them sit there a while. I'd be very happy to wait 11 months to see if they wake up and die right. (LOL). Anyway, suppose to do actually owe somebody something and I pay them, when/how does my score get restored [/quote]When? If you pay them it will be about 7 years from now.

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and who do I actually have to pay to make that happen? Thanks!

I'm sure that all you have to do is what you have already thought of doing will work just fine. Call them up and offer to pay them off. Cut them a check and sit there fat, dumb and happy waiting for your receipt which you will never get from them no matter what you do. Then start hunting for your house next spring and let the lender tell you all about the mistake you made and may very well also make you pay it again in order to get a very high priced loan if you can qualify at all.

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Debt Collectors on the phone.

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Originally Posted by halljohn20 A call from a debt collector especially when you are already undergoing financial stress can leave you depressed. Executives hired by a debt collector are trained to use whatever tactics they can to get the money back. They will call you and ask sharp questions to lead you into a feeling of embarrassment and misery. If you manage to persist and ask questions back to the executive, he will give a brief answer and maintain the call control. Debt collectors focus on various aspects such as developing anxiety by threatening about litigation and financial washout, providing various offers of assistance; humiliating by reviewing financial accounts, etc. to get their money back. They do this by asking a number of different questions in different ways. Well, the first reaction to such a call is immediate shift to arrogance and abuse, but you must control these reactions. Instead, be confident and professional. Asking questions is the key that a debt collector’s executive uses to gain call control and you can do the same. Here’s the process: the debt collector’s executive will start by giving his introduction and company name, and follow up with a question. You have to pause here and ask for the executive’s name again. Tell the executive to spell that out for you. After you have the information, ask for the company name and tell the executive to spell that out as well. By this time, an inexperienced executive is most likely to become anxious. Now, focus on ending the call as early as possible. Ask them about the outstanding debts, the original creditor and contact information. When the executive discloses this information, say that you will verify the facts and get back to the company as soon as possible and hang up. The debt collector’s executive will note down your information and move to the next person. This way you will stick to the norms, refrain from abuse and handle the call professionally. If you have any further questions, please post them in the comments section below.

Questions? Did you get that from my links page? Its all there plus audio recordings of actual phone calls with debt collectors. One of them featured in my links page about debt collection phone calls even got almost all the questions answered until he was asked for his social security number and then he got all flustered and wouldn't give out that information. Poor guy just couldn't understand why a debtor wanted his social security information.

Actually there are a large number of videos and recordings of consumers dealing with debt collectors in various ways. Many are on youtube. Some of them are by Robert Paisola from Sandy, Utah. Paisola posted here several years ago then wasn't heard from again for about 2 years or so when he popped up again as a debt collector turned consumer advocate. If you google his name you will learn why he disappeared for a while.
In one of his videos where he attempts to strut his stuff he got a 3 way conversation going between a lady, himself and a debt collector who promptly told the consumer that her company don't deal with the likes of Mr. Paisola. He got a bit upset about that. (LOL).
There are a great many videos and audio recordings of that nature on the net and they aren't hard to find. Some are just plain funny and others give great insights about how various consumers have handled abusive debt collectors on the phone.
Thanks for your informative post. Effective means of dealing with debt collectors on the phone is a topic that needs to be brought up from time to time.

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Charged off debt

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Originally Posted by Borbiusle I've been disputing a paid/closed account with CITI for about 6 months now. I already disputed with all 3 CRA's, they verified it with CITI and won't remove it. I sent a certified mail letter to CITI, asking them to provide me a copy of my original contract that I signed and documents stating when my account was closed, else I'll file suit for FCRA violations. They sent me a generic letter that ignored my requests and asked for a copy of my credit report and the item in question, even though I provided them the account # and my social. I tried calling CITI out of desperation but the rep and her supervisor basically stonewalled me, and tried to redirect me to the credit bureaus. I don't see how sending my credit report to them is magically going to change anything, but I might give it a shot. Asked for advice on another forum, they basically told me to get a lawyer(they charge 200/hr where I live) and go to federal court to fight it :P. I'm really out of ideas as to how to proceed right now. Any advice? Here's why I'm disputing if anyone is interested: Prior to joining the military, I had to call all of my creditors and let them know of my active duty status and set-up payment arrangements with all of them via checking account. I even have a record of this on paper with all the phone numbers I called and the people I spoke with so I know I didn't miss any creditor. Everything was smooth-sailing from there except with CITI. During my time in training, they kept dinging me with late payments. 6 months later, I finally had access to a computer with unrestricted internet, looked up my credit report, and saw that the account had been closed with a string of late payments behind it. I tried calling them to find out what was going on, they acted as if we never made an arrangement. Tried negotiating 100% payment in exchange for deleting the account on my report, they wouldn't budge. I grew frustrated with arguing with call representatives so I finally caved in and paid it off. I lost all my bargaining power at this point so I didn't do anything about it until recently. My credit has improved greatly since then, I've gone from 540 to 723 in the span of 2.5 years, 0 late payments since 2006, all accounts in good standing. The problem I'm having is that everytime I go apply for credit, this account always comes up. I'm usually approved but I always get socked with an insane interest rate (29-36%). When I'm not approved, it always deragtory acct and late payments as the main reasons for disapproval. I've gotten by using credit unions and military-friendly banks but they can only do so much. Things got really bad once I tried to rent a place. Even though the acct is paid off and 4 years old, they treat it as if it happened yesterday and I often get denied on those grounds.

I'm sorry that I don't have any answers for you. I have try to teach that once an account goes into charge off the debtor should vow never to pay anybody a crying dime on the account and most especially not to a debt collector. The only possible outcome of paying a charged off account is more grief. You would have been in the same boat if you had not paid them off as you are now. In net effect you gained nothing by paying them off and paying them off ended up costing you time and money with no resultant benefit.

In my opinion it is always better to fight than it is to knuckle under and pay. Sorry I don't have a solution to your problem. I hope someone else here can give you some answers to your problem.

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Originally Posted by Fish Cap1, I was referring to S. 414: Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009. Although I have not read the entire text it is my undestanding that the bill wil proctect consumers against drastic changes in interest rates when they have not defaulted. These undeserved rate changes are what caused my default!

That won't do you any good now. It only protects consumers from such future acts but does nothing to cure the sins of the past.

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Asset Aceptance has purchased the debt so they are the creditor.

Wrong. There can be only one
creditor with the exception of debts which are in good standing at the
time of the transfer to the new owner in which case the new owner steps
into the shoes of the original creditor. If Bank 2 buys bank 1 then it
becomes an original creditor in those debts which are in good standing
but becomes a 3rd party debt collector for those debts which had
already gone into default at the time of the sale. Asset Acceptance is
a 3rd party debt collector and since it buys only debts which are in
default it can never be an original creditor under FDCPA.

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There is no way I can pay the debt, the amount they sued for is around $65,000. I can pay my current creditors and have done so since the problems. I just cant afford to pay the 65k or any other settlemement offer they have sent me.My point was bankruptcy seems my only other option to taking my chances on the summons thing.

In terms of the thinking of the majority of the population you are absolutely correct but for the
minority who are better informed and therefore able to think outside the box bankruptcy is an outcome they never want to hear about.Bankruptcy has no good outcomes for those who understand that there are far better solutions and all they can do in bankruptcy is suffer more indignity and injury even if they can successfully complete the BK. I had a friend who filed BK. He was unable to work due to his health but his wife was an RN with a high paying position at a local hospital.
They had 3 children. They couldn't pay what they owed and so filed and spent the next 5 or 6 years eating Ramen Noodles as a steady diet. The court allowed them $1.25 a day for each family member to eat on and enough money for her to get to work on plus utilities. Her father was a very rich man and saw to it that they had enough extra money to live a little bit better. He would buy them extra food. He had loaned them the money to buy their home and let them go without making any payments until they got out of BK and of course didn't charge them any interest during that time either. If you file the court will take away all your credit cards so as to treat all creditors equally. They can take much more than that as well. Even though you win in a manner of speaking you will lose far more than you will ever gain from it and you will lose far more than you can ever lose by dealing with the summons and complaint that is certain to come unless you do nothing but sit back and let it happen. If you learn to think outside the box and learn what you can do to protect your assets as well as how to turn the tables on them by filing federal lawsuits against the debt collectors and their lawyers you will not only protect what you have but make them pay you to go away and leave them alone. It isn't the least bit hard to do and you don't even need to hire a lawyer to do it for you. The federal court system even has templates on line that you can use to copy and learn from. Standard forms that anyone can use to do exactly what I have told you can be done. More than 28,000 people have successfully sued debt collectors and attorneys so far and the number keeps growing every month. If more than 28,000 people can do it why can't you?

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So far every similar closed unserved case I have reviewed says "voluntary dismissal".

Maybe so but far more cases end in involuntary dismissal or the bankruptcy is completed.

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So you tell me what you think my best options are.

I just did that. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to respond to you. Now you should know that the final resolution to your problem lies with you, not with your creditors, not with their debt collectors and not with their lawyers and not with some bankruptcy judge unless you let them have the reins and drive your little red wagon for you. Believe it or not, the keys to your future are right here on this web site and are right in front of your very own eyes right now, just a mouse click away.

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Originally Posted by mellowone I would love to see how this is done. As I've said before, when I lost in civil court, my atty said I can't file in federal because you can't sue over a case that has already been decided. Can you be more specific?

Well, your attorney told you the truth. You can't sue over a case that has already been decided. But that is not the whole truth and it cannot be said that it is nothing but the truth. Let me explain. First of all, you can't sue over a case that has already been decided Even if you could sue in federal court they would not have the jurisdiction nor the power to rule on the correctness of what a state court judge had decided.

But who said you had to try to sue over the judgment results? There are many ways to do what you have been told you cannot do. It is the same with the idea that you can't sue yourself but that isn't necessarily true. You can sue yourself if you go about it the right way which is to have a means whereby the fact that you are actually suing yourself. The way that is done is to have a corporation which you control in some meaningful way sue you. If you own the corporation it is possible that the real victim of you having sued yourself can prove that is what you did. If you know someone who owns a corporation and knows how to get the job done and you have them do it for you then it is a piece of cake. The question is why would you do that? The answer is that doing so is doing the same thing firefighters do when fighting a big grass fire. They set a backfire, let it burn out the stuff the big fire would burn and when the big fire gets there it has no fuel so it goes out. If you sue yourself and get a big judgment and garnish 25% of your wages a judgment creditor can't get a thing! Your boss sends the 25% of your wages to the court who then sends it to the corporation you used to sue yourself and you get the money back. It isn't cheap to do that but it is much, much cheaper than losing your money to a judgment.

Now then back on topic. You can sue the judge in federal court if he somehow violates your due process rights. You can sue the lawyer who obtained the judgment if s/he violates your rights under FDCPA or FCRA in the process of getting the judgment or in trying to implement it through garnishment or other legal process and you can sue the 3rd party debt collector for any mistakes they might have made.

So your lawyer told you the truth but not all of the truth.

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