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Puppy Galaxy posted:Someone else may know better than me, but it seems like you have nothing to lose by disputing it, right? if it ends up being legitimate, you can just ... not pay it, right? Maybe thats the route I'll take. In the back of my head I had thought that if you dispute it and they verify it restarts the window of time they have to collect on it.
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Nov 7, 2019 19:12
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BaseballPCHiker posted:Maybe thats the route I'll take. In the back of my head I had thought that if you dispute it and they verify it restarts the window of time they have to collect on it.
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Nov 7, 2019 23:07
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Sending off my response to the collection agency today by certified mail/return receipt/etc. To anybody else who has to do this I'd really like to recommend the form letters from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They've got one for most every type of response. Further, the Federal Trade Commission's Debt Collection FAQ was a real help. I'll post when I get a response.
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Nov 11, 2019 19:02
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Resolved! Went to court last week, ended up paying 40 cents on the dollar to resolve it with tradeline delete. Grateful for the thread, glad to get this taken care of.
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Dec 9, 2019 18:32
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Pershing posted:Resolved! Went to court last week, ended up paying 40 cents on the dollar to resolve it with tradeline delete. Grateful for the thread, glad to get this taken care of. It really is amazing how great it can feel to get this poo poo dealt with. Its also nice knowing you aren't the only one dealing with this nonsense.
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Dec 9, 2019 19:41
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lord_daeloth posted:It really is amazing how great it can feel to get this poo poo dealt with. Its also nice knowing you aren't the only one dealing with this nonsense. It was shocking to me how many people where there...one round of court had fifty plus people doing exactly what I was doing.
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Dec 9, 2019 23:51
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Pershing posted:It was shocking to me how many people where there...one round of court had fifty plus people doing exactly what I was doing. Yup, and those are just the ones that showed up. I don't know for sure, but I'd guess its only a fraction of those that were served.
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Dec 10, 2019 21:58
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About 9 months ago my wife and I got a letter from a collections agency about some dubious debt from the hospital we delivered our child at. To be clear, we payed plenty of bills, and then suddenly we got this one that we had never seen nor heard of before, and it was marked as fully paid in the insurance system. We sent a "I hereby dispute the validity of this debt, please provide evidence bithc" letter, certified mail, within a week. We didn't hear from them since. Now today, we receive basically the same letter from a different debt collections agency about the same debt. I'm assuming that agency 1 didn't feel like dealing with validating and sold the debt to agency 2. Should I just send a similar letter to agency 2? Should I include information about our attempt to validate with agency 1, or leave that unsaid? Is there any additional threatening language I can add in, like "look bitch I"m gonna sue you if you don't validate immediately"? Also we are moving in about 6 months, like what happens if these bastards keep passing the baton after we leave this address and begin to assume that we are "not responding within 30 days" even though we don't live here anymore?
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Jan 25, 2020 02:06
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alnilam posted:About 9 months ago my wife and I got a letter from a collections agency about some dubious debt from the hospital we delivered our child at. To be clear, we payed plenty of bills, and then suddenly we got this one that we had never seen nor heard of before, and it was marked as fully paid in the insurance system. We sent a "I hereby dispute the validity of this debt, please provide evidence bithc" letter, certified mail, within a week. We didn't hear from them since. It probably doesn't make it feel any better, but delinquent medical debt doesn't have a big impact on your credit score after a year or two. If you're not planning any major borrowing, it likely won't affect you more than having to write an occasional letter. Sucks, though.
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Jan 25, 2020 03:19
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Okay, certified letter sent. so did agency 1 violate the FDCPA by not replying? It's not clear to me if they sold the debt to agency 2, or if they returned it to the hospital who then sold it back out to agency 2. If they did violate it, is it worth taking them to small claims? What damages can I get? They haven't pestered us or anything, it's really just been the one letter from each agency and then silence.
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Jan 25, 2020 22:24
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(I am not your lawyer or any lawyer for that matter, and this isn't legal advice) Judgment is easy to get because they will not show up. Getting them to pay the judgment is a whole other ball of wax. If you go that route, I would recommend using the second company against the first, because if the first did not disclose the dispute before the sale to the second, then the second has a cause of action against the first, and if they did, then the second is liable for trying to collect a disputed debt without verification.
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Jan 25, 2020 22:44
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In November of 2018 I started getting calls from a debt collector. I got the name of the company the debt originated with and told them to not call me again. The company it originated with is a gas company in the town I went to college in. I call them and the old debt is from 2001. I remember dealing with this in 2001 and it boiled down to me moving to a different apartment but them still charging for a month at my old place. There was someone already living at my old place and they showed me a gas bill with their name on it, I called the gas company with this information and didn't hear anything for seventeen years. I don't know if it applies to this, but the state where the debt originated has a debt collection limit of 10 years. After dealing with this company on and off again for about a year I get through to someone that tells me that the company itself has a limit on debt collection of 15 years and that my debt isn't valid by that policy, let alone whatever it may be for the state. They're supposed to send me a thing telling me this but instead send a thing that says I still owe them the $98.  I forget about it until today when credit karma notifies me that this is now a new thing on my transunion report from a different company than the last time and has dropped my score under 800. What do I need from the original company to effectively dispute this? Or do I just need to call them, verify that the debt is not valid and just dispute it through transunion and equifax while I'm at it?
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Feb 21, 2020 19:06
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Stop calling anyone. Send a Dunning letter with delivery confirmation to the collection agency and dispute it with the CRA.
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Feb 22, 2020 05:23
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Anyone brought up this book yet? It's a really good read and opens one's eyes. For example, by the time a debt is uncollected and a few years old, it's not even sold for pennies anymore - it's sold for "bips", or basis points...or one one-hundredth of one cent. Your $5,000 credit card debt could, after a few years, be a row on an Excel sheet with your name, phone number, address, balance, and maybe a couple of other bits of information, bought for a nickel or less. It shows the other side of the debt-collection scheme/scam, and even goes into an incident that escalated to almost-violence when "paper" was stolen. It's truly a fascinating and seedy underbelly of the financial world.
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Mar 4, 2020 16:08
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I got a call from a public hospital billing department. I've been getting treatment from them, and they called to say I owed them $155. After a substantial amount of digging, it turns out that they had refunded $106 to another billing department of the same hospital (which is in the process of refunding me the money), and had failed to account for another $100 that had been paid to them, meaning on net, they owed me $51 when they were calling to collect. The $106 they refunded to another department didn't appear on any of the statements they had sent to me; I had to demand a comprehensive bill in order to even be able to see it. Do I have an FDCP case based on the false representation of the "character, amount, or legal status of any debt?" I admit to being pretty (possibly irrationally) pissed about this, because they called me first thing in the morning, woke me up, and I was then immediately put on hold for three minutes before anyone picked up. Washington state, if it matters. EDIT: I also don't know if this matters, but the department they refunded the $106 to sat on that money for four months, until I called them. Ham Equity fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Mar 4, 2020 |
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Mar 4, 2020 18:26
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So I'm in Canada, which I imagine changes a few things, and the world is on fire...which might change things. Some background: Last summer I quit my PhD. I quit for a few reasons but the relevant ones are I couldn't afford tuition anymore and my thesis advisor was so emotionally abusive that she put me into therapy, and I'd finally decided I had enough. Spring tuition deadline comes, I don't pay it, when the department says you need to pay your tuition I tell them that I want to drop out of the program. They tell me that I need to get a signed letter from my advisor in order to withdraw, I say I'm not comfortable with that and just want to withdraw. Hear nothing for a few months then get the same email, respond the same way. A few months later I get an email that I've been withdrawn from the program. The department is extremely gossipy and I can't trust anyone to be confidential there, and can't mentally deal with interacting with my advisor, so I never told them the poo poo she would regularly say to me, so they never know the extent of it. I notice on my student account that the summer tuition is sitting on the account and needs to be paid, but wanting to never deal with the university again, I stupidly just ignore it. Even before quitting I moved away, so the address they have on file is wrong and I forgot to update it. Skip ahead to about a week ago and I get a call from a number, the person on the line only says the acronym for their company, and immediately asks me to verify my full name and address. Having no idea what they're talking about, I ask what it's about but when they keep saying they need my full name and address to continue, I refuse. During this call though, she does mention a street name for an address I used to live at before my PhD, so it's 2 addresses ago. Eventually I get off the line with her, not giving any information, and google the acronym and phone number, and discover they are debt collections. I check my student account and see that yes, my debt has been sent to collections. There's an email address that's still the university's domain and I send an email explaining the situation and how I dropped out and what can I do about this? No response from that after a week. Yesterday I got several calls that I missed from the same company, with one voicemail about "an urgent matter is on my desk, please call back and refer to this case number. I need a call ASAP before I proceed." I check my credit report and there's no debt on there. I email the school again, and this time the registrars office with an appeal to amend tuition fees form. I should have done all this months ago but...here we are. The thing is the school is almost definitely closed until ???? because of the pandemic, so I don't actually expect anything from them anytime soon. It's a strange situation but my question is basically, can I keep ignoring the calls from the debt collection company while I try to figure this out with the university? This feels like the whole "never talk to the cops" thing where I don't want to give them any information about me that they can use against me or as acknowledgement of this debt. If there were any written notices sent to either of the old addresses, I never would have gotten them, so can't really deal with them in writing. I shouldn't have just ignored this for so long hoping it would go away, but I'm afraid even saying "I'm in contact with the university about this, but obviously they're closed for the foreseeable future" acknowledges that I know what they're talking about.
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Mar 18, 2020 12:52
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Never talk to cops or debt collectors. Unfortunately I have no further suggestions.
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Mar 18, 2020 15:17
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I guess that's my major question of will I be in more trouble if I just ignore/block these calls while trying to figure this out through other channels.
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Mar 18, 2020 21:21
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I don't know if Canada has something like the FDCPA but in the US if you tell a debt collector to stop calling you, in writing, they must do so or face statutory penalties.
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Mar 18, 2020 21:55
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ugh...so back in january i received a collection letter from an attorney saying they were collecting on a debt for discover - i didnt recognize it and i sent a DV letter certified mail and got confirmation it was delivered jan 29...which means their 30 days to verify expired Mar 1 right? well that date comes and goes and i don't hear anything back and i forget about it...until today? i got a packet of documents dated Mar 17 (so definitely past the 30 days i gave them) saying that there was a judgement entered in the state of new york back in november 2012. nothing from discover themselves, just the summary of judgement from the court i guess. a) i moved to minnesota in august 2012, and i was never notified or served or anything? so obviously i did not/could not show up to defend myself against this judgement. this is the first im hearing about this now 7+ years later b) it's not even on my credit report - if something does show up now can i dispute it? c) the statute of limitations in both ny and minnesota is 6 years, does that help me at all here? d) im thinking no because this is where it's complicated....the address on the judgement is where my mom lives (we are estranged) and im almost 100% sure this is her doing and it says there was a payment made in 2016 (not by me - there is no other information on this it just says date of last payment: march 30 2016) which probably throws the SOL out the window huh? sorry if this is confusing. basically i live in minnesota, im pretty sure my estranged mother opened a credit card in ny back in 2012 in my name and defaulted on it, im now receiving notices from debt collectors on a judgement for it but i was never actually served and they didnt respond to my request to verify the debt within 30 days. what should i do? i want to avoid any contact with my mom if at all possible - can i just send another certified letter saying "hey you didnt even get back to me in 30 days before like i asked also there's no information on the original debt this is just a default judgement from the state on it also it's only a default judgement in the first place because i didn't know about it and wasn't properly served" please tell me it's that easy. 
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Mar 21, 2020 17:41
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If you're sure you never opened this credit card account, your first step is to file a police report against your mother for identity theft and fraud. (Yes I know I said never talk to the cops before but this is different.)
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Mar 21, 2020 19:22
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meat glitter posted:can i just send another certified letter saying "hey you didnt even get back to me in 30 days They don't have to respond within 30 days, they just can't do further collection activities until they finally validate. It isn't time barred in either Minnesota or New York if a payment was made in the last six years, as both of those states reage based on last payment. Your strongest legal case is the fact that it was a fraudulent card opened in your name not by you that you had no awareness of. Since there is a summary of judgement, and you weren't served, you should consult a lawyer. I do not think you should file a police report against your mother for identity theft at this time because all you know is that a card was fraudulently opened in your name, not who did it, at this time, since they didn't provide you with details from Discover about the card. My response certified mail would probably mention that I never opened a card with Discover that was left to default and have never had knowledge of the account as it has never appeared on my credit report. I have no knowledge of the judgement provided as I was never served or otherwise made aware of it. Please cease all collections activity as this is not my debt for these reasons, as you have not properly validated that the debt is in fact mine, as that is impossible as it is not. Please provide complete information about this account so that as this is likely a case of identity theft against myself I may pursue proper legal action. But yeah if there is already a summary judgement I would probably consult a lawyer before responding.
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Mar 28, 2020 11:55
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So I had an old phone bill I didn't pay for months and it hit collections last month. The owner of the debt was still thev] original Verizon on creditwise/karma so I called them up and paid in full. They sent me two documents one stating I paid in full and another letting me know my change to credit is pending. Now I went in and disputed with Xperian/Transunion immediately after I disconnected that call with those documents attached. Any chance I'll be able to get this charge completely removed or did I just waste 400 dollars?
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Apr 23, 2020 20:08
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shirunei posted:So I had an old phone bill I didn't pay for months and it hit collections last month. The owner of the debt was still thev] original Verizon on creditwise/karma so I called them up and paid in full. They sent me two documents one stating I paid in full and another letting me know my change to credit is pending. Now I went in and disputed with Xperian/Transunion immediately after I disconnected that call with those documents attached. Any chance I'll be able to get this charge completely removed or did I just waste 400 dollars?
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Apr 23, 2020 21:19
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streetlamp posted:Thanks for this thread and replying to help my dumbass. I called the law firm, after a few attempts I got a lawyer on the phone who could pull up my record. He spoke very fast and aggressive and was immediately typing away hard as we spoke he kept throwing out deals that I would answer sorry I can't pay that, I have no money. He finally said well could you do $200 a month? I felt really pressured and not liking how this is going but as mentioned above and by a few friends I should try to settle out of court, not have my wages garnished, no court, etc. I agree to $200 a month and the second I said sure he was emailing a contract to sign and overnight to him. And I'm back once again. After this first court appearance I was unable to come to any possible terms of payment with the law firm. Thew few times I was actually able to reach them. I received another court hearing from the same law firm. Showed up to court this morning and it was the same lawyer acting on behalf of the law firm from before. Unfortunately this time the judge simply asked do I owe the ~$8k and I said yes sir. Can't blame him for being straight to the point. So I have a judgement against me for the money now. I meet with the lawyer outside of the court room to talk about making payments but he says he doesn't have any of that information and to just call the firm he was acting on behalf of. No issue with the judgement, I mean I owe the debt. This law firm is really terrible to deal with and now there has been a judgement I assume I have very little (if any?) room to negotiate. The only method of payment they accept is check in the mail and they could not provide me receipts. I assume I get back in contact with firm now and make sure to get a written agreement before any money is sent? Also this was on my credit report at one time but it no longer is and the accounts are marked closed. My credit score has been rising the last few years after I actually started making plans to drive down my debt. Can this law firm put this on my report again? Thanks y'all
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Jul 20, 2020 18:03
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streetlamp posted:Can this law firm put this on my report again?
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Jul 20, 2020 21:41
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Hey medical debt pals! Got a sketchy text message today with a tiny image of a letter and an "encrypted link to a PDF", which I obviously didn't click. I screenshot the text and zoomed in on that to read the image, which is from MBB, which looks to be a legit debt collector. I only have two outstanding bills from my heart surgery, the majority of which is though the hospital and I'm on a payment plan, the second of which looks to be from the surgeons office, and I'm giving them 50 a month, although I haven't actually talked to anyone. I just made a payment on that bill, through their online service this past Thursday. Checked my credit report today and it's not showing any bad stuff. I did have a bill go into debt collection a couple months ago, but I paid that off as soon as I received the physical letter from them saying I was going to do into collection. Am I being scammed?
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Jul 20, 2020 22:01
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Yeah, definitely. Ignore it. If they send something via snail mail, confirm them with your state's AG office before sending a dunning letter.
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Jul 20, 2020 22:11
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Cool, I thought I covered my bases, but I remembered this thread and wanted to check. Thanks!!
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Jul 20, 2020 22:12
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Never respond ever by text, there are whole office buildings in Kolkata that make millions doing this poo poo.
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Jul 20, 2020 23:15
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streetlamp posted:And I'm back once again. Get you a bankruptcy lawyer to wipe this judgement out (as well as any other debt you have)
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Jul 21, 2020 03:13
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vortmax posted:Get you a bankruptcy lawyer to wipe this judgement out (as well as any other debt you have) Thanks for the suggestion. I'll ask around for any recommendations, I had received two or three letters from local firms after seeing I had a debt related case pop up I could reach out to.
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Jul 21, 2020 14:19
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streetlamp posted:And I'm back once again. I had two judgements against me during what I refer to as my "scumbag years." The first time I had no idea what I was getting into, didn't dispute the debt at the court date, and worked out a payment plan with the lawyer in a side room just before appearing before the judge. The second time I didn't know there was a judgement against me - I never did completely put it together, but the court date I found out about was a payment hearing, and I was told that it was too late to dispute the debt. This time the judge asked me what I could pay every month, I pulled a number out of thin air, and that was that. Each time I paid via check every month. Never received anything in writing until the accounts were paid in full, but I made sure to keep copies of the cancelled checks. I did have a hard time figuring out who to send the checks to the second time around and had to make a bunch of calls but eventually got an answer. The second time I actually miscalculated what I'd owed and stopped paying a month too soon. Got called back to court, figured out my mistake in the interim, sent a check for the amount I'd missed, but still had to show up in court and confirm that I'd paid it. My theory is that the law firm has no incentive to contact me directly about a missed payment so instead they go by the book and rack up some more fees. (The lawyer did let ~$75 in additional fees related to the court date slide once he saw that I'd paid up). This probably varies by state, but in my case the judgements showed on my credit report for a few years. They didn't show as new debts. My score took a hit but recovered eventually. So yes, if you decide you don't want to pursue a bankruptcy judgment, call the law firm, get a payment plan in writing, and then don't expect to hear from them for as long as you send a check. Just keep copies of your statements showing they were cashed. I think anyone who participates in the small claims court debt collection industry is scummy, but law firms are going to be far less scummy than debt collection agencies. YMMV of course. Puppy Galaxy fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Jul 21, 2020 |
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Jul 21, 2020 15:35
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Puppy Galaxy posted:Helpful Info Thanks for this, sounds pretty much what I have gathered. Helps to see your experiences.
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Jul 21, 2020 19:16
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Just got a letter from Performant saying I owe someone 29k. Absolutely no idea wtf that's about. Just checked my credit report on my bank's website and there's no bad notes except an inquiry from Performant in July. I'm working my way through the thread but at first glance it looks like I need to send one of these reply letters asap?
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Oct 26, 2020 00:45
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Keeping the details light; let me know if you need more. I just found out that I have more credit card debt than I thought. I think it's all relatively current; only a couple accounts are closed and as far as I can tell, it's all still with the original lenders. What is my best course of action to try and make this all go away? A friend suggested that I call the companies up and see if I can't settle each line/close it for some percentage of what is actually owed on it. Is this possible to do on my own? Should I be contacting some sort of professional about it? I don't think the situation is bad enough that I need to declare bankruptcy, but it definitely throws a massive wrench in my short- and medium-term life plans here. Any advice is appreciated!
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Mar 14, 2021 22:57
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Zarin posted:I just found out that I have more credit card debt than I thought. I think it's all relatively current; only a couple accounts are closed and as far as I can tell, it's all still with the original lenders. So is the debt definitely yours/legit? If so, yeah, couldn't hurt to offer to settle, some companies are more willing than others. Try to do everything in writing if possible. Just always lowball what you can pay. If they are willing there will be some back and forth and if you play it right, you should end up right about where you feel comfortable. I've never personally worked with a debt relief company, but I have friends who have. It seemed like it cost a fair bit, but on the other hand they had a lot less thinking to do in order to get everything taken care of compared to all the crap I did. If your credit isn't completely trashed yet, there's also the option of a consolidation loan, but its hard to find one where you actually save money.
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Mar 15, 2021 13:16
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Is there a bankruptcy “how to” thread? Or is this it? I’ll read from the beginning of this thread if so.
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Mar 15, 2021 13:42
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lord_daeloth posted:So is the debt definitely yours/legit? My wife's; it is now my task to unfuck her/our finances. quote:If so, yeah, couldn't hurt to offer to settle, some companies are more willing than others. Try to do everything in writing if possible. Just always lowball what you can pay. If they are willing there will be some back and forth and if you play it right, you should end up right about where you feel comfortable. How far would you lowball? 50% owed? 25%? 75%? My credit is fine, it seems. Her rating is in the dumpster, but at least one of the cards she has is listed in the "these are the good credit cards" thread, so I might just use that for monthly bills or something, and pay it off each month to work on building her credit back up. I've had a couple spots of good luck so far - some of the bills due to the city, they just went ahead and waived the (considerable) stacked-up late fees. The power company put me on a 0% interest repayment plan that seems reasonable. The largest single card put me on a low-interest repayment plan, but I may still consider trying to lowball lump-sum settle once I get everything sorted out and I have a full picture of our financial position. I'm still working my way through every single active account and making sure everything is current. I'm . . . hoping . . . for no more surprises. She said there shouldn't be, but I feel like that guarantee is about worth the CO2 used to utter it.
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Mar 15, 2021 19:05
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Every settlement I've made I started at half of what I could actually send them, which generally ended up being around 25% of the amount "owed" on the account. They might be a bit bleh about the offer if they are the original creditors, but it doesn't hurt to try. I also made sure to state that any offer of settlement is an offer only and not a promise to pay unless unless a written settlement agreement can be reached. Probably not strictly needed, but I always felt it was a good idea to cover all bases. Usually after a couple rounds of haggling it would wind up around 50%ish of what was owed, or right around what funds I had available. Most should jump at these offers since its way more than they'd get if they sold it off to a collection agency and saves them in attorneys fees if they were thinking about suing. Depending on how hard you push, you can probably get even better deals. For most that was it, they'd send the agreement in writing, I'd send them a cashiers check via certified mail and tada. One company, though, sent me a financial disclosure form I had to fill out with copies of my bank statements before they would agree to the amount, I just blacked out all the giant dildo and horse tranq purchases before sending the copy off and refused to fill in some of the more personal bits (like my wife's employer's contact info???). In the end they still took the agreement, so it seems like you can be a bit pushy about it, though don't take that as any sort of hard and fast advice. Good faith offers of repayment are also probably good in the event that you get taken to court, though everyone I've ever dealt with always settled before things got that far, whether collection agency or original creditor. TLDR: Start your offer at about half of what you can afford to pay, push hard and stand firm at whatever max you set for yourself. Be stubborn. They'll cave or send it to collections, in which case the debt collector will almost certainly take the offer (though it might hit your credit report harder that way), and you'll have a record showing that you tried to make a deal.
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Mar 15, 2021 20:47
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