Comments on: How To Fight Back Against Collection Agencies

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 04:42:57 +0000

I leased my car on September 5, 2009, and fell behind on payments in February after closing my former self-employment business due to no work. I am six months behind on payments. I immediately got a state education grant and I am pursuing an education in medicine. I am in school full-time until September, which with my EMT certification by then, I can hopefully get a job, student loans, and still go to school full-time to shoot to become a doctor. The repo people for American Honda Financial have been harrassing my siblings and others at ungodly hours of the morning, knocking on their doors. IS THIS LEGAL here in Pennyslvania????? I have also become homeless and live with a freind, but a family member told the repo guy where I am so they came knocking on the door at 11pm the other evening!! My friend denied knowing me but I want this harrassment of family, friends, and me to stop!!! What can I do?

By: Dee

Dee — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:37:37 +0000

Just wanted to say thank you for this article – I was about to give up and this information has me believing I may actually be able to do something!

My ex-husband had a department store credit card that he opened on his own back in the early 90’s. Since our divorce 4 years ago he has pretty much gone bankrupt and now they are after me to pay for the charges that he made after he left me! I haven’t the slightest idea how they found me and associate me as the responsible party for his account – it’s so odd because I have my own account with this same department store that is completely paid off and in excellent standing on my credit report. The info in this article will help me big time!

Thank you so much!
D.

By: Ernest

Ernest — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:25:00 +0000

Hi Jen,

Thanks for writing this How very helpful tips. I recently received a call from a collection agency witch I paid over $2500 to. I regret paying that much for a morphed debt of only $1100. I was stupid but I learned from that. What made me angry is 3 years later I’m receiving calls from collection agency about the same debt. The allege debt is not on my credit report, I have a credit score of over 700. Should I just Ignore them? Or should I use the sample letter you post to fight them?

P.S they don’t even have the spelling of my name right.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 01:32:26 +0000

Iam so glad I found this site… I do have a question…. I just checked my credit and it says I have 2 items that are negative on my credit… now it says that it is from the hospital… but here is the thing…. TX sOL is 4 years .. when I went to the hospital was when i was living in that city 4 years ago … i dont live there anymore but it says there that it was opened in 07 when i was living in another city …. and i have never talked to anyone to set my sol over again… they have illegaly changed my year to be 07 so collections has reset my year for 07 to … what can i do?????

By: Lissette

Lissette — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 22:27:20 +0000

I found this site very useful. my daughter is being harassed by a CA. she got into some debt troubles and I am helping her pay them off. But one has been very abusive on the phone. and I felt she should let the sol run out with this one because of their behavior. Just my feeling.. using scare taticts calling her names lol and asking why I dont pay her bill for her .. I am letting live here rent free that is helping alot. if she didnt move back in she couldnt afford to have paid off the others. She was trying to pay that last one off in payments but they became rude with her when she couldn’t make a payment that same day. thank you for the useful information.
oh and fyi to all the negative post… most of the people posting on this site most likely were trying to make good on debit .. but when it all becomes harassment..who wants to deal with the CA anymore.

By: J. McGregor

J. McGregor — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 06:18:51 +0000

Nice article. thecreditbible.com is what I used. The cease and desist letter does work everyone. My CA informed me this year it falls off.

By: Bert

Bert — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 02:50:43 +0000

I used this letter as a template for a few collection agencies that are after me for payment on Medical debt for a series of surgeries I had a couple years ago. So far I got a response from one agency where the did verify the debt i owe them where they broke down the amount from the original debtor (Their client who’s the hospital I stayed in).

The letter says if I don’t pay the full amount in the next 30 days they’ll forward to a lawyer to process a judgement on me . At least it did include a single point of contact to call directly, which I’ll probably do in the coming week.

I guess my point is, if you do know you have debt it’s probably better to let it rite until the statute of limitation time is met because writing a letter like this to collection agencies can open a much bigger can of worms than the one you’re already in.

By: rog

rog — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 13:44:34 +0000

I have enjoyed reading your website immensely. It has helped me out a lot. Some great advice that I have followed and it’s worked.
Here’s one additional thing I have picked up on.
I live in New Jersey. If I am correct, a law firm acting on behalf of a so called creditor, has to post a collection bond with the state treasury department. Some of these bottom-feeders feel that they are so above the law, they fail to comply with this. I’m not sure, but this might be the same in other states. And there are other law firms who will counter sue on a contingency basis for violations to the fair debt procedures.
Rog

By: mike

mike — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 17:45:31 +0000

I have a q,uc is trying to collect money from me because I never went to school, because I got a job instaed but I never un enrolled so they’re charging me for not waiving my health insurance even though I’m on my parents and also for late fees,what can I do? An what will happen if I don’t pay it?

By: Soras

Soras — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:45:11 +0000

Imagine the fallout for them if we ALL stopped paying. I know it’s only a dream but it sure would be fun to watch.
I pay my credit card bills on time and most of the time I send over the minimum payment. Over the past few months, my American Express Blue minimum payment has gone sky high and is now out of my budget. If they had mentioned to me that they would be screwing me with a spiked pipe I never would have taken this card. That’s just it, they change the rules whenever they want and we have to comply or suffer their abuse. Even if we pay our bills on time they still screw us.

By: La Henche

La Henche — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 05:03:04 +0000

To all you folks that want to play the high moral side of the fence here- EFF YOU! This is war. Americans are at WAR with this mongrels. All is fair in love and war you know. If that means walking away and defaulting on debt, so be it. TOO BAD! We are all paying for it anyway in our taxes and government bailouts.

All of our parents raised us to be responsible people, perhaps we should have taken some of their financial advice to heart. Bottom line: We are dealing with subhuman PIG F’RS in banks, lawyers, collection agents etc. They should be dealt with extreme prejudice.

THESE COLLECTIONS DOPES CANNOT DO ANYTHING. Especially during a period of discovery they reveal how impotent and big talking they are.

ALL BARK. NO BITE.

Do yourself and your country a favor: DEFAULT AND WALK AWAY!

By: thomas

thomas — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:00:07 +0000

Thank you for calling me stupid, when the truth is I was just did not know what my rights were and fell victim to their threatening behavior. Even worse, I provided my checking account as well as eventualy got garnished, when I misssed my first payment, and they were talking shit, and threatening to take me back to court–costing me a day orr work, court cost, and penalties.

I just cant believe I got screwed. Now I am 75% debt paid, plus the interest they have charged me.

Good luck to everyone else!

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:25:27 +0000

HELLO! I CANNOT TELL YOU THE NIGHTMARE THAT I HAVE SUSTAINED SINCE IN 1997 I HAD TO WITHDRAW FROM MY DOCTORAL PROGRAM DUE TO MY SPOUSE’S ILLNESS. I ASKED THE FLDOE FOR A HARDSHIP DEFERMENT DUE TO HIS ILLNESS AND MY HAVING TO BECOME HIS CARETAKER. IMMEDIATELY, I WAS DENIED AND IMMEDIATELY THE PHONE CALLS STARTED. THE FLDOE HIRED OUT OF STATE AGENCIES THAT RUINED MY CREDIT REPORT, CONTACTED OUR CHILDREN, THEIR EMPLOYERS, OUR NIEGHBORS, MY OLD EMPLOYERS AND ANY NEW EMPLOYERS THAT HIRED ME OR THOUGHT ABOUT HIRING ME…THEY CALLED 24/7 FROM AS EARLY AS 6 AM AS LATE AS 2 AM. IN 2007 THEY CONTACTED OUR NEWLY WED SON’S YOUNG WIFE’S FAMILY..THAT PROMPTED MY SPOUSE TO SUSTAIN RENAL FAILURE FROM THE HIGH BLOOD PRESURE WHERE HE REMAINED IN CRITICAL CONDITION FOR TEN DAYS…..I CANNOT TELL YOU THE FILTHY LANGUAGE THESE PEOPLE USED ON ALL OF US.
I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO FIND GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT SINCE. MY SPOUSE IS TERMINALLY NOW AND I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO WORK TO SECURE ANYTHING FOR US OR MYSELF AS HE PASSES.
MY ADVICE IS DO NOT BORROW ANYTHING FOR AN EDUCATION. IF YOU CAN’T PAY UP FRONT FOR A CLASS DO NOT BORROW. THE FLDOE HIDES BEHIND THE GUISE OF CRIMINALITY.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME IS HORRIBLE AND NOW WHAT….

By: Oregon Collection Agency

Oregon Collection Agency — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:09:10 +0000

Hello Jennifer,

I enjoyed reading your post, but I think it is sad that in America we have so many people needing to dodge bad debt in the first place. The reality is that most people with credit card debt knowingly incurred that debt at some point. It sucks for both parties. We have companies losing money and we have consumers being taken advantage of with high interest rates. In general, us Americans need to rethink how we handle debt. We definitely need to stop living beyond our means and start taking responsibility for our actions. Even though, and trust me I know, it sucks paying back high interest credit cards.

Thanks for all the information!

By: greedyngreen

greedyngreen — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 08:34:31 +0000

First off John, I’m speaking from personal experience along with thousands of others on hundreds of sites like this…

Second, the questions you should be asking are these:

If you go to any civil courthouse roster in your local area at 8am, will a majority of the cases posted be from 5 separate junk debt attorneys who each submitted thousands of suits as plaintiffs for debt collection purposes with little to no evidence and/or intention of ever actually showing up to the trial?

Do the Debt Collection scumbag attorneys inflate and multiply the amounts owed by adding thousands of dollars in attorneys fees and interest making an original $400 debt a collection amount of $3,000+ in as little as 2 years?

Are there attorneys who do nothing but run debt collection “factories” where they have a call center phone operator staff that calls on accounts that they purchase for pennies on the dollar trying to “dial for dollars” saying whatever they possibly can to get information so they can drain the victims bank account or take payroll deductions once they have their default judgement in court against the victim?

Is your question about me “showing that this really works” a pathetic attempt to disguise yourself as a possible victim from scumbag debt collectors when you’re ACTUALLY a scumbag debt collector yourself who would like to raise skepticism against the fact that victims can fight back and win with the ultimate hope of discouraging other potential victims so you can make an extra buck this month to pay your rent?