I am a rambler, so I hope I explain well enough to get some help. In the future, hopefully the near future, I am looking to move to Iowa to be with my boyfriend. For this to happen I would need to buy a house. I have been carefully going through my Credit Report, paying off my debts. I have all but 2 things gone. One would be a closed credit card that I had for Circuit City and the other medical expenses. Let's start with the Credit Card. It was charged off for 942. The bill being 800 and some change and the rest of it charges. They called me to offer me to pay the 800 and I agreed. This was about a year ago. I was waiting for my taxes in the mail and told them I would call them as soon as I got them in. I called about 3 weeks later and was told it was sold to a collection agency. I was furious and told them so. She said there was nothing they could do and directed me to the agency. I called.. Remember this.. I called them to PAY them. She was very nice and went on to tell me that I owed them 1297.00. I told her I would not pay that. I would pay her the 800 I owed circuit city. Maybe even the 942, but I would not pay her the 1297. She became irate and threatened me with court and so forth. I pretty much told her I will not change my mind, said goodbye and hung up. She harassed me for weeks! She called me several times a day. EVERYDAY! That however came to a screeching halt when she crossed the line. I have small children that when I am in the shower or step out for a few, that my 12 year old is instructed to not answer the phone unless they see it is my number. She somehow called my house with my cell number as the caller ID. I flipped out on her when I got to the phone, it didn't phase her at all. Anyway I took the needed steps to make sure she didn't call me again. I later found out she was harassing my neighbors daily as well. So the other day I received a letter from NCO ( the collection agency) telling me I now owe 1597.00. Any advice as to how I can take care of this. I am not trying to get out of paying my debt, but I want to pay my debt. Not all this extra stuff... like someone's salary! Now for the medical expenses.. There are many totaling over $8,000. Here is a quick run down of the story. I got divorced.. court order says he is to get health insurance for the kids. I am to pay co-payments and he is to pay anything over and above the co-payment and what was not covered. I did my part. All co-payments are paid. My dear ex doesn't believe in keeping a job. This means no insurance! Where I work the health insurance for a family plan is 1200 a month. It isn't an option. So no insurance means lots of bills. I have paid a fair share of them out of my pocket. I have paid all of there Regular doctor visits and sick visits. There are ER visits.. Dental Visits and Eye Doctor visits that slipped through. These are all on my Credit Report. I have disputed them and they have determined they are mine. A court order says otherwise. Does anyone have any advice for me as to how I can get them on his Credit Report?? I am not a person that thinks he is liable for everything. I have paid my share of medical bills and on top of that I do not get steady child support so I am the primary support for my children. One of the bills is under judgement. I am new to this but I think that is bad lol These are the last things I need to deal with and then my Credit will be in a much better place. Thanks to all that can and do offer help
Let me make sure I understand this: 1) She spoofed your cell phone's caller ID to call the house 2) She repeatedly called your neighbors to try to collect your debt Each of those would be a violation of the FDCPA. #2 is covered under section 804. While it might be permissible for a CA to call each of your neighbors once to track you down, it is not permissible to call them repeatedly unless she believed they were giving false information (and even then, I believe the CA can speak to them one more time). Section 805 clarifies that unless the CA is seeking location information ("Hi, my name is Frank. Do you know if John Smith lives at 123 Any Street in City, State?"), they can not communicate with third parties about your debt. #1 is covered under section 807, which says a CA may not use "false or misleading representations" in collecting a debt. The problem, of course, is proving that any of this happened. Someone who has actually gone through this with a CA might be able to offer better advice, but if you have all your ducks in a row, you might be able to barter away the debt. If they know they're on the hook for $2000 in damages, they'll suddenly become a lot less interested in that $1200 debt.
You could sue the 1st collection agency and use the proceeds from that to pay the second one. But, I doubt that the 2nd one could care less about any legal actions you might or might not bring against the first. RE: the medical bills, I'm not an attorney, but the beef there seems to be between you and your ex. You'd have to sue him for the money and other damages that resulted from him not keeping up his end of the divorce decree. I don't know your ex so I don't know if that would be worth the trouble or not. A law suit will definitely cost you money while collecting the money (if you won) might only be a distant maybe.
