Has anyone tried to or successfully purchased a debt (for example, one that they might owe) from a JDB/CA? It seems, after an account has been sold, it's now just another piece of property like a car or a share of stock. So, I'm wondering what would prevent a JDB from just selling it to the [alleged] debtor as opposed to another JDB or anyone else? Seems to make some economic sense. For example, if the JDB bought it for 5% of face value and sold it for 50%, that's just money in their pocket (and it prevents them from reporting it to a credit bureau). Just wondering...
You can attempt it but, I've never actually seen anyone do it. Really, you would just need to buy the assignment rights to prevent reporting.
The law seems not to have evolved yet to deal with these issues. The fact that assisgnment has long existed doesn't mean that assigning debt in the way it has recently been done is clear.
C/Max (fka Creditnet) is a marketplace for buyers and sellers of debt. Their tombstones in the Credit & Collections World Magazine run the gamut from multi-million dollar sales of thousands of accounts at once, down to single accounts, $4,000 or so in debt. So yes, theoretically if you were registered as a debt buyer with c/max and you spied a debt that was yours (I'm not sure those single accounts show names, perhaps just zips, fico scores and amounts), you could buy it. This also explains a little bit about what sometimes happens to debtors who pay a JDB in full ... that PIF triggers them to go looking on c/max for other debts belonging to the debtor that they can buy. Perhaps that's something that debtors making settlement agreements with JDBs should throw in: "JDB will not acquire any interest in the following debts [list 'em out] in a non-bulk transaction. If JDB shall attempt to collect on a debt purchased in a non-bulk manner, debtor shall be entitled to liquidated damages equal to any amount collected and reasonable costs and attorneys fees."
As others here have stated junk debt is bought in huge bundles, usually by what are known as brokers who have the funds to buy several millions of dollars worth at a time. Junk debt buyers then buy smaller bundles from the brokers and often split their bundles into even smaller bundles and sell those to the actual debt collectors. By the time the debtor hears from the debt collector the debt might have been sold three or 4 times. That's why it would be almost impossible to even find a single debt. It is also why it is so difficult to get validation of a debt sometimes. Anybody can buy junk debt provided they are willing to buy at least $50,000 worth at a time.
Presumably the alleged debtor would simply allow the alleged debt to find him. When collection starts, that's his alleged debt! So finding the debt shouldn't be too much trouble. The issue would seem to be in convincing whoever supposedly owned it at the time to sell it to you. Would they agree to sell it to you for a song or would they conclude that anyone savvy enough to come up with this sort of scheme has to be a money bags worthy of requiring full payment times ten from?
Presumably any thing is possible. Presumably they will always be willing to sell the debtor his debt. I've never heard of a debt collector who would not sell the debt to the debtor. Presumably you can tell us what a song is worth in terms of American Dollars??? Presumably that's much more likely.
