Hello, First I have to say that I am glad I found this site, did not know it existed and it seems that there is a ton of useful info here for everyone, so thanks to all who contribute. Now for my issue. I had a Wal-Mart credit card account opened in 08/2002 with a $75 credit limit. I was 18 then and very irresponsible. So, being the idiot that I am, I did not pay for the $75 in purchases I made. Never made a payment on it. I know it was stupid. So, obviously the account eventually came up late and then got closed out and sent to collections. Well, the balance these days is about $375 and $300 of that is interest. Remember that it was only a $75 credit line. Well, lucky me, turns out that arrow financial is 'handling' this debt. I absolutely hate arrow financial and do not want to do business with them. But that is for reasons that i will explain now, prior to recent events I had no qualms with working with them. In september of 2005 I contacted the woman who was handling my account and we reached a settlement of $150 for the account split into 2 $75 payments from my checking account. The september withdrawal went through, but the october withdrawal came back NSF. I did not realize that the october payment did not go through until november and regrettably i did not call them back immediately to make other arrangements until just the other day. Well, I called and spoke with a woman and told her I wanted to take care of this account now by paying the $75 on my debit card. She said that it did not work that way and that the full amount was due since I did not follow through with my original agreement with them or at least call right away and make arrangements. I explained that I was sorry for not calling but I could not understand why they could not honor the original agreement and allow me to pay this and be done with it. She said the full amount is due and she could not take the $75. I asked to speak with a supervisor. He picked up and I explained to him what happened and he said that the full amount was due and that it said in the signed settlement agreement that if the agreement is broken, the full amount will become due. I do not recall signing any papers, as far as I remember the entire deal was over the phone. Anyway, then he said that he could agree to settle for 25% off bringing the balance to $225. I said I could not agree to this because the initial line of credit was only $75. He then offered to settle this for $150 and he would not budge from there. So I asked to speak with another supervisor. I spoke with the manager of the department Arthur Beverly. He basically stuck to the $150 and when I told him that I was willing to take care of this today and get it out of their system, he said "well it sounds like you feel you are doing us a favor by paying the $75" I said "I know how your business works" He said that apparently I don't because if I did know how their business works, I would know that they "can care less if I pay this or not". He then said that since I know how their company works, the balance is due in full and he will not even offer a settlement for $150. He said if I wanted to keep playing this game I could call back and attempt to speak with someone else and that he would make sure that I talked to him. I then asked to talk to his supervisor. He said "I don't have one, my name is arthur beverly, I'm the department manager". I was quite heated, so I called Arrow Financial's Wisconsin office, the people there were much more friendly. I spoke with a supervisor there and explained things to him about how Arthur was basically saying that I could speak to no one except him. He said he understands, but he cannot even discuss the account with me since it is in another office and he cannot reverse the decision of a person in the same position as him. He did give me the name and extension of arthur beverly's supervisor sam jacobs, the group manager. I called and left a message for sam to call me back, but I wanted to get some input from you credit guru's about anything i could possibly do about this. Thanks in advance for any help you may offer up. Sorry for the long message, but this has me heated.
No One has any suggestions? I am thinking of contacting monogram credit card bank of georgia (the original issuer of the wal-mart card and telling them that I want to work this out but I will not work with Arrow financial due to their absolute rudeness and not wanting to work with me on this. As far as I am concerned I have already paid what I owe on the card, since I made a payment for $75 and that was the credit line. I realize that there must be interest on it since it is a credit card, but $300 worth of interest?! Also, aren't they supposed to stop charging interest after this account is charged off after the initial 180 days of no payments? I thought i read that somewhere.
Hi, Try not to let them upset you. Part of the additional amount I sure is late fees before the charge-off. When was it charged off? If the debt was sold to Arrow then you will not be able to work with the orginal creditor anymore. If it was sold then, maybe you can make payment arrangements with Arrow in writiing for a PFD only, if it is on your credit report. Also, if it is on your reports, is it reporting incorrectly, and if not, did you dispute with CRAs? You may also be able to find violations and ITS. That's what I did to get rid of them. I didn't pay them a dime. P.S. you shouldn't call them unless you are recording the phone call. honeycomb
jay, I don't know if this will help but I just saw an article on budd hibbs website on arrow financial's sleazy tactics. http://www.budhibbs.com/ Also, you do not ever have to deal with a collection agency. They will tell you that you have to but you don't. Try contacting the OC (original creditor) and explain your situation. Also, check out this website: www.bendover.com He is another credit expert that has written some good books on the subject of credit and collections. Hope this helps. Sincerely in Christ, leesac Eph 2:8,9
Thanks fellas for the helpful advice, I really appreciate you taking the time to reply. Honeycomb, what kind of violations and ITS am I looking for? Is there a good source other than the Fair Credit Reporting Act that lists the most common violations you can get them on? Also, funny you should say about the calling thing, when I realized that they were jerking me around, I did begin recording the phone calls. I think it is illegal in NY to do so without informing the other party which I did not do, so the recording would be no good in court I think, am I wrong? leesac, thanks for the links and the info, I will check it out. Thanks again guys
What is currently being reported on your credit reports? Is it Walmart and/or Arrow's collection? First things first... Request validation from Arrow. (They won't validate, guaranteed, these people break the law daily). If Walmart is on your reports, review their credit reporting in detail (dates, balances, etc.) If there are errors, write them a dispute letter that specifies exactly what is being reported incorrectly. After doing this with Walmart and Arorow, dispute the account with the CRA's. If they verify and not list the account in dispute, they are in violation of the FCRA. If arrow verifies and doesn't provide validation, they violate the FDCPA. Then write them and demand deletion. If not, sue for damages. Lesson learned... NEVER negotiate with a collection agency unless you receive written proof that they will delete. Always request validation, the burden of proof lies on them. One thing you can demand in validation is how they calculated their balance (itemized). If this sounds like greek, start reading and studying this and other credit boards. Good luck, hope this helps.
