Attorneys--I NEED ADVICE!!

I'll try to summarize this as much as possible.

-We hired a debt negotiation company 2 1/2 years ago. They couldn't help us with 2 MBNA accounts that ended up being sent to the evil Wolfpoff and Abramson. Basically, W & A wouldn't play ball.

-We got scared too death because W & A sent us arbitration papers via Airbourne, etc.

-We agreed to a payment schedule via arbitration which included 10% interest and a clause that if we broke the agreement, they would be awarded the balance at the time, 10% interest, and attorney's fees.

-We continued to pay fairly regularly. They bullied us into giving them a year's worth of check numbers from our checking account.

-When the year was up (Sept '03), we decided that we didn't like them dipping into our account and we would just send them payments. We skipped
September, but then we sent them a payment in October and paid a couple of payments a little over the minimum after that.

-In March of '04 we applied for a new mortgage and it was discovered that one account was being reported by MBNA (not W & A) as a charge off and the other one was being reported as currently 60 days late, again by MBNA.

-We wrote MBNA and asked for verification. They ignored our letter.

-We sent another letter to MBNA with a proposed payoff for removal of the tradelines.

-Today, we received a "Settlement Order Default: Request for Entry of Award" from W & A. They are asking for $3240.34. The original amount was $5512.67 and we've paid $3330.00 over the past 2 years. They're asking for balance + interest + attorney fees.

-We haven't hear a thing concerning the account that MBNA has listed as a charge-off.

-Even though MBNA are the ones reporting and they're the ones we have directed our responses to, they have not yet responded to us.

What do we do???

Thanks for your feedback,
debtchoked

 

I don't know if the debt was sold or assigned. Is there any way to find out?

The reason I sent letters to MBNA was because they are the one who is reporting. They don't respond to me at all. They pass everything off to W & A.

I didn't negotiate payments for tl removal when this all started. They had me too scared to ask for much of anything.

I've already paid 60% of the original debt which was already inflated because of late fees, etc.

The last letter I sent was a proposal for me to pay another $1000 which would take my total payments up to over 82% of the original debt. All I got back in response was a copy of the "settlement order default: request for entry of award."

Does this mean that they have asked the National Arbitration Forum to award them a judgment? If so, what happens if they award the judgement? Is there any hope of us settling at this point?

 

am sooooo not an attorney, so I want to make sure I'm reading this correctly:

§ 808. Unfair practices [15 USC 1692f]

A debt collector may not use unfair or unconscionable means to collect or attempt to collect any debt. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct is a violation of this section:

(1) The collection of any amount (including any interest, fee, charge, or expense incidental to the principal obligation) unless such amount is expressly authorized by the agreement creating the debt or permitted by law.

Does this mean that a collection agency CAN NOT collect interest on a debt assigned to them??

(2) The acceptance by a debt collector from any person of a check or other payment instrument postdated by more than five days unless such person is notified in writing of the debt collector's intent to deposit such check or instrument not more than ten nor less than three business days prior to such deposit.

Does this mean that a collection agency CAN NOT force someone to give them a year's worth of check numbers (basically post-dated checks over the phone)??

(3) The solicitation by a debt collector of any postdated check or other postdated payment instrument for the purpose of threatening or instituting criminal prosecution.

Does this mean that a debt collector can not tell a consumer that the only way they'll accept a payment plan is if the consumer gives them a year's worth of check numbers (post-dated checks over the phone)??

Am I getting excited over nothing or do I have violations by W &A???

 

{BUMP}

 

{Bumpity, Bump} Again!!

 

Thank you so much LKH for the feedback! You've given me the confidence to pursue this rather than just lying down and taking it.

I called the local bar association in my county as you suggested and they will set me up with an attorney for an initial consultation for only $15!!!!! If I would have known this, I would have done it a long time ago.

As far as I remember, the evil W & A did send us a letter prior to depositing each of our checks, but if I'm reading the legal stuff correctly, it sounds like they were in violation when they INSISTED on me giving them all the check numbers for the year over the phone. I hope I'm not reading too much into it (false hope and all!)

Thanks again. I'll let you know how it goes.

Debtchoked