Today I received a letter from a ca which seems to have some problems... Notice of Credit Default Demand Notice This is a demand for payment in full today! You have chosen to ignore your responsibility to pay this debt. Your immediate payment of the entire balance will close this matter completely and will stop our collection efforts. You can resolve this matter by mailing your payment in full to us today. Blah, blah blah... This is an attempt to collect a debt and any information obtained will be used for that purpose. It does list an original creditor, acct. # and date of service. This is for ....$15!!! They never state they are a ca They don't tell me I have 30 days to dispute I think I may have read an FTC opinion letter somewhere that addressed this type of "Demand" - making it sound like the person has to pay them and has no other options??? Any comments? I don't feel I owe this debt, ( a matter of principle), however, we called the oc recently (have not heard from them for a very long time) and told themwe wanted to pay them - we couldn't! They kept passing us from person to person, no one could figure out how we could pay them! BTW- The debt is actually $14... Did they just commit enough violations in this letter to file against them just for the fun of it? I could use some furniture for my new house!!
I've been awaiting just such a case. This notice, if it's the first notice from this CA, is WAY out of compliance. If you'd want to fax it to me I'll help you pick out all the violations and prepare a strategy. Begin by outlining everything that happened during your phone call to the OC with a focus on "nobody could figure out the bill" and send that to the OC via CRRR. It's not usually a good idea to talk to these people on the phone but if you do you should essence the conversation in writing and send it with proof. Is this indeed the FIRST notice from the CA?
Terri, I got a letter very similar to the one you got a couple of days ago. My letter the CA was demanding payment in 5 days. I didn't even get the message "this is an attempt to collect a debt" or anything giving me 30 days. I would really love to know if there are any violations in yours, then maybe I can apply it to mine. Andi
Normally, I would not speak to a ca on the phone. This is not on my cr, and no one was contacting us, but it is only $14, so we were going to pay a couple weeks ago.
This collection letter is absolutely horrifying. Have you read Spears Vs. Brennan? It speaks to compliance of these notices issue and is very informative. If this is your very first notice from them you have about 5 violations here. Persaonlly you may not be able to push each of the 5 components of the legal notice, such as 30 days right to dispute, name and address of original creditor exc. but I would try it. They may assert that since it came from an atty., if this guy is an atty., then they are exempt from the FDCPA. NOT true if the primary purpose of the relationship between the OC and atty. is the collection of charged off debt. Secondly it may be that the source of this letter is a wholly owned subsidiary of the OC. In which case they will again try to assert exemption from the FDCPA since they are engaged in collecting their own debt. again NOT true. There is a great discussion on this if needed but the next thing to do is try to figure out who these people are and what they are listed as in their states Secratary Of State website. The registration will probably say "debt collection".
From their website "an established leader in the collections, consultation and revenue enhancement industry.
Yeah with 75 years of vast experience. LOL Here's couple different angles you can take. The office of the president is listed in the "contact us" page. Your notice says "immediate payment will stop the collection process". Well so does a demand for Val. Make up a demand for validation and fax it to their office to the attention of the president. and then follow it up with copies via CRRR. Demanding validation should pre-empt them from reporting. In the meantime I'd make up a letter of settlement stating that in exchange for full payment of the whopping $15 they agree not to report it. State also that the debt is not yours but the lousy 15 bux ain't worth your time. Since you said "they haven't been in touch for awhile" it may in fact be a real debt. since it's so samll it's really not worth messin with this end of it. You just want to make it go away WITHOUT being posted to your CR. Once you get that settelment in hand pay them. then turn around and sue them for the MAX your small claims court will allow. Don't forget, FDCPA compliance and the alleged underlying debt are completly unrelated matters.
I mean, that's how I'd do it. If it's a matter of principle for you not to pay ok but, I'm thinking it may make it's way to your report and the lousy $15 really isn't worth it. This is a PURE business decision to pay 15 bux to protect your credit. Frankly I have more important things to do. Like, get it settled, then sue the Bastards! LOL I encourage anyone who has an opportunity to "test the legal waters" to do so on a case that's a dead lock, like this one. I think this letter is hilarious! HTH
I didn't realize you could pay them and then sue. This is for a bill that we don't feel we owe, and no one has been contacting us. The oc send a couple of bills about two years ago, and we called and told them we were not going to pay it. Last month, we just happened to think about it and we called them and told them we wanted to pay the bill. They transferred us back and forth, and no one could figure out how we could pay it because it is so old. This is the first collection notice for this bill. I think this will be fun!!
