Kristi- I am NOT in the habit of giving money away. I was reasonably confident that given the circumstances, a letter from a lawyer threatening litigation would both get a delinquent item removed, and get the collection agency to cough up the $100 or so for the lawyer's fee. My experiences have been thus, anyway. I do not think that a lawyer brings anything of value to such a situation, except for an implied threat which does not come from a letter written by a consumer. If a collection agency gets a letter from a consumer, it goes to a clerk who gets $7.50 per hour and has not heard of the FDCPA. If the letter is from a lawyer, the clerks are trained to give it to the head guy at the collection agency. This has been my experience, and is my view of one element of human nature. I view violations of the FDCPA as an opportunity to get verifiable delinquent info removed from a credit report. The collection agency has some liability, and you use the liability to your advantage. The net outcome is that you have one less (true) delinquency on your credit report, and the collection agency is out $100. At least, this has been true in my experiences. Since I wouldn't expect someone else to gamble $100 on my comments, I was willing to "put my money where my mouth is" and risk my money. I was not suggesting giving away money.
RE: collection agency errors, Which brings me to my point of having a friend,co worker or even your mother simply draw up the letter on letterhead and have it signed "Attorney in Fact" which is perfectly legal and saves you the lawyer fee. That has been my true experience anyway. Cheers! Pat wrote: ------------------------------- Kristi- I am NOT in the habit of giving money away. I was reasonably confident that given the circumstances, a letter from a lawyer threatening litigation would both get a delinquent item removed, and get the collection agency to cough up the $100 or so for the lawyer's fee. My experiences have been thus, anyway. I do not think that a lawyer brings anything of value to such a situation, except for an implied threat which does not come from a letter written by a consumer. If a collection agency gets a letter from a consumer, it goes to a clerk who gets $7.50 per hour and has not heard of the FDCPA. If the letter is from a lawyer, the clerks are trained to give it to the head guy at the collection agency. This has been my experience, and is my view of one element of human nature. I view violations of the FDCPA as an opportunity to get verifiable delinquent info removed from a credit report. The collection agency has some liability, and you use the liability to your advantage.....
RE: collection agency errors, Kriti, Can you tell me where to get more info on the "Attorney in fact" letter. What would be an ideal situation to use this strategy?
