Crazy Debt Collector!

Good idea to place the name of the collection agency, phone number, name of the potato head that keeps calling you. I am sure many would like to help.

 

There is your first problem. You were begging. One should never beg a debt collector. You have a job, therefore you are not a beggar. When dealing with debt collectors one should always remember an old saying which went "If wishes were horses then beggars would ride." Don't ever wish that a debt collector would just go away and leave you alone. Force him to do so whether he likes it or not. The first and probably easiest way to do that is to send a cease and desist letter which forbids the collector to contact you at work. You can also force them to stop calling you at home and you may be able to go a lot further than that.

Just be sure that you do not use a full cease and desist letter because if you do that then the debt collector will have no option but to sue you quickly and one does not want to do that until one has had the time to do the negotiations necessary to put an end to the debt and get it wiped off your credit bureau files or prevent it's ever being placed there in the first place but to also put yourself in a winning position to negotiate for payment of the debt, reduction of outrageous interest and penalty fees, and if it is for some reason totally unfeasable for you to pay at all, then negotiation for complete forgiveness of the debt. One can easily accomplish any or all of those things, but never from the standpoint of being a beggar. Beggars can never negotiate anything.

Touching once again on the Cease & Desist, be sure that you do not use a complete C&D getting yourself into the position of getting sued because then the situation becomes very difficult to manage unless you have the funds available to hire a good consumer advocacy lawyer or the time and inclination to learn the law for yourself. Few debtors are in a position to do either of the two quickly.

Well then, you most assuredly have been the victim of severe and outrageous abuse. Had you been an informed consumer then you would hav e realized that you were being victimized and abused. You would have been able to defend yourself quickly and effectively.

As it is, the debt collector has apparently violated federal law under FDCPA and quite possibly under the new GLB provisions of FTC. It is as of yet unclear how FTC and the courts will interpret GLB in terms of impact on debt collectors and how they must conduct their business with creditors and collectors alike. But GLB is most definitely a totally new area of consumer protection laws and it is clear that GLB will impact debt collectors heavily as time goes on and so debt collectors are also as of yet pretty well unfamiliar with GLB and how it affects them and just like insecurity and lack of knowledge is devastating to your mental condition when confronted with a bill collector, if you simply turn that fear around and make it work for you by introducing new and unfamiliar terms to the bill collector can frighten them just as it frightens yuo. So that bill collector might have violated both FDCPA and GLB as well. Learn to use fear as a weapon just the same way they do.

You don't know all about GLB and neither does the bill collector, but you can bet that they have heard at least a little bit about GLB and so are likely to be just as scared as you are if you raise the issue. Learn how to do some of these things and how to make fear your friend instead of your worst nightmare and you can come out winning the day almost every time.

I would not forget him either if I were you. While both time and space limitations plus other considerations prevent me from telling you more about how to proceed against this abusive louse, I can assure you that there is plenty of information right here on this board to tell you how to become that collector's worst nightmare.

You may be able to speak to the U.S. Dept of Education in Washington, D.C. and get them to pull the loan back and rehab it for you. I understand that they can be quite nice if one will only seek their help. While I don't happen to have their number or address at my fingertips, I do have it on my website and there are several references to it on this forum as well so you can probably do a search using the search box at the bottom to find the number and call them and try to get the SL rehabbed if you can. That is the very best way to handle this situation and you should put every effort into getting that job done.

And I think you should go after that bill collector with a purple passion and teach them a very expensive lesson. It's usually quite easy to nail abusive debt collectors for their violations of the law and make them pay dearly. And the more abusive they are, the easier it is to nail them.
But above all, the law says you don't have to take the kind of abuse you have already suffered and you should not do so.

I believe that your first step should be to put an end to the telephone abuse both at work and at home by using a partial C&D letter and there are several good ones right here on this board in the letters secton for you to use. Most of them are quite lengthy and there are so many that it can be a bit daunting to figure out which one to use, but you can always just modify one of them a bit to say what you want them to say. I'd study all of the examples because the partial C&D that I use is just a simple one paragraph statement, but that isn't going to be enough in your case because you are getting bugged at work too. But adding in a little bit more to cover the work situation should not be any problem at all.

Then you should start reading as much as you can here on the board and learning how to deal with your problem. That bill collector probably owes you more right now because of the abuse they have heaped upon you than your entire student loan was ever worth. I'd start thinking about how to collect what they owe you instead of being so frightened of what you might owe the government. I'd go out and nail the louse first and once you have that issue resolved then you will be in a much stronger position to get the SL rehabbed.

You should easily get them legally nailed in about 120 days or less.

And the GLB is something we should all be studying very carefully because it is obvious that this is intended as a whole new area of consumer protection efforts on the part of the government. It's also obvious that FTC is still studying the issue and private attorneys are not yet allowed to gain settlements actions under GlB but that time will come and it will come rapidly and the courts will be asked to rule on GLB issues. The more professional debt collectors are very worried about GLB and it's impact on the collections industry and they are already gearing up to meet it's provisions and knowledgeable professionals in the field of consumer advocacy are the ones who are also going to lead the way in developing this new and potentially lethal weapon in the war on abusive debt collectors. Right now, all most folks are worried about is using its provisions to opt out of mailing lists and stuff like that. But there is a whole lot more to GLB than just that. It's a whole new area of consumer protection and only time will tell how FTC and the courts will rule on it in the future. But it's certain that congress isn't all that satsified that it has done enough to protect consumers from abusive bill collectors yet so there is a whole lot more to come on GLB.

I do hope that I have helped you a little bit at least. Get hold of your fears and get busy and learn how to turn that fear around and use it to your advantage.