Hello, still wrestling with my problem. When i looked up va. consumer law regarding coll. agencies, there isn't anything. I have read the act, and the question i have is, has the coll. agency that i am trying to work with violated anything? i was told i could get a faxed presettlement agreement if i requested one. we faxed, they called back and said fax didn't work. they will not give me a settlement agreement because i could be walking around with it in my hands and not pay them. (not illegal, just a dumb thing to say) the 'legal' dept. tried to persuade me to give him my checking acct. #. first he stated that i needed to send in 2 postdated checks, must be overnighted. i balked at having to pay an overnight fee. next day i get a call per our notes you agreed to pay with your checking acct. via phone. i did no such thing. i do not give you access to my acct. i will pay by m/o or c.c. the person went on to say that if i didn't pay with my checking acct. that i wouldn't get the reduced offer, he told me (hostile now) that i had 5 seconds to decided or the call would be terminated. i declined and he hung up. i told them i would pay the reduced amt. by a certain date but i wanted a settlement paper saying the damn thing is paid in full, etc. it is hard to decipher the exact meaning of the fdca, i mean, i felt threatened, but is what they tried to pull with me truly a violation? if anyone can answer, i would appreciate it. i have written to my states attorney office about this, am also sending my settlement request and wrote about my converstation with CA to OC. i intend to contact the MD. BBB as well.
I agree, if you don't pay it the settlement agreement is not worth the paper its printed on DUH. You will send them M.O.'s or Cashier's checks - no negotiation there. IMHO, that actually would fall under hard ball/stupid negotiations. He didn't threaten you, just the poor phone he slammed down.
