When I was in the military I had a Govt visa issued by Nations bank, had a billing dispute to the tune of 2500 dollars. Skip forward 5 years, now retired and just received a notice from the finance center that sends my retirement checks that they had received a request from Bank of America to "offset" my wages to the tune of 15% of my pay per month to settle debt. This offset will commence within 45 days. I don't believe I owe this money, that is why I disputed the bill in the first place 5 years ago. The finance center says they are only the collection agent and any questions I have concerning the debt should be addressed to B of A. What recourse do I have to stop this? I live in Texas so the debt is past the SOL but am not sure what is involved if it was a ('govt/corporate) type card. They site 37 USC1007 ( C ) as the authority to collect but the code says debts to the Government and B of A is not the government to the best of my knowledge. Any insight into this would be appreciated.
On the letter, there should be an address for the agency which is requesting the offset. I would send a dispute letter, and any evidence that you have for the dispute to both the agency which sent the notice, and the agency which is requesting the offset. Send both certified mail. The gov't agency requesting the offset is required to verify that the debt is valid before requesting the offset. More than likely, the gov't agency which the card was through is enough for the original creditor (BofA) to qualify as a gov't debt. This is a major, major issue, and you need to take care of it ASAP, because once the offset is started, it could be harder to stop. If nothing else, disputing it will delay it, and hopefully stop the process completely.
Any ideas which dispute letter I should use? I have looked at the sample letters and need to know what is applicable?
None of the above... Gov't involved transactions are an entirely different ballgame, and the FDCPA for the most part doesn't apply in any way, shape, or form. I thought that I may have an example on this computer, but it must be on the other computer. This should give you some idea, extreemely low-key, just give the facts as quickly as possible, and make it clear that this is a disputed account, and the company has not resolved the disputed nature of the account. <AGENCY> <ADDRESS> <CITY>, <STATE> <ZIP> I received from your agency a letter regarding an attempt to offset my accounts for an alleged debt to <AGENCY>. Then lay out your arguements about the account as best that you can; and how <PREVIOUS COMPANY> has never responded to your dispute, or improperly responded to your dispute, of said account. Thank you for your attention to this matter. <NAME> <ADDRESS> <CITY>, <STATE> <ZIP>
Send them the same letter that you send to the gov't agency(ies). Explain the previous dispute (and if you have the letters from that previous dispute) include copies of them with all of the letters. The key thing is to get the dispute on record now with BoA. Chances are what happened is when BoA bought NB they picked up collections on all negative accounts.
