Hello All, A good friend of mine introduced me to this board as the great advice recently helped clear up her credit mess. I was now wondering if everyone here could help me. I am a victim of FCNB going belly up a few years back. When it happened I owed a small sum to Eddie Bauer and tried to figure out who to pay, with no answer. I let it ride for awhile to see if someone would eventually collect payment. Anyway, when I went to refinance my mortgage I was shocked to learn that my usually great credit had a black spot of uncollected debt and passed due notices all because of FCNB. I am now receiving letters from lawyers looking for settlement and am unsure what to do. I need this off my credit reports and am willing to pay what I owe, but not the late fees etc. Please help!
is it just one account showing or are multiple CA's reporting? did you receive any initial collection notices?
There is the only one account showing on my reports. I received one notice from a collection agency called Plaza Associates asking for a buyout. Upon further investigation last night I discovered that this agency pulled my credit report in December without my knowledge. I did not respond to this initial offer because at that point I wasn't sure what was going on. Two subsequent letters were sent to me from the Law Offices of Mitchell N. Kay, P.C. again looking for settlement. To further confuse the issue, when the bank pulled my report for my refinance the account was listed as charge off. Apparently, to help me with this issue the bank somehow had my report changed so the notation under the account now reads "profit and loss writeoff, to be deleted per company" It is amazing how one can become such a quick study in this field.
How did you try to find out who to pay? Did they stop sending you statements? Did you call, or send any letters to the last address you had, inquiring about not receiving statements? Did your payments come back?
I never figured out who to pay so I left it figuring they would find me eventually in a fair and equitable manner. When telephone calls led nowhere I did send letters of inquiry at the time to Eddie Bauer and FCNB's last known addresses, etc. and they all came back to me stamped 'no longer at this address.' I never would have guessed they would have come after the money in this manner.
CAs are not in business to act in a fair and equitable manner. It is not in their interest. When you were contacting them to find out who to pay, was that because you were not receiving statements, or because your payments were being returned?
What was the balance at the time they were no longer reachable? What are they attempting to collect now? Do you have the letters you sent trying to contact them?
If you go to ripoffreport.com, and search on Eddie Bauer, you will find many, many cases of errors in handling billing or failing to send statements or post payments timely, involving Eddie Bauer and FCNB. Equitably, payment of the account balance due at the time you could no longer reach them to make payments, less appropriate penalties due to their non-compliance with FCBA, with full removal of the TL, would appear fair. No doubt, the CA wants whatever they can claim, taking no responsibility for FCNB's earlier incompetance, and leaving you with damaged credit even when you pay. The balance passed on to the CA, however, is only what the original creditor could legally collect, and the original creditor violated FCBA. Contact your state AG, and also file a complaint with FTC against Eddie Bauer, FCNB, and the CA.
