I have a debt at a CA for AMEX. The CA is GC Services out of Arizona. I owe almost 5500.00 and I am paying on it twice a month. Though I am paying I still get several calls per month from this agency pushing me to pay more. I dont have more to pay them, and I am sending them 300.00 per month as it is. I plan on paying them off when I get my bonus from work, but that is not until October. I thought about the C&D letter, but I was not sure about using it since I am paying it off. Does me making payments remove my right to have them stop calling me? Also, if it helps, I am told to make all checks out to AMEX so I know I am not paying the CA directly. What should or can I do?
No, that's just what I can afford. Believe me, they (CA) call me repeatedly asking for more. I just send what I can. 300.00 is a strain, but i will send at least that to get rid of this debt.
You could notify them in writing (CRRR) that they can contact you by mail in writing at your home address, but that it is "inconvenient" to contact you by phone, either at work or home. If they continued to call, they would then be in violation of 805(a)(1), regardless of whether they were calling between 8AM and 9PM. Since you have in fact been steadily paying this down, and will shortly pay it off, your goal is to get them to back off on harassing you by phone. Should they continue to call after receiving your letter, send a complaint to Amex's compliance officer, including a copy of your letter to the CA. Make it clear that you have been steadily paying down their debt, and that it will be paid off shortly. Amex still owns the account, the CA is collecting on their behalf, and at some point harassment becomes Amex's compliance problem too. You would not be sending them a Cease and Desist, since you are specifically allowing contact by mail, but would be notifying them consistant with this: http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpa/fdcpact.htm#805 "§ 805. Communication in connection with debt collection [15 USC 1692c] (a) COMMUNICATION WITH THE CONSUMER GENERALLY. Without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the debt collector or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, a debt collector may not communicate with a consumer in connection with the collection of any debt -- (1) at any unusual time or place or a time or place known or which should be known to be inconvenient to the consumer. In the absence of knowledge of circumstances to the contrary, a debt collector shall assume that the convenient time for communicating with a consumer is after 8 o'clock antimeridian and before 9 o'clock postmeridian, local time at the consumer's location; (2) if the debt collector knows the consumer is represented by an attorney with respect to such debt and has knowledge of, or can readily ascertain, such attorney's name and address, unless the attorney fails to respond within a reasonable period of time to a communication from the debt collector or unless the attorney consents to direct communication with the consumer; or (3) at the consumer's place of employment if the debt collector knows or has reason to know that the consumer's employer prohibits the consumer from receiving such communication. ..."
You are dealing with a harassment problem that would not likely be legally resolved before you finished your payments. It is in the CA's interest to keep bothering you if it can get any payments faster, and they probably get a commission on your payments. It is in the OC's interest, given that you are in fact paying, that they get paid without additional complications, and if they are getting paid, it is not in their interest to add the expense of suing, or possible counterclaims, for example. If you want any other outcome than to continue being harassed, your first step is to draw the line, framed within your FDCPA rights. There is no guarantee that the other parties will comply, but until you do so, they don't even have any liability. See if that works.
