Hello, all. Need to be re-introduced to the board. Was here back in 2002. Psych Doc, Lizardking, George, Whyspers, Mindcrime, and good 'ole Ibrown were some of the folk hanging out here. My userID was Keller back then. Current Siutation: June 2004 it all started. Self-employment nightmare (both my husband & myself). Depleted savings of $25,000 and lived off of prime credit cards for the next 6 to 8 months KNOWING that things were about to turn. They did. WORSE. Did a "short sale" on my new home (as opposed to a foreclosure) and just pulled my credit report. Charge-offs Abbreviatedall accounts CLOSED from creditor) 5Star Bank Balance $765 AMEX Past Due $752 Balance $2,557 Discover Balance $7,151 Past Due $1,941 Dillard's Balance $1,050 Past Due $527 HSBC NV Balance $4,006 Past Due $472 Sherman Acquisition (I have no idea?) Unknown-Credit Extension, Review, Or Collection Balance $4,356 Past Due $4,356 Seriously past due/assigned to attorney, collection agency, or credit grantor's internal collection dept. My last experience was not like this one. I have researched the board and have been unable to find anything that resembles my scenario enough for me to feel comfortable with. Please help. There's a bit more, but I want you to read my post so I didn't expand on everything. I just dont' want to get sued or have judgements placed. Thanks, Keller2 (aka:Keller) 11/2002 EXP 768 4/2005 EXP 578
Have you had any contact from any of the collection agencies? When was the last contact from the original creditor?
Contact from the original creditors was about 3 months ago. I get calls all day fom the collections agencies. I just don't answer. Since I got my current credit report, I found the "hard inquiries" and called the companies to see who they were representing. I found this out by asking what their permissable purpose was for pulling my credit. Zwicker and Associates and Wolpoff & Abramson, LLP said that I was a scum bag and irresponsible for not paying my debts and that I might want to get an attorney as they were about to take me to court if I didn't resolve this by this Friday. After finding out who they represented, I let them go. I got the information that I needed to send a validation letter. I am concerned about the court thing. I don't want a judgement brought against me and I am not familiar with how a "NEW" charge-off works. Thanks for posting. Keller
If you owe these debts, and are not making arrangements to pay them, why shouldn't they be taking you to court?
I would take me to court, too! However, since I am UNABLE to pay my bills at this time, I am looking for a solution OTHER than going to court until I CAN pay my bills. Thank you for your help, Keller BTW, I don't care if I owe money or not. . .I WILL NEVER pay a THIRD PARTY COLLECTOR . . .PERIOD! When I can, I will call the OC's and, of course, they will tell me that the debt has been sold and I can no longer deal with them. So, at that point, I'm in a CATCH 22 situation. Another thing, I am not refusing to pay my bills and if I insinuated that by my post, I apologize. My husband and I both had credit scores of 780,765,820 before this happened to us. We are not scum bags and I'm sorry if I came across as if we were, in my original post. Thanks again for the CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM Keller2 (a.k.a Keller) Also,When I was a part of this board before, I DID try and help a lot of people and felt like I did by the responses I got. But I NEVER said anything to anyone unless it HELPED. I get the feeling from the last response to this post that it's I'M BETTER THAN YOU BECAUSE I POSTED MY CREDIT REPORT for all to see. OMGoodness! THAT "IS" REALLY WHAT WE ARE JUDGED BY!!!!!!!!! ***There. . .I'm done venting.
I was not trying to single you out and saying that you were "wrong" in any way for not paying these bills. Everyone gets into situations in life, and we all must deal with them.Believe me I understand because I was there too. I'm sorry if I came off that way. I was just trying to present your situation from the viewpoint of the collection agencies....you say that you "get calls all day long, and don't answer them" That is understandable because the CA can make your life miserable in this way. By the same token, by not speaking to them, you are leaving them with little alternative but to sue you. You say that you don't want to get sued, but if the debts are valid, and you don't make any kind of payment arrangements, you are not leaving the creditor any choice. If the original creditors have charged off and sold these debts, you may have no choice but to deal with the collection agent since they legally own them now
I'm really frazzled and don't have a lot of self-pride right now. This has been very devastating as I'm sure others can relate. That's why I posted. I needed some fresh approach for being between a rock and a hard place that perhaps I'm not thinking about because of the stress of the situation. I spoke with the CA's in the beginning and let everyone of them know that I had been in contact with OC's on a regular basis to update them on our financial situation. I could've buried my head and allowed my house to foreclose, but I didn't. I busted my backside to get it sold & got it done. Everything in my power has been done and continues to be done. I have told everyone OC's/CA's that when I am able I will definitely pay my obligations. The CA's said that they will still call daily. That's why I don't answer. It's hard to work at home and be productive while answering CA's calls all day. Also, when you go from a ZERO% interest rate to COMPOUND INTEREST at 22%-24%, One would NEVER be able to recover. . .unless we won the lottery. I'm not a "giver upper" that's why we are in this situation. And when I do things, I do it to perfection. . .even screwing up my credit profile it seems. I am a firm believer that there IS NO SUCCESS WITHOUT FAILURE. I just need some help to begin rectifying my situation. I need to buy about 4 months of time at which I will hopefully be in a situation to begin paying back what we owe. It took a lot of courage for me to make my post. I'm usually a help-ER and not the help-EE. It's difficult for me to deal with (mentally and emotionally) being in this situation. Psych Doc where are you? ) ( a little humor) Thank you for your last reply. I appreciate it. My heart hurts for people in these situations. We had the best of intentions and were going to make it work. As you can see, I guess it's the pride thing more than anything else. I'll figure out what to do. No hard feelings. Keller2 (a.k.a. Keller)
I know it is hard not to feel down, and CA's calling every other minute will drive you crazy. I wish I had more advice to give you. It sounds like you have done, and are continuing to do everything possible to rectify your situation. I wish you the best of luck in accomplishing that.
Keller, I dealt with Zwicker & Assoc. a while back (I was in a wreck that totaled the car and left me pretty totaled, too), and they are the most rude and insensitive group of people I have ever spoken to. I managed to fall off their radar for a few years (once my phone was cut off) but when I moved to another state and got a driver's license, the calls and letters started again. I was able to work out a plan with them where I paid $50/month and once I reached the 7-year mark with the account, I got the framework for a letter (from this board, I don't remember which one) telling them that this account was past the seven year mark for delinquent accounts and if they tried to contact me again they would be talking to my lawyer. Okay, I know it was a risk since I had been paying on it for a couple of years, but I figured that since I already had a payment plan worked out with them the worst they could do was send me back a letter telling me I was out of my mind and they expected my payment the next month. That didn't happen, though! I received a letter saying that it was being reviewed by their legal department and I'd be receiving a response shortly. A month or so later (I still paid that month) I received a letter back saying that they considered the matter closed. When I pulled my credit reports, all trace of Zwicker and the OC were gone and they took the negs with them. Considering that I still owed about $2500 to them, I thought it turned out pretty well. I said all of this to tell you that you can dig your way out, it just takes a while. If you don't have the money, you just don't have it. Sometimes if you show good intention (paying a little at a time) the CAs will lay off of you long enough for you to get a good plan together. I also used this with Zwicker - when I was working out a payment plan, I told the guy that all I could pay was $50/month, that was it and it was a stretch (yeah, I had to skip months a few times, but I picked it back up the next month like nothing happened and they stopped bothering me) - when the guy told me that $50 was nowhere near enough to pay my debt, I challenged him by asking, "Are you refusing my offer to pay?" and he backed off very quickly. I guess it's because most, if not all, of those calls are recorded and if they refused to take money that I was trying to offer them, then maybe it could come back to haunt them? I don't know, but it worked. It's all in the planning and knowing what you'll do no matter what the response. I sincerely wish you the best. ---Pandora
Hi Keller2: You are not alone I recently recieved a p/call from a collection acency. After speaking with them it turns out that they were trying to collect a debt from me that I did not own. The name and ss# are correct and the address and everything, but I never recieved the cc and did not use this one. For a $1200 balance they were willing to settle for $800.00 . I asked them what proof did they have that I owned the account. He said the 3 cra's was proof enough. This was their attortny saying they were preparing to sue me. I do not deal with collection agencies. I did not borrow anything from them I will not deal with them. I tell them not to call me at home or work or I will report them the the proper Federal aut. A for as your situtation goes try to get a secured cc from Boa 250 to 10000. 16.24 varible rate. You can also Look into chap 13. Look at msn.com/money article about ZOMBIE debt collectors. Its good info every one should know. To get the breathing space you need request they not call you anymore. Only to communicate with you by mail. You can drop them in a file and deal with them later. Keep us posted Wizzard
I've had a few days to collect my thoughts and have come to realize "once again", that it's never the problem. . .it's HOW you handle it. The fear, humiliation, the anxiety of the unknown is what makes people bury their heads in the sand. Not to mention the horror that the third party collectors try and put you through. As we are trying to get back on our feet, I am implementing my gameplan of beginning to rebuild our creditworthiness. Just like with anything else in life, it takes time to build anything worth building and only a few months to destroy it. Today's a better day because I have a PLAN. I have begun to send letters requesting validation:for two reasons. One, to buy me some time. And two, I know that our balances are wrong due to what the balances were at the CHARGE-OFF stage and now what the third party collectors are stating that we owe. The third party collectors aren't happy with me wanting this information. They want me to just pay it. SORRY! Just because we got ourselves into this situation doesn't mean we're TOTALLY stupid! As I've explained, I am not going to take someone's word that I owe thousands of dollars and just hand it over. I want proof so that I can count out human error and KNOW what I owe is correct. I WILL pay what I owe, but not a penny more. I am sure that they would do the same thing if they were me, unless they are ignorant. And I don't mean this in a derogatory fashion. When it comes to money and a person's finances. . .IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS. I need hardcopies so that I can keep track for my records. No-one should go blindly into trying to rectify their (financial) mistakes. Unless they are willing to go through this again. Filing bankruptcy is not an option that I want to consider at this time. As we get back on our feet and are able to pay our charge-offs, I will begin disputing them after 24 months and I know that at least SOME of them will disappear just for the simple fact that these companies don't have the time nor have any desire to deal with old accounts that they've collected on and have resolved. However, if anyone has some advice that they wish to share. . .I'm all ears. I will keep everyone posted so that maybe my circumstance may help someone else.
