I'm sending in a payment to a law firm today and was going to send this letter with it. Any advise or suggestions would be appreciated. Consider money order xxxxxx as payment for account xxxxxx. Please notify the original creditor that the account was â??paid in fullâ? (as per our agreement) and should be reported to all credit bureaus in that fashion. I will consider anything else a breach of our agreement. Cashing of this money order releases me from any further obligation regarding this account with you, the original creditor (Discover) and the purchaser of the account (Midland Credit). Please send me confirmation that such actions will be taken, once money order has been processed.
Re: Letter to law firm with pm What state are you in. In some states legislation has been passed to make "restrictive endorsement" invalid. As you are putting this into a letter, it is not technically an endorsement. Just a thought you might want to check on.
Re: Letter to law firm with pm Don't pay them unless you're 100% sure you've exhausted all possibilities to pay Discover directly. Have you tried sending Discover a check w/ your account # (you probably still have the #)? They may cash it and your collection account is then gone (legally & practically). Did you receive the notification (that the debt was purchased) through certified mail, or did you otherwise acknowledge receiving it in writing? Saar
Re: Letter to law firm with pm I'm in Illinois. The account was purchased from Discover by Midland Credit and they won't talk to me. They keep refering me to the law firm. I got a "please pay in 5 days or you could be taken to court..." letter a couple days ago. They very well could take me to court seeing they have a branch in Chicago (I'm in the burbs). The settlement is for 50% of the original total of $3,000 (stupid college debt).
Re: Letter to law firm with pm midland is full of crap. They've been on to me about an associates account for a couple of years. They are all talk.. It's been like 2 years they've been hounding me. I tolk them to F*** off last time they called, it seemed to work to get nasty on them.. If they don't know where you work, there is no way in hell they are going to sue and get anything from you. Sam
Re: Letter to law firm with pm Forget what Discover told you. This has been thoroughly checked in the past and worked many times. Send Discover a check for the full balance and write your old account # on the check. Send it overnight through FedEx/UPS/DHL and use Discover's street address (not PO Box). Once they cash the check, notify the law office that the debt has just been paid and that they should take it w/ the original creditor. Tell them if they sue you would counter-sue for FDCPA violation (as well as FCRA violation if they ever touch your report or fail to remove an existing collection entry). Threatening litigation is the first trick in their book. IT doesn't mean they never do it, but consider it part of their standard procedure. Saar
Saar isn't this a lump sum settlement of 50% of the original debt. if you send in the full amount to the original creditor it's 3,000 not 1,500. ??? I know that works for full payments but what about for this? Also, what's the SOL? can they still sue? Some "lawfirm" collection agencies will sue because they have in house counsel... but have you checked on how old this debt is? Also, I agree you need to know that this letter will take care of it. Make sure there's also a "will not assign or sell the debt to any other firm or collection" agency clause in it. I don't know how to word that one... For a debt this large you might want to just do a phone counsel w/an atty and ask a few questions. A letter from an atty would be minimal in cost and you could add a "remove all derogatory credit info" clause from this "disputed account". Oh, also, wouldn't a "validation" series at least stall this some so some research could be done without fear of litigation??? I'd send the validation letter and use the 30 day time period to research and/or get some help. And I'd send the letter to Midland and to the atty/ collection agency. Just some thoughts.
Saar isn't this a lump sum settlement of 50% of the original debt. if you send in the full amount to the original creditor it's 3,000 not 1,500. ??? I know that works for full payments but what about for this? Also, what's the SOL? can they still sue? Some "lawfirm" collection agencies will sue because they have in house counsel... but have you checked on how old this debt is? Also, I agree you need to know that this letter will take care of it. Make sure there's also a "will not assign or sell the debt to any other firm or collection" agency clause in it. I don't know how to word that one... For a debt this large you might want to just do a phone counsel w/an atty and ask a few questions. A letter from an atty would be minimal in cost and you could add a "remove all derogatory credit info" clause from this "disputed account". Oh, also, wouldn't a "validation" series at least stall this some so some research could be done without fear of litigation??? I'd send the validation letter and use the 30 day time period to research and/or get some help. And I'd send the letter to Midland and to the atty/ collection agency. Just some thoughts.
Re: sorry about 2 msgs. Marie is right. If Twen0 is not going to pay in full or if SOL is up, a validation letter is the best strategy. Send it certified/RR. Saar
Re: sorry about 2 msgs. The debt was from 96 and unfortunately still under IL's SOL. It showed up only as Midland under TU on my report (which also shows Discover). EX and EQ only show up as Discover. If I go through a lawyer of my own, any idea of what a consoltation or letter will run?
how about this You can send the standard validation letter we post here to Midland. When Midland doesn't validate you can send the second letter and demand credit removal. that's really the purpose of you sending it to Midland. Have you actually agreed to pay the lawfirm??? If so, then that could be held as a novation (new agreement) which would both agree to the assignment and agree to the validity of the debt but only w/the atty. Make sense? I'm thinking the val letter to midland will at least get the duplicate off of your TU. If I were you I'd still try for a deletion in full for payment. Is there any issue whatsoever that could make this account "in dispute"??? and erroneous charges? any fees that can't be explained? any exorbidant lawyer fees? I don't know... I'm just thinking out loud. The good thing about paying this is that... you can always hope for CRA discrepencies later and try to get the Discover tradeline deleted through the dispute process... but if you could get them to agree to remove it now you'd, obviously, be better off immediately. Do you have any assets??? If not, you could do a "I'm rethinking my position and maybe I should file bk instead" route... Still just thinking out loud. Anyone have any suggestions as to what other leverage could be used to get the Discover tradeline removal???? OH How about this! Has Midland violated the FCRA??? FCRA??? IF so, you could use that as leverage for a credit bureau removal!!! Maybe you could send validation requests to both the atty and to Midland... and if Midland doesn't validate and remove the bureau entry... you could force a removal of info along with the settlement. In theory, I think an atty doesn't have to validate... but I think a law firm that acts as a collection agency does?? I can't remember... Input guys? I think you could claim you think the balance might be incorrect??? and that would be a good reason to explain to the law firm that you'd like a validation before you actually pay a debt... reasonable, yes.
