My dear sweet neighbor lost her husband in 95 with alzheimers. She paid $3400 monthly out of pocket for his care at the local facility. Yesterday, she received a letter from NCO for 2 accounts totaling over 10 grand!! She is panic stricken, and my mom told her not to worry, I could help! (Thanks mom!) She knows the large acct charged off in 95, and shes not sure about the second, but it has been at least 4 or 5 years. SOL is 4 years in our state. Should I just send them the standard SOL letter? Or does someone have better advise. She also buried her son in law yesterday, so I want to get this off her mind ASAP. Patti
BTW, I looked at the letter, and they are offering 50% settlement. No 30 days to dispute, just this is an attempt to collect a debt.
IMHO - Since its been 4 or 5 yrs, I think you should validate to see exactly when it was, before you jump on the SOL defense. Others may disagree. Keep adding up the violations too!
I would also inquire about medicare/medicaid payments that may have been made. Definitely validate this. Require a full statement of account: what each charge is for, dates, etc. I would devise a form that they have to fill out. I this being reported? Has she checked? This is BS IMO. It is amazing how they victimize the elderly in our society. Anything for money. They tried some stuff with my Mom a while back (medicare not billed correctly) but they were messing with the wrong old lady!!
she has a copy of CR from 6-99. The larger bill shows charged off 5-95. The other one is not showing. Next week when things have slowed down a bit, I'm gonna get with her and see what we're looking at on her CR's.
good. Ask her if she has kep any of the EOB's from medicare also - and any other insurance she might have had. It would show if coverage expired, what was paid, etc.
Geez, I didn't even think about Medicare. You have to watch for Dr's double billing, billing for charges they can't bill for, etc. I called them 8 mths after Dad died, still trying to sort thru stuff--they told me they couldn't help me because of the Privacy Act. Please, Privacy Act gets thrown out the window the moment of passing. Took me two supervisors to get it straight. This really sounds like bottom feeding to me.
breeze and jlynn, I just visited with my neighbor outside, and she said these are both credit card accounts. After he was in the facility for 2 years, medicare paid all the bills. She was initially out $70,000 out of pocket for the first 2 years.
I think there is a good chance they are just doing the usual collection activity of trying to catch a last gasp account. Ask for validation and call the Medicare 800 number to get a printout off everything they paid.
The SOL for CC accounts is 4 years. You know one of them is and from what you just said, her out-of pocket expenses were early on - chances are real good the second debt is also past the SOL. The validation letter ought to take care of it, and really, they shouldn't even be on her CR, I bet. Write her up one of those letters, and tell her to use an answering machine so she can tape any threatening calls if they make them. She will have a doozy of a lawsuit if they do anything to her.
