Opinion on CA letter

It means they believe that they have exhausted all administrative remedies which is a requisite to filing suit.

With that definition in mind do you think for even one moment that their next step will be to break out the bottle and thow a company party because they can now forget about you and move on to greener pastures?

I don't think so.

The obvious inference is that the next person knocking on your door may very well be a person with an invitation to the next session of debtor's court and you can bet your bottom dollar that the invitation won't be a friendly one.

The topic of conversation will be whether or not you pay and how much and you probably won't get a word in edgewise.

 

It probably means the account is about to be pulled back by First USA and either shelved or sent out to the next CA down the food chain.

Creditors usually give CA's about 6 months to start payment activity on an account. Sometimes they pull them even when regular payments are being made to a CA.

Typically, 2 or 3 CA's will handle most of your unsecured consumer accounts before they are shelved by the creditor, or sold to another CA (sometimes the 3rd agency).

Agencies send out form letters in predicable order, usually manually but sometimes automatically. The letter is likely the last one the collector has to get some reaction from you.

Now might be a good time to see if the agency is willing/able to settle. Write them a settlement request letter and see what happens.

 

These comments are often quite true and the reason multiple collectors are unleased upon the debtor is not so much to increase the pressure and heap more misery upon him as it is the creditors means of determing which of the collectors he is using is the most efficient at getting the job done so he can narrow the number of collectors down to the one or two who are doing the best for him. Of course, that evaluation process is likely to continue almost forever since he will probably drop the one or two proving to be the least effective and insert new ones who might approach him begging for the business. And of course, the added pressure upon the debtor surely can't hurt anything now can it?

Of course the creditors don't seem to stop and think about what happens if the debtor just happens to be knowledgeable enough to demand validation of each in turn as he receives their initial demands.

Either one of two things is going to happen. Its going to increase his workload dramatically if it happens often enough because he has to send the validations to each of the collectors demanding it. If he fails to do so both he and the collector may end up with a lawsuit they cannot successfully defend and huge damage awards.

Of course, there aren't that many knowledgeable debtors around and even less of them who are willing and able to actually bring a suit and carry it to a successful conclusion so there probably isn't all that much for them to worry about as of yet but the times are changing and more and more debtors are becoming sufficiently educated and willing to go do it to it.

It will be an interesting future indeed if it ever gets here.

 

Finding a collection agency that best serves the creditors needs is a criteria for reassiging accounts with different agencies, but not the only reason. Agency competion and knowing they can't have the account indefinately makes the CA's work the accounts harder. Nevertheless, most collectors will usually tire on accounts after just a few unreturned calls and letters (well, at least the smart ones know when to cut bait), and the agency will not want lots of money spent on an unproductive accounts The creditors know this so they shuffle accounts and hope time will bring the consumer out of the woodwork.

As for the wave of savy consumers, times are definately changing. The game is getting more complex and challenging. Our sue happy culture is really something.

 

Well how about that, Sports Fans!!!
Spyguy is one of those collection agency people spying on this board that I have so often talked about. Proof of the pudding of what I have been trying to point out for a very long time now.

Well, thats OK. Now some well known posters from here won't have to go to another well known message board to do their bashing. They can just stay here and have their fun. (LOL)
Just kidding, Spyguy. Just kidding.

I'd guess you know me well from that other board and if so you know I don't take real kindly to that kind of nonsense. What some people don't seem to realize is that collectors and debtors alike put their pants on the same way. One leg at a time. Collectors are consumers just like debtors and are debtors just like everyone else. We are all debtors until the bill is paid, be it lights, gas, rent, house payments or whatever. And there are those collectors out there who are not all that prompt in paying their bills and sometimes end up with bad credit just like anybody else. So as usual, bashing the other fellow isn't an appropriate thing to do.

Of course. Very valid comments.

And doing so on both sides of the fence.

(LOL) NOw thats the classic example of the pot calling the kettle black if I ever saw it. (LOL) Although it isn't really true many of us here are of the opinion that the collectors are the sue happy ones and I think the preponderance of the evidence would most definitely support that conclusion. After all, how many collection suits are filed compared to the number of suits filed against them for abusive collection practices???

And now the rest of the posters here should be able to understand why I don't put out my best information and tactics on the board for all to see. After all, if Spyguy and his brethern had such easy access to the methods I use and teach then the "enemy" would soon make certain they could not be so easily defeated.

But even if all collectors finally reached the point that they never abused anyone nor ever violated any law their lawyers would still screw it up for them so until they get their act together and learn to do things the way the law says they are supposed to do them it isn't going to make a whole lot of difference how hard the collectors work to be sure they don't make any mistakes.

 

As I said, I am here to learn on my own behalf, not get one up on other debtors. You are darn right, we all put out pants on the same way. As I clearly said earlier, I'm not on a soapbox and I'm not here to preach. As far as I am concerned, we are not adversaries and no one is interested in stealing your secrets. And no, I have no idea what "other board" you refer to or who you are.

I don't take pride in my failures and they shouldn't be the butt of any jokes. You can either poke fun at me or can learn from me. Your choice. We are all here to learn, and eveyone has their own motives for being here. I came to this board several years ago (98 or 99?) and posted many times before it changed (new owner or new log in proceedures?). If you go back and look at my posts, most are related to helping others, not visa versa.

One more thing about my collection work. If you think I make a living off it, you are sorely mistaken. They hardly pay what I would consider a decent wage. I have an entirely separate and much more lucrative career as an investigator (hence the nickname, spyguyjim) thankfully! Collections is merely a way to fill the cracks and make extra money = to keep the bill collector off MY behind. I've been out of it for two years actually, and only recently went back into it on a part-time basis.

Lastly, "our sue happy culture remark" had nothing to do with ME personally. I don't sue anyone. There is no kettle to call black.

 

Well, why not send in a dispute to the credit bureau(s) and see if they validate or not. You might get their tail in a bit of a crack that way too. And you just might get a temporary deletion at the very worst, maybe a permanant one.

Personally I would hate to take that chance. They just might come up with the info and pop you one. I'd try to make the either get the job done or get off the pot one or the other.

 

I'll take the latter over the former any old day.

Great!

I was speaking about debt collection practices in general, the overall population of collection agencies in comparison to the overall population of debtors, not any specific person or even company.

The other board I made reference to is the ACA collection board and the propensity of a very few posters on this board to visit that one and start poking all kinds of crap at the collection industry members who frequent that board. Calling them scumbags and worse and venting their rage at the members of that board. I just happen to think that doing that is totally uncalled for and that collectors and skip tracers and others whose work places them "on the other side of the fence" have a lot to teach. But bashing them sure isn't the way to learn from anyone.

I do "chide" one or another of them on rare occasions when they come up with some off the wall and out to lunch idea but I try to do so respectfully and in most instances the other members have pretty well agreed with my positions.

One example of that from a while back was a member who came up claiming he could not validate on medical claims because HIPAA rules would not let him do so. I jumped in and told him how wrong he was and proved my point but thats not bashing him or calling him a scumbag as has been known to happen in the past by a couple of posters who frequent this board and occasionally visit that board.

Have a nice day and I hope to have some pleasant conversations with you in the future.

 

I am glad to make your aquaintance.

I don't personally belong to the ACA but the agency I work for does. They may not be the most well-liked organization, but they do serve a valuable purpose. They are trying hard to educate collectors and really drive home the point of compliance. Its the underlying theme on all their recent video presentations, which are considerably better than the videos I've seen before.

Looking forward to more discussions.

 

That's good, of course, but with the situation existant today all collectors have a real hard way to go trying to get into compliance and stay that way. You mentioned the sue happy society we live in today but the root cause of that is our legislative system which cannot leave well enough alone. Every new session of almost all legislative bodies from the Federal level on down has an agenda that is always given more new laws and revisions to old ones than they can possibly say grace over.

Oklahoma for instance always had well over 2000 new bills introduced in the House and an almost equal number in the Senate until they passed a new rule that members could introduce no more than 8 new bills apiece in any given legislative session. Since there are about 200 legislators in the combined houses that is still close to 1600 bills being introduced which must be handled in a period from February until May each year they have still got their work cut out for them and thats for sure.

They are usually pretty busy all the rest of the year with vacations, stumping and committe meetings to consider legislation for the next year. So in reality the pandemonium never really ceases.

Its the same all over and so it has long since reached the point where total compliance is almost an impossibility and something can always be found to complain about if one knows the laws well enough and has the will to actually go out and do something about his perceived greviences instead of just bitching about them.

All in all, its really not a good system that we have wrought.

 

Excuuuse Me?

lol

 

Here comes the word police out of the woodwork.

Maybe the sentence was awkward and confusing, but Bill knew what I meant.

 

Re: Re: Opinion on CA letter

Word Police? LOL

What is interesting Jim is that you think "doing what's best for the consumer" is even a remote consideration.

But since I posted that I read the rest of the thread. Now I understand where this comes from.

I welcome your renewed interest in the board and promise I won't "police your words".

 

Re: Re: Re: Opinion on CA letter

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Re: Re: Re: Opinion on CA letter

Butch, I thought I was the only one guilty of impatience. (LOL)

I see you got impatient too.

I got a double posting of the same message because the durn thing was so slow I thought it needed to be reminded so I punched the send button a couple of times more and got the same results you did.

I thought it was just me. Turns out the board was just slow.

 

Re: Re: Opinion on CA letter

Butch,

When did I make the remark about "best interests of the consumer" and in what context? If you think you that's my belief about big business, you are way off.

 

Re: Re: Re: Opinion on CA letter

Best serves the creditors = best interest of consumer.

Thanks for clearing that up.