Ok, I had a recent charge of that went to collections. I received a letter from the debt collector, and went the verification route. I have yet to hear back from them, but all contact from them has stopped (included a C&D). Now I have started receiving calls from another collection agency but I haven't received anything from them in the mail. I am sure it is the same account. Do they have to contact me in writing before they start calling? I did a reverse lookup on the telephone number from the caller id, and it came up as Arrow Financial Services, credit skip tracing. That leads to my next question. What exactly is skip tracing. I have a general idea, but is it legal, and how do they find out all the information? Any help/insight will be greatly appreciated. James
Watch out! Arrow is Evil! When they call, pick up the phone and say "I do not receive calls of this nature at home, I will be sending you a formal Cease and Desist letter tomorrow. Please let me have your address." Get the address, and hang up. Now, lets move on to the debt. Here's some quick questions for you that can help creditnetters help you better. 1. What is the SOL in your state for this debt? 2. How old is the debt? 3. How much is the debt for? 4. Is it your debt? 5. If it is your debt, and you receive proper validation, what do you intend to do then? (The reason for this question, is that we recently had a newbie who sent Arrow a validation letter and they completely validated. For more on that story, do a search for Pulse)
I also forgot to add one more question. What does it say on your Credit reports? Is the first CA reporting or did they delete because of your validation? Many times, CA's will sell an account to another CA w/o telling them that the person is smart and validating...
I have heard bad things about Arrow as well, but looking the posts from Pulse, I am not sure how truthful she was, but that is a whole different story. Now to answer your questions: 1. SOL - 4 years. Assuming it is the debt I am aware of I would be well into my second year, but they convinced me to make a payment and then re-aged the account (actually closed it and opened a new one). 2. Age - less than 1 year. 3. Amount - originally about 6K now 8k with interest & late fees. 4. Mine - I requested validation from the first CA (Associated Recovery) and they just quit contacting me and then suddenly Arrow started. I am assuming that Associated was unable to prove the debt was mine and passed it along to Arrow. As of right now, I do not know whether the debt is truly mine or not. 5. If they validate - Stall for as long as possible. I can't afford it right now, but will repay eventually. I am in Texas, so I am "pretty" safe as far as collections go. As far as when they call, they only have my work number, so I will just let it go to voicemail when they call (Caller ID). I am planning on calling them from a payphone at lunch, and get the address. I will leave the collector a message (they never answer when you call) stating they are allow to call me one time, and that is to leave me the address and account number. I will then let them know a C&D will be arriving to them and that this is a verbal C&D. I will also be recording the call and I think I will let them know I am as well. That way they will take the verbal C&D seriously.
Ask for the person's name and ask if they have an employer identifcation #. Buy a phone recorder. They are legal in Texas to use. Document everything. Time, name of person, what the caller ID says. rblues is right, also. Do that and document, document and sue their butts!!! Charlie
