Worried Sick! Please Help, only have till 5PM!

I will, I will certainly pay it forward. They made me feel like the mother of a criminal. They made me feel pressured to no end to promise a check to them before 5PM.

They are evil and I might not be very savy in these dealings, but I am smart and a fast learner.
His credit is ruined, mine is excellent. They can't threaten us. I will fight this! Thanks to all of you I have the tools and the knowledge. If I must I will hire a lawyer no matter if that is more expensive than paying the debt.

I will also go checkout the payday loan forum. I need all the tools I can get!

Thank you all so much again! Thank you Uncle Wulf!!

OPS--

wow....just wow.....

First, be sure to send off that certified letter. As wulf said, thats massively important.

Second, your son needs to contact a NACA attorney and look into suing these people. I'm not kidding. They are trying to collect on a $1400 debt, and at the same time they are breaking the law in at least enough ways to lose $1000. Funny thing--many of these bottom-feeder debt collectors risk that $1000 hit for debts that are less than $1000...I have personally seen a debt collector rack up no less than 20 different FDCPA violations over an alleged $300 debt....

I was asked by Uncle Wulf a few posts back about where we lived and when my son last paid his debt. We both live in Texas, he still lives at home, he was gone for a few years but it's too expensive. He last paid in February. This information was provided by the IFP employee. Later by my son... interesting huh?

One other tidbit I am not sure I understand, it may or may not be important.

The call I got had the caller ID = IFP INC. When I called back to see who or what company this really was. First thing when they answered the phone was. "This is Mike" when I asked which company this was, the guy stuttered and finally spit out, "Integrate Financial Partners Corporation" which really is Integrity Financial Partners INC.

When I asked my son to call Best Buy and ask if they had really sold his debt and to which company, he said Best Buy said to "Sherman Financial" which is also the same name that appeared in his caller ID when he got the first call.

When I asked the employee Ms J at IFP INC why her company was not Sherman Financial since this is the name Best Buy had given us. She said that Sherman had tried to collect the debt for a few months but they were never able, so they hired IFP to do it.

Whether Sherman ever contacted my son, I don't know, he only knows.

But I wonder how much IFP actually paid for my son's original $1200.00 debt. Although I think his original purchases were a lot less than that. That is outrageous interest rates and late fees attached to them.

I wish companies first understood that by adding 10-20% every month to the balance just makes people either not be able to pay or just quit paying. If you can't, you can't. So they just loose out on getting anything at all.

Second I wish the law about not giving credit to anyone under 22 without a parent permission and especially without a secure job at that age be passed. I heard some talking about that but I am not sure.

It has been a lesson, for me and my son. He was threatened that they would involve his work place, scared him to death.
They were able to make me, ME! cry over the phone, they certainly are con artists, manipulative cretins, bottom of the swamp feeders.

I thank you all, he will be going to the bank this morning and to the post office to send the letter. We will also contant NACA for sure.
I still need to look for a template, although I think I understand what I need to ask for.

OPS

OK... Texas is a good place to be, when dealing with something like this. That's because Texas state laws on debt collection have some real teeth in them. Federal laws are pretty good, too.

One reason I was inquiring where you live was to check the phone call recording laws in your state. Good news, Texas is a 'one-party' state, which means that you do not need consent from the collector on the other end of the call before you record his antics for evidence.

Start recording the calls from these idiots. They'll make your case a lot stronger. Your son can likely figure out the details of how to record calls from the folks at work. Or I have a guide I wrote on the subject, which I'd be happy to send you.


February? Bummer. That lets out using the statute of limitations as a defense. In Texas, that's four years. Does your son remember making a payment in February, or was he just 'reminded' by the collector? This is important.


That is an important tidbit. It's good to know your enemy.

Sherman is one of, if not the, biggest junk debt buyer around. They sit at the center of a spiderweb of debt buying companies, collection agencies, affiliated companies, and dubious law firms that would take a team of attorneys weeks to unravel completely. Some of their better known and less loved faces are LVNV Funding, Resurgent Capital Services, and MRS Associates. All of these are serious bad news, because they seem to have no respect for law or ethics at all.

Sherman and LVNV rarely collect on things themselves. Their favored MO is to farm it out to one of their multitude of shell companies. Then, when a consumer demands validation, they yank it back and farm it out to a different company. We have a moderator on here who did this dance with them. I don't remember how many times they farmed it. A dozen or more, probably.

What your son wants to do, assuming he fights this through himself, is send a demand for validation to both Sherman and IFP. That should keep them from farming it out again. Worked for me, anyway, when I was dealing with LVNV for my wife. We were first contacted by some thug from MRS Associates. When I DV'ed them, LVNV yanked it, and farmed it out to Resurgent. When I DV'ed both of those, it went away.



Sherman probably paid somewhere south of twenty cents on the dollar of face value for your son's original debt. Then they tack on all manner of outrageous interest and fees, and try to collect the whole thing. Thing is, they're only allowed to tack on all that crap if the original contract authorized it. Otherwise, they're limited to whatever interest rate is allowed under state law. Typically, that's about 6%.


They do understand. They simply don't care, is all. Debt buying and collection is a multi-billion dollar industry in this country. That's a lot of salad up for grabs.


Believe it or not, I'm against that law.

Young folks have to grow up sometime. And frankly, if a young person is old enough to vote, and serve in the military, then they're likely old enough to exercise the other rights and duties of an American citizen. That includes watching their own money. Thing is, most young people (and a lot of older ones) simply don't know how. There's a lot more to it than saying 'pay your bills, Junior.' You're seeing some of that now.

What I'm pushing for here in the Granola Republic is to make personal finance a required subject in high school. Let's take these kids and give them the knowlwdge and tools to manage their money before they hit the age of majority. That would nip a lot of the problem in the bud, at minimal expense to the state / taxpayers.


Pissed off, are you? Good! That's gotten you here, and gained you the knowledge to start making a real difference. Take what you've gained here, and pay it forward by helping anybody you can. That's our return on the investment we make by helping you.


National Association of Consumer Advocates website.


You need a good DV template? I have one laying around here someplace. You want?

Everyone in the forum was right. Don't let these knuckleheads bully you. The gist of it is that, more and more consumers are fighting these collection agencies back, and winning! Debt collectors will stoop to almost any means to get money out of you. They will threaten you with lawsuits, calling you at work, etc..., in order to get their hands in your pocketbook! They make a lot of threats because in reality, they DO NOT WANT TO GO TO COURT! why? because court proceedings take too much time, and they want to be paid ASAP, and because of this...once they get you on the phone, they will say absolutely anything to get you to agree to pay. Most also don't want to go to court because they don't always have the means of validating the debt, or they know that the debt is not within the SOL. (The debt is too old to collect on) Your son should speak to an attorney about filing a lawsuit against them. There is a good chance that he would more than likely win!!! The tide is turning in the direction of the consumer. Don't let them frighten and intimidate you. Use the NACA attorneys. They regularly file suits against collection agencies. Go also to Bud Hibbs website. The company that is giving your son problems may be listed there. Bud Hibbs forum is a good one for how to handle debt collectors as well as this one. Many people in the forum have dealt with debt collectors far too many times, and there is a lot of experience here. I have found that the debt validation letters also help to give the consumer the upper hand. Hang in there...you and your son will make out fine.

everyone here has posted great information! i just wanted to chime in and say just relax and avoid those calls if possible. if they start to harrass you, feel free to file a police report. i did and gave a copy to my employer when i was being harrassed at work.

I think this was awesome.
Where else can you go on the internet and get this kind of help and information so quickly when you are in a jam.

these posts telling someone NOT to pay the debt they owe. What a lesson to teach a 22 year old

If that is what you are reading, then you need to pay better attention. Most of this is advising on how not to be abused by collection agencies who are breaking the law....there is a huge difference.

beat it humanoid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our son when is was about 17 got a credit card and after a while of course mismanaged it.It got so far behind he could not pay and gave up. He is 23 almost 24 now and they the collection agencies have never put it to rest .He does not even live here anymore but they still call. I do beleive they are third party collectors. Every noiw and again we get settlements letters from them. We just ignore them. Since my hubby and our son have the same name they wiull not beleive he is not the person they are looking for and we do not disclose we even have a son.Once my hubby went to court and since the social security numbers for him and the( person) were different they had no alternative but to drop it. We still get these calls on our phone from out of state that our caller id says are unknown name unknown numbers when e don't answer we get a collection call. We are never sure if this is still the same case or we both have a small amount of medical bills we have never been able to pay, maybe it is that.My question is how do you stop calls from this when all it does is say call this number?Should we call this number and tell them to stop calling? We get these calls 0nce or twice a day.

to the poster above, you can mail a C & D letter telling them to stop calling completely.

Having a spot of trouble with reading comprehension?

I'll give you fifty bucks cash if you can show me where I advised somebody to dodge their legitimate bills. Until then, shove off. The grown-ups are talking here.

Hiya--

first of all, if the same debt collector that took your husband to court is now trying to collect from him on this debt, I would consider taking legal action against them. You see, in court he proved that they are not actually looking for him, and they now know it. So, at that point I would go after them for harassment and so on. In any event, the court documents that show the case being dismissed arae ample evidence to any debt collector that they are doing nothing but harassing you now.

Second, what state do you live in? It is possible that this debt is now a time-barred debt, due to statute of limitations. If it is, there are two states where they can no longer even call you to try to collect on it--it is illegal there. In the rest of the states they can still try to collect but a cease and desist letter will put a stop to all of that.

Third, if your son was under 18 when he was issued this card, then this probably is a moot point anyways, because minors cannot be a party to a legal contract such as a credit agreement. If that is the case--if he was 17 when they gave him this card--then the only way that he could be held accountable is if he lied on the credit application about his age. And while I do not advocate that people should skip out on a debt they legitimately owe, if a creditor is going to be greedy enough to contract with a minor against the law, then they dont deserve to get paid in my opinion.

sky, i was thinking the same thing about the minor aspect of this but was unsure if it worked like that.. everyone here gave great advice.