Hi Ms. Mom of Twins,
I've been following your history of posts with great concern. Like I stated in all of my previous posts, I am an honest fdcpa abiding third party collector who enjoys building rapport and earning the trust of borrowers who feel like they are backed into a corner.
I can't help but wonder, as I've been following your forum history, why you are getting all these creeps. To date, I see you've heard from First Credit of America, Asset Acceptance I believe, and now Encore Recievables, all who are charlatans if they liberally violate the FDCPA. There are stiff penalties for FDCPA violations for both collector and agency. These clowns really shoot themselves in the foot, don't they?
When my husband and I had a run in with First Credit of America, what stands out the most was the fact that they were collecting on something completely penny ante that my husband didn't even owe. It was for some credit report website that stipulated "cancel within five days and you will not be charged" he cancellled within five days, and three months later, recieved that call from this 'tard who completely bumbled his way through the conversation. What really cracked me up is that the guy said that there was a five dollar charge for pay-by-phone and a fifteen dollar charge for all mail-in payments. How farcical is that???
Bottom line, I want to help you. I'm very disturbed by the fact that all of your past due accounts are going to these unlawful agencies. There are some pieces of advice I want to share with you about how you can handle this without talking to them. When they call, just state that you will respond by mail and hang up. Also, if possible, get call intercept or privacy manager service from your phone company. These services screen your calls for you by not allowing unidentified calls to go through, it was originally designed to impede telemarketers but they also do well to let you know that there is probably another insane collector calling.
If I can think of anything else I will post it with one of your topics.
Good luck and take care of those twins!
Ari