Hi everyone. I have just spent an hour reading this thread. I have noticed a few things.
1: The people who are speaking out against CMS are not clients.
2: The people who are speaking in favor of CMS are clients currently in the process or have friends/clients/family members who have gone through the process and are happy with the results.
3: The arguments of those opposed to CMS are filled with ad hominems and unsupported statements. I would include the article that was posted as well.
Here is an example from the article:
"The creditors must now send all statements to us and not you." No! This is simply not true."
If it's not true, why not cite the law, or the terms of the credit card agreement that support this statement? That just sounds to much like a child asking a parent "why" and the parent replies "because I said so." One or two of the folks in the program stated on this thread that the credit card companies did in fact change the correspondence address to CMS, which was one stated action that the CC company needed to do to accept the new contract.
4: I noticed the article did not seek a comment or statement from a consumer rights attorney or the attorney who works for CMS. This is journalism 101. You always have to discuss both sides of the argument and get statements from both sides of the aisle. That article was hopelessly biased.
4: I looked up the term novation and here is what the legal dictionary said:
NOVATION - Novation is a substitution of a new for an old debt. The old debt is extinguished by the new one contracted in its stead; a novation may be made in three different ways which form three distinct kinds of novations.
The first takes place without the intervention of any new person, where a debtor contracts a new engagement with his creditor, in consideration of being liberated from the former. This kind has no appropriate name and is called a novation generally.
***The second is that which takes place by the intervention of a new debtor, where another person becomes a debtor instead of a former debtor, and is accepted by the creditor, who thereupon discharges the first debtor. The person thus rendering himself debtor for another, who is in consequence discharged, is called expromissor; and this kind of novation is caned expromissio.***
The third kind of novation takes place by the intervention of a new creditor where a debtor, for the purpose of being discharged from his original creditor, by order of that creditor, contracts some obligation in favor of a new creditor. There is also a particular kind of novation called a delegation.
It is a settled principle of the common law, that a mere agreement to substitute any other thing in lieu of the original obligation is void unless actually carried into execution and accepted as satisfaction. No action can be maintained upon the new agreement, nor can the agreement be pleaded as a bar to the original demand. But where an agreement is entered into by deed, that deed gives, in itself, a substantive cause of action and the giving such deed may be sufficient accord and satisfaction for a simple contract debt.
The general rule seems to be that if one indebted to another by simple contract, give his creditor a promissory note, drawn by himself for the same sum, without any new consideration, the new note shall not be deemed a satisfaction of the original debt unless so intended and accepted by the creditor. But if he transfer the note he cannot sue on the original contract as long as the note is out of his possession.
NOVATION AGREEMENT - A legal instrument executed by (a) the contractor (transferor), (b) the successor in interest (transferee), and (c) the by which, among other things, the transferor guarantees performance of the contract, the transferee assumes all obligations under the contract, and the purchaser recognizes the transfer of the contract and related assets.
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Caned expromissio would appear to be the type of novation that CMS is utilizing to assume the debt. The CC shows that they accept the debt by cashing the check which is always the full payment due that month and also by changing the correspondence address. The check and new contract, which is not simply written on the back of a check, but a document with a notarized notice of assignment and limited power of attorney attached, are sent to the cc companies correspondence address, not the regular payment address which is automated. If you read the novation elements carefully, you will see that CMS is following the requirements of this law.
In addition to the cc cashing the check and changing the correspondence address which shows they accepted the new contract, the longer a CC acts on the new contract by cashing the checks, the stronger the contract gets if it were to go before a judge. I learned this when I studied law (I went through my first year of law school but decided to take a position as chair of criminal justice with the college I was working for so I am not pretending I'm a lawyer here.)
I started the program myself at the beginning of last month. Its to soon for me to speak of my experience but I can say the gent I have been working with has not been pushy. He has answered all of my questions, 2 and 3 times. I also have received correspondence from Brad letting me know what my next step was.
Am I scared? Hell yes! I have perfect credit. Why am I risking it? Because I am tired of being stolen from. I made agreements with my creditors, I have paid my bills faithfully, on time, and as agreed. And you know what? They raise my interest rate all the time. It is so high on one card that half of my payment goes to interest every month. I keep calling them and they basically tell me to kiss their ass because they don't have to have a reason to change the terms of the contract to suite their whims. I'm not a dead beat who doesn't pay her bills. I always have met my obligations.
But after years of pissing money into the wind for student debt and debt racked up from life's little misfortunes, I've had enough. If the creditors were fair, played fair, and upheld a modicum of decency with the interest rates they charge so that I actually had a snow ball's chance in hell of satisfying my debt and getting my life back, I would have paid every penny.
But they don't do that. This is me, an educated and honest citizen saying I am pissed off and I want to fight back. I agree with the other poster that this system is not me fleeing from my debt or trying to hide. I am attempting to engage them, to use the same laws they use to change the terms after we made our agreement against them.
I know the system has been modified and manipulated to ensure the credit card companies win. I know I am standing up to a massively powerful network with lots of money and lots of lawyers. And if my credit implodes and I lose all my money anyway, sod it. At least I tried to fight back.
Wish me luck, and thank you for all of those of you who posted your stories about your ACTUAL experiences with CMS. It helped me not feel so alone. And if I fail, Tom, I'll let you know so you can say I told you so. Based on the amount of exclamation points and capital letters in your posts, you seem like that kind of guy.
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