Got one debt erased

Here's my story

In February of 2007, my Juniper credit card with a balance of about $4000 was charged off. Allegedly Harvest Credit Management bought the account. In June of 2007, Harvest uses Philips & Burns to try and collect on the account. So I fire off a DV letter and get no response.

Well at the end of December the mailman knocks on my door with a summons from the courthouse. Harvest has hired Levy & Associates to sue me for the debt. The validation on the summons is pretty pathetic as all it contains is a sheet with my info which anyone who has access to my credit report could have gotten.

Well, I retain an attorney to file an answer and countersue them for violations. Pretty much from January until today my attorney and the illustrious Yale Levy have been trading paperwork and phone calls.

Today I got a call from my attorney saying that Levy is willing to dismiss the case with prejudice if we also drop our counterclaim. I am more then happy to accept this as my attorney tells me that she will make sure the bad marks are erased from my credit report and also get it in writing that Harvest will NOT sell the debt to someone else.

So basically for a $4000 debt, I got it taken care of for about $1500 in attorney's fees.

This is one weight lifted off my shoulders! Time to tackle a bigger fish in Weltman, Weinberg & Reis and this time nail them for big bucks and no whammies.

Congratulations!

I'm having the same problems with Harvest Credit Management, my question is, what is a DV letter? And what type of lawyer did you have? Thank you!

Dr. Jonah how did this end up? Was you attorney successful in having the debt wiped from your records?

And what happened with Weltman, Weinberg & Reis?

Yes please do tell we would love to hear about it.

Waleska, a DV letter is a debt validation letter. Basically it's a letter you send to a collection agency making them prove that they either own the debt or can legally collect on it. You can find many sample letters on this great website. Also when you mail the letter, make sure you send the letter registered mail and also request a return receipt, this is your proof that they received the letter.

I hired a consumer attorney from NACA who had experience in credit card debt/judgement/lawsuits

Smo and bernie, last year WW&R sent me a collection letter about a citibank card charged off. So I sent them the DV letter CMRRR and heard nothing.

Well a few months later when I checked my local courthouse website to inquire about the lawsuit in my original post, I found out that they tried suing me using an old address that I haven't lived at in 6 years. But the summons was returned undeliverable.

I had planned on suing them for that violation plus maybe more, but other financial obligations have come up and right now, I just can't afford $1000 to retain an attorney. Maybe when i have some real free time I'll try legal aid and see if they can find me an attorney who will work on contingency.

what did the NACA attorney that you hired do for you?

I must have it in by the end of this month or my house is in jeopardy. I paid off almost 7 thousand dollards and the nest is due Jan 31. I do not have the money, cannot get a loan anywhere . I am 76 and live on my social security. What can I do. Where can I get a loan for 3 thousand dollards and have payments taken out of my bank account.

Ms RObak,

if you can't pull the money out of a credit card, you're really going to need to call the bank and discuss your options with them. They should work with you

Definitely abusive - I am looking for others to try to join in a class action suit. There is already one going in Illinois Federal court. See HarvestCredit.colorado-online.biz

I tried pulling this up but it's a bad url. Do you have any other information.

Link worked for me... I am going to send in these debt validation forms to the collectors currently calling me so i can better my position for clearing up my debt.

I'm confused. Do I still have to send a DV letter to the collector if I know I do owe the debt?

You don't have to do anything. However you can send a dispute to have them verify your debt and give you an accounting for your liability. You may owe a debt and they may try to add ridiculous fee's on top of it. Make sure you get a clear picture so you can make arrangements with them to get it paid off. For instance if you started out owing $250 and now they want $2000 there is something wrong here. Make a point of how much you owe/owed and negotiate your way from there.

You always DV a collector. You want to know that you are paying the correct people for this debt. They need to prove that they are legally entitled to collect the debt and collecting the correct amount.