Settlement Opportunity with MCM

If you wish to have the whole issue resolved, then settle. However, if you are certain that the SOL has expired, then you may also tell them to FUK off. I am easily amused.

Ask them to prove in writing that the debt they are collecting on is legit. It comes under your rights under the federal laws. Send a dispute letter asking for the info and don't make any commitment to pay because

1) You want to be sure of this debt is yours.
2) If you are sure of the SOL already expired.

Where can I find out the sol in NY State. I have several old debts with cc's and don't want to settle for bad debt. Also if I ask for a validation, will that start the clock over? or is it a payment that restarts the clock?

Sol's resetting are governed by individual states and at the minimum usually require some type of payment or written acknowledement. I usually use lawdog.com for sol calculations,but it is in your interest to go to your state legislature site and pull up the statute yourself. Sol for reporting can never be reset with a payment on bad debt.

hi rwf--

I see two possibilities here. First, you could send them a validation request letter, since you are not aware of this debt. They will be required by law to stop all collection efforts until they can provide you with the documentation that the debt is yours, proof of the amount owed, and their right to collect on it. Midland has a reputation of not having their ducks in a row all the time, so they may not be able to provide such validation. If they cannot, then under federal law they cannot continue to try to collect from you. Usually, when that happens, they just sell the debt to another junk debt buyer and the process begins anew with the next CA.

The second thing you can do is send them a letter stating that the debt is outside the SOL. They can still try to collect, but the only thing they can do to collect is hound you to pay--they cannot take you to court over a debt that has passed SOL. Well, they cannot do that unless you let them. What I mean is, SOL is an active-only defense. They can still sue you, but you need to declare that the SOL is expired in your answer in order to use SOL as your defense. It is not an automatic thing--the court will not step in and tell them that they are past the SOL.

Be sure to send any letters by certified mail, return receipt. Me personally, I would go with the second option--tell them to get bent because the SOL is expired. In this case, you will also want to include a cease and desist statement. This is basically telling them that, as provided in the fdcpa, you hereby demand that they do not contact you in any way, shape, or form. This means they cannot call you trying to collect, and they cannot send you more mail. They are only allowed at that point to contact you to tell you one of three things:

1--that they are stopping all collection activity
2--that they are proceeding with further action against you
3--that they are returning the account to the original creditor

If they contact you with anything other than those responses, it is a violation of federal law.

Thanks

Send them a debt validation letter via certified mail with a return receipt request. Validation is a right provided to you under the fdcpa section 809. That section also states that if the collection agency receives a debt validation request within 30 days of initial contact, then it must stop all the collection activities until the validation is provided to the consumer.

Since the SoL of the debt has expired, it is up to you to decide whether you want to pay it or not. Though the debt is an ???????out of statute debt??????? but still it does not prohibit the collection agencies to stop collecting the debt. It just gives you a defense against the collectors if they take any legal actions such as liens, judgments, wage garnishments and so forth to force you to pay off the debt. You can send the collection agencies a letter via certified mail with a return receipt request. In the letter mention them about the expired statute of limitation and your intention to make use of it as your defense if they decide to take any legal actions. If they at all take you to the court then you have to show up in court and point out that the statute of limitations has expired.
Suing or threatening to sue you after a statute of limitations is a sheer violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

So do not worry, law is on your side. :D

[QUOTE=rwf5701;191082]I recently received a settlement opportunity letter from MCM account no 85218*****. The original creditor is from First National Bank, I made an inquired about the account since I was not aware of the dept. The last action on this dept was in May 2000 which is past the statute of limitations for MA. I have no record of this dept and the SOL has passed.
What will be my next step?
Account number wiped off for your safety - Mike[/QUOTE]

There are a few things that need to be noted here.
1. If the account was charged off in the state of MA, only then will the SOL of MA will apply on the account. In case the account was charged off when you were in another state where the SOL is longer, then the SOL of that state will be honoured. In simple words, the SOL of the state where the account was originated/charged off will be honoured in case if the consumer has moved to a different state after date of charge off.

2. As per section FDCPA . Validation of Debts - 809 (1692g)
The debt collector is required to provide a validation notice to the consumer within five days after the initial communication with a consumer. If there are any disputes from the consumer's side, it has to be raised within 30 days from the date when validation notice was sent. In case the consumer fails to raise the dispute within 30 days then the burden of proof happens to be on consumer. This means that consumber will be required to provide the proofs of the debt not owed to them.
Also, it's worth noting that the failure of a consumer to dispute the validity of a debt within 30 days may not be construed by any court as an admission of liability by the consumer.

This means that if you want to dispute the debt and it's beyond validation period then you would be required to prove it to them that you don't owe this debt. Given the situation, you might want to take the easy way out, which is to negotiate a deal with them and agree to pay them in one shot or make a payment arrangement. You may also be able to get a settlement along with payment arrangement depending upon how well are you able to negotiate.

I would follow directions to contest the debt. I was just sued by Midland funding. They had no documentations for the account they were suing me for. I asked them to validate and they could not do so. I then received a summons for summary judgement. I answered the summons and appeared in court and contested the summary judgement. The court dismissed the summary judgement and two-weeks later a trial date was set. Before we went to court they dismissed the case.

My advice is to not give in or go down without a fight. I have done extensive research on Midland and they are looking for creditors that give in without a fight. If you contest and make them work for a judgement against you they will dismiss the case.

It cost them almost $600.00 to go to court for a summary judgement and have it denied. They did not want to take the chance of me winning and them having to come out of pocket anymore money.

Fight! I determined that if they were going to get a judgement they were going to work for it!