Academy Collections were unfriendly and threatening

Hi mglendening and welcome to the site. First of all, do not worry. All of those people are full of you know what. First I need you to list what state you are in and how much you have paid on your loan, and if it is a storefront or internet loan. Lets start with that. I hope you have the address to mail them this certified with a return reciept. It may be as simple as sending a debt validation letter to these people. Do not answer the phone, that is the worst you can do. With this validation letter also send a do not call me a work or at home period. Someone will come along soon with more info. on this subject, just do not worry as for as all here have been there done that.

Luke..great advice friend!

mg-What kind of debt are they trying to collect on? The whole "give me the name of your attorney" is a tactic to belittle you because they know you dont have one and it puts them in the dominant position. One of these days someone is going to give them the name of their attorney and call their freakin bluff!

Anyhow, have you gotten anything in the mail? You need to get them to validate the debt!!

BTW, they are calling me too but I refuse to answer their calls and i delete their voice mails. I have yet to get anything in writing from them....

Yeah, collection agencies I swear go to school to learn powerful scare tactics (not all of them do this). that's what they do best, they scare us but as Luke suggested, try not to worry. the main thing is to do the best you can with the debt you owe. Validating debt is a very good thing to do if it hasn't been done yet. there are so many that are here for you mg

What did they threaten to do?

I just spoke to another person there and they were much friendlier and much more helpful. BUT, the guy asked me why I didn't call back today. I was like, well yesterday the person I spoke to hung up on me and made it seem like there was no reason to call back.

It seems that Citibank will probably sue me because I owe them a lot of money. I am thinking about going into a debt settlement program but not sure this will help me or not. I feel completely stupid and stuck.

May refinance the mortgage to get at least something they will accept to stop them from pursuing legal recourse. I just don't know what to do.

What do you allegedly owe? Also you should send them a debt validation letter so you can find out if they are the company you really owe it to.

I owe around 12000. They said they would settle with me for 8000 maybe could get them to go as low as $7700. Said if they had my account in September Citibank would have settled for $5000 or so (.40 on the $). He also said because it was a charge off that I can't deal directly with Citibank anymore and it's worth their time to sue because of the amount I owe.

Can I still send a validation letter even after talking with them on the phone? I feel uncomfortable continuing conversations with them as I feel like they are trying to get personal info. out of me.

I know I'm an idiot to get into this situation and I do want to pay them something but am scarred and don't know what to do. The CA won't accept monthly payments because they say the OC won't accept that but it seems to me that my paying something is better than nothing at all.

What about debt settlement? I'm looking at Care One as they have an attorney working for you. Feel like I may be better off pay $150 retainer to them and have them deal with these people.

You are well within your rights to request validation, here is a good template for a debt validation letter:
http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/letters/sample6.html
Send it USPS certified, return receipt requested. First see if they can validate it. If they can just send in what you can afford to pay, or you can take a look at the debt consolidation services offered on this website. First fire off that DV letter and see what happens.

I agree with above. You need to send the a DV (debt validation) letter. This DV request is your legal right to do so! They must prove to you, in writing, that you owe this debt, and that they can legally collect this debt. Someone gave you a link to a sample DV above.

In your DV letter, make sure to state that they are no longer able to contact you via the telephone. All contact with you must be made in writing. Again, this is your legal right. Once they are informed of this, they must stop calling you.

What this DV letter will do is buy you some time. They have 30 days to respond to you. Once they respond, yo have 30 days to reply back. If they don't reply back within 30 days (it has been my experience that they normally take a while to get back to you!), you'll need to send a second DV letter.

While you are waiting for replies and going back and forth, you should save as much $$ as you can so you have a good size deposit to make payment arrangements.

Some tips:
-Send your letters via the post office using Certified Return Receipt Requested, and keep copies of all receipts!
-NEVER give a CA your bank info over the phone, no matter what they say.
-Always send money orders, not checks, via the mail; don't give a CA your bank info!!!

I would call Citibank to see if they still retain ownership of the account and would like to do a settlement directly with them.

I am sending out the DV letter today at lunch in which I will include a line about not contacting at work or by phone.

So I talked to another person there last night around 7:00. He explained some things to me and said he might be able to get a settlement for $7600. Great, but where do I get the money. Anyway, so I am getting ready to leave for work and I see I missed a call on my cell. It was Academy calling again. They left a message saying I need to call. So what do I do? Just ignore it and not call? I'm sure they will try to call me at work again which leaves me cornered and having to talk with them. I am very upset and was crying driving in to work this morning. I don't know what they think could have changed between 7:00 last night and 8:30 this morning.

My FIL suggested that I just contact a lawyer and have a lawyer deal with this. What do you all think?

What do you think of this letter?

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Make sure you send it CRRR

I just got back from the post office and mailed out the verification letter. I pretty much used the one I posted but edited a bit to fit my situation more closely. I guess I will see what happens from here. I did ask not to be called and to only be contacted through the mail.

My FIL suggested I speak with an attorney and I can get a free 30 minute phone consult through my employer's EAP program. I think I will do this so I can get a clearer idea of what I need to do, what my rights are and how I can proceed with this in a manner that is affordable for me and satisfactory to Citibank.

Just give them the name of your lawyer - even if you invent a name. They are NOT going to call him.

Hi, I have been contacted a few times by Academy Collections by phone, and just found out that they called my parent's house. They used their automatic message that gave my name and if the person listening to the message was not me to hang up, etc. I also got a letter in the mail regarding the supposed debt I owe. I vaguely remember owing something on a store cc, but nowhere near the amount they are trying to collect! How do I tell AC to stop the phone calls period? I am working on cleaning up my cc debts (and have actually settled some with other, much nicer, collection agencies!) but am really short on money now. I want to keep my family out of my debt business and make these people leave them alone. Thanks for the input

Me again, from above post. I can't believe it but I just got a call (i'm at work) from Karen Duffy (215-281-7500 ext. 4358) with Academy. I asked her nicely to not contact me at this number or call my parent's house or my house, and to contact me by mail only. she said "that's not how we do it" and accused me of getting their letters and throwing them out thinking they were junk mail. I again nicely told her that I have every right to ask that she not contact me by phone, she again said but that's now how we do it, think of it as you owe someone money and you need to take care of it and not ignore us, etc. - very rude and pushy and poor grammar. I said again that I would only deal with them through the mail. She read my address off - but botched it by saying my state is Miami instead of Michigan, I honestly don't know if she could read what she was saying. So now should I follow up with a letter?

definitely,send it ceritfied mail return receipt.

thanks paulmergel, I will do that.

I just got off the phone with Academy collections and was treated rudely and hung up on. I called right back and asked for a supervisor. I let them know I had made the payment I agreed to, reminded them I was just returning to work after a lay off of 9 months and that their collections tactics are illegal. He apologized and I did give him the name of my attorney because I do have one. I feel for people who they scare with their tactics. I will file bankruptcy if they try to sue me. I will reafirm all of the accounts that have worked with me.

My 11 year old son has been getting calls from those people. He doesn't answer because it's MY rule if he doesn't know the number then let voice mail get it. They have left many messages for some Alexandrea Hammit. They have left personal info about her as well. I have her case number and file number. A Josh Gates called from 1-800-220-0605 and left a nasty message for the girl that she better respond before March 23,2009 (Tomorrow) or she was going to regret it. Well sorry for him,but he is not contacting her! He is calling my 11 year old son's cellphone!!! I am calling him tomorrow and informing him of my son;s age and that we have never heard of his company until the phone calls started on March 17,2009 @ 8AM! The last call was March 20,2009 at 10PM! If that a##hole calls my son again they will be the ones with a case number for court!!!

I do not owe them anything. As I said I never heard of them until they started calling my 11 year old son's cellphone for some girl. If they keep it up I will sue them for harrassing my son. So let us hope they keep it up so when I sue I'll take over and wipe your debts clean and shut the company down! I have a close friend that is a lawyer and it will not cost me anything to rung them jerks through court.

I meant run not rung! I am so mad that they keep calling my 11 year old's cell I made a typo!

try to keep a log of all calls momof3.that will help your case against these humanoids.

I saved every call & message from them, as well as my e-mail to them. I informed them in e-mail that I will get a lawyer,turn them into the Att. General's office as well as the BBB. I looked them up at the BBB and their Nevada office has an F rating. The PA office doesn't even have a rating yet,but they will have a complaint filed if they call my son again. I also called and left Josh Gates a message that he better take my e-mail very serious. I feel bad for those that ever got mixed up with dealing with such a horrible company.

Lol first off Academy Collections is but yet another lame loser collection agency that preys on the weak and innocent i.e,... They are pedophiles of the predatorial collection ilk.. Ignore these losers intoto: simply laugh at them at hang up in their ear as these losers have absolutely no power whatsoever to ever do anything to you period. Remember people that the losers that work for these agencies are in all truth rejects from burger joints and have nothing in their lives but that piss poor telemarketing position lol. Heres a secret they do not want you to know: these losers purchased you old debt from the original creditor for pennies on the dollar and are only trying to scam you into paying them for a debt you no longer owe sinxe the debt was charged off and the damage to your credit was done.. You owe no one anything certainly not the freaks at Academy : ). When they call either ignore it at let go to voice mail then delete or simply answer without ever giving clarification of your identity and laugh at them then hang up on them.. Its a scam is all it is so why fall for it?

The above post is by far the best remedy to collection agency harrassment I have ever read!

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