do I or do I not have the right to refuse to deal with a CA?

it depends on whether or not the CA owns the debt, or if the original creditor still does. But either way, you can send them a certified letter telling them that they are not to contact you any further about this matter. By law they have to honor it. But it wont make the debt go away--so if they own it, and you do that, they could take any action at that point that they wanted to, like suing you.

could they sue you if its past sol? and can they put it on your credit report if you could prove it is past the 7year 180 day mark?? i was a victim of identity theft and i did everything they asked like file a police report and etc. but they still are trying to make me pay this debt. the cra took it out of my report as fraud and the ca did not respond to the cra. but im wondering if they can still put it back on if they send you and old bill from 2000 with diffrent addresses and names of people you dont know. and say its validated and that i owe the bill???

If they sue, you'll need to go to court and raise SOL as an affirmative defense. The judge will throw their case out.

You usually can pay the creditor if they still own the debt and they accept your payment. Unless you are paying it off then you can still expect contact from the CA. The CA is going to get paid either way.

The creditor my company worked for would refuse to take the payment by phone and send them to us.

You can refuse to deal with a CA - ie send a cease and desist letter. After that point, they can only contact you to state that they intend to take a specific action (like filing a lawsuit).

However once the account is placed for collections, the original creditor can refuse to deal with you; if you call them, they can refer you to the CA.

If you refuse to deal with the CA, and the original creditor refuses to deal with you ... then you're in a pickle. But if it ever goes to court, it's not a valid defense for you to claim the original creditor wouldn't work with you.

Also, in a case where the debt has been sold ... the OC is completely out of the picture after that -- they cannot work with you any longer, because they don't own the debt anymore.

Hi FYI, you jumped in while I was typing :)

To expand a little on FYI's post ... once an account is placed for collection or sent to an attorney, the creditor has to pay a contingency (anywhere from 30-50%) on any funds received. Even if a debtor makes payment directly to the creditor, the creditor will have to report the payment to the CA and pay a % of the amount collected. The theory is that the CA's actions led the debtor to call the OC, and so the CA still gets paid on it.

So from the creditors' standpoint, if the CA is going to get paid regardless of who the debtor actually makes payment to, why not let the CA do a little work in order to get paid? That's why most creditors will refer you to the CA if you call them.

Texas has some nice consumer laws regarding debt. You could send them a DV and by Texas law they have 30 days to provide it. They may not make any collection attempts until the debt is properly validated. You can also include a no phone contact paragraph in the letter as well and by law they must abide.

This particular agency has broken the law by repeatedly calling my parents, sometimes several times within a few minutes when they tell him not to call, and also by having someone calling around claiming to be my husband to try to get information. I'm really not comfortable giving them any money because I feel like they are scam artists, and when the time comes, I intend on telling the original creditor that as well.

I have a stupid question here....I have an old medical bill I'm paying on they sent it to a CA late last year...I missed placed the CA letter I got and started to pay the doctor's office they excepted my payment. My question is since I will continue to pay them (original creditor) will the CA go off my credit report or will it stay on there even though I'm paying the doctors's office?

Good question Tweety. I am not sure of this answer but I think that would depend on the original creditors response. They may dicontinue collections through the collection agency since you have been paying them directly. You could call and ask the original creditor and ask them this question. I'm sure since you are working with them they would want to help answer any questions you may have.

Hmm You are in Texas correct? Texas also has a law about companies who use CA's that break the law. I would contact the OC and inform them of all the illegal tactics this company is employing and ask them to pull the account back from the CA. You can actually sue the creditor for using a CA they know has broken the law. :)

tweety--

ask the doctor's office if they would be willing to pull the account back from the CA. That way, the CA will no longer have any right to collect on this debt, and at that point they are not allowed to continue reporting on your credit report. If you check and see after that, that they still have a report showing, you can then dispute it with the credit bureau, and if the CA verifies the debt as valid, you then can sue the CA for false reporting.

Ok..here's a CHALLANGING question, for ya'll. If the CA OR the OC doesn't want to deal with you, and you STILL send payments to the OC (by MoneyGram) and you KNOW the payments (whatever payments you can make..anyway) are getting 'credited' to you account, can they STILL come back and sue? They ARE getting SOMETHING, ya know.

If they payment isn't enough to payoff the account or bring it current, then they can still sue. Albeit they should be giving you credit for those payments and decreasing the total amount owed.

Tweety- as long as the doctor has your account placed with that CA for collection, then that CA can report. As you're making payments to the doctor, the CA should also be reporting the current balance every month.

Like skydivr said, the dr would have to recall the account in order for it to completely come off your bureau.

I KNOW they are getting the paymenst ( I do it from MoneyGram STRAIGHT to my account, with them). Whether they are giving me the 'credit' for it, I don't know. It's not the amount, that I ORIGINALLY agreed upon, but, it's SOMETHING.

They can still sue no matter what you do. I think the key in that case is if they did sue, they would look pretty stupid if you showed the judge that you were already making the payments you could afford. No judge will make you go bankrupt to pay off debt. I HAVE heard of the court granting payment arrangements of like 10 bucks a month (this happened to a friend of mine who proved she could only pay that amount).

SDChargers: Check your credit report. By law they have to keep it accurately updated. You could be a royal pain in the butt....every month they have to update your account to reflect your payments and that the balance owed is going down..if they don't...you have them on reporting wrong information.

There is'nt a thing wrong with paying your debts if you owe them. But as long as you are making an effort to pay, these greedy CA and OC should leave people alone. How in the world do they expect people to live? I heard recently that Ford will start laying some people off...so there will be more people that will wind up falling behind all bill payments. The shame of it as the economy gets worse....debt collectors will prosper,....unless and until consumers become advocates and adjitate to toughen the Fair Debt Collection laws and prosecute lawless OCs as well as CAs.

Ditto with meircats. You are making an honest effort to pay off the debt..and they still want to bleed you dry...it is never going to be enough for these people.