Allied International - Steve Pool

Hi,

I have been reading quite a bit on this god-forsaken company, and I wanted to post my story and get some feedback.

On either Feb 22 or 29 (I can't remember which) I received a call at work (they have never called me at home or on my cell) from this AI company. They said they were calling on behalf of an attorney (wouldn't give atty's name) and that they were calling to collect this cc debt that they had for me. I started to calmly state that I had to buy a new house last year, then my company was bought out and I lost my overtime, then my husband was hospitalized for 3 weeks, I couldn't work, was on food stamps trying to recover. This jack*** didn't let me finish and started threatening me, yelling at me, so I started yelling back and eventually hung up.

I got another call from the Steve Pool on March 13 (again at work), this time he left a voice mail. His tone of voice was very mild and nice, so I decided to call him on my cell on my way home from work. He made me a settlement offer on this cc, but I told him I wanted to take the weekend to check my files at home to make sure it was mine because I had previous problems with my father opening credit in my name before he died just to screw up my life (long story). He told me he could hold the offer til March 17, at which time I agreed to call him back with my decision. The original credit card limit was $250, with fees tacked on, it ran up to a little over $600 - his offer was for $460, which I could make in 3 monthly payments. Sounded reasonable, because I need to start cleaning up my credit.

However, after talking with my husband and doing some research on AI on the web, I changed my mind. I called Steve back on the 17th to find out more info about the account. He told me that the account was bought from the original cc bank by the attys he represents, Collect America, on August 23, 2007 (the account was opened in Sept of 2006). He said he received my file on March 7, at which time a letter was sent to me. He confirmed my home address, but I NEVER received anything in writing. I asked if someone could email me a copy of the letter, and at first he said no, but I can fax. I did NOT want my business fax number in his hands, so I (thought) I talked him into emailing me a copy. He put me on hold a few minutes, then came back and gave me his supervisors' email address. I sent the email at 1:10pm EST on March 17. By 2:30, I had not received the email, so I called Steve again to let him know that - he said he would check on it, but still needed my decision as the day was drawing to a close and the offer ended at the end of the business day. I told him I needed this in writing before making a decision. I also told him that I was thinking about contacting an attorney myself about this.

Needless to say, the email or hard copy letter never came. I did some more research on these guys and found this website and started reading posts about how they took more money than was agreed upon out of people's checking accounts and got very scared. I called my husband and told him all this, and we agreed to let it go and see what happened next.

Steve Pool left me messages on March 20 and today, April 3, basically stating the exact same thing - that he was calling regarding the case letter that I received from the attys (which I never did!), that we last spoke on March 17 at which time I said I wanted to talk to an attorney, and that the offer he made me was good for only 24 hrs; my case was now being marked as a refusal to cooperate and that he was advising the attys to go ahead and move against me. He then said that they only way I could stop any agressive action against me by calling him by the end of the day.

Learning what I have about these people from this website, I am scared. Can anybody advise me?

Thanks,

Mary