Help:collection agency bullied my wife

Greetings Harborsalesonline/Mike,

Just a couple of tidbits of advice here, others will add more for sure.

1. Never, never, never, never let a collection agency gain electronic access to your funds. And get everything in writing up front.

2. These collection agents aka bottom feeders/scurvy roaches......will tell you that the sun won't rise and the moon will fall into your backyard if you don't pay up!

3. Is the debt legit? And if so....Who is the debt with? How much? How long overdue?

4. This is the fun part.....go to the Shack that sells Radios and buy a cheap pickup device for a cassette recorder and next time the goons call, record it. Tell 'em that you are doing so on the advice of knowledgeble folks.

5. Take a deep breath and smile.....y'all will get through this.

Regards,
King" Kash" Jabba Labba

Thank you for your reply. They have already taken a payment out of our account, should I stop the auto withdraw with my bank, because now they have access to withdraw from it?

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You have the right to revoke permission to withdraw funds from your account. I would send the CA a letter or email stating that you are revoking their permission and I would tell them that it is on the grounds that your wife misunderstood the terms of the agreement she was making with them. Tell them you'd like to come to an agreement on payment arrangments so they know you aren't refusing to pay the debt, in case it is valid, and move forward from there. You should also go to your bank and show them the letter/email and let them know you've revoked permission so they won't allow further payments to process. If this is a bottom-feeding CA, you may have to close your account and open a new one in orter to protect your funds as, many of them, will do whatever necessary to get money from you.

Don't send them revoke permission to withdraw funds, they will do it anyway, close the account!

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After you close your account by following the ways advised by OhioGal and King JL, file a case against this CA with the FTC. They have violated FDCPA rules by threatening to sue your wife. By what you have posted, I don't think they are a legit CA. Please give us the name in full. And are you sure about the debt? How old is it?

The Ca is Nelson Watson

I would send the letter and close the account - have your wife document what happened and call an attorney to sue them under the FDCPA.

I would also let the phone calls from this guy to voice mail for the first couple of calls and save the recordings. In addition, check with your state and see if you are allowed to do 1 party recordings. If so, record all conversations moving forward.

Yes, as you said, they threatened your wife to sue and garnish your wages, you must file case against them with the FTC. Though they have a good rating with the BBB, in your case, they have clearly violated FDCPA.

Adding to it, close your existing account and open a new one. Fyi, never ever give permssion to CAs to have electronic access to your funds. Did they send you the collection letter after initial contact?

It's not against the FDCPA for a CA to tell you they will sue you if they actually intend to do so. It's also not against FDCPA for them to tell you that if they sue you and win, your wages may be garnished.

OhioGal1 is correct. It makes this tricky because you immediately agreed to payments however, for $3,600 I'd take my chances with closing the account out and see when they call again about any potential FDCPA valid violations....

Thanks OhioGal for the proper clarification. Yes, I missed that little part. If the CA intend to sue you, then telling it to you over the phone is not violation of the FDCPA.

This is a gray area and it would depend, 100%, on the words actually said/actually remembered by your wife.

If NW&A said, "If you don't pay we will refer your file to an attorney for litigation" it isn't a violation assuming that if you didn't pay they would really forward their file to an attorney.

If NW&A said, "If you don't pay, we are going to take legal action against you" and the rep stating that wasn't an attorney, it is a violation. It wouldn't matter if they intended to or not, they would be practicing law without a license, etc.

Can the collection agency legally pull my wifes credit report? I checked hers and it showed they pulled it the same day they called her and scared the crap out of her.

If they own a debt that is in her name (or are working on behalf of a client who does), yes, they can pull the credit report and will do so to try to obtain current contact info.

Threatening legal action against someone doesn't constitute practicing law without a license. If it did, people would be charged with it every day for saying "I will sue you"!

Debt Samaritan - In their capacity it does

Sorry, I disagree.

If you work for a collection agency whose common practice is to refer cases for litigation, it's perfectly acceptable, as a collection agent, to say, "if (you refuse to pay, etc.) we will take legal action."

That is NOT practicing law without a license.

Per the FDCPA, the collector cannot represent that s/he is an attorney if s/he's not and s/he cannot claim legal action will be taken if it legally can't OR if there is no intention to do so.

It would depend, 100%, on the words actually said. It is how they say it. There is a difference in saying refer or we will sue you. If the person had a recording of that conversation and they said to pay us or we will sue you - and they weren't an attorney, I have an attorney right now that would take the case.

If NW&A said, "If you don't pay we will refer your file for an attorney for litigation" it isn't a violation assuming that if the client didn't pay they would really forward their file to an attorney.

If NW&A said, "If you don't pay, we are going to take legal action against you" and the rep stating that wasn't an attorney, it is a violation. Paralegals/collection specialists cannot decide whether to sue or not. It's a "Legal decision" that is done by lawyers. If a paralegal wants to state that they CAN make that determination, then they are admitting that they practice law without a license.

But we are both making the point that what they are doing, they shouldn't be.

No we're not but, I'm not going to argue with you about it anymore. It's perfectly fine to say "we will sue you" if they are legally allowed to sue and intend to do so if payment isn't received.

If someone owed you money and you told them, "if you don't pay me back, I'm going to sue you," is that practicing law without a license? NO! It's just stating your intentions, which are perfectly legal.

You're right, not worth arguing. There is a difference if you were a person off the street and yelled, hey I am going to sue you -vs. a CA that is not a law firm saying that they are going to sue you. Saying refer you over and we are going to sue you may not seem like a big deal, but it is.

Well I closed our checking account and I am sending out the validation of debt letter and the letter revoking the ach authorizations. Now I guess I will see how nasty they get.

Thanks for all the advice

The part that's going to be tricky for you, harbor, is the fact that you've already made a payment on the account, which is basically claiming ownership of the debt. I think you need to take the approach with them of "I want to clear this up, but would like to make payment on my terms and would like to first verify the debt, clarify the amount owed, make sure you are legally allowed to collect on the debt and then come to a mutually acceptable settlement agreemnt."

Good luck and keep us posted on yoru progress!

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Harbor, I am curious who the original creditor was??? Thanks

The original creditor was Capital One. We tried to talk to them about this and they just gave the phone # for the CA. Should I try to have the payment refunded by my bank because my wife never got anything in writing or will that just make things harder with the CA?

It depends. If the CA doesn't actually own the debt - doesn't matter. If the CA can't verify the debt, doesn't matter. If they do own it and can verify it then the only thing it might do is make them more stubborn in the negotiating process. Either way, I don't think it matters much :)

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[SIZE=3]Nelson Watson and Associates had a debt in my name in late 2007 early 2008. They wanted around $10,000. I DV???d them with a cease and desist. They provided a garbage response. They never sued. Eventually they sold the debt to a different collector. [/SIZE]

They tried to use a number of very shady collection tactics with me. One of them was they claimed they had my cable company on the phone line and they verified that I owned the debt on the credit card because a charge was made to pay a few cable bills. I said fine put the cable company on three way and I will verify with them while you are on the phone. The cable company conveniently hung up before we could speak according to the collector. Anyway I told them I was not going to put up with their BS and I verbally CD???d them and followed up with a letter. I informed them if they ever called me again that I would consider it harassment and I would have my attorney work it out with them in court. I never heard from them again after that day.

If we have the bank refund the money won't it make it harder to negotiate with the creditor for a settlement?

[SIZE=3]I don???t think disputing the charge would make it any harder to negotiate. At this point they aren???t negotiating at all and have no motivation to negotiate. Just inform them that you will not settle without an agreement in writing and you had to dispute the charge with the bank because of the lack of an agreement. If they get mouthy then hang up on them. Another tactic I use is when one of them tries to talk over me I come back and talk over them. It is a showcase of dominance and who is in charge of the conversation and the collection process. You will get a much better settlement offer if you go this route. If you roll over and do nothing and continue to let them debit your account then you will end up paying much more than you ever owed probably. [/SIZE]

And if they're as scuzzy as it sounds, it likely won't make a difference. They'll probably just sell your debt off to someone else and you can start all over but, armed with more info this time.

Well we just got a letter from the collection agency today saying we owe the debt. This is after they called 8 days ago. Should I still send the validation of debt letter along with the letter stating we revoke the authorization to debit our account and to only contact us via USMail?

Thanks again for all the advice.

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