To Pay or Not to Pay

I'm having a hard time trying to figure out who I am. My email address, some name I give myself, or a login ID? I'm totally confused.

I wonder why your creditor sent your account to collections. Don't let any collection agency put a bad impact in your credit file. All the hard work with your payments will go wasted at the single reporting from a CA. Take care of it, please.

Call the original company and arrange payments directly to them. Their is no reason for them to sell your account to other place. You must convince them to accept your payment.

Do a free sign up here and log in with your email addy and password. We will know you better.

Were you paying on a credit card? Did you have a total past due balance for more than 90 days?

I believe you have to choose a login id (fake name, initials, first name, etc.) I would not use my email address if I were you.

I have been informed that this board is a scam to make people do counseling via your people. I guess I saw that since every problem I've talked about was pushed into some thing I don't care to do and nobody is ever interested in my problem. It looks like your whole board is made up.

How about being interested in my problem a lot? That would convince me that you exist for real.

Do it. The alternative is that I complain to the BBB about some people who think they're counselors.

Lambi,
I have not joined any counceling and this forum has given me alot of answers to many questions that I have had. They have been a great help to me without telling me to use the counseling. I hope that helps. These people are here to help and nothing more.

Lambi,
Wow. I don't know where you got your information, but it's just not true. We are for real. We don't think we're counselors or pretend to be..we have all been in some sort of financial problem or other, and we share our experiences and help each other out. that's all.
We are all interested in your problem, and would love to help you..If you could be more specific, that would help us.

Lambi-I dom't know who told you this forum is a scam,but they were wrong. I haven't done the counseling,but I have gotten tremendous help from the members in this forum. As far as your problem,could you give a little more details,then some of us could help. I don't understand why they sent a collection lawyer on you if you have never defaulted. Hopefully you have all your records where you have paid them. I would try to contact them to see if they could send you a statemnet as to what you owe,check this out with the payments you have made and see if it is correct. Hope this helps,give more info.,and maybe we can direct you to other solutions. :) ...Karen

Lambi---This site is most definitely not a scam. The members just happen to be very caring people who have been in tough financial situations. Because of their own experiences the members want to help others avoid the pitfalls of unmanaged debt or paydayloans. Yes, you are opening yourself up and exposing your failures, BUT when you share with caring people who want to help you be successful and learn to manage your debt responsibly, then you are bonding. To bond is to stick together. If you read the posts in the forums here you will realize that the regular members on here have definitely bonded. And it is not a closed "club" but an open forum. I joined just a month ago and have had some amazing things happen as a result of posting and answering on this board. ~~~~~~BUT, you have to be willing to participate and listen and respond in the forums to form a bond here. Nobody wants you to do anything you don't want to do. We want to help all who come here and have a problem.

Wow, I didn't know that I am a counselor, :lol:

Lambi, what does scam mean? When some money is involved with it and people are pressurized to take it. This site offers free counseling. And if you don't want counseling, you can join the community as a member only. There is no restriction here. Members try to offer the most appropriate solution for you that they think to be.

Lambi, have you mistaken with the terms Moderator or Debt Samaritan? These are kind of designation that forum members are awarded after a considerable stay here. You can become a moderator or debt samaritan too if you start interacting with the community and offer valuable suggestion.

Let's come to the point. You can definitely continue paying your creditor if they accept the payment. Make sure the collection agency does not put any derogatory mark on your credit report, as stated by gretchin above. However, there are creditors who do not accept payment once the account is sent to collection or sold to a debt buyer. In that case, you have to deal with the collection agency. If you need any more info, please ask here in this forum.

Lambi..I hate to tell you but this forum is not a scam. It is loaded with lots of excellent information. I joined this forum to talk to others in my situation, I joined already signed up with a DIFFERENT debt settlement company and never once have I been asked or mislead into signing up with their group and never once was I told I did the wrong thing by signing up with my settlement company.

This forum has put alot of my fears to rest and has been a blessing.

I joined this site to try and help others, as well as for the advice and informiaton available. I did get a call from a counseling service but told them I wasn't interested. I've been on the upswing of my credit issues for about a year now. Kinda funny to hear someone call me a scam.

Now that's a good one..this forum is a scam??? It seems that everyone here has tried to answer your questions...what made you decide to turn the tables?
Would sure like an explanation of your accusations?

I've never been pushed into anything...I've always just asked questions, got a variety of answers and then DO what I consider best for myself...And every now and then I'll give my opinion and let you take it for what you will.

I consider this place more of a support group really...It's an outlet.

Well, I guess my first question would be was the account turned of to a CA pretending to be an Attorney (which is a violation of federal law), A collection attorney who is pretty much in business only to collect debts, and not really interested in going to court, or an Attorney who has no interest in collecting and just wants to go to court? Have you been making your payment to the creditor or to this attorney
? f you have been making them to this attorney , then most likely they are more interested in collection rather than litigation. If you have been paying the creditor and they suddenly have turned it over to an attorney , then I would continue to make your payments ( at least it will continue to lower the balance) while you figure out what this attorney is going to do. Since you have been paying all along, asking for validation would be kinda pointless ( you have been establishing validity by paying), however you could ask for accounting of the balance owed and a break down between principle, interest, and fees. By continuing to pay you are establish a record (should the matter go to court) that you are attempting to address and rectify the matter, which could work to your benefit with the judge when they decide whether or not to grant a judgment, and in deciding a payment plan.

As for your later comments, this forum is definitely not a scam, it is a community of people who have been or are having financial difficulties who are interested in sharing their experiences in the hopes of helping other get out of or avoid the problems they had.

It is true when you sign up you are offered to have a counselor from a consolidation agency call you , but you don't have to to register. If you resisted the other way and a counselor does call ,you can simply tell them you are not interested, and they will not call you again.

Much of the information which is presented is information that is available in the public domain. SO me people are just more adept at sifting through laws and regulation to get to the answers other can't seem to find for them self. Presenting the fdcpa, FCRA or state laws for someone's knowledge is hardly counseling. This community has created quite a stir in the credit and collections industry, and some information that certain companies would probably prefer wasn't common knowledge has been presented. If they are afraid of what is being presented, then instead of spending their time trying to bad mouth the efforts of a sincere few, they should work on cleaning up their act in the first place.

Adding further to the sign up info, I see this website offers two choices to everyone.

If you are interested to have a free counseling, you are required to give your phone number at the sign up page. It is your wish to request for a free counseling. If you do not want anyone to call you back, you can still be a member of this forum after doing a community sign up. You have a choice to get a free quote by a consultant or not, but you can use this forum as a member. I don't know why someone not having the adequate knowledge wants to bash up others.

I'm sure she/he probably ran into one of the collectors who like to bash us somewhere, somehow.

We want to help others in financial situations like what we have or are experiencing. To come onto a site like this and state that it a scam is not only wrong but ignorant. Anybody knows you don't accuse someone of wrongdoing, unless you have plenty of backup information. Members wanting to help you is not wrong.

Sorry I'm late. Paying less than the minimum monthly payment can be construed as default. collection agencies tend to go buck-wild with fees or interest, so do try to look into settlement or consolidation options.

OMG, I have never been contacted by anyone. If it wasn't for this website I don't know where I would be right now. I was caught in the PDL trap & HAD NO CLUE what to do. The people on this website SAVED my life. This is definitely the furthest thing from a scam.

I sent them a dispute letter got the return in the mail and they started calling me again yesterday asking for my work fax# so they could send me the reasons I owe 3550 on a 500 loan. They say it was a rebate not a loan? I said are they licencensed to collect in my state(arkansas)they said we are not a collections agency we are a law firm? does this make a difference I told them I would pay the 500 if they would not take that I would wait till the AG office finishes there investigation or they got a judgment. What do you all think? it was a PDL american web cash.com which will not deal with me.

Thanks