Is it legal for GC Services to contact me through my neighbor?

Oh, that's just charming!
These people are out of control. I would send them a cease and desist letter and let them know you're reporting them to your state AG's office, Federal Trade Commission and any one else you can think of, for unlawful debt collection activity!

Do you know if GC Services hold any of your accounts at all? However, that does not justify this behavior. This is so peculiar. If they have your contact details, what was the problem in sending out a letter? Dropping a note at your door can never ensure that you will get it. You should file complaint against them.

Also try to locate the account they own. You can contact the original creditor and see if they are interested to settle it with you directly. Keep us posted.

Is GC a debt collector? I ask because I haven't heard of them before.
That is such a strange way of trying to reach you, by contacting an old neighbor. As others suggested, you should file complaints against the company with your state Attorney General, the FTC, and your state's dept of consumer protection.

Yea, this is a collection agency. I cannot remember this, but I think they collect student loans too-

http://forums.debtcc.com/gcservices.html

They do collect on Student loans...I've dealt with them before, they're real a-holes.

they also do American Express and MCI (or did MCI). My wife used to work for them, wasn't cut out , and basically she just marked accounts paid that never really were.. She was originaly hired to work on their computer network and ended up collecting. Most of the people she worked with were in serious debt trouble. once girl was facing 15 counts for passing bad checks..

I am a former debt collector. I was employed at G.C.Services. I admit that if I was being sought or "skip traced" by a debt collector I would object to the contact of a neighbor to leave a note on the door.

The practice of leaving messages with neighbors is called "leaving word". As long as your personal debt information is not divulged there has been no violation of law with a few exceptions: Minnesota and Wisconsin prohibit such contact attempts. Circumstances that make this type of messaging illegal apart from the exclusions mentioned above are; If the debt collector has already spoken to you, or you have written a cease and desist letter.

The best thing to do if you have a debt issue is to contact the debt collector upon notification of assignment. This will save you severe headaches.

One caviot to sending a cease and desist letter is that depending upon what credit company they are working for you may end up being sued. People being held liable by a court may in many states, have the funds extracted from them on an involuntary basis.

Another thing to be aware of is that some portfolios send accounts to the debt collection agency simply to be able to display " due diligence " in a court of law meaning; they may have intended a litigious resolve from the beginning.

Debt collectors have been or at least were at one time trained to never take payments that involve anything less than the balance in full during the first conversation. They expect you to reach out to family and friends and raise the balance in full.

The negotiations will continue to be more favorable usually with passing time and multiple phone calls that you answer and engage with them.

Some keys to success in dealing with debt collectors:

Get and maintain a secondary bank. USE THIS ACCOUNT FOR PAYMENTS ONLY!

Never "update" your personal information accurately. The debt collector's job is to locate an "asset" they will want to know where you work, bank, and live, they will want the same info for your spouse. DO NOT GIVE IT TO THEM! simply refusing to furnish information will likely result in the collector being very aggressive.

Get a PRIVATE mail box at a reputable company. Note it's privacy policy! These private mail boxes will offer a valid and deliverable street address for you. USE IT have all of your mail delivered there. ALWAYS tell them you are self employed and never us or give a land line phone number. give them your cell phone as home and business and you may escape embarrassing phone calls at work. Also give them the secondary bank info. *** tip *** if you cannot open a checking account open a savings and buy prepaid debit cards. G.C. services did not accept card payments when I worked there so you may have to pay via western union on the internet with your card.

Take into account what you can pay them without hurting yourself or starving to death and be polite and firm with you request for payments only after you pretend with the quest to raise the funds for the balance and the settlement offers they typically offer. If you can take advantage of a gc services settlement offer, do it! the banks would not offer it if they were not profitable and purposeful.

Good Luck in dealing with your creditor and remember, that debt collector has a very difficult job, that may be the reason they are being hostile. Empathize with them and do not underestimate their intelligence and resources... keep you story straight or even better don't tell them one because they can sniff out inconsistency about a zillion miles away.

These people always have a way of calling you but if you need to call them forget it they won't answer.

A guy from this company called husband's cell phone this a.m. asking for someone I've never heard of. He tried to get personal info from me and I got mad, he wanted to argue. I don't have any debt problems and still these people harrassed us, asked personal questions, etc, etc. I contacted Verizon and got the number blocked and intend to file a complaint against this company. From what I've read they are totally corrupt, dishonest, deceitful, and immoral. There really needs to be oversight by the government on these people. My advice to all of you who are getting these calls is to contact your phone company and report them as harrassing and threatening calls. Have the numbers blocked if you can. Nazis, that's what they are.

The best way to deal with these idiots is to not talk to them, not give them even a shred of information to use against you. They are not going to play fair. The more you cooperate with them, the more they will take advantage of you. Don't believe a word they say. They are liars, snakes in the grass. They prey on the innocent. They called me looking for a relative that lives in Arizona. I am stationed in NC and that relative has never been here or visited. They just saw "googled" the last name and figured that they could call and harrass me and that I would gather personal information on that person for them. They have called neighbors and asked them to go leave messages for people "HARRASSMENT". If you give them your social Security #, they will attach it to someone else's debt and try to collect the debt from you even if you don't know the person. My best advice is to not cooperate at all with these crooks and scammers. If you owe a debt then pay it to whoever you owe. Don't give anything to these people. It amazes me how they get away with their scam. I wish congress would secure our information. Anybody can find out any information on anyone on the internet. So much for privacy. Congress!!!! pass some meaningful legislation for a change and outlaw the gathering of personal information for databases. You have sold out our right to privacy so someone can make a buck. Are we going to continue to stand for this? I don't know about you but it infuriates me. So much for anti terrorism. If you feel safe it is a false sense of security. The terrorist's have their own databases which are loaded with information on us gathered off the internet. The scam artists are the least of our worries. Gunnery Sergeant G USMC

If they give you trouble, especially this contact the neighbor crap, the one to call is Michael Laine Fisher. His direct number is (314) 851-4371. You can also get him on (800) 926-3136 x4371.

http://gcserviceswatch.blogspot.com/

If calls are comming in for a person that is not there and you never heard of, let them know and they will have to verify it as a wrong number to more times before they can take it off the system.

Which the best advice I can give is pay your bills and they wont give you any phone calls and they do have time arrangements to help make your payments.

That tactic has been used for a long time. It is meant to get you worked up and to initiate communication. Might be illegal if they already have your verified information per Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)

Received a call from this company - the caller did give the name of company when I insisted, but would not state the reason for call or the type of business. All he seemed to have was a last name as listed in the tel. directory, which made me think he was a salesman. When I told him we were on the no call registry, he tried yakking non-stop and I just hung up. [why ever would he think that would produce anything?] This isn't about "just paying your bills," they seem to engage in random searches for debtors. I cannot believe that, in this day and age, anyone would provide any personal information over the telephone to a stranger (and one only providing his first name only) anyway. Looked up the number thinking it was a scam operation...

Yes it's completely legal!

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report, report, report. the reason why these companies get away with this stuff is most of us just blow it off. we need to all hold them accountable for thier actions also. its time we stop this type of abusive behavior. had i found this forum when i was goin through settlement i would have done things a whole lot different.

I got a letter from this GC services and called themup if they will take an offer for my wifes debt who is unemployed and they want more than 55% and not my offer of 33% which I can only afford. Like I said the wife is unemployed and the card is only on her name) and we are down from 2 to 1 family income and they told me that we only have until saturday to accept their offer otherwise we will have to pay all kinds of charges and so on. Where do we stand if I just ignore it and say I only have this much $$ to pay you, can they legally go to my employer to garnish my wages, like I said my name is not on the card, can they go to court, not sure how my wife will pay them if you are unemployed, but they said it does not matter, the law said you are obligated to pay pay being her spouse (community property) anyidea what to do, any help is greatly appreciated.

First of all, I used to work for GC Services. I understand the frustrations of having debt, especially a federal debt in which the "leverage" the collectors have on you can be an extreme inconvenience. However, most of the threats of not paying your student loans back are unfortunately true. Your best bet, even if you can't afford to pay anything at this time, is to talk to the collectors, annoying as that repeating process can be it does show that you are not avoiding the debt and the managers AND more importantly the Department of Education will see that and be less likely to go through with further action. Now if you are just trying to use these forums to dodge your debt, then shame on you, you are preventing others from going to school, and are one of many reasons that our economy sucks. If you dont want debt, then dont take out a loan, its plain and simple. You knew what you were getting yourself into. If you didnt read your promissory, your a moron!!! If you knew you couldnt afford to pay it back, then you simply dont need to be going to school, wait untill you can. But dont get me wrong, there are many people out there in which their situations have changed completely, hindering them from fulfilling their obligations. As for others questions about calling neighbors for skiptracing purposes....dont make me laugh...if you didnt want that to happen, then do what mature and responsible people do and make sure your conact information is updated so they wont have to...Do you think they like spending countless hours looking for you because of a debt that you DO owe? Peoples irresponsibilities amaze me....and the solution is simple ignoring the calls is the worse thing you can do...like one said earlier, save yourself time and headaches from this happening in the first place... OHH and by the way, the attny General could care less about 95% of the collection complaints filed because people THINK they know the FDCPA and they dont.... i could waste more time but alas I am done...I have done collections all my life and my words of advice can be ignored or taken....that is your call, but myself and others would agree....I dont mean to sound like a jerk but it is harsh truth that may actually help one out.. Thanks for reading....

[QUOTE=Anonymous;668746]First of all, I used to work for GC Services. I understand the frustrations of having debt, especially a federal debt in which the "leverage" the collectors have on you can be an extreme inconvenience. However, most of the threats of not paying your student loans back are unfortunately true. Your best bet, even if you can't afford to pay anything at this time, is to talk to the collectors, annoying as that repeating process can be it does show that you are not avoiding the debt and the managers AND more importantly the Department of Education will see that and be less likely to go through with further action. Now if you are just trying to use these forums to dodge your debt, then shame on you, you are preventing others from going to school, and are one of many reasons that our economy sucks. If you dont want debt, then dont take out a loan, its plain and simple. You knew what you were getting yourself into. If you didnt read your promissory, your a moron!!! If you knew you couldnt afford to pay it back, then you simply dont need to be going to school, wait untill you can. But dont get me wrong, there are many people out there in which their situations have changed completely, hindering them from fulfilling their obligations. As for others questions about calling neighbors for skiptracing purposes....dont make me laugh...if you didnt want that to happen, then do what mature and responsible people do and make sure your conact information is updated so they wont have to...Do you think they like spending countless hours looking for you because of a debt that you DO owe? Peoples irresponsibilities amaze me....and the solution is simple ignoring the calls is the worse thing you can do...like one said earlier, save yourself time and headaches from this happening in the first place... OHH and by the way, the attny General could care less about 95% of the collection complaints filed because people THINK they know the FDCPA and they dont.... i could waste more time but alas I am done...I have done collections all my life and my words of advice can be ignored or taken....that is your call, but myself and others would agree....I dont mean to sound like a jerk but it is harsh truth that may actually help one out.. Thanks for reading....[/QUOTE]
It's pretty difficult to take advice from someone who has poor punctuation, spelling and grammar skills, although it doesn't surprise me that you work in collections. lol

ohh and last person asking if they can legally garnish your wages.... Yes the government can easily do that providing you dont work for the Federal government...if you have a government job then you are good... you also have to make over $217.50 per week to qualify also...

WOW your really critical for missing " ' " in didn't.... that hardly makes what I say false you egotisical moron... read the laws... you will find out for yourself that what I say is true....I am a collector not an editor a-hole...but then again you must be

One final thing. There are close to 1,000 articles to the FDCPA. Please stop acting like YOU know them all

[QUOTE=Anonymous;668753]WOW your really critical for missing " ' " in didn't.... that hardly makes what I say false you egotisical moron... read the laws... you will find out for yourself that what I say is true....I am a collector not an editor a-hole...but then again you must be[/QUOTE]
Let's not forget spelling. It never ceases to amaze me when people who claim to be in "collections" can not spell. There are so many uneducated people who work for collection agencies - and the like.

Lmao!!!!! Go get them. I am so sick of their sh*%. We all can tell they not only cannot spell but are ignorant and unprofessional.

yes it is legal for them to call your neighbor to say they are trying to contact you. however they can not disclose any info about you being in debt. this is a very fine line they do cross.

Sometimes they can be a pain in the rear end but also think if they are calling you concerning your debt you are being a pain in their rear end because they have to spend all on the phone with others just to try to get in touch with you. Who would believe in this day an age people have to call your neighbors or families to get you to pay the bills you started and accumulated and refuse to pay. Really!?!

i used to work at gc services in balwin park they do so many things that are against the law and the manangment is even worst they are rude and they treat there employes like shit specially a bitch called mr macfarlen and some bitch with some ugly ass fake tits fuck gc services and when they collect for the cort they dont tell you that you can get a cort date insted of payng

another thing is that gc cant suspend your license,cant garnage your wages,cant do nothing that has to do with the corts they just dont tell you they are a bunch of deleted paulmergel

like the info,but keep it clean ok!

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Simply read the FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act) and throw it up in their faces when they call you. People, if you have student loans, ask about the "William D. Ford Program" or even consolidation, providing you are finished with your schooling. I have had many friends ask me how to get their tax returns back, once they have been taken for their student loans. The one option you have is to file an "Injured Spouse" form. GC services is a horrible company to work for. Just before I quit, they were asking us to deny people their right to enter into the "Federal Rehabilitation Program" which will get your loan out of default, simply because the company was doing so horrible in collections. (Our office was in last place for cash collected so they demanded that we "break the law" in order to hit our budget?) I wouldn't wish GC Services upon anyone.

Spoken like a true collection ass holeQuote:

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Its funny how people get on here and act like they're the victims: "I'm being 'harassed', They're calling my relatives, neighbors and employers, They are scum, I'm a victim..."

You're being called about money you OWE. If you paid the bill on time as per the original agreement with the lender or creditor, no one would be calling. If you breach your contract, then you created this mess.

I do collections and when folks answer the phone or call in from a letter, I am very sympathetic and more than willing to work with them. When they take this victim approach or threaten to file bankruptcy or whatever I have no interest in their particular situation because they are acting like assholes. You forfeited your "customer service" department with the creditor. Why should someone who borrows, sometimes very significant amounts, of money be allowed to carry on as though nothing wrong has happened?

That aside, there are rules in place to protect folks from legitimate harassment. Your local office will have a copy of the FDCPA. Most folks don't bother to read up because they dont want to see that it is usually very legal to contact neighbors, relatives etc if they ignore their phones and letters.

People who come on here whining: Pay your bill on time and you wont ever have to talk to me. People who can't pay their bills: Don't live outside your means - read: DONT TAKE THE MONEY OR CREDIT.

It is legal to contact neighbours and relatives FOR LOCATION PURPOSES ONLY! If you have a confirmed address and phone, you have no legal right to contact neighbours or relatives. It is not illegal not to answer you phone or respond to mail.

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If you have been taken to court and the fines and penalties have been assessed by the courts, they have collateral....your drivers license. You may or may not be able to get it reduced...you will need to talk to them.

What is with GC Services calling neighbors? No matter what a former GC Services collector tells you, no debt collector, including GC Services, can call your neighbor and leave ANY message for you! Despite the clear prohibitions in the FDCPA (against disclosing an alleged debt to a third party) and the case law (against leaving messages which fail to meaningfully identify the debt collector and the purpose of the call in any "communication" to a consumer, GC Services' collectors appear to troll my blog and this forum too.

Nor do I recommend that consumers mislead a collection agency by providing false contact information. Many states' statutes of limitations are "tolled" after a defendant actively conceals his or her whereabouts.

Nor is getting a mailbox at a private mailbox company always a good idea. In Florida, all a debt collector has to do to serve a defendant is send a certified letter to a private mailbox holder and, presto!, they're served.

The FDCPA has an attorney fee provision to encourage licensed lawyers to advise consumers. It's there because Congress decided consumers really do need help. The misinformation on the interwebs only increases the need.

Sorry but a collection agency CAN call neighbors....provided they follow the rules. You cannot state that the message is urgent or even important and you can only call once.
?? 804. Acquisition of location information
Any debt collector communicating with any person other than the consumer for the purpose of acquiring location information about the consumer shall???
(1) identify himself, state that he is confirming or correcting location information concerning the consumer, and, only if expressly requested, identify his employer;
(2) not state that such consumer owes any debt;
(3) not communicate with any such person more than once unless requested to do so by such person or unless the debt collector reasonably believes that the earlier response of such person is erroneous or incomplete and that such person now has correct or complete location information;

Just wondering who Micheal Laine Fisher is? Can he help with debt problems and all of this calling the neighnbors BULLS---! I am so upset I came home last night to the little next door neighbor boy with a message form these people. I have been working with a few debts. We ran into some financial problems after our 18 month old granddaughter had heart surgery and medi-vac'd from out area 4 times. These people are terrible and not understanding AT ALL. Please respond if anyone knows Michael Laine Fisher, I am real interested to find out what he does.:mad:

You may have no clue what another person is going through. I have every intention in paying my debt I just need a little time to recover from my granddaughter being very ill and having heart surgery at 18 months old. She was Medi-vac'd from our area to a hospital 6 hours away 4 times in her little life. My children were just starting out and my son in law lost his good paying job. In our area there's not to many jobs to go around. PEOPLE have a lot of personal problems that you may not understand. And most of us do want to settle our debts. Between taxes, food, gas and regular household expenses it is very hard for people with serious problems to live. I went to my creditors and had all the papers to show them our problems, ALL THEY said "this is not our problem" now THEY want to HOUND us like dogs. WHAT A JOKE. and maybe you are one of the lucky ones that don't have to worry about this kind of problem. God Bless You. But keep your opinion to your damned self:confused::mad:

I just want to say I experienced this, this week regarding my dept to my personal student loans. I was making payments $230 a month for over a year and then with my rent being raised, federal loans due and expecting me to also pay $200-250 a month and other financial issues in my life, I was unable to make the deadlines of Sally Mae for these loans, and they sent me to this GC collection agency. They began with a letter..then non stop calls for the last 2months to my cell phone, along with numerous messages from many different people. I am well aware of my debt, and have been trying to figure out how and when I could actually make a payment and begin to get this resolved. This week I had received a settlement offer and thought this may be something that could help my issue, and I had intending on calling them, then I come home to a written message on my apt door in my secure building stating that a Cassandra called from Chicago with a ph#..and that's all it said. So I called the number and heard the name GC services and knew that it was the collector. My first reaction was I was very upset thinking someone came to my house, so I did call to complain and speak to a manager, who was if anything not helpful, rude, condescending, and just a straight asshole, but he did explain that they had contacted a neighbor. I then stated they are not listed as a contact on my info and should not be contacted or informed of any of my personal matters, he then went on to say they can contact my neighbors..etc. Anyhow, I intend on contacting Sally Mae and expressing my experience with their collector and hope to try to reconcile it with them or another collector all together. Either way after this experience with GC Services, I do not want my $ benefitting them in anyway.

I'm understanding to all student loan debt people out there, and feel your pain. All we can do is our best, you can't get blood from a tunip.

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It's really funny how people who did not choose to get an education judge people who did. They think it is as simple as not wanting to pay your debt as if you spent all that time in school only to have bad credit your whole life? I mean really? Who's being stupid?

Things have been really bad for some of us these past few years. Being told we should not have gone to school to better ourselves just because we are not wealthy or have parents to just pay for college is wrong and mean. You know it takes a special kind of jerk to call people all day not knowing what they are suffering through and harass them when they are all ready struggling. Or would it have been smarter for us to just have babies and collect welfare all our lives?

I have answered the phone only to be treated worst than a criminal because I've fallen on hard times. And told that I should not have gone to college. Bill collectors can be mean (I think because they are jealous that someday when the hard times are over we will be much better off than they are) and so no! I don't want to answer the phone to be talked to that way. I think they give themselves points for making people cry. They like being evil and hurtful. And if you are not one of those then maybe your co-workers should be reprimanded for treating people like that.

Learn some manners, some respect, some compassion and then we can talk.

And calling my neighbors is WRONG! telling them my business is wrong! I don't care what I owe! You don't have the right to violate my private rights for that.

My neighbor (who I don't even know) came to my house knocking on my door telling me it was about my school loan. How the stink does she know I have student loans??? Why was she told I have any type of loans? I didn't put her name on anything. I don't even know her last name. I don't even know her address.

You don't know what type of neighbors they are to call them telling them anything about me. You don't know if they are busy bodies who will spread my business to the other neighbors or if they are even nice people that I want them coming to my door. It's just wrong on so many levels. You don't know if my neighbor is a pervert or weirdo? You don't know anything about my neighbors to tell them my financial business. Its wrong! My neighbor should have never been told I have student loans. I didn't give you permission for that. And if it is on their somewhere kids need to be made known about that by stating it by mouth! My neighbors are drunks and drug addicts so they had no right to tell those kinds of people my business and have them come to my door.

I've worked my whole life. I've been a good person my whole life. I have every right to gain an education as anyone else! I've paid taxes my whole life. My tax money is spent on women who stay home and just have babies out of wedlock all day and you call and treat us like criminals for trying and wanting better than that sort of life? Your mean and hateful!

And what you who did not go to school don't know is that NO! there is no training or education at all about school loans when you are signing for them. Many kids have no idea what they are signing. They are only doing what they are told to do to register for classes. No one would take such a huge gamble if they knew that as soon as you graduate you will be paying more bills than you have ever had in your whole lifetime.

There should be a class on student loans before you sign up for any. They should teach teenagers about it in middle school so that they know in high school to do the very best they can and hope for a scholarship of some sort. That way you are given a better idea of what to expect. Some of us are just so grateful for the opportunity to go to college we don't know what loans are all about. We've been told because we were poor all our lives we just can't go to school or we don't have the same chance as others. So when they told me to sign here and I'm in I did it! I who was told I would be nothing and on welfare my whole life was happy that I could get into college.

So don't judge others when you don't know who they are or what their lives are like. It's mean and hateful. Not everyone who goes to school goes to be rich someday. Some of us go because it is a grate privilege that we honor and appreciate it. But times are hard and we who never made more than a little our whole lives are all of a sudden expected to pay loans amounts that rich people pay. Our income hasn't increased. Some of decreased because of the economy. Some have lost jobs. I'm not saying that we should not be expected to pay but what I am saying is don't treat us like we are evil because we only wanted a chance at a better life for us and our little ones.

There are no more jobs just because we graduated! We didn't (just like you didn't) know that by the time we were done with school that the economy would be a bust. Just remember this, it is not the action of a person that he is judged by but the intent of the heart. So what you judge us for now you will pay for in eternity! So be nice!