Asset Acceptance issue...

One important thing to remember about offers to pay off your debt at less than full price will incur a tax liability for the "forgiven" amount.

Send Assest a debt validation letter (available in the self-help section)certified mail, return receipt and require them to show that they are the legal owner of the debt, how the total due is determined, there right to charge interest, and that the statue of limitation has not expired and their right to do business in your state.
What state do you live in?

My experience with Asset was they will tell you that they will obtain the documents, they will manufacture some statements on their letterhead giving you some information (not valid) and call it validated. It is not. More later but get this out asap.

Thanks for the quick info. I will get this out this week. Should I send it certified mail or anything special?

And I live in Ohio.

Dear Nathan Kira,

Welcome to our forum :)

Asset Acceptance is one of the most talked about collection agency of our forum and it doesn????????t seem to have a good consumer feedback. The following pages will help you to know more about it:-

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/assetacceptancellc/index.html

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/assetacceptance.html


I think you should get a Free debt counseling from our community????????s expert. It will show you the way to reduce your monthly payment by lowering the interest rate and waiving-off the late fees.

Regards,

Phoenix

yes, send it certified with the return receipt.

It's been over a month now since I sent the letter, but I still have not heard back from Asset Acceptance. I sent it certified mail and got my return receipt back.

How long should I give them and what should I do if I don't hear back from them?

Wait until a month after you have received the return receipt. If they still haven't responded then dispute with the credit reporting agencies if they are reporting this on your credit reports.

LOrd how mercy I was dealing with the some company household Fin and it been 7yrs ago since i herd from them and asset sent a letter saying they was going to sue me for 3,077.12 or garnish my husbands wages and we have a court date oct 14 because they sent a letter from the police to our old house.. :roll:

Hah that does sound familiar! I hope it doesn't come to that though.. sounds like a trend though!

And thank you for the advice moderator.

Okay, so I recieved a response from the letter I sent to Asset Acceptance.

Here's what it stated:
The Prior/Original Creditor, the original account number, my name, the current balance and the last transaction date (9/24/04!), and then my current address with the last four digits of my social security number.

That does not provide me with all of the information that I requested. Suggestions on what I should be my next step?

send them another DV letter and tell them that you haven't received what you requested.

Nathan--

at this point it would be a good idea to review the fdcpa and get as familiar with it as you possibly can. This is the federal law that governs third party collection in this country. Section 809 of that law deals with validation of debts. Keep this in mind--just because you asked for something, doesnt mean that they have to provide it. The law requires them to provide documentation of the debt, and the info must come from the original creditor, not from Asset internally. So, when you request validation, they are required to contact the original creditor, get validation of the debt, and then provide you with a copy of that validation. I know that many people request info on state licensing and so on, but according to federal law they dont have to provide that to you.

Like I said though---you need to know that law inside and out because there are many ways that Asset has broken this law before. The biggest thing right now is this--did they send you documentation from the original creditor? Or is it a sheet of paper from their own computer? It makes a difference.

This law--FDCPA--also prohibits any dishonest efforts in debt collection. And while that isnt totally defined, basically anything that is knowingly dishonest violates that law.

The statute of limitations has not expired on this debt, as written contracts in Ohio are 15 years and written accounts are 6 years. But regardless, you also need to review your credit reports carefully because Asset has a history of messing those up too--illegally many times. The law you need to review there is the FCRA--again a federal law, and it deals with credit reporting. Compare your three credit reports all together--you may find that they reported different info to different reports, and if so, that could add up to money in your pocket.

Guess I have some reading to do tomorrow night then.

The letter I received from them is definately a sheet of paper from thier computers not only because it has thier letter head and the person they have assigned to my account, I believe anyway since all the letters I get are from her, but also because on the same sheet they ask me to pay the balance in full. So, what difference exactly does that make?

I get my credit report sent to me every quarter and the strange thing is that this debt didnt show up on my credit report for the past few years until they finally got in touch with me this last January. But I just got my credit report last week and now again this debt is not listed... Any idea what that may mean?

And as far as dishonestly. From my first post here on this forum you will see that they are charging me the original interest rate on this debt that I was being charged from the original creditor. Not only that, but they started charging interest about 6 months before they even informed me that they were going to do so. Would that not be considered something dishonest?

While looking for my son's birth certificate today I actually found my original loan agreement and a collection letter from when my HSBC account first went to collections. To my suprise, the account numbers on both of them are different than the account number that Asset Acceptance sent me on my validation letter...

Does this give me any recourse or are there any actions I should take because of this?

Thank anyone in advance who can give me some guidance.