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Asset Acceptance bought CC debt sue threat. Full time student w/o job

Date: Fri, 10/05/2012 - 13:52
Submitted by on Fri, 10/05/2012 - 13:52
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I received a letter from Asset Acceptance trying to collect a credit card debt they bought from Wells Fargo Bank. I pulled up my reports: WF reported my balance at 1507.00 but Asset is charging me 1562.13 and apparently continuing to add interest. Can they add more fees? I also noticed on one CR it shows my last payment amount with WF June 2010 while on another CR it shows Dec 2010? Why would these dates be different? I am a full time college student taking 21hrs a semester, I do not have a job, am not married, am not claimed by parents or anyone else, have no owned property worth anything, and have absolutely no way of paying this now. I'm not sure what to do. Even though I am not claimed by my parents my father sends me a monthly check that covers the exact amount of my bills (rent, water, electric) and then for groceries I have his CC (he put my name on it as a user) that I use and he pays off monthly. My mother has me in her cell family plan and pays that. I have no other money coming in nor do I have time to have a job with the amount of hours of school I take. I don't mind paying the debt but I can't do it now or I would have when WF still owned it. What happens in situations like this? They are threatening to take me to court. I could speak to my father and see about borrowing a little more money (he's basically my financial aid lender as he didn't want me to actually do FA and have to pay back interest) but I could probably only get an extra $50 a month. Is it possible they may allow me to make $50 monthly payments? In haven't called yet as I'm not sure what I should or should tell them in regards to my situation so any info on that would be most helpful as I don't want to make the current situation worse. Please help, I have no clue where to really start and hear so many conflicting things about whether debt validation letter should or should not be done. Thank you, Rae


Lets go by the numbers here:

1. Yes, collectors can add interest and collection fees to a debt which they have bought. The discrepancy in the amount is due to that.

2. The discrepancy in the reporting time is maybe due to WF having reported it to the 2 different CRAs separately. You can find out your exact last date of payment from your bank records and then dispute it with the CRAs to have it corrected.

3. Given the debt amount, they might agree to a $50 monthly payment but at this rate, you will be paying $600 a year on a $1562.13 debt which is accruing a pretty good amount of interest in itself. I say you cut some corners, sell old books and do all the things you can think of to gather up enough funds to make a $100 a month payment. That should get rid of the debt in a year or something.

4. Threatening to take debtors to court is the SOP of collectors so do not get scared. Rather, you can do something; call up the collection agency and negotiate a settlement to pay an amount less than what is owed. Remember though, as a rule of thumb, when you negotiate a settlement, you have to pay it in lump sum.

5. Whatever you do, do not forget to get an agreement out of the CA before you even begin to pay. Demand a PF letter in the agreement as well.

6. Yes, you can send the DV letter and you should. Has it been more than 5 days since the CA has contacted you? If yes, did you receive a Dunning letter.


Submitted by Steve Barris on Sat, 10/06/2012 - 01:28

Steve Barris

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Thank you for the information. Actually I have not received any phone calls yet surprisingly but I've only had this new cell number for a month so maybe they haven't tracked it down yet. I'm unsure what type of letter that is but I did receive one that just stated the amount I owe and that I had a month to contact and pay them; however, that letter was sent to my old address and I did not end up getting until after the month time frame was up and had by then already received a second letter stating they would lower the offer a tad and if I didn't accept &respond they would assign a lawyer to my case and take me to court. I have already started selling what little i have but old books, clothes, and small misc stuff is only prob going to get me about $200. With holidays coming up I can use my Xmas &bday money so maybe I could add another $200-300 on to that too. I'm not sure how low they'd settle for but is it possible to postpone this until dec when I could get a lump sum saved up? Thank you for your help.


Submitted by on Sat, 10/06/2012 - 08:56

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Unfortunately, no it's not possible. If you cannot get enough of a lump sum together soon then you need to set up a monthly payoff plan. Get 100 a month together or you will be banged with interest.

I would consider borrowing a grand from your parents or something and using that to pay off the CA in a lump sum.. but i will tell you right now they ain't waiting until December.


Submitted by waffles on Sat, 10/06/2012 - 11:37

waffles

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