How best to work with CA- United Collections?
Date: Tue, 03/15/2011 - 08:59
The next day(Thursday) my mother called saying she just received a phone call for my deceased grandmother. When she said she was no longer living, they asked for me and said they were calling from United Collections Bureau, gave a name and case number and phone number and said that my grandmother's name was on a debt I owed and they were trying to find me to collect. My mom suspected it was a phishing scheme and gave no info, but called me right away with the details. I looked up UCB and found all sorts of nasty practices. Isn't that call already a violation?
Monday two letters came from UCB asking for payment in full made payable to Chase at a UCB address. It says that I have a right to request validation within 30 days. I was planning on sending validation requests, but being that they state that if I send a request they will "provide you with then name and address of the original creditor, if different from the current creditor." won't they likely be able to provide the validation? Should I still request validation, or send a letter requesting a settlement?
We have no resources to pay even a 40-50% settlement of they want that upfront. We'd have been able to still make the Chase the minimums if that was possible. Not sure how to proceed.
You are stuck between a rock and a hard place. The way settleme
You are stuck between a rock and a hard place. The way settlements generally work is that the older they are, the more of a discount you can get. I doubt it that you would even get a 40-50% reduction since it is freshly charged off.
What you should do is send a written letter, certified mail return receipt. In the letter explain your situation and make it plain you wish to work out a payment arrangement. Look over your budget and figure out how much you can offer for monthly payments and then offer them something lower than that for bargaining room.
Keep copies of all correspondence.
Should we just send those explanation/payment offer letters, and
Should we just send those explanation/payment offer letters, and skip the validation- or send a validation letter first?
What about the Chase representatives suggestion of contacting a non-profit to work with us and contact Chase on our behalf to get the debt back to Chase so we can deal directly with them? I can't find any info about that possibility.
You could try the non profit. I have no experience with those s
You could try the non profit. I have no experience with those so really can't suggest either way. I would skip the validation for now...the OC told you who they farmed the debt out to and it matches who says they are collecting now.
There is one other thing you can do....but make sure you have a certified letter in to the OC offering a payment plan before you even consider doing this: You can write a certified letter to the collection agency informing them that since you wish to deal with the original creditor, you wish them to cease & desist all contact with you. Now what they will do is get the account sent back to the OC and normally..this would cause the OC to just sue you...but if you have the payment letter in with the OC, if you do get sued you can show the judge that you were attempting to pay the debt, you just didn't want to deal with a correction agency since the OC still owned the original debt.
As I said, this has worked before, but it can cause you to be sued...BUT you will likely get sued if you do nothing anyhow..at least this way it looks like you are trying.