How to Get a Reasonable Settlement with John P. Frye
Date: Thu, 11/04/2010 - 12:22
Hello,
I have a B of A credit card account and had negotiated with them to get on a payment plan where I paid $200 every month, as opposed to about $250, and they lowered the interest rate and waived fees. It was a good deal and I paid them on time for over two years. Fast forward to this year and I have been on unemployment and recently, my benefits have run out and so I got behind on my payments with B of A. I called them to let them know I was on unemployment and was having trouble making payments but they refused to lower the monthly amount due and just told me to pay what I could, basically. So, I paid a smaller amount and eventually got behind about $600. They seemed like they still wanted to work with me to pay on the account so I was surprised when I received a letter from a collection agency/lawyer's office who said they now had my B of A account, which I"m sure they purchased for pennies on the dollar.
I found information about this particular lawyer's office, JOhn P. Frye, and came to realize it is really a glorified call center and not a true lawyer's office. At any rate, they began calling me and I did talk to them to see if I could make payment arrangements with them. Of course, they wanted to settle for around $5500 (my original amount owed is $7800). I told them I did not have that amount to pay and that I could only make monthly payments. They then offered to take around $1500 as a down payment and then "maybe" they could offer a monthly amount. Again, I told them I did not have that lump sum either. Then they start in with the "go borrow money from your 401K or family and friends" line, which I am not about to do. Told them I would see what I could do, but realistically, I know that monthly payments are all I can afford. Now they are calling more often, but I have nothing to offer them unless they agree to a payment plan. I did read on a few other sites that if you feel like you are getting nowhere with them that you can call someone named Michael Katzen who works directly with John P. Frye and a lot of people have had good luck getting him to negotiate much lower settlements. If I could reasonably settle for a much lower amount, that would obviously be ideal, but wanted to know if anyone has ever spoken to this Katzen person and/or worked out a payment plan with JOhn P. Frye/Atlantic Credit and Finance. I know the debt is mine and want to get it taken care of ASAP, but just wanted to see if others have had any luck with them at all and if I should bother calling Michael Katzen or not.
P.S. How do you change your username on this site? I tried to register, but then it displayed my entire name as my username and I didn't want that. I couldn't find anywhere on the "Settings" area to change my information either. Thanks.
I have a B of A credit card account and had negotiated with them to get on a payment plan where I paid $200 every month, as opposed to about $250, and they lowered the interest rate and waived fees. It was a good deal and I paid them on time for over two years. Fast forward to this year and I have been on unemployment and recently, my benefits have run out and so I got behind on my payments with B of A. I called them to let them know I was on unemployment and was having trouble making payments but they refused to lower the monthly amount due and just told me to pay what I could, basically. So, I paid a smaller amount and eventually got behind about $600. They seemed like they still wanted to work with me to pay on the account so I was surprised when I received a letter from a collection agency/lawyer's office who said they now had my B of A account, which I"m sure they purchased for pennies on the dollar.
I found information about this particular lawyer's office, JOhn P. Frye, and came to realize it is really a glorified call center and not a true lawyer's office. At any rate, they began calling me and I did talk to them to see if I could make payment arrangements with them. Of course, they wanted to settle for around $5500 (my original amount owed is $7800). I told them I did not have that amount to pay and that I could only make monthly payments. They then offered to take around $1500 as a down payment and then "maybe" they could offer a monthly amount. Again, I told them I did not have that lump sum either. Then they start in with the "go borrow money from your 401K or family and friends" line, which I am not about to do. Told them I would see what I could do, but realistically, I know that monthly payments are all I can afford. Now they are calling more often, but I have nothing to offer them unless they agree to a payment plan. I did read on a few other sites that if you feel like you are getting nowhere with them that you can call someone named Michael Katzen who works directly with John P. Frye and a lot of people have had good luck getting him to negotiate much lower settlements. If I could reasonably settle for a much lower amount, that would obviously be ideal, but wanted to know if anyone has ever spoken to this Katzen person and/or worked out a payment plan with JOhn P. Frye/Atlantic Credit and Finance. I know the debt is mine and want to get it taken care of ASAP, but just wanted to see if others have had any luck with them at all and if I should bother calling Michael Katzen or not.
P.S. How do you change your username on this site? I tried to register, but then it displayed my entire name as my username and I didn't want that. I couldn't find anywhere on the "Settings" area to change my information either. Thanks.
How long has it been since you received the letter from this CA?
How long has it been since you received the letter from this CA? If it's been less than 30 days, send them a debt validation letter. They may not even be able to validate this debt or the amount you owe. Do they own it or are they working on behalf of BoA? I'd start there. Also, if you need to change your user name, send a private message to Jason and tell him what you'd like your user name to be. He will make the change for you.
