Re: lara is confused

Posted by Linda on February 16, 2002 at 14:48:40:

In Reply to: lara is confused posted by lara on February 16, 2002 at 13:31:48:

Lara, you are right to be confused. The system is broken. People who pay collection agencies still have bad credit, plus a whole lot of other problems. Many times more than one collection agency actually has the same debt, and when they see that you have paid someone else (they check your credit, and the CRA's notify them), they start trying to collect the same debt from you a second time.

They will both put the debt on your report as a collection, and they often re-age the debts to try to keep them on your report longer. It is as much of a battle as fighting them off, but the results are very bad. It is blackmail, and it isn't legal but it is very difficult to make them stop.

Once you pay a payment on a debt, you stop the SOL clock, and run the risk of being sued - then if you can't defend yourself, they can garnish your pay (in most states), and if you think it is hard to get a job with bad credit, wait til you lose your job because your pay is being garnished.

Since your situation makes it more important than some other people's situations, you might want to consider using what money you have to hire a lawyer to negotiate these debts for you, rather than paying them off.

You have several options, none of them easy:

1) Start trying to pay and deal with the "Pandora's box" it will open (you won't like what happens).

2) Lay low until they go away.

3) Hire an attorney (if you want to do this, let us give you some advice about what to look for).

4) Spend some time (a lot) educating yourself about the Consumer Protection Act (credit and collection laws) and do this yourself. It is worth learning because you will have this knowledge for the rest of your life (and you will need it even if you have good credit).

5) Hire someone like Lexington Law to advise you and do some of it for you (similar to hiring a lawyer). You still have to educate yourself, even if you hire outfits like this, but they do most of the actual disputing and negotiating work for you. If you want to do this, check with us so we can tell you is good to deal with and who isn't.

Hope this helps.

Linda

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