Home
Public Forum
Credit Reports
Apply For Cards
Credit Directory
Credit Overview
Credit Problems
Credit News
International
Credit Glossary
Purchase Books
Credit Laws
Business Credit
Merchant Accts
   

Help! I want to sue a collection agency.


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Credit Forum Index ]

Posted by Kevin (65.58.158.184) on June 04, 2002 at 23:19:33:

Okay, I have a charge off with Capital One. The first delinquency is over 4 years and I live in a 3 year SOL state. So they assign the debt to Coldata, an agency I affectionately refer to as maggot. They call me in mid September of last year. Naturally I have no idea who they are and I had forgotten the Capital One account, mainly because I have another account with them. I should say "had" I paid it off immediately after finding out the other account was in collection.

Okay back to Coldata. I call them back after hearing the message from them on my answering machine. I get tranferred to some guy who gives me some of the details of this account. I ask him if there is a payment ammount. He says something like payoff is 750.00. The ammount charged off is 935.00, almost all interest and fees. I tell him he can send me the details and I will call Capital One and try to make arrangements directly with them. He says I will receive it within 5 days. I tried to call Capital One but I'm told that the department I need is only available until 5pm eastern. No good for me. So I waited.

3 weeks later I get another message from the idiot I talked to at Coldata telling me I need to call his office to take care of this matter "voluntarily" as he put it. So I call him and ask him what the hell he is talking about and where is my written notice giving me 30 days to dispute. He says angrily "you agreed to pay". I said Bull**** where is the letter? I told him he has five days to send it and he replies "oh, well I guess you went to the library, huh?" Then he tells me that they are based in New York and that the attack on the world Trade Center has possible caused it to be delayed or lost. This call is about a month and a half after the attack. Now that's pretty low, using a tragedy like that to lie your way out of violating federal guidlines. I got his address and hung up.

I write a C&D letter to Coldata and send copies of that and complaints to the FTC and State AG. All certified and return receipt. I get the standard form letter from FTC basically just-- here are the laws yadda, yadda, yadda. The AG actually writes Coldata on my behalf (although they state in letter to me that they lack the resources to act on behalf of individuals). So I wait again.

About a month ago I got a letter from the AG's office saying that they had received a reply from Coldata and would consider the case closed.They gave me a copy. It is typed on Allied Interstate letterhead. In the letter Coldata stated " in light of the circumstances which have been brought to our attention, Mr. (me) will receive no further communication from us either verbally or written.

about 3days after that I get a letter from Coldata with a "most gracious" settlement offer for 456.00 due by May 19. I ignor it of course.
Today I get another message from Coldata. It says their client has "generously" agreed to extend their offer" and if I don't send it by June 13 They will "evaluate your credit history and present fiancial circumstance, and then proceed with an appropriate collection program in accordance with state and federal law". Sounds real technical.

Of course I'm not afraid of them doing anything to me, but I'd like to know what I can do to them.

I'm aware I can sue them for $1000.00 per violation of the FDCPA. My questions are:

Based on my story (believe me this is the condensed version) how many violations can I sue them on?

I'm sure I have them for violating my C&D letter at least once (maybe twice?). Failure to provide notice giving me 30 days to dispute any part of the debt (hard to prove, my word against theirs) and failure to validate debt (should this be considered part of the dispute violation). Also can they be sued in any way for making threats after the C&D letter. Obviously they already lied to the AG representative that was handling this ( I will inform him tomorrow ), so I expect that they are stupid/ desperate enough to say or try anything. Should I wait for them to violate a few more laws before I sue? How about continuing to send letters as Coldata even though I understand they have merged with Allied Interstate and are obviously using that name to reply to authorities.

I would like to hear from anyone with any knowledge of suing one of these places, especially if you have done it before...succesful or not.

Thank!


Follow Ups:



Post a Followup

Name:
E-Mail:

Subject:

Comments:


[ Follow Ups ]   [ Post Followup ]   [ Credit Forum Index ]

 

    Top Of Page

  

Copyright © 1999-2002 Enkephalos Web Design