Charge offs, cccs, not sure about what to do

Posted by Chris (209.136.134.140) on March 28, 2003 at 15:25:21:

This is my first post so bear with me.

In November of 2000 my wife and I started a small business. We used a couple of my personal credit accounts to purchase everything for the business. One was a Citibank MC account and the other was a MBNA Gold Loan credit account that I had opened in October of 1999. The business struggled but paid the bills somewhat.

In October of 2001 my wife and I purchased a new house and at the same time our business finally had to be closed.. I also closed almost all of my credit card accounts in December of 2001 when things started to get tight so I couldn’t create more debt.

Things were going ok and then I was laid off from my job in January of 2002. It took 5 months before I was able to land a job in my field of work making anything close to what I had been making. During that time I had to manage our money very carefully to pay for the new house we had just bought, make car payments and put food in our mouths etc. Needless to say the credit card bills from our business took the back seat for the five months that I was out of work.

During that five months though I made small, less than minimum, payments here and there on the two credit cards from our business to keep from going into default and stop the endless phone calls from Citibank and MBNA. The late fees and over the limit fees were piling up fast.

Once I started working again in July of 2002 I started making payments to try and bring the accounts back to current but it was useless because as fast as I could put money on them I would get hit with over the limit fees and would make very little progress.

As a last resort I went with a CCCS, Consumers First to be exact, in hopes of somehow regaining control of these two accounts and a couple other small credit cards that had been put to the wayside while out of work.

The CCCS was able to get all of my credit accounts to an average percentage rate of 9.5 and eliminate all of the late fees and over the limit fees.

But before I could get the CCCS program going, the MBNA Gold Loan account was either sold or transferred to an outside collection agency in November of 2002.

The balance on the account was somewhere around $5200 when taken over by the CA. I have paid them about $800 since November to try and satisfy this debt and keep from having any legal actions taken against me.

I would like to somehow settle this debt so it will stop looming over me. I don’t know what my rights are in this matter really and what actions I should or shouldn’t take. I have been reading as much information on this site and forum to try and educate myself and not be taken for a ride by the CA. The other accounts with the CCCS have gone well so far and have not been turned over to a CA.

I am only 26 and I would like to repair my credit before its too late. I have three accounts that look bad on my credit, all of which stem from the business. One is the Citibank account which shows 60 & 90 days past due and is with the CCCS, another MBNA Visa that shows 30, 60 & 90 days past due and which is also with the CCCS the MBNA Gold Loan account which is listed on my credit report as “ACCOUNT TRANSFERRED OR SOLD, CHARGED OFF ACCOUNT”. The collection agency listed on my credit report is Collect America 1999 Broadway Ste 3850 Denver, CO 80202-3025 but I receive letters about the account from Harrison Ross Byck, ESQ. 229 Plaza Boulevard, Suite 112 Morrisville, PA 19067-7601.

If someone could give me advice on what the best plan of action would be to my situation and what my rights are as far as actions that can be taken against me by the CA would be greatly appreciated. I live in Florida also.

Sorry to be so long winded!

Thanks,

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