Threatening to take me to court

[Anonymous]

I received a call from National Enterprise Systems last week telling me that if I do not pay my HH Gregg (GE Money)  account in full by the 27th of June than there is an affidavit being delivered to my county courthouse and I will be responsible for the entire balance and all legal fees.  The man on the phone told me that I could close out the entire account for $1500 if I paid it on or by the 27th.  I do owe this money and I will not denie it, things have been really difficult for us financially and we are finally come out of it and things are looking great.  However, after discussing this with my husband this weekend and looking at our finances there is no way we can make that $1500 payment next week. 

Would this be considered a threat and in violation of the fair credit collection act?  I do want to pay the money, I just cannot pay it all right now.  I want the account paid and closed so that we can move on and repair our credit but I am sick and tired of being bullied by collectors. 

I have called this man back and left him a VM stating that we cannot pay the whole amount this next week and I was hoping that we could work out another payment option. 

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Tiffany

[Anonymous]

Sounds like typical collection agency threats.

I'm not going to say for certain that they won't sue you, but lawsuits by bill collectors are rare. It costs them a lot of money, which they generally don't recoup.

[llecs]

It is only illegal if they intend not to sue. But it would be hard to prove that.

I'd stop talking to them over the phone. However, if you haven't done so, I would send out a DV. This could possibly slow their lawsuit intent, if they planned to. If you already did so, then try a PFD based on the best terms you can muster. For example, if they were offering $1500 for next week, try to counter offer $750 next week and $750 the following month. Or something like that. Get everything in writing though. To speed things up, try faxing or e-mailing, but create a paper trail. CAs are not to be trusted and their word is not their bond. Also, they likely recorded anything you said to them and any of that could possibly be used against you in the future.

[Anonymous]

ok, so here is a stupid question.  Do you think that it would be worth a try to set up and arrangement with GE Money and bypass the collection againcy?

Tiffany

[llecs]

You always want to make an arrangement with whomever is reporting. On a few occasions, it is possible to bypass the CA (assuming he is reporting) and deal directly with the OC. If your CA isn't reporting yet, set the arrangement via a PFD with GE and don't offer anything to the CA, but be sure to DV them.