topic Re: PFD trouble with a local collection agency. in Rebuilding Your Credit

PFD trouble with a local collection agency.

Anonymous — Sun, 17 May 2015 06:09:42 GMT

In recent years, my employer switched health insurance plans on us and due to a misunderstanding during the year that we rolled into the new plan, a number of medical accounts ended up on my reports for a moderate sum. I would've paid them up front had I understood, but whatever. In either case, I sent a PFD letter to the local collection agency and they immediately began hammering phone calls our way. They had been relatively silent until that point. Ultimately, after a frank and honest discussion with them, they agreed to send me a PFD letter and claimed to be happy about it. After that the phone calls stopped, but the letter never came. About a month later, the same guy started calling and lying through his teeth about everything except the sky being blue. He told me that he; never said it, had sent the letter, that I could count on him and that I could simply take his word that he'd delete them from the reports and that he "doesn't have a form letter for that"...to which I replied, well TYPE one then pal. He's been pretty aggressive on the phone of late. If I were dealing with a reasonable man, I'd walk into their office to settle it, as it's a relatively small community and I live not far from their office. In this case it appears that would just lead to trouble. Any suggestions? I'm getting nowhere with this dude and thought I had it wrapped up.

Re: PFD trouble with a local collection agency.

RobertEG — Sun, 17 May 2015 06:20:44 GMT

Most debt collectors tape their phone conversations.

Any promise they make is an oral contract if you then pay.

The problem if they dont then delete is enforement of that oral contract.

Yuo can bring civil action for breach of oral contract, and thus use the discovery process to compel them to provide theri recordings of the agreement.

If they do record, they wont go to court and testify that they did not such an agreement when their records will prove the contrary.

Your choice whether to rely on an oral promise, but it usually can be proven should they not comply.

Re: PFD trouble with a local collection agency.

Anonymous — Sun, 17 May 2015 06:33:34 GMT

Thank you for the reply.

I've been telling the guy just that. We've established an oral contract that you are choosing not to comply with. I told him that I am fully prepared to engage my end of the agreement, but that he is in violation of our prior agreement, but it's done no good. He just simply says that he never said it. Well, he did. He has stated in previous conversations that all communications are recorded, etc. Maybe it's time for me to contact an attorney. Their are 4-5 accounts in question and they total about a thousand bucks. I wonder what an attorney fees might be....maybe it's time for a consultation.

Re: PFD trouble with a local collection agency.

gdale6 — Sun, 17 May 2015 18:09:07 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you for the reply.

I've been telling the guy just that. We've established an oral contract that you are choosing not to comply with. I told him that I am fully prepared to engage my end of the agreement, but that he is in violation of our prior agreement, but it's done no good. He just simply says that he never said it. Well, he did. He has stated in previous conversations that all communications are recorded, etc. Maybe it's time for me to contact an attorney. Their are 4-5 accounts in question and they total about a thousand bucks. I wonder what an attorney fees might be....maybe it's time for a consultation.

Hammer him with the BBB for shoddy businss practices, also file complaint with the state AG and if that doesnt work mail an ITS (intent to sue) letter and be prepared to follow thru.

Re: PFD trouble with a local collection agency.

Anonymous — Sun, 17 May 2015 18:27:01 GMT

I have been working on my report for the past 3 months and have encountered the same issue. I looked up my state laws on call recording and found that where I live you can record a call with only 1 person knowledgable of it. That 1 person would be me of course so I took this approach when speaking on the phone with a CA's. I've had to settle with a verbal committment before, that ended up panning out, but I strongly suggest having something in writing if it's an option, especially with a CA. The verbal committment was with an original furnisher that would not put anything into writing, but I found them a little more trustworthy than a collection agency.

*Regarding recording calls:

,*If you do this, make sure the recipient of the call is also in a state that only requires 1 person to know.*

Re: PFD trouble with a local collection agency.

RobertEG — Sun, 17 May 2015 23:19:40 GMT

Be aware before becoming too confrontational with debt collectors if they decline to provide written confiramtion of a PFD that they have legitimate reason for such a policy.

It is expressly against their credit reporting agreements with the CRAs to delete based on payment of the debt.

The CRAs have that policy to maintain the completeness, and thus value, of their product.

If a furnisher reduces to writing their agreement to delete based on payment of a debt, it could potentially affect their reporting agreement with the CRA.

Loss of ability to report their collections would be bad for their collection efforts.