I have a problem/issue I'm hoping someone might be able to offer some advice with.
After years of rebuilding my credit & keeping it up for about 2 years, I lost my job last year & everything went downhill again. I did manage to get myself into a debt repayment program so I'm working on repaying the cards I had and things are going well so far. It's not the best option, but I'm paying them off and keeping them off of my back.
Well, I managed to get all of my cards except American Express into this program. They've been difficult every step of the way refusing to work with me. They eventually turned me over to an attorney/collection agency called Zwicker & Associates. They sent me letters & called me for months and every time I offered a payment arrangement it wasn't good enough for them. Finally, about 3 weeks ago a new person called and we came to an arrangement. As she was finalizing things she went to confirm my address and it wasn't my address (where they've been sending letters for months), for some reason they had my parent's address. I stopped her right there & told her to immediately remove that address because I haven't lived there in years. I questioned why she even had it and she said that AMEX gave it to them. I thought she fixed it and then...
About a week later a letter confirming the payment arrangements arrived at my parent's house addressed to my father! I'm a Jr. They basically dropped the Jr (which is on my AMEX acct & on every letter they've sent before) and sent a letter to my father telling him I'm behind my bills and working with a collection agency. My father is almost 80, has had excellent credit his entire life and he received a letter addressed to him telling him he's been turned over to a collection agency. I had to go and explain what happened and even now I don't think he's convinced that his credit isn't somehow screwed up because of me.
I called Zwicker & Associates and basically they said the letter was addressed to me & its not their problem that we have the same name. But, we don't have the same name (although it's **bleep** close) and we definitely don't have the same address or even live in the same city. And they were told all of this before they sent the letter.
Do I have any recourse here? I feel as though legally they've stepped outside of what they can do. They went to a 3rd party and released my credit info causing a lot of family drama & nearly giving my father a heart attack. And this was 100% preventable.
Thanks in advance for any help or advice.
Joey
Starting Score (02/01/2014): EQ 548 EX 548 TU 564
I don't think anyone on this forum would want to mislead or give faulty advice. At this point, you may consider seeking counsel. Sometimes you can get an inexpensive or free initial session.
@RobertEG wrote:FDCPA 805(b) prohibits a debt collector from communicating with a third party regarding a debt if the communication is not simply an attempt to locate the consumer under the provisions of section 804. Section 804 communications additionally cannot include any statement that the named consumer is alleged to owe any debt.
A third party is defined under section 805(d) as including a spouse, but not a parent.
They have thus notified a third party that you are asserted to owe a delinquent debt.
You thus have a technical violation of FDCPA 805(b), for which you can file a complaint with the CFPB and/or file a civil action seeking statutory damages of $1,000.
However, if you are considering future attempts to additionally seek removal of the reported collection after it is paid, then taking action for violation of the FDCPA might kill and future good-will on their part. Your call.
Just curious... Is the debt owed to Amex under $1000? A slick lawyer may be able to get the whole thing to go away by hanging the FDCPA violation and suit over their heads. I would look for a free attorney consult and see what they have to say.
