Collection Agency not working with me.

[corysti]

So for the past 6 months i've been trying to get all of my debt paid for and that meant calling all of my debt collectors and companies to make arrangements. When I was learning on fixing debt one of the things I learned you can't fix the problem if you hide from it so I swallowed my pride and took full responsiblty for my actions as a young adult and im trying to make it right. Well today I recieved a letter from a debt collector for an old credit card I completely forgot about. The first letter i recieved was also a letter saying I must pay the balance in full within 30 days or I will be summoned to court. Within thirty minutes of getting the letter I called the company and it turned out to be MCM collection agency out of California and the guy that I talked to was rude and basically told either I come up with the amount needed which is over half of what I owe or settle or I will be summoned to court. Now im trying to do my part to fix the problem but they are not wanting to help. What can i do? Send them a payment less than agreed and say that im doing the best that i can do?

[RobertEG]

They certainly have the right to bring legal action.  However, they cannot use that as a collection practice unless the action can legally be taken and is intended to be taken.  FDCPA 807(5).  It is nearly impossible to show that, when making such a threat, they actually had no intent to take legal action, so the enforceability of threats to take legal action as a violation of the FDCPA is more a paper protection than an actual prohibition.

Is the debt outside of your state statute of limitations?  If so, then legal action wont prevail, and under some state laws, cannot even be taken.  There is a growing body of federal case law that holds that if a debt collector has actual knowledge of expiration of SOL, then threats to bring or actual filing of a legal action is a violation of the FDCPA.

So, all I can think of is that if the debt IS outside of your state SOL, you can notify the debt collector of that fact, and use that as a means to ward off legal action.  If they still choose to sue, they do so at their peril.  Beyond that, they appear to be taking legitimate, while heavy-handed, tactics to secure collection.

[GoodCredBen]

MCM did the same thing to me when i lived in oklahoma, VERY heavy handed, but that being said, they are the worst company to work with....

If it is past your states SOL, then i would PFD them since that seems to be the only way to get them off once they are on there.....

[corysti]

Sadly its only a 2 year old account a.d they agreed to settle via to payment of 250 I may see how long between each payment and I may just settle it. Would it be wise to settle or pay off the balance? What's bad only 200 bucks of the 750 is actually me rest is late charges and interest.

[corysti]

So, I have a new question. Is it worth me trying to scavenge up the money to pay off this debt or see if they actually take me to court over it. I mean I could do it but thats putting other bills on the back burner.

[RobertEG]

From a credit reporting and scoring point of view, it is best to pay in full rather than settle for a lesser amount, as they are entitled to put a special comment in your CR if payment is for less than the full amount.  Your option.

If you wait for summons, you can, of course, still pay before court date, and thus avoid a judgment.  However, I would suspect that any pre-trial negotiations would also include their request for reimbursement of legal fees already incurred by them.  It may end up costing more.  Again, a personal decision.

[-Cain-]

Sorry, haven't figured out how to quote from my iPhone.

"Is the debt outside of your state statute of limitations?  If so, then legal action wont prevail, and under some state laws, cannot even be taken.  There is a growing body of federal case law that holds that if a debt collector has actual knowledge of expiration of SOL, then threats to bring or actual filing of a legal action is a violation of the FDCPA.
So, all I can think of is that if the debt IS outside of your state SOL, you can notify the debt collector of that fact, and use that as a means to ward off legal action.  If they still choose to sue, they do so at their peril.  Beyond that, they appear to be taking legitimate, while heavy-handed, tactics to secure collection."

RobertEG, will notifying the CA that debt is past SOL acknowledge the debt and restart the clock?

[corysti]

normally how long do I have from the last day to pay to where they will acutally send me a summons. A week, month or what?

[-Cain-]

Do they have a timeframe in which they have to summons you or is it at their convenience? That's an interesting question.

[Anonymous]

They could wait until the day before the SOL expires to bring a lawsuit.