TBF Financial / Kabbage

[SMB85]

Anyone have any experience dealing with TBF Financial? They started reporting a collections on my personal CR for a business Kabbage line. When I disputed the TL they fired back a package with all of the loan documents from Kabbage and a letter basically stating "contact us if you want to resolve your account."

The problem obviously is this collection TL on my CRs now and it's over $12K. Does anyone know if TBF does PFDs or otherwise removes these collection accounts?

Edit: Oh, and of course, they are updating the TL every month...

[RonM21]

Welcome to the forums! I can't say I know personally about TBF, but anyone is worth asking PFD's for or sending GW letters to remove the accounts. You have nothing to lose doing that. But was there an inaccuracy of reporting that you disputed the TL for? Or was it simply to get them to validate the debt?

[SMB85]

I believe it was more of a validation letter I sent last year. I’ll dig up the packet they sent back. I did see that they tended to file suit on a lot of these in my web searches for TBF. For whatever reason they haven’t done that here but certainly there could still be that risk since I believe it’s still within the SOL. (Does that start from the DOFD or last payment?)

[SMB85]

Update: I reviewed the letter and it was in response to my DV. Here is their reply:

"In your letter, you utilize and cite the FDCPA. The FDCPA is an Act that applies to consumer contracts only. Since this was a business loan, that Act does not apply here. Also, as a debt buyer, the Act does not apply to TBF per the United States Supreme Court's decision in Henson Et Al v Santander Consumer USA Inc"

So on one hand they're claiming it's a business debt. On the other they are reporting it as a personal debt and claiming FDCPA doesn't apply to them.

[gdale6]

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@SMB85 wrote:

Update: I reviewed the letter and it was in response to my DV. Here is their reply:

"In your letter, you utilize and cite the FDCPA. The FDCPA is an Act that applies to consumer contracts only. Since this was a business loan, that Act does not apply here. Also, as a debt buyer, the Act does not apply to TBF per the United States Supreme Court's decision in Henson Et Al v Santander Consumer USA Inc"

So on one hand they're claiming it's a business debt. On the other they are reporting it as a personal debt and claiming FDCPA doesn't apply to them.

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If it is a business loan guaranteed by you I am afraid FDCPA doesnt apply. You will need to refer to your states UCC (uniform commerical code) to see what applies.

[SMB85]

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@gdale6 wrote:

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If it is a business loan guaranteed by you I am afraid FDCPA doesnt apply. You will need to refer to your states UCC (uniform commerical code) to see what applies.

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So the thing is the Kabbage agreement states that the owner personally guarantees performance of certain covenants (e.g., providing access to business info, etc.). It doesn't say it's an unconditional guarantee of payment since Kabbage loans, like others, are a sale of future receivables -- which could decrease or not occur.

Does that make sense? Am I reading too much into it?

Edit: For what it's worth I found this whole thread about that very topic: https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Business-Credit/Kabbage-Personal-Guarantee/td-p/4130555

Edit again: In this case Kabbage charged off the account and sold to a JDB which is TBF Financial at this point. The real question is...are they permitted to report this type of account to a personal CR?

[Anonymous]

Any luck with them? I’m dealing with the same thing, it’s my last collection.

[Anonymous]

From experience I can tell you that they will follow through and file suit. They will go after anything you own.