I have an old Discover card account that was turned over for collection to a rather nasty debt collector in California.
They are charging me interest, but they refuse to send me a statement or bill saying how much I owe, how much interest they are charging or how much of my payment is going to the balance.
I have been sending them payments monthly and I can see that they are cashing the check, but I can’t tell if the money is going towards my account. Quite frankly, I don’t trust them very much.
My question is … is it legal to charge me interest without telling me how much and is there anyway I can get them to send me a freakin’ statement?
This sounds very much like a scam to me. Basically, they have access to unlimited money (you) with the only restriction being it’s in the form of month chunks. I’ve done some research on credit for my own problems and from everything I’ve seen, it is illegal to hide interest rates and refuse to send you statements (among other things). For all you know, they don’t even have your Discover card anymore! I would call up Discover and see what is going on in that account. I am assuming it is still in your name, in which case THEY would tell you what’s going on. Also, do a search on ‘credit’ in SDMB, there might be some information on another thread that will help you. Good Luck!
I used to do legal work for a debt collection firm. It’s a big firm, multinational, but this is all based on my experience and YMMV.
Their position is that they aren’t the company you signed the agreement with, they don’t have the records that that company has, and they don’t have to send you anything. You signed up for that card at that interest rate and it didn’t stop accumulating when you stopped paying.
The credit card company will probably be happy to send you a statement, but the debt collection agency is going to be balls to the wall hardline until your account gets passed on to somebody who can do more than yell at you, like sic a lawyer on you.
Asking to speak to a supervisor is probably a mistake. If the collection agent you are speaking to is mean, just imagine what the person who is in charge of a floor full of them is like. I’ve seen this, it’s not pretty.
If you have the resources, you can offer a settlement, or better yet get somebody else (a lawyer, a debt consolidation outfit, somebody who’s in the business) to offer a settlement. The place I worked for had guidelines, and towards the end of the month when their quotas were due they’d get very accomodating about a percentage settlement if payment could be verified before their cutoff.
As far as the interest goes, that is probably the interest you signed on for when you got the card. Collection agencies in my experience are watched like hawks by regulatory groups due to the fact that they tend to be rather, uh, zealous and generate a lot of complaints.
Are you entitled to a statement? Take it up with the credit card company, because you won’t get anywhere with the collection agency, and local laws are variable.
You might want to put that question on http://clarkhoward.com . If they are refusing to provide you with the particulars of the debt I would say that something is not quite right.
2trew, if the debt collector is behaving as you describe, then their position is flat wrong and they are violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. ch. 41, subch. V. I practice law in this area. It is not true that “local laws are variable”: the Act is a federal law, and it imposes uniform nationwide requirements on all debt collectors with respect to consumer debt (although a state may impose additional requirements):
The Act provides significant penalties for violation, and a successful plaintiff automatically recovers a reasonable attorney’s fee–so plaintiffs’ lawyers are usually very interested in taking thee cases, especially if the debt collector routinely commits such violations and the lawyer can pursue your claim as a class action. The courts enforce these requirements very seriously. Jplacer, it is worth your time contacting a plaintiff’s lawyer in your area about whether this debt collector is liable to you. If you need help finding one, please contact me off-board.
I know with some companies, such as the one I work for, we send invoices as a courtesy because the interest and ammount owed was agreed upon at the signing of a contract. Now, if they change the interest rate and you signed a contract stating the interest is unchangable, then I would think no notification would be illegal. However if the contract stated “terms subject to change” it would be a viable loophole for not informing you.
What you need to do is send a registered letter to the collector informing them that you are pursuing your right to pay the debt to the original creditor. Once they have this from you, they are forbidden from contacting you or making derogatory notations on your credit files. Here’s the fun part, if they do, you can sue them.
Let me get this straight: some group claims you owe them money, but refuses to tell you how much, and what the interest rate is; and you are paying them? Hmmm, hey, wanna buy some Amway?
Even if you “send a registered letter to the collector informing them that you are pursuing your right to pay the debt to the original creditor,” the debt collector can still “invoke specified remedies,” including a lawsuit against you for the debt. If the original creditor has assigned its claim to the debt collector, as is often the case, then the debt collector has a legitimate claim against you until the debt is satisfied. Sure, you can tender payment to the original creditor, but doing so doesn’t get you anything that paying the debt collector doesn’t get you.
Back in 1985, I worked for a credit bureau (clerical support). Most people realized the original creditor had assigned the debt to my employer for collection; however, there were some people who thought that they didn’t have to pay a collection agency anything. The judge let them know in no uncertain terms they were mistaken. Part of the assignment of the debt to the collection agency is a copy of the document signed by the debtor establishing the debt in the first place.
An addendum to brianmelendez’s post: If the debtor “pursues his right to pay the original debtor,” perhaps because he doesn’t want the collection agency to get any cash from him, that’s not going to stop the collection agency from getting any cash. Once the debt has been assigned, it doesn’t matter if the debtor pays the original creditor or the collection agency–the collection agency still gets their share. It’s part of the contracted agreement between the customer (original creditor) and the provider of services (collection agency). It’s kind of like that contract establishing the debt between the customer (debtor) and the provider of services (original creditor).
