My fiance had a message on his phone this evening from a company called Allied Interstate, saying they have urgent business with him and he needs to call them back.
This Allied Interstate. Oh yes, this gem of a shady, underhanded, harrasing false-debt chasing company thinks they have urgent business with my fiance. Who is not behind on any bills.
I feel ill. We don’t really know what to do. Sure, there are tips on the Minnesota AG’s site, but…but damn. Should he call them back at all? Can he dispute this debt by letter ( the only thing that is supposed to ever work with this company, and even then it’s still taken AG intervention for some people to escape harrasment for debts they do not owe) now? Are we going to face call after rude nasty call before this thing is over? Can they hurt his credit?
I don’t want to deal with this. He doesn’t want to deal with this. But we have to, don’t we? We have to find out what on earth they think they can collect off him, and fight it tooth and nail.
God damned kitten-eating assfaced bastards. We’re getting married in a couple months. We’ve got the cat and the wedding and immigration to worry about. My fiance is dilligent in paying his bills. Why did they have to come after us? How do I make them go away?
Oh, and fuck Verizion or Sears, whichever shithole of a company connected him to these bastards. He isn’t behind in what he owes either one, but AI likes to collect fake debts from both, and they still do business with the fuckers.
Apologies for any incoherance or needless whining. I’m having a bad case of the It’s Not Fairs over this.
Why not take a deep breath? They obviously can’t make you give them anything. Tell them you are aware of their legal issues and your own rights. Ask them what the supposed debt is, and ask them to send a letter explaining it. Tell them you will either remit payment if the debt is valid, or send a notarized letter verifying that the debt is not valid. I can understand being annoyed, but why be fearful?
It they can’t actually do anything other than call and bother you, just start singing Christmas carols into the phone when they call until they hang up and never let them get a word in edgewise. It’s their dime.
The horror stories found by googling them, mostly. I’ve probably ranted prematurly, and this will all seem less overwhelming in the morning.
Sometimes google is your friend. In this case, it put a whole bunch of bogeymen under my bed in short order.
I’m working on those deep breaths now. I probably should have saved the pitting for a calmer mood, but there’s something oddly comforting about running to the SDMB in times of wtf-do-I-do. Some one always wanders along with a fair idea of wtf you should do.
You can always screen your phone calls. You don’t have to pick up the phone.
On the first link you provided, there is another link that describes exactly what to do. It says:
“What to do when a collection agency calls click here.”
I would provide the link for you, but it is Acrobat so I can neither link nor copy. Just a few simple steps. Don’t worry. If he doesn’t owe the debt, he has the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office on his side and he can report abuse to them.
They are not going to break his knee caps.
Relax and enjoy your wedding! My best wishes to you!
A legitimate company will first establish contact in writing (or if not first, they will do it sooner than later). If you are really worried, keep a log of all communications they have with you. Also, do not agree to anything over the phone (if you even talk to them at all).
Was it a canned phone call (recording)? Because I was getting those for a while. Actually, I just got a call like that (though I don’t think they identified themselves as bill collectors). With this most recent call, I thought nothing of it and didn’t call them back.
What happened with me before (this was probably 2 years ago) was that the phone rang, I answered, and heard a recorded message (a very pissed-off-sounding guy saying that I needed to call them back immediately). When I called them back they wanted some other guy. I told them that I wasn’t him. (I’m a female, which should have tipped them off.) They said they wouldn’t call back. They kept calling back. Many times, with the same pissed-off-sounding message that I had to call them back. I told them several times that they had the wrong person. Finally I told them that they had no right to call me and they had to stop. The guy I talked to barked at me, “We’ll call anyone we want!” and was really nasty.
Basically, it was all bluff and nothing came of it. You have to wonder—why do these phone calls say that you have to call them? I think they do it to get around the Do Not Call list (though I’m just guessing). If they entice you to call them, it’s not like they are hounding you, you voluntarily called them. So something is fishy there.
What she said.
I would call the Attorney General’s office, or at least get more information from their site. Don’t worry.
Ask for proof of the debt, if the agency really is looking for your fiance. It could be that they are looking for someone with the same or a similar name. They could be skip tracing and trying to find someone else.
If they are looking for your fiance, and their debt is invalid, send certified letter. Tell them not to call you any more about this issue, IN THE LETTER. Get in touch with the big 3 CRAs right away. Dispute debts IF they are invalid and on your credit.
Don’t panic. It takes a long time for someone to have anything major happen to them, like having their wages ganrished. Be careful about the information that you give them, esp work phone numbers or even the name of your bank. If the debt is his and he pays it, pay by a credit card or money order, NOT a check by phone.
Run a scan on his name on switchboard.com, anywho.com, and google. If anything important comes back find out how to get rid of it.
They can’t contact you by phone IF you ask them not to IN WRITING. However, they can then directly proceed to garnish your wages if their letters do not have the desired affect, assuming that they are willing to go through the trouble.
Sorry, you’re wrong. Unless the creditor (a) sues you; (b) serves you with summons; (c) obtains a judgment against you; and (d) commences post-judgment garnishment proceedings, he cannot garnish your wages. Nothing “direct” about it.
As we’re in the pit: You’re an idiot. Don’t submit posts on legal topics until you have a clue.
First thing to do, WaryEri, is get a copy of your and your fiance’s credit reports (Equifax, 1-800#, free). Find out some facts before you get too worried. If there are mistakes on either report, next step is to work on getting them straightened out. This, apparently, is quite difficult, but at least you’ll know what you’re working with. ANd if the U.S. is similar to Canada, the steps Random has outlined are what has to happen before a bad debt can be taken out of wages, etc. If your fiance really has a debt that has been passed to a collection agency, his credit rating for that debt will be as bad as they can get, however. Get your credit reports. Get some information.
I am not a lawyer. However, something very similar happened to my husband and me a while back.
I told the company that we needed to know the exact details, in writing, of the debt…that is, who we had originally had the debt with, how much it was, when it was, etc. The company (Camco) eventually coughed up this information. We looked through our records and determined that we had, in fact, paid this debt. I also did a bit of Googling and found out that Camco has made a practice of buying up old unenforcable debts. I learned that even if we hadn’t paid this debt, it was so old as to be legally invalid. I wrote this up and sent it by registered mail to the company headquarters (NOT the PO box listed in the letter) and noted that I was sending a copy of the letter to the FTC. I said that we were not going to roll over and pay an old debt that had already been paid, and that they were to IMMEDIATELY stop calling us on the phone.
We never heard from them again. I think that they figured that we weren’t quite the suckers that they prey upon.
Your first step (and again, I’m not a professional, but this is what worked for me) is to dispute the debt IN WRITING. Tell them that you won’t even consider paying unless they cough up the original debt, the original amount, original debtor, etc. Insist that all communication be carried out over the US mail. I’m willing to bet that they’ll quit harassing you.
Always dispute in writing. Just fax them a letter explaining why you are disputing their claims, and hang tight. Once they’ve received your letter, your account and any action on it are placed on hold until the proof you have requested is dredged up and sent to you by mail.
Many times, if it is an illegitimate debt, you will never hear from them again. If you owe it, they will send you the proof and you can contact them to make arrangements.
Despite Random’s fucked-up tone, he is correct about the guidelines for collections in general. If you owe the debt, and you fail to respond the the collection agency’s requests or pay off the debt, they can A) Mark up your credit B)sue you to get a judgement against you and C) ask for a wage assignment to garnish your wages.
For California Residents, a debt over 4 years old is considered uncollectable. Also in California(not sure of other jurisdictions), requesting no further contact by phone in writing is legal and enforceable as harassment if they ignore it. Another note for California residents(see above note Re: jurisdictional issues), I believe that the more aggressive collectors are not allowed to contact you by phone at your place of business as long as you provide them with an alternate phone number(you may have to submit this in writing as you have to with most things in collections).
Don’t let dirty, scummy collectors screw you over. If you are not in California, where we have a nice online information site like the Department of Consumer Affairs( www.dca.ca.gov ), contact our state-run Department of Consumer Affairs for information specific to your state.
Above all, dear OPer- **CHILL! ** It’s just a debt and if you don’t owe it, you can get it all worked out. Your fiancee having a debt won’t condemn you to a life of poverty and Top Ramen. Take a few deep breaths and absorb what everyon has told you so far. Panic attacks are not the answer.
A couple of Dopers in this thread have mentioned that they called back when they received the automated call. I wouldn’t have done that. I would have assumed it was one of those “You’ve won a free trip to the Bahamas all you have to pay is more than it is worth” scams. I don’t take telemarketing calls.
This strikes me as similar to spam. They are trolling (in the fishing sense) for someone who will react. I don’t feel I “have” to return a call to anyone I am not already doing business with, or who I recognize.
IANAL, and I don’t have any bad debts. I would therefore ignore it until a live person finds me. It is not that stressful to tell Mr. Telephone Intimidation “I don’t know who you are, I don’t owe you any money, I am not going to send you any money, and I don’t care. Don’t call me again.” Then hang up. If he’s persistant, I would do the “send me everything via snail-mail - I don’t do business over the phone” routine, and then hang up again.
Isn’t this just going to be one of those stupid cases where they can’t track down some guy with a debt, so they broaden their search to include other people in the same area with the same or similar names?
Fuck off, I know what I am talking about. I didn’t go through every single step of garnishing someone’s wages because A. It was almost one AM here, and B. If this debt isn’t valid, all of these details don’t mean a fucking thing to her. What part of “going through all of the trouble” did you fail to notice?
My point was that if someone tells the creditor to stop calling, and the letters they send have no effect, and the debt is great enough, AND if they live in a state where one’s wages can be garnished, they can and may begin these proceedings. It depends on all of these factors.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act Pay particular attention to sections 805, 806 and 809. When I got my notice, I sent them a letter, certified return receipt, stating that the debt was incorrect and to cease collection efforts until they have verified the debt. That was about a month ago, and they haven’t called since.
This is a very good point and something I always try to stress, when dealing with collectors, deal with them through the mail only. Sam’s advise is not only good in CA, the request to stop calling made through the mail (I’d advise against faxing it, too many unscrupulous collectors will claim they never saw your fax) is a right across the United States through the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Because of obscene abuses by the collections industries in the 1970s, this act was put in place and seriously changed the way that collectors could conduct themselves.
As Lynn stated, once a debt is so old, they cannot attempt to collect on it any longer. No debt can stay on your credit for more than 7 years.
And, as Sam stated, once they have received your request they cannot proceed any further until they have proof of the debt. When I was collecting hospital debts this meant that I had to get the sheet they signed when services were rendered. These things do take time, depending on whether or not the collection agency bought the debt, and has the paper in their office, or is on commission for the original creditor and has to have them send proof over, so don’t be surprised if they don’t get right back to you.
On preview, Cheesesteak has already provided the link to the Act, so I’ll leave that off of my post.
