Earlier this year I owed 236 to my Doctor. It went unpaid and they turned it over to a CA. The CA reported that I owed $319!
I paid $236 to my Doctor directly thinking that I resolved the problem.
Yesterday I pulled my CR and it said that I still owe the CA $83.
I just got off the phone with my Doctor. They said my account with them is Paid In Full, and that I have to deal with the CA to settle the $83. They also told me that the payment I made to them was forwarded to the CA.
My Doctor called the CA, and the $83 is the Collection Agency's Fee. Not sure if or how they can demand this.
After studying your site yesterday I was going to send a PFD letter to settle the $83, but now that doesn't seem to make sense. Then again, if I challenge it and they remove it, they may mark the account as Paid.
My REAL objective now is to have the account DELETED.
Should I offer a PFD for the $83 solely if they delete?
If they refuse is there a way to challenge the $83, and then ultimately have it Deleted?
WHAT SHOULD I DO?
I believe since you admit to owing the debt. I don't think it's to much you can do about it other than send the pay for delete letter. Make sure to send it certified with receipt so you will have proof they got it. And they may agree to remove it once you have paid.
I just got off the phone with the FTC, and they say that a CA is NOT entitled to ADD collection fees.
Perhaps I'm better off sending a Debt-validation letter since they will not be able to Validate the extra $83.
Also, my doctor just sent me a fax showing a -0- Balance.
Please continue to chime in with your suggestions!
OR should I contact the bureau's and advise them of the inaccurate reporting and attach a copy of the fax showing the -0- balance as of 8/28/09?
Time is of the essence and I don't want the CA to do a quick update with the correction showing a -0- balance because that would prevent a Deletion.
So many choices... should I write the CA and the bureaus?
I believe I would send the debt validation letter to the collection agency because they are the ones saying you owe the money. So if they can't validate the debt then you can send the proof to the CB and have it removed. Make sure to send it certified with receipt so you have proof they got it.
For as little as five bucks in postage you can save yourself a lot of headache better. It is really simple to do, just take it to the post office and request the service, they will take care of you.
I would do as goodnautured said. I would also call this CA and inform them that you spoke with the FTC and have a copy of the balance due statement and it reads 0. You can also go on line and dispute with the bureaus. You should be able to get this cleared up fairly quickly. I wonder if it is actually the doctors office that owes the CA, I am sure someone (not you) is responsible for their fees.
I looked into what the original poster was saying about the interest and it does seem to be true from what I can find. Apparently once a debt leaves the original creditors hands they are not suppose to be adding on anymore interest. I wonder then if the collection fees are added every time an account transfers to new hands?
Well, if you think about it you could actually fight that. You sign an agreement with the original creditor. Once the account goes into collections and the many collectors start their business, you really have no contract with them, so anything they add is bogus because of the lack of an agreement right. I guess simple debt validation would take care of that, if you don't have an agreement with them, then they can not add fees or extra monies.
That makes a person think but now let me throw this out there...what if they bought the rights to the account and the contract was transferable? In example when a bank sells out to another bank..those charges still apply. I have looked into this as I said before and I believe once it leaves the OC"S hands the interest is suppose to stop but if it does how do all these companies, even deb collection companies, take people to court for thousands (most interest) and the debtor has got to pay the whole amount?
I guess that is why we must read the fine print and see if our accounts are transferrable or not. I suppose this is possible, our mortgage company went out of business and sold all the accounts a few years back and things have been rolling along smoothly as if they were the same company, everything was transferred. So fireyone I guess this is possible, if it can happen in a positive way, it certainly could happen in the negative ways too.
I was told this recently about tranferable accounts. According to the atty general in my state if an account is sold legally to a debt collector then and it is a transferrable account the new collector is allowed to add interest. I know the atty general is suppose to know everything but their have been some things I actually questioned that he said. One was that the statute of limitations does not start until the original lender sells the account. I can not believe this to be true as much as I have read on it. I actually wish there was a book on this type of stuff. I would read it in a heart beat so that I would have the knowledge and be able to come here and help others.
Yeah, but who the heck gave them the right to make up their own intrest rates, when a collection agency gets a hold of a debt they really increase the rates, no one would agree to these rates under normal circumstances.