Here is the situation. About four years ago, I moved to Europe. I had three credit cards in American with two different companies..only because two of my credit cards were sold to another company from my original company....while they were current.
Anyway, early last year, I started having financial difficulties. I called the company whom I had two credit cards with and told them about my financial situation. I was told" Well pay what ever you can". They even modified my log in page on their website so I could make payments of less than the minimum amount due which I couldn't do before. So I never missed a payment after that... I just payed them what I could like instructed. I got a call from them about four months latter telling me that I was not meeting the minimum payments. I explained to them what I was told previously and gave the name of the agent I was dealing with. I was told "Well she shouldn't have told you that" and I was told that I had to start making the minimum payments. I told the man that I could not and he told me to at least increase my payments to a certain amount. I did that.
I went to the website one day last year in the summer in Believe to pay my bills and my accounts were gone!...I called the company and was told that they had been passed to collections.
I was told that the Collection Agency would contact me. Finally, I did get a call from a collections agency and I arranged payment with them for one of my accounts. Evidently, the creditor had sent my two accounts to two different collections agencies. I never did get a call on the other account. I called the creditor back and explained that I had been contacted by a CA on one of my accounts and was making payments but that I had not heard from the other. The woman told me that she didn't know who my other account had been given too and gave me three numbers of three different collection agencies to call.
The first two companies said that they had not been given my account. The third company took down my information and set me up so I could make payments. But none of the payments were accepted by the company......they just never accepted them. I called them back and was told that they didn't have my account.
Now the other collections agency that I was making payments too emailed me at the end of last year. I was told that the payments I was making were not good enough and they wanted more...Now I was living in Europe and they knew that so they were not rude, they were not threatening in anyway. The only threat they gave me was that if I couldn't increase the payments, the creditor might recall my account from them.
I so I increased my payments with them..even though I couldn't really afford it. Everything went Ok with that until July or August of this year. I submitted my payment to the CA and was contacted by them and was told it was returned by my bank. I checked with my Bank and no such payment had even been attempted on my account. I told the CA this, they tried again and still nothing. I told the CA that the money was there and that the CA must be making an error some where. They checked and told me that they had made an error and that the payment was now accepted.
The same thing just happened in November..I had the money in my account to pay them, I sent in my payment to them and was sent my confirmation of payment as an email attachment...I never heard from them. I tried to submit my Dec payment on the 19th. I never got a confirmation from them or anything. I got a response from them today saying that my bank had returned the payment for November...This was the first I had heard about it and the money was there. Anyway, because of this, the creditor has recalled my account from the CA. I have been making payments to the CA since last year and have paid them over $250 in that time period.
The CA told me that I would have to call the creditor to arrange a payment with. So a month has passed with my account being recalled, I have not heard from either my Creditor or another CA.
I called my creditor this mourning to see if I could arrange to make payments. The woman on the phone again told me that she didn't know where my account was and that she couldn't help me.
So here is where I currently stand. I have one account that I have not paid on in over a year...because my creditor won't accept payments and I don't know who currently has my account. And now I am in the same situation with my current account. The last payment was was applied to the account was the October payment.
Now I live in Europe and only use my American Bank account to pay bills, and don't keep large sums of money in it at one time...I make one transfer every month to that account to pay my American bills.
So if they did issue a judgement against me, all it would really do is be an annoyance as I would have to find some other way to pay on my bills that are still current.
This has turned into a nightmare and I don't really know what I should do.
I want to pay on my bills...I don't want to have judgement issued against me...if they even can with me in Europe. I just can't seem to get anyone to tell me who to pay.
What should I do?
What should I do?
Your situation is really very complicated. You should immediately contact with a financial counselor and get advice from him/her regarding this matter.
What should I do?
Hello, thanks for the reply. Last year when my creditor sent both my accounts to collections..and I was never able to find out what company received my account, I contacted a financial counselor about the situation.
First of all, it took many overseas phone calls to get the advice and in the end I was told that because of such a small amount of the one account, only about $500, that I shouldn't worry about it. He said being that I live in Europe...they will not be able able to send me a summons...or at least it would not be worth it to them to send me a summons over such a large amount. They advised me to do nothing unless I was contacted.
Can you recommend a good financial adviser. I know that such matters, people usually want to talk to you but I would love it if I were able to communicate with the counselor mainly through email due to the costs of calling.
Thanks,
credit
You live in Europe now?/ wow!! Technically..your creditor has to accept ANY amount of payment you send them. Whatever amount you DO send, I guarantee they will cash it. I was in a sililiar situation. One of creditiors I was dealing with told me they would not take "anything less than what my contract said." I started sending Money Orders, certified mail and the company was cashing them (even though, as I spoke to them on the phone, tey said they were NOT!!). I DID go to a professional counsler and explained the situation. They said even tough I couldn't pay the amount the creditor asked, I was trying to make an effort to make some kind of payment. To make a long story short, I received a judgment and went to court. I had all copies of payments. According to the creditor, I had made no payments at all. According to me, I had proof I made some kind of payments. The judge saw my proof and lowered my payments to what I could pay AND gave me 'credit' for what I have paid so far. The creditor had the gull to tell the 'courts' they would not accept lower payments from me and they would not 'credit' my previous payments (even though they have been cashing the MO's). The judge told the creditor they would be "in contempt" if this ruling wasn't carried out. Soon after that (to my surprised..) I had gotten a statement in the mail from the creditor.."account paid in full". Since you live overseas now, it would probably cost the CA's more to do paperwork than what it's worth to them.
What should I do?
Thanks for the reply.
That is just the thing though...I am not making payments at the moment so I don't know who to pay. I was making payments to a Collection Agency but was told when I tried to make this months payment that the creditor had recalled my account from the company and that they would no longer accept payments. I was told to contact my creditor to arrange payment...but when I called, my creditor told me nothing. I still have no idea to pay.
Being that I live in Europe...I am not to worried about them doing anything to my European income. I am been assured that they can not place a draft on my European Bank account. It is my lone American account I am concerned about. I don't keep much money in it at one time...I only use it to pay my American bills. But, if they were to put a freeze on that American account....it would prevent me from paying my other American creditors which I am at the moment current with. That is my biggest concern is that they will take away my only way of paying my other American bills such as Student Loans. They would only get about $100 at the most if they did that....it would cost me more aggrivation than anything else.
This creditor whom I am dealing with is a major US bank and they have been doing me pretty dirty to be honest.
credit
It's an entirley different 'system' from accounts in the US to overseas accounts. How recent did all of this happen? If nothing is showing on your credit report yet, I wouldn't worry about it. I'm saying that because if the debt does show up on your credit reprt, than you would know who to pay. I've been in situations like tis, myself. ..the OC says they sold it to a CA. The CA says they don't know what I'm talking about, etc. Really frustrating!! It did show up on my credit report and that way I knew who to make payments to. As of now, if you can't find answers on who to pay, then I would just continue to pay your others bills, etc. Just my 'personal experience' with Student loans..don't put payments off with them. Hope this advice helps.
What should I do?
Well, all of my accounts went into collections in the fall of 2010. I thought it was last year...just realized that it is the new year...
One account, I have never been contacted by a CA and my creditor told me that it had been passed to collections and they would not accept payment on it...for me to wait for the CA to contact me..
The other account, I was contacted by a collections agency and payed them up until November of this year. They claim my November payment was not accepted by my bank. This was not my nor my banks fault but and error by the CA...as the money was in the account and when I checked with my bank, they were showing the CA did not post a payment.
This happened once before and it was determined that the error was the CA. Anyway, when I went to make my Dec payment, I was informed that my November payment did not go through and that the credior had recalled my account.
My other account, has always been listed as Bank of American on it.....it has never been listed under a CA. The other still has the name of the other CA on it.
I have my proof from the other CA that I was making payments...in the last email I got from the Ca, they even stated how much I had paid to them total and explaining that account had been recalled. I suppose if I do get sued, I can show that to the judge to show that I was trying to make an effort to pay..the creditor just made it difficult.
credit
Yep..documentation is everything!! That IS your proof you were trying to pay someone. Did you happen to look on your credit report to see if the account showed up? If it did, you can look to see which CA has your account and possible make arrangments with them. Yea..it's frustrating when you want to take care of a debt and you don't know who to send a payment to!! 'Been there, done that' myself.