garnishment and legal action

[trudi29]

What is the name of your state? nebraska
a debt collection agency has contacted me regarding a credit card debt. they have asked me if i have received a lettter from my county attorney yet.
what type of action does this represent?

they asked me to pay in full and then when i informed them that i could not do so they implied that they may have to speak to someone in my human resources dept at work.
do they have the right to speak with them?

 

[gottago]

No, they cannot talk to your employer without your permission. If they do so, you can sue them for violating the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act.

They are mentioning the attorney thing in order to scare you into paying...which is another violation of the FDCPA. They cannot threaten to take action unless they truly intend to do so. Implying that a government offical will contact you (when there has been no lawsuit filed) is a FDCPA violation.

I suggest you get a copy of the FDCPA and learn your rights. When the creditor violates your rights, let them know that you will sue them for damages.

If you don't want the collector to contact you any further, send them a letter (via certified/return-receipt mail) and tell them to stop contacting you. If they continue to call, it's another violation of the FDCPA.

 

[Ladynred]

They're full of horsehockey !!!! If this is your first contact from this CA, then they are trying to scare you with threats.. that's how they operate ! They scare people with illegal threats of lawsuits and garnishment... all of which are ILLEGAL under the FDCPA.

First, no one can garnish your check until they first sue you and win a judgment against you. Second, if they cannot sue you or do not INTEND to sue you then their threats are violations of the FDCPA. IF you were being sued, you would certainly know about it as you would be served a summons, it doesn't happen out of the blue.

You should read the FDCPA, get real familiar with the section on Abuse and Harrassment as well as illegal actions. You can read the Act at www.ftc.gov, under Consumer Protection, then Credit - scroll down til you see the FDCPA and read thru it..

The tactic of applying a time limit for you to pay is also a tactic designed to intimidate and scare you.. its B.S., ignore it. When was the last time you paid the original creditor (OC) ?

 

[trudi29]

my last payment to them was in late October. I was going through a credit counseling agency and I made two payments that month for the amount agreed upon. I have since run into some financial difficulty and have dropped out of that program but I am trying to work with my creditors.

 

[Ladynred]

Ok, so basically you're still dealing with the original creditors and in-house collections people Bad news because the FDCPA does not apply in that case and they can get away with all kinds of NASTY tactics and there are no laws to stop them !

However, they STILL can't garnish your wages w/o a lawsuit first, and the majority of them won't even attempt to sue you until the account goes to charge-off or well after its been in the hands of 3rd party collection agencies. Discover, however, seems to be suing quickly, at or just after charge-off, so hopefully that's not one of your creditors. Since your last payment was late October, you're nowhere near charge-off, that happens no later than 180 days of non-payment.

Your best bet is to try to see if you qualify for one of their hardship programs. They typically (but not all) will lower interest rates and waive fees for a period of time to allow you to bring the account current.

 

[trudi29]

I was under the assumption that he is from a 3rd party collection agency. When I called the creditor they informed me that my account had been turned over to another company and gave me the 800# with a reference number.
The debt collector also kept referring to the fact that this was a Federal Bank so they would slap me with all of their high powered attorney's fees and court costs. He also asked about any property that I owned or if I had an attorney yet.
Are these also scare tactics?
I am not trying to get out of paying my debts, I just want to pay what I can afford until times are better.

 

[Ladynred]

The CA may, in fact, be an 'outside' agency, but unless the original creditor has charged-off the account (unlikely), then they still own the debt. The tricky part is determining just what the relationship is between this collector and the original creditor. There is some verbage in the FDCPA that DOES apply to this type of collector but certain conditions must be met, and you would have to determine just what the situation is and how the CA got the account in the first place.

(This may be confusing, but here is an FTC Staff Opinion letter on exactly this situation - http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpa/letters/demayo.htm)

A "Federal Bank" ?? Another load of baloney and pure hogwash ! As far as I know there IS no such thing outside of the Federal Reserve itself !! Who is the OC ? Who is this collection agency ?
Have you received anything in writing from the OC or the CA ?

They are making ridiculous threats to scare you into paying them, so don't waste your time talking to them, all you'll get is their BS anyway. The next time the jerk asks you if you have a lawyer, ask him/her exactly WHEN and WHERE you are being sued (what court). You can bet, at this stage of the grand collection game, they aren't ready to sue you, you're not THAT late and they still have time before it goes to charge-off.

Get a mailing address from them and mail them a letter, certified, RRR, in which you propose a payment arrangement that YOU can afford. They'll most likely reject it, they're not obligated to take anything less than what you agreed to in the card agreement, but at least it shows that you are willing to pay something until you can get back to where you can make your full payments.
Just stick to your guns and don't let them bully you into paying more than you can and don't EVER let them pressure you into giving out your bank info or force you into a post-dated check scenario.

Lastly, there is NO law, whatsoever, that says you HAVE to talk to these scumbags, so igoring their calls and letting them talk only to an answering machine is not a crime and there's not a damn thing they can do about it !