stevestory
Posts: 13407 Joined: Oct. 2005
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Quote (OgreMkV @ Dec. 02 2014,16:39) | Quote (stevestory @ Dec. 02 2014,14:53) | Quote (OgreMkV @ Dec. 02 2014,14:07) | Quote (stevestory @ Dec. 02 2014,12:08) | debt collectors pay pennies on the dollar for your debts, then call and mail and harrass you into giving them way more money than they paid, if possible. It should be called Debt Profiteering. |
It's pretty trivial to get out of it, if you know the rules.
With an unscrupulous debt collector, it's possible to actually make money from debt collectors. |
lemme guess--you run up a $10,000 bill, default, get a collector to buy it for $1k, and you give him $2k? |
Naw, you send them a letter that says not to contact you except by mail, then you take them to small claims court every time they call you. Since they are breaking the Fair Debt Collections practice law, it's $1000 every time they call you (minus court costs).
For credit cards, you never have to actually pay (though it does hurt you credit score). One of the requirements of the Fair debt Collection law is that they have to produce the original agreement. Since they just by lists of names and amounts owed, they don't have that. Since they can't provide that information, you never have to pay them. |
I didn't do any research when i moved into a certain apt complex in Durham. I later found out all the reviews were along the lines of 'OMG STAY AWAY FROM THESE PREDATORS". well, they lied me into signing a long-term lease renewal a month before i lost my job. Then when i couldn't pay, they locked me out, didn't rent my apt out for the entire rest of the contract, and then sent me a bill for all those months, which is somehow legal in NC, plus various fines and on top of that, $2000 for throwing everything i owned in the world away. and even told me the wrong day to appear in court--they got the judgement on a prior date when i didn't show.
Yeah not a surprise I developed a bit of a drinking problem for a few years.
So anyway, for the first time in my life i said 'fuck it, i don't care about the consequences, i'm not giving those criminals a dime.' and i didn't, and i learned that eventually that stuff must go away, because after 4-5 years of harrassing phone calls, it's all dried up. That was 2006 IIRC.
I later had a roommate who told me some of the tricks of the trade--he'd gone to a seminar once where a multi-millionare debt-collector explained how the system works.
Edited by stevestory on Dec. 02 2014,17:01
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