Help me make sense of my first Collection Letter

[Keebler]

(I'm a Texas resident.)

I got a letter today from I.C. System, Inc. in St. Paul, Minnesota regarding a past-due Washington Mutual (Providian) account I have.

The letter states "Your account is past due and has been referred by Washington Mutual to our agency for collection."

It gives me 30 days to dispute the validity of the debt and I'm trying to decide what's the smartest thing to do since I don't exepct to file for a while yet.

I'm a guessing that this company has been contracted by Washington Mutual and the debt has not been transferred or sold to them. The most important clue is that they ask me to make my check payable to Washington Mutual and mail it to a Washington Mutual P.O. Box in Dallas.

Under Texas Finance Code, Title 5 -- Protection of Consumers of Finincial Services, Chapter 392 -- Debt Collection, there's some interesting protections that seem to apply to me.

(Subchapter B) Bond Requirement
392.101 (a) requires that the company is bonded in the state.

Should I demand proof that they're operating in Texas legally?


(Subchapter D) Prohibited Debt Collection Methods
392.304 Fraudulent, Deceptive, or Misleading Representations.

(a) Except as otherwise provided by this section, in debt collection or obtaining information concerning a consumer, a debt collector may not use a fraudulent, deceptive, or misleading representation that employs the following practices:

(18) representing that a consumer debt is being collected by an independent, bona fide organization engaged in the business of collecting past due accounts when the debt is being collected by a subterfuge organization under the control and direction of the person who is owed the debt;


Has this debt actually been transferred to a collection agency, or are they using the agency's name in a deceptive way to scare me and get me to pay the debt directly to themselves?

It seems to me that the law allows them to contract with a third party as long as the third party acts as a representative of Washington Mutual. When the third party acts as a collection agency, they need to stand alone and operate as a collection agency that's independent from Washington Mutual.


Any thoughts?

[CindyLou]

That's just your run of the mill first run collection letter. My thought is get out a file. Write "washington mutual" on it. Put the letter in it. And. Forget about it until the next one comes. Then take the file out and put the next one in. That's it. It's that easy.

On a serious note. Nothing to do. Nothing to worrry about. File it away.

[Cassiopeia]

That's just your run of the mill first run collection letter. My thought is get out a file. Write "washington mutual" on it. Put the letter in it. And. Forget about it until the next one comes. Then take the file out and put the next one in. That's it. It's that easy.

On a serious note. Nothing to do. Nothing to worrry about. File it away.

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!

PERFECT advice!!!!!!!!



(I wish I had even ONE dollar for each of those letters I received over the course of a year or two before I filed BK. I'd be sitting pretty!)

[treehugger1]

I have a $1000+ overdraft bill on a WAMU checkning account. I received a collection notice from a NY collection firm (the opposite side of the country from me.) The letter also stated to make my payment payable to WAMU. The collection company is just servicing the collection and have not been given the debt. I didn't bother to send a debt validation letter as the company appears to be legal collector in my state, and I owe the debt. My reason for NOT sending validation letter is that I think it might set up a more aggressive collection procedure. I'm guessing the CA will wait 30 days, WAMU will not receive a payment and notify the collector, and the collector will possibly take more agressive action. Bottom line, I think it will take another 45 - 60 days before I hear from a CA as actually owning the debt. In this case, I'll send a limited cease and desist communication (Only accept written US mail communication.) Eventually, the CA will need to send the account to my stte for legal action and this could take another 30 - 90 days. In the meantime, there is nothing in the contract with my checking account that allows for additional fees to be added to the debt. If they eventually get a judgment, my state laws limit annual interest on judgments at 9%.

Even though $1000 seems like a lot of money, I doubt that it is even a top priority concern for a large commercial banking institution such as WAMU.

I've put the CA and WAMU at the bottom of my "concern" pile.

Many other credit card companies now contract their collection concerns to CA's. It's a hard call as to whether requesting validation will accelerate collections. If you intend to file, this is probably no big concern. If you are looking to buy 6 months to a year, you might at least keep an eye on what the collection letters state, as they come in.

Cheers.

[SinkingFast]

We got several of those "30 Day Demand" letters from various Creditors about different accts.

MBNA, or BoA, or whoever would send one. "You've got 30 days to contact us regarding this acct or pay up, or else!" Then a couple months later, another letter would come. Same acct. Same letter. Different date.

Cindy's advice is spot on. Do save the correspondence for when you do file. Our attny listed all the addresses from all those letters in our Creditor's Matrix. He said he didn't want any of the "We didn't get properly notified" complaints from our Creditors.

Be sure to watch for any more "serious" action that might come. But pretty much, these types of letters are just saber rattling by your Creditors. Trying to shake some dollars from your wallet by scaring you into paying.

[momofmany]

I also have received a letter from I.C. Systems out of St. Paul(here I had been worried they picked someone local, as I'm from Minnesota) for my Washington Mutual/Providian account. It's nice to see that they used the same company for you in Texas, so it wasn't that they were trying to get someone more local to me. I.C. Systems has sent me one or two letters for both accounts I had with Wash Mutual/Providian. They also called quite a bit for maybe a month or so, but now that I think of it, the last few weeks I think they've let up on the calling. For what it's worth, I haven't paid them anything since May.

Good luck!!
Sara

[Keebler]

The latest update is this... (I posted the details in another topic)

My WaMu balance seems to have appeared on a Chase account through some twist of magic that I don't completely understand. I wonder how this fits with IC System Collection.

I'll see if IC System or WaMu contact me any more regarding the account.

[wingnut]

Called me for a year...

Hey,

They called me for a year, then gave up. Another company eventually got the account 3 months later.

They NEVER tried arbitration, garnishments or etc.

I always put them on hold and played crazy music for them. The weirder the music, the longer they usually listen.

Don't let them trick you into believing they are more powerful than they actually are!!

Good Luck,

WINGNUT