Just got threatened

[lindsay2181]

I have been avoiding collection calls in order to prevent myself from getting stressed out (I have a high risk pregnancy) but this one company, LTD Financial, specifically a collector named Charles LaRusa has been contacting my parents. I only returned his call today in order to ask him to cease contact with my parents. I should have sent a letter instead but my dad had just come over and was telling me they called again. (21 times now) When he left I decided to call this guy. So he said he would stop contacting my parents but not before he mentioned "refusal to pay" telling me I was irresponsible and evasive and threatened to advise Chase to sue me. He stated the debt was $1285 but that be nothing compared to all the fees that would be tacked on. I told him that I had intentions of going back to work after the pregnancy but had no way to pay the debt until then and Chase has already been made aware of that. If they want to sue me before that, I guess they will. He was extremely rude and finally hung up on me. But hopefully he will quit calling my parents.

Don't think I'll be contacting any other collectors or taking their calls, I doubt I could go through a phone call like that again. I was firm on the phone but did cry after hanging up. It just stressed me out having him threatening me like that. I wish I could have reached through the phone and gouged his eyes out. UGH!

[LimpDisc]

Send him a cease & desist letter using certified mail w\ return receipt. I don't think telling them over the phone to cease contact will work.

[lindsay2181]

I know, I need to send out letters to several CA's, I just don't have a printer right now. Gonna have to save them to a disk and print elsewhere, just haven't done it yet. This guy pretty much acted like he was going to send the account back to Chase and advise their legal department to sue me....of course I'm sure that's a scare tactic, but he acted like he was aware he wasn't going to get a penny out of me so there was no point to "deal" with me and my scumbag self anymore....i hope he DOES send it back to Chase! I know they might send it to another CA, or maybe they will sue..who knows? but I am just tired of them calling my parents' house, I haven't lived with them in 10 years now!

[albacore44]

LTD had one of my Chase accounts. I sent a DV letter adviseing them to only contact me by mail, and they went away. Haven't heard a thing since

Look sweetie, you should go right away and print those letters and send them off. The sooner you get that done the sonner they will stop Don't risk your health stressing over these bottom feeders or anything they say to you. their job is to make you feel guilty, and collect money.

[Bell30656]

After you confirm you identity with them and they agree you are you... Simply tell them to piss off and hang up. Don't discuss the debt and don't worry about anything that they have to say. Oh and tell them that you are recording the call whether you are or aren't. That seems to really cause a lot of hang ups. As long as they can reach you they can't call any one else on one of those bogus "Attempt to Locate" calls.

I say bogus because they know as well as you do that you are watching the caller ID and ignoring them.

[BobMango]

I know, I need to send out letters to several CA's, I just don't have a printer right now. Gonna have to save them to a disk and print elsewhere, just haven't done it yet. This guy pretty much acted like he was going to send the account back to Chase and advise their legal department to sue me....of course I'm sure that's a scare tactic, but he acted like he was aware he wasn't going to get a penny out of me so there was no point to "deal" with me and my scumbag self anymore....i hope he DOES send it back to Chase! I know they might send it to another CA, or maybe they will sue..who knows? but I am just tired of them calling my parents' house, I haven't lived with them in 10 years now!

Is there any reason you can't just write the letters by hand? People have been doing that for a long time and I think it still works.

[carol7lynn]

Is there any reason you can't just write the letters by hand? People have been doing that for a long time and I think it still works.

My exact thoughts. I had a problem with a CA calling me multiple times in one day and I sent them a C&D (cert/return receipt)and haven't heard a peep from them since.

I wouldn't worry about being sued. They don't get a judgment overnight and in some states they can't anything if you are low income or someone with protected assets-the best they might get is your bank account so keep as little money as necessary to keep it active and pay with money orders.

Good luck with the pregnancy.

C7L

[GoingDown]

I know, I need to send out letters to several CA's, I just don't have a printer right now. Gonna have to save them to a disk and print elsewhere, just haven't done it yet. This guy pretty much acted like he was going to send the account back to Chase and advise their legal department to sue me....of course I'm sure that's a scare tactic, but he acted like he was aware he wasn't going to get a penny out of me so there was no point to "deal" with me and my scumbag self anymore....i hope he DOES send it back to Chase! I know they might send it to another CA, or maybe they will sue..who knows? but I am just tired of them calling my parents' house, I haven't lived with them in 10 years now!

You don't need a printer. I have sent out hand written Cease and Desist Letters and they work just as good.

[lindsay2181]

Yeah, I guess I could write the letters by hand. I just feel like there are so many to send, I was going to copy and paste a form letter I'd found online. But I can also probably borrow a friend's printer, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Need to do that real soon!

Thanks for the reassurance guys. I am always reading on here about the CA's and their threats, and I know a lot of times they are just bluffing....but when they actually did it to me, I let it get to me. Won't make that mistake again!

[Bell30656]

Lindsay, just remember that you are the one with all the power in the situation. They want something from you... MONEY. As long as you remember that they have no power, none at all. Like the big bad wolf outside of the brick house. They can huff, they can puff... but that's all they can do.

[lindsay2181]

Well, well, well.....Saturday I got a letter in the mail from these same people. A 50% settlement offer. They will take $600 to settle my $1200 debt. I told them on the phone I didn't have $1200. Too bad I don't have $600 for them either. There were options for paying 1, 3, or 12 installments. Really, if I thought I would be able to do the 12 installments I might...but honestly it will be taking food off the table and my kids come first.

[GotNoMoney]

Actually I think you can go to USPS website and create your own "form" letter via word and they print and mail the letter for like $0.40 and you can choose to send it certified. It is more for sending out multiple letters but I have used to send out just one. I didn't have any envelopes handy and wanted to get a C&D letter out.

Just go to USPS and use Click2Mail and you can make and send a certified letter without leaving your house, it comes as a one piece of paper folded over. It is rather funny it looks like junk mail (I mailed one to myself to see what it looked like) but you can choose to have them sent certified. So just make up a C&D letter paste it to the USPS website and then enter the recipient, you pay for the postage and the "letter" via credit card or debit and your done. It really doesn't cost much more for them to do this, it does however take about four days for them to "print" the letter before it gets mailed, so keep that in mind.

[catleg]

In my experience you don't really need to spend the money for certified mail. Typically you're not really planning to sue them and they get the message that you know your rights and won't be a pushover so they just move on to the next case.

[anykey]

Letters are fine- but I doubt they work. These places do what they want. Yes- one is within the right- but ...