Have You Ever Been So Overwhelmed with all this that you were Frozen? DV advice plz

[GoingDown]

i vote for #2....the long one is way too long, they will put it down before they get to the end.

kinda like my C&D letter LOL!

I vote for #2, too!

Not just because I wrote it, but because it works well.

The shorter they are, the better.

Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, all the consumer has to do is to tell the debt collector in writing that they dispute the validity of the alleged debt. The debt collector must then "VERIFY" the debt, which generally means they will send back a letter that says they hereby "verify" the debt (usually just a small paragraph at most) and sometimes they will also include a page from one of the last billing statements. Other times they send back huge amounts of information. But don't count on it. They don't have to do that at all.

Sometimes you just never hear from them again.

The last part of that #2 letter lets them know in writing that it is inconvenient for you to receive telephone calls from them, which triggers the "inconvenience" clause of the FDCPA which now makes it a violation of federal law for them to continue calling you on the phone.

To quote the FDCPA: Debt collectors shall not call you... "at any unusual time or place or a time or place known or which should be known to be inconvenient to the consumer." By telling them in writing, they are now put on notice that it is inconvenient to call you.

This letter worked great for me.

And from what I hear, the short but sweet ones scare them. They know that you know the law, and they suspect you're going to try to hit them with a FDCPA lawsuit, and so they will sometimes "blacklist" your account for no further activity because your account begins to be seen as a toxic asset that is more trouble than it is worth to try to collect.

[slvnomore]

ok wanted to report back the results. - THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL HELP> SO APPRECIATED!


much medical stuff going on that makes this look minor that I just didn't get to financial.

Got 4 collection agencies

3 chase
GC services 15k
Client Services Inc 6.5K
United collection Bureau 10K

1 FNB $16.2K
From Lawyer
CKB FIRM

RESULTS:


Sent 3 DV letters. on the 7th

This is the one i finally agreed on: Copy:

To Whom It May Concern:

I have received your letter dated 12/6/ in which you claim that I owe an alleged debt of xxxxxx 


This letter is to inform you that I dispute this debt in its entirety. I request that you provide validation of this debt pursuant to the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA). This is NOT a request for “verification” or proof of my mailing address, but a request for VALIDATION made pursuant to 15 USC 1692g Sec. 809 (b) of the FDCPA.

Also, please provide the original creditor's name, address, and date of last activity.

I thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.




Very truly yours,
slave no more

"Further, as I am undergoing serious medical hardship at this time contact by U.S.P.S. would be preferred if possible thank you.




got back 3 letters from chase on the 9th (FNB has not replied yet)

The all said the same thing:

QUESTIONS>

1) FIRST THEY WERE FROM CHASE NOT FROM THE CA I THOUGHT I WAS WRITING TOO: Why?

2) SECOND: Here is what the letter said. It did not say anything about dispute validation but only about medical hardship.
which i only mentioned in the last line, and is not what i am going through but i am caring for two family members.

_________________________________________________

Thank you for communication.
in order to update status of account we need.

verification documentation:

1) court documents saying the owner is incapacitated.
2) a letter from a nursing home
3) a social security disability letter
4) letter from physician says i cant work.
5) millitary records that i am hurt
6) updated residential info

if we dont recieve this collection efforts will resume.

customer support team Chase.
__________________________________________________ _________________


What does this mean?

Did i even receive a dispute validation letter proper answer?

What do I do next? Thanks!

[GoingDown]

They latched onto your claim of medical hardship and ignored your dispute.

This is why I never use complicated letters.

The simpler it is, the more likely you are to get what you want out of it.

Of course, keep in mind that original creditors don't legally have to respond to them. They aren't bound by the FDCPA.

Chase is still the creditor, they were just using third party debt collectors to attempt to collect the debt from you. In most cases, third party debt collectors will punt a "difficult" debtor back to the original creditor whenever they encounter any resistance. That's what they did.

As long as third party debt collectors cease their collection activities, they don't have to bother responding to any letter you send them. They only have to respond in writing if they intend to continue collection activities against you. So, most of them just bounce it back to the creditor, and then move on to less troublesome debtors.

Chase will probably send the accounts out to new third party debt collectors after this, and the fun will all begin again.

The hardship info request is just them fishing for more info to use against you later. It's not like they really care about you. If they find the info useful, they will simply turn it around and use it to try to collect the money from you. They're very clever and skillful about these matters.

Here's a link to an older thread about this subject:

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?74471-Need-sample-letter-to-send-to-creditor-to-inquire-about-the-debt-I-owe.&p=552308#post552308

[Scarlett1234]

I realized this is an old thread ,but I hope you might be able to see this , when people are judgement proof and if the creditor still file lawsuit , what does the judgement proof person do ? Do you go to court and deny the valid debt or you go to court and admit its your debt but you cant afford to pay, then what? If the judgement person lost , does he get a judgement order against him and does he now owe the credit card debts and the legal cost arising from this lawsuit originated by the creditor or collection company?

[slvnomore]

I want to thank you so much for a thoughtful and easy to understand response, I really appreciate it. honestly its almost like the more i study this stuff the more ways there seems to be to do it and the more confused I get. Your reply really helped me understand the logic better.
thank you ; )

[slvnomore]

I am totally willing to listen to wise council on the matter, my thoughts on this may be all wrong:

there are 2 reasons i was trying to settle

1) they OC already offerd me 30% on the dollar and 40% on the dollar but i didnt have 14k to settle with.
I (nievely) thought that a JDB might settle for 4-6K since they bought it for less,and if i didnt get sued

2) if i didn't have to go bankrupt i would still have my nuke incase of a terrible medical situation. ( happened to a family member)
Here are my 2 concerns about a no asset BK7

1) what if you have a serious expensive medical crisis, you cant Bk. you already dropped your nuke. trapped. sick. scary.
2) My parent are well but getting older, don't even know that there even is any inheritance,
but how do you legally protect it from the 180 days after you file? What would constitute good legal pre bk planning on this issue? Thx.

[TheBajan]

I am totally willing to listen to wise council on the matter, my thoughts on this may be all wrong:

there are 2 reasons i was trying to settle

1) they OC already offerd me 30% on the dollar and 40% on the dollar but i didnt have 14k to settle with.
I (nievely) thought that a JDB might settle for 4-6K since they bought it for less,and if i didnt get sued

2) if i didn't have to go bankrupt i would still have my nuke incase of a terrible medical situation. ( happened to a family member)
Here are my 2 concerns about a no asset BK7

1) what if you have a serious expensive medical crisis, you cant Bk. you already dropped your nuke. trapped. sick. scary.
2) My parent are well but getting older, don't even know that there even is any inheritance,
but how do you legally protect it from the 180 days after you file? What would constitute good legal pre bk planning on this issue? Thx.

Both of these reasons for delaying filing a bk are completely out of your control. All the 'what if's out there will do is keep you in your prison. There will always be another 'what if' scenario to give you an excuse not to file but the truth is, you need to get this over with. I say this with the utmost empathy.

My husband and I are in a chapter 13 without medical insurance. Believe me when I say that I completely understand your fears regarding something happening that will drop the medical bomb on you financially. We have to run that risk for the next few years and then some. We aren't tripping over death's doorstep but we aren't young anymore either. I occasionally experience kidney stones. I've have surgery 4 times for them and the chances are high that I will have to go in sometime before our bk is over. It is what it is. We came to a point that we just ran out of options and it seems you have also.

Sit back. Breathe. Worry is wasted on the things you have no control over. Take control over what you can and move on with your life. Thank God you are able to file a chapt 7 (instead of a 13), do it and become a 'slave no more'.

Best regards,

The Bajan

[HHM]

This goes back to the 1st post of this thread...what you are suffering from is analysis paralysis. The condition stems from the false assumption that somehow if you get more information, it will change something. You know what you need to do, you just need to decide to do it.

Frankly, this entire thread is a waste of time. I am not saying don't send DV letters, but at least understand, that doing so accomplishes very little. I don't know if anyone mentioned this yet in this thread, but there are only 2 items of information the collection agency needs to provide you in response to a DV, (1) the name of the original creditors, and (2) the amount claimed to be owed. That's it. That is why everyone that I can see has recommended the "short" version of the letters.

You can dispute the validity of the debt all you want...it is not going to change what happens nor change what you need to do.

[frogger]

This goes back to the 1st post of this thread...what you are suffering from is analysis paralysis. The condition stems from the false assumption that somehow if you get more information, it will change something. You know what you need to do, you just need to decide to do it.

Spot on advice! And HHM - I'm going to steal that "analysis paralysis" from you. That's a great way to put it!

[GoingDown]

This goes back to the 1st post of this thread...what you are suffering from is analysis paralysis. The condition stems from the false assumption that somehow if you get more information, it will change something. You know what you need to do, you just need to decide to do it.

Frankly, this entire thread is a waste of time. I am not saying don't send DV letters, but at least understand, that doing so accomplishes very little. I don't know if anyone mentioned this yet in this thread, but there are only 2 items of information the collection agency needs to provide you in response to a DV, (1) the name of the original creditors, and (2) the amount claimed to be owed. That's it. That is why everyone that I can see has recommended the "short" version of the letters.

You can dispute the validity of the debt all you want...it is not going to change what happens nor change what you need to do.

They're a monkey wrench.

They make it more difficult for the debt collector to do their jobs.

In my opinion, when they get a DV letter or a Cease and Desist Communications letter, they are more likely to give up on you. They might do some employment searches and asset searches to see if you are worth going after, and if they don't like the information they find out, they are likely to put your delinquent accounts on the back burner stop wasting their efforts and resources on you. That's what they did in my case.

The DV letter can sometimes yield some very useful information: sometimes they will actually tell you the date of your last payment. Save that letter for future reference, as it can be used in court if you ever need to use the statute of limitations as an affirmative defense against a lawsuit. A very rare occurrence as far as I can tell (none of my creditors or junk debt buyers have sued me after the SOL passed), but just in case.

I would only use them if you plan on living the judgment proof lifestyle, playing chicken with the creditors and waiting them out until the statute of limitations passes for all your debts. That's what I did, and it worked for me.

I now have a clean credit report-- no negative accounts listed anymore. And all of my debts are beyond the statute of limitations and I no longer get any phone calls or letters from any of them. They all gave up on me.

I try to think about it from the debt collector's perspective...

You get a letter or an email from a debtor who knows enough about the FDCPA to send you this letter. Why waste your time on this person? They are going to be nothing but trouble for you, and you might even end getting hit with an FDCPA violation lawsuit from them, and end up owing them money. I might do an asset search or employment search on them to see if they are worth suing, but if not, I would give up on them and move on to lower hanging fruit. After all, I have bills to pay myself. If I spend all my effort going after someone who is not going to pay me, I am going to go out of business myself.