Apparently I'm supposed to starve and sit in the dark

[anime-chicka]

This was told to me by a very rude person at Fashion Bug today. I've given them the name and number of my laywer, yet they still call. Today they were very sneaky and used my cell phone provider's operator to make an "emergency" call to me.

She started in about my responsibility and when could I pay, blah blah. I know we've heard it all before, right? I once more advised her that I was filing and she went into a tirade about how could I be so irresponsible and so forth. She then told me that if I had money for paying my utilities, I had money to pay them. I asked her if she expected me to sit in the dark or starve and she said yes.

I never realized that I was also supposed to sit in burlap sacks too. And yes, I did shoot an e-mail to my lawyer about this and he answered that he'd take care of it.

[soleprop]

wow.....yeah - f for fashion bug.

[Flamingo]

Ya know, you have to look at this from the other end which I know is hard to do when times are bad. This person is only doing her job to pay her bills also and bill collectors are just not on the top of our favorites listing! Also, what we all need to do is to put ourselves in the place of being someone owed money and we do not get paid...and all you get instead of payment is an excuse. It would certainly ruffle your feathers also.

Just trying to bring a different perspective to the situation because no matter how you want to paint the picture, it was you/me/us who picked up the credit card and used it and didn't pay the bill back and yes it is our responsibility - however, in this situation, the next time just hang up the phone; I would never speak to someone who started talking down to me as down would go the phone.

[ansky0007]

The issue is they are not allowed to continue to contact you once they are informed that you are respresented by a lawyer. The person I spoke with at citbank was the best and she emailed me the following after I spoke with her.

"As requested, we will no longer place collection calls to your home and/or business telephone number. This does not mean that collection activity will cease. If your account is delinquent, we will pursue collection activity on your account through other avenues available to us, including possible referral to a collection agency or litigation. In addition, adverse information may be reported to the credit reporting agencies regarding your account. By prohibiting telephone contact, you will not have the opportunity to share in decisions related to your account. "

At least they are following the rules so far and they have not called after we last talked.

[AngelinaCatHub]

Ya know, you have to look at this from the other end which I know is hard to do when times are bad. This person is only doing her job to pay her bills also and bill collectors are just not on the top of our favorites listing! Also, what we all need to do is to put ourselves in the place of being someone owed money and we do not get paid...and all you get instead of payment is an excuse. It would certainly ruffle your feathers also.

Just trying to bring a different perspective to the situation because no matter how you want to paint the picture, it was you/me/us who picked up the credit card and used it and didn't pay the bill back and yes it is our responsibility - however, in this situation, the next time just hang up the phone; I would never speak to someone who started talking down to me as down would go the phone.

[ansky0007]

www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpa/fdcpact.htm.

Generally, the FDCPA only applies to agencies that collect debts for others. However, other federal or state laws may apply to in-house debt collections. For more on debt collections not covered by the federal law, as well as collection laws in California and other states, see Parts 4 and 5 and Attachment A of this guide.

Can a debt collector contact me by phone?

Yes, but within limits. A debt collector cannot:

Call you before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m. unless you agree.Call you repeatedly or use the phone to harass you.Trick you into accepting collect calls or paying for telegrams. Use obscene language, make negative comments about your character, or make religious or ethnic slurs.

Call you at work if the collector knows your boss does not allow such calls.

If you have an attorney, the collector should call that person, not you.

Fair play under the FDCPA also means a debt collector owes you the truth about who it is and what it intends to do. False statements and deceptive practices like the following are not allowed. A collector cannot:

Claim to be an attorney or government employee when it is not.
Send you documents that look like legal papers when they are not.
State that forms sent to you are not legal documents when they are.
Say that you committed a crime.

A debt collector threatened to sue me. Can it do that?

A collection agency can file a lawsuit to collect a debt. However, among the many things a collector is not allowed to do is threaten you with a lawsuit just to get you to pay the debt. Examples of threats and deceptive practices prohibited by the FDCPA are when the collector:

Says it will garnish your wages or sell your property if it is not legal to do that.
Says it will sue you, if the collector doesn't intend to sue.
Is not truthful about the amount of money you owe.
Says you will be arrested if you don't pay the debt.
Threatens you with violence.

Does a creditor have to tell me before it sends my account to a collection agency? What about credit bureaus?

You have no right to be notified under the FDCPA that an account will be referred to a collection agency. However, your state may have a law that requires notice in some cases. In California, for example, you must be notified before a health or fitness club refers a debt to a collection agency. If you are threatened with such a referral with no sign of your creditor carrying through on the threat, the creditor may have violated the law.

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA or FACT Act) requires financial institution creditors to send notice that negative information may be posted to your credit report. Sample notices are available from the Federal Reserve Board, https://www.federalreserve.gov/board...-12Attach4.pdf .

For summaries of the new FACT Act, see PRC Fact Sheet 6(a), FACTA: The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act: Consumers Win Some, Lose Some , www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs6a-facta.htm . Also, visit these consumer web sites:

National Consumer Law Center, https://www.consumerlaw.org/initiati...analysis.shtml
Consumers Union, https://www.consumersunion.org/pub/c...es/000745.html

Does an agency have to contact me in writing before it calls me?

No. A collection agency may contact you first by telephone. Within five days after the phone call, the collector must send you a written notice. The notice must tell you how much you owe and the name of the creditor that says you owe the money. The written notice must also tell you how to file a dispute if you don't agree that you owe the money. For more on disputing a debt that is not yours, see Part 6.

Does a debt collector have to tell me anything else?

The person who calls you from a collection agency has to give you his or her name and the name of the agency. The caller cannot pretend to be someone else. A collection agency cannot lie about who it is or send documents that mislead you.

I'm receiving phone calls from a collector. Can I stop the collection agency from contacting me by phone?

You can write a letter to the agency telling it not to contact you by phone, not to call at certain times or locations, or not to make any further contact at all. This last request does entitle the collector to contact you one more time to inform you of what, if any, action it intends to take to collect the debt, but not to threaten you. (See Part 6). You should send such a letter by certified mail and request a return receipt. If the company has a fax number, send the letter by both fax and by mail. Understand, telling the collection agency not to contact you should stop the phone calls, but it won't stop the collection efforts.

For more on collection tactics that are prohibited by the FDCPA, see the FTC publications:

"Fair Debt Collection," www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/fdc.htm
FTC Staff Commentary, https://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcp...entary.htm#805

[Overmylimit]

I think I am with Hub on this one essentials come 1st. Also I have noticed lately that Flamingo is usually dead on as well, but here is what struck me right off the bat. I know you owe but to use an emergency connection is just flat out wrong I have had people (not debt related) contact me this way and I get very angry when this happens. I had an employee contact me this way over something that wasn't really important (he is no longer employed by me) . This should be reserved for Family or close friends or something life threatening. Also Fashion Bug?? they probably have the clothes made in China for .50 cents and charge 35.00 dollars.

[rockyroad]

and really now...the person calling doesn't own the company! Sure, they may get a bonus check for collecting, but they have absolutely no interest in the cheap made in China clothing you purchased. So, sorry, I could never put myself in their shoes.
I would be more likely to pay a courteous, polite collector than someone telling me they deserve my money before I eat or pay the electric bill!
True, they are only doing their job, but at the end of the day, they wouldn't have a job if everyone were paying Fashion Bug!!!!

[Flamingo]

and really now...the person calling doesn't own the company! Sure, they may get a bonus check for collecting, but they have absolutely no interest in the cheap made in China clothing you purchased. So, sorry, I could never put myself in their shoes.
I would be more likely to pay a courteous, polite collector than someone telling me they deserve my money before I eat or pay the electric bill!
True, they are only doing their job, but at the end of the day, they wouldn't have a job if everyone were paying Fashion Bug!!!!

You need to know that I did not go into the "emergency" call thing because the bank who handles Fashion Bug (I think it is World Financial Bank) may not have yet received the filing papers and/or had the attorney's name and informatoin in the paperwork the caller had. I responded to the way the OP described the matter as if the bill was not her responsibility; not in what she purchased or used the card for. Fashion Bug sells clothing, cheap jewelry and accessorites and not life essentials. Apparently the cell phone number was on the caller's records and the OP was contacted via that source. All that the OP needed to do here was hang up when spoken to rudely. She could also have obtained the caller's name/ID number and reported her for her rudeness.

When times are tough we tend not to view things as our fault due to our financial position at that time; we blame the creditors and everything that put us in that situation. It's is everyone else who caused the bills to run up. That is my point; the bill collector stating it was the OP's responsibility is correct but the bill collector should not have been that demeaning to the OP. Common sense would state to just hang up the phone.

[AngelinaCatHub]

Right on, Flamingo. 'Hub

[2Bshinyandnew]

Isn't using an "emergency" call through a cell phone provider's operator harassment? I didn't know you could do that, through a cell phone company, but I'm guessing it is the same thing as when you are on the phone on a landline and the operator cuts in on your "in progress call" and asks you to release the line for an emergency caller??

I reread the OP's first post and I did not see where she was assigning blame of her financial situation to anyone, or trying to avoid her responsibilities. The way I read it was that she had given Fashion Bug her attorney's name, that they used a process to contact someone in an emergency situation to discuss a debt which is an inappropriate tactic, and they used unconscionable tactics to shame her regarding her debt. Even if they had not yet received any formal notice of the OP's retention of an attorney, the methods used (the Emergency Interruption and abusive dialog) went against the FDCPA.

The OP probably should have not allowed the conversation to go into the area it did. Giving the name and # of your attorney, again, should be enough to end the conversation. Take hold of the call, and ask, over and over again if necessary, "would you like my attorney's name and phone # again?"

[WorkingItOut]

Ya know, you have to look at this from the other end which I know is hard to do when times are bad. This person is only doing her job to pay her bills also and bill collectors are just not on the top of our favorites listing! Also, what we all need to do is to put ourselves in the place of being someone owed money and we do not get paid...and all you get instead of payment is an excuse. It would certainly ruffle your feathers also.

This bill collector is not owed a dime. The OP borrowed money from whatever bank Fashion Bug goes through. This bill collector is not personally owed any money. I don't think it's fair to say that this bill collector is the same as if the OP owed you or me money. It's not.

This bill collector had the Operator break through the line to place an "emergency" call and then proceeded to berate the OP and tell her that she needed to pay Fashion Bug before she bought necessities like electricity. That's absurd.

I believe the OP was not saying anything about not facing up to her responsibilities or blaming others for her financial mistakes. You read quite a bit more into her post than I did. She seemed to just be complaining about the aggressive, rude, and probably illegal tactics used by this bill collector. She has every right to make that complaint. I'd make that complaint as well. The OP also stated she already talked to her attorney about it. So I believe this was just a vent on the OP's part.

[Flamingo]

The entire thing with this thread is that what the OP posted is not that unusual and we have all been through it. That is why I stated that we have to look at it from the other perspective and that is that unpaid creditors are going to do their job and come after unpaid debts. In this situation, it appears the OP retained an attorney, provided the name of the attorney to possibly all creditors but does not indicate if she has filed yet. As to Fashion Bug, Fashion Bug is a chain of womens' clothing and accessories stores and their credit cards are handled by I believe World Financial Bank. If WFFNB did not yet receive the name or contact info for the OP's attorney, calls will still continue. The OP should have immediately again provided the information and hung up at the first sign of abuse by the caller. Bill collections use all sorts of tactics to contact a debtor. The OP should also put a block on her cell to keep out unknown callers - it's easily done. It's obvious her cell phone number is on record with at least one creditor.

The OP stated..."I never realized that I was also supposed to sit in burlap sacks too." That is a direct correlation to buying clothing at Fashion Bug. I tend to read between the lines of postings and think outside the box. With a statement like that and what she posted about the conversation, the OP is trying to defend her spending and unpaid bill. It's something we all do/did at a specific time in our filing. However, the OP did not deserve that sort of abusive talk from the caller and should have just hung up since she already retained her attorney. However, most bill collectors are not like that and ones that I spoke with prior to or at the time of filing were caring and considerate and expressed shock that we were going to file since we were long term customers and credit holders of theirs.

[2Bshinyandnew]

I took the OP's reference of a "burlap sack" to imply that Fashion Bug thought that she should not pay her electric, but rather cover up with burlap to stay warm. I did not make any direct correlation to buying clothes at Fashion Bug, although now that it was pointed out, I guess I could see that interpretation.

One person's toe-may-toe is another person's Toe-Mah-toe.

Edit to add:

So far, my debt collector experiences have not been even close to caring or considerate. Flamingo, if you have not experienced the tactics some of these collection agencies and in-house collection departments you are lucky. No one wants to be "here" contemplating or filing Bankruptcy.

[Flamingo]

I took the OP's reference of a "burlap sack" to imply that Fashion Bug thought that she should not pay her electric, but rather cover up with burlap to stay warm. I did not make any direct correlation to buying clothes at Fashion Bug, although now that it was pointed out, I guess I could see that interpretation.

One person's toe-may-toe is another person's Toe-Mah-toe.

Edit to add:

So far, my debt collector experiences have not been even close to caring or considerate. Flamingo, if you have not experienced the tactics some of these collection agencies and in-house collection departments you are lucky. No one wants to be "here" contemplating or filing Bankruptcy.

I am well aware of the tactics of bill collectors but since we only dealt with a few months of calls from creditors as we stopped making payments about two months prior to filing, we had a few who thought they were slick but we just did not answer the phone after a while (caller ID is a godsend). The majority of bill collectors know that using honey instead of vinegar catches more flies. However, the tactic the poor OP went through was horrible and probably due to this economy, bill collectors are overwhelmed and dealing with many late accounts and are instructed by under pressure bosses to resort to whatever is necessary to get payment. The experience of dealing with the creditor calls prior to filing can be a nightmare and one that no one is ready for - however, everyone needs to know that if you answer a collection call and if the collector is abusive or rude, you have every right to hang up the phone. Don't chit chat with them and defend your situation; all you are doing is giving them more fuel for the fire. Remember, all they are are people with a job getting paid a wage to call people with late payments and there can be perks and bonuses involved for them if they can get the debtor to pay in full or make a payment.