Hello,

I still have access to make payments to the credit card company who has retained some collection agency/law firm to collect the debt.

I am confused as to why this is the case. If I can still make payments through the card company's website, should I even deal with the collection agency?

Should I get proof of my recent payments to the credit card company and bring them to court and take my chances that way?

The collection agency is asking me for my paystubs and I am not comfortable giving them my personal information. Is this legal?

Thank you.

Hello quirk:

You're being sued, I take it. The judge doesn't care that you made recent payments. All he cares about is if you are in violation of your agreement with the bank. If you are, they'll win a judgment. If you aren't, they won't. If they get a judgment, they'll garnish your wages and attach your bank accounts.

Instead of making payments to the credit card company, you need to deal with the people who are suing you. They want cash. DON'T give them personal information, and if you don't have cash, don't even talk to them.

excon

I can honestly pay off this debt in five months time but I do not want them to have my personal information, nor do I want to go to Court.

This collection agency is demanding my paystubs before making payment arrangements. Also, I have no breach of contract with the collection agency, only with my credit card company after they refused to negotiate with me over the interest rate.

If I go before a judge, will he demand my paystubs as well to determine my payment options? I'm curious how a payment plan is determined? The collection agency said I will not have to appear in court for the summons if a payment plan is worked out but I'm guessing I should get this in writing.

Not sure how much 'leverage' I have if they are pressuring me for my personal information.

I'm not sure what advice to give you on giving personal info to "strangers", but there's NO WAY in hell I would do it. I'd always try to contact the original creditor first and see if you can make payments to them directly. If (like me) you cannot (they've already sold the debt and are beyond the point that it can be settled with them directly), then you're honestly best just keeping your money. I suggest put it in a retirement fund and get it growing. (one of the best decisions I ever made)

When the scavenger calls you about paying the debt you can do the whole 'debt validation' thing but it doesn't quite work like you read on the internet. Unfortunately, congress passes these stupid laws with so many loops holes and it's just smoke and mirrors to make the consumer thing they care.

What I'm doing is riding out the time for the SOL (statute of limitation) in my state to run out and hopefully the credit report will be cleaned up sooner than that.

Paying the scavenger is just fueling the fire against others like you and throwing away your money... unless you work out some kind of deal with them to clean their crap off your credit report.

If there's not enough in it FOR YOU, I'd just ignore their letters and calls. (now, obviously, if court documents arrive that's another story)

The scavengers buy bad debts for literally pennies on the dollar and then try to collect.

If you owe $10,000 on a credit card that you decide not to pay, the original creditor writes off most of that to the IRS. They sell a debt like that (usually at an auction or in bulk to the scavengers for very little) say, usually a $10,000 debt might sell for $500 or so. If they can settle the $10,000 with you (if you're naïve enough) for $4,000, they made a $3,500 profit. Wow! Killer, dude.

So, my point...

They want something for nothing, but don't give it to them.

I'm working on settling a debt that was $9,500 with original creditor, but scavenger is telling me that I owe them $30,221 now. I always laugh and say, "how did you get that number?", "you're dreaming BIG, aren't you", "good luck, my friend!"

I'd like to work out a settlement to pay them around $700 (less than 10% of the original debt balance), but will absolutely require that they remove any reference to the account from my credit reports (of course I'll get this in writing and pay an attorney $120 an hour to look at it and make sure I can sue their butts off if they do not comply after payment).

However, $30,000 from a $9,500 balance... I mean... come on! You know they're smoking something good over there with dreams like that. :) he he

Funny thing is, I offered the original creditor to pay the balance under the original terms of the credit card, but they refused, insisting that I pay under their new 15% APR instead of our agreed 9.99% fixed rate.

LOL, Sooo, they got to sell a $9,500 debt to scavengers for probably no more than $600 or so. Fleet bank is run by complete IDIOTS if you ask me. I had every intention of paying back my $9,500 balance under the "agreed" terms. I just couldn't do it under their forced new terms. Never having made a late payment or anything, having flawless credit, I chose to let them mark my credit than to be terrorized into dishonest APR terms. It cost me my perfect credit rating and cost them $9,500.

Not too bright most of these morons.