I have a question for everyone... Yesterday we received a letter from NCO financial about garnishing my husbands wages. They old debt is for AAFES. He has no prior knowledge of this bill... nor has he been sent a statement or bill or even a phone call in 9 years! It has been over 10 years since he was medically discharged from the USMC. He has been here with me in Texas for the past nine years, and we haven't heard anything about this debt until last month with a collection letter from NCO. You would think that in nine years they would have tried to make contact with us and make some sort of payment agreement! My husband did contact them and ask for a copy of the original debt and they said that they will send it (yea right) The amount they say he owes is $9,000.00... that is outragious!! They also told him that the wage garnishment was going though no matter what, even though the letter says that we have until the 29th of August to pay or make payment agreement! This all seem very strange to me that after all this time they finally decide that they want money? My question is is this legal? And is there anyway that we can stop the wage garnishment? To my understanding they will not settle for anything less than $530.00 a month, because that is what they will get if they garnish wages!


Thanks guys!

No this is not legal. Before they can garnish his wages they have to obtain a judgement against him. Before they can do that, there has to be a hearing. It is possible they got a default judgement previously, but if you had no knowledge of it, you can get it vacated.

So the first thing you need to to do is contact and ask if a judgement was obtained. If they say yes, ask for the court, date and docket number of that judgement. If they refuse then they are probably bluffing.

If no judgement was obtained, its possible the debt has exceeded the statue of Limitations and they can no longer go to court against him. So they are just making empty threats. And they can be reported to the Feds for violating the rules.

Once you have determined this, and you get verification of the debt, you can decide what to offer in settlement.

Do they have to get a judgement even if it is an AAFES acct. "fedral agency"? Just curious! It says on the letter that AAFES is empowered by Fedral Law to issue a wage garnishment order.

That's a good question. I'm not sure of the answer. I checked them out and they seem to be a quasi govt agency. I would check with your local Veteran's office and ask them.

I would pull all 3 credit reports from www.annualcreditreport.com an dsee what is/isn't reporting there. It should be too old to report, but that doesn't mean they haven't "re-aged" the account.

Texas has great consumer protection law. I would suggest sending them a Debt Validation request, in which they must show you proof of judgment or debt. A computer printout from their office is not good enough to meet the requirements of FDCPA, it must be from the Original Creditor.

I am not 100% sure about the wage garnishment without a judgment due to it being a Federal debt, but I will check and get back to you.

Well, I pulled all three credit reports and it shows that the account was paid as agreed, with a $0 balance, closed by consumer. Nothing else is said about it except it is a satisfactory account.

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Originally Posted by loulou8

Well, I pulled all three credit reports and it shows that the account was paid as agreed, with a $0 balance, closed by consumer. Nothing else is said about it except it is a satisfactory account.

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Then I would contact AAFES for confirmation of that. If NCO contacts you again, then tell them that AAFES confirms the account is paid. And that if they bother you again you will report them to the FTC. If they interfere with your financial accounts, then you will sue.

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Originally Posted by loulou8

Well, I pulled all three credit reports and it shows that the account was paid as agreed, with a $0 balance, closed by consumer. Nothing else is said about it except it is a satisfactory account.

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When a original creditor sells an account, they will report a $0 balance. However, in my experience from helping others, the government never sells accounts. They only assign them to outside collection agencies.

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Originally Posted by ScottGem

then I would contact AAFES for confirmation of that. If NCO contacts you again, then tell them that AAFES confirms the account is paid. And that if they bother you again you will report them to the FTC. If they interfere with your financial accounts, then you will sue.

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It says I must spread the reputation around.

But, I agree with Scott. I would contact AAFES and ask about the account.

If it turns out that this account is paid and no balance owed to AAFES, you can sue NCO for FDCPA violations.

OK... we contacted AAFES and told them about the credit reports, they want us to fax a copy of it to them?? Also they said that they have no info about the account because it has been turned over to NCO. I did contact an attorney which said that it has been way to long for them to try and collect, but wasn't sure if it changed anything with it being federal.
We also found out that there has been no judgement for the wage garnishment, according to NCO this will come a little later, he said that they are just giving us a chance to pay it (how nice of them, after 10 years!! ) Which is totally different than what the guy told us the other day, he stated that this (wage garnishment) is going to happen on 8/29 no matter what... BTW, we are still waiting for the copy of the records! So now I am trying to fine an attorney that will know about this from the federal side.

I would send them a copy, of the reports and ask why, if the account was listed as paid, would they turn it over to NCO? But if they have a record of it being turned over, then it would appear the credit reports are in error.

Most collectors lie. So anything they say you need to take with several grains of salt. I really doubt if they can obtain a garnishment without a judgement.

I feel for you. My husband was in the Army 95-98.
I believe that they are just randomly checking old files. We have the same problem with an account that was paid in full. I have been running our credit reports to make sure nothing horrible is on there before we buy a house. This item did not show up but about a month ago I got a letter in the mail saying that he had to pay $3300.00 for purchases. When I called the woman at NCO she didn't want to tell me anything, saying that it was his account. I told her that if she couldn't tell me what it was about seeing that we had been married for the past 10 years that she wouldn't get any money because I pay the bills. She didn't like that very well. She said that the original bill was only $450. The other charges are attorney fees and such. I'm still waiting to hear back from them because she expected me to pay a certain amount that day and then the rest the following week. These people are crazy. But I did get the place where the items were bought and what it was etc. File numbers and all so I wish you luck in your quest to find out what's going on. If you can find out how much the original balance actually was, they may take a settlement for the original balance.

Here's my recommendation. Go back to the original creditor. Don't ask the collection agency - just go back to AAFES and find out if the debt is valid. If it's a valid debt - see if you can convince them to pull the debt from the collection agency.

If they won't - and the collection agency won't budge - then evaluate your personal situation and find out if you can either pay the debt off by refinancing your home, borrowing the money, etc. If it's just not an option - and puts an undue hardship on your family - consider a personal bankruptcy. Contrary to popular belief - it's still quite simple to file a bankruptcy - the over simplified "test" being - do your liabilities outweigh your assets? Again - that's an over simplified version, but there are any number of calculators online that will give you a more detailed answer.