[quirkee1]

Hello again,

I am writing again because I am hoping to get some help on a summons I received in the mail on Saturday, February 3, 2007 regarding collection of debt.

I reside in New York City, the debt collector is Midland Funding LLC. I planned on appearing in court to resolve the summons issue and I also received a call from them on my answering machine on Friday, February 2, 2007.

I called them Monday, February 5, 2007 to follow up and asked why I could still access there credit card company's payment cite if they are the owners of the debt. I was told that I had to settle the debt with Midland Funding. What I find odd is that I was told that the debt was sold to them in December 2006 but I had made three payments to the credit card company: two in December and on in January 2007 with another payment scheduled for February 2007.

The representatives offered to settle the debt provided I give them my paystubs, which I refused to do. They also told me that I do not have to appear in court since I am speaking to them on the phone and attempting to settle the debt. I initially held off because the amount they were asking was not the amount I owed since I had made payments after they received the debt. I asked them to put all this in writing and they attempted to goad me into thinking they had all the information they needed to pursue litigation.

I have faxed them statements from my bank citing payments, the page from the credit card website showing my current balance and also the stop payment from my bank showing that I canceled the next payment I scheduled. They cannot cite that I am not resolving to pay this debt as I was doing so before they contacted me.

I have written a letter which I intend to fax citing all of the above and copying the NY Attorney General's office (as the credit card company has been ordered to pay NY Consumers for deceptive practices) and also the NY Consumer Affairs office. After reading some posts, I've also included that I would like to see proof of my original contract, interest and purchases and also that they are authorized to collect this debt.

Please help. I do plan on showing up in court in the next two weeks with all the documentation and fax confirmations, etc. but I wanted to make sure I am making the right steps.

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.


~ Elizabeth

[bretb]

LOL... those crazy idiots. If the summons is to court, I'd be there. Never trust anything the scavengers tell you.

Contact the original creditor, ask if there is ANY WAY possible to repay your debt to them directly. If they have already sold the debt, then the scavenger is the new holder of the debt and you have the great mis-pleasure of deal with them, however, show up to court, but (unless NY is terribly different than OH), you'll likely not have to "prove" any payments or anything.

If you're being summoned to court, LET the plaintiff do their job of PROVING you owe them anything. If you feel better bring a bunch of paperwork, then fine, but leave it in the car. Just don't do the dumb thing of sending a bunch of paperwork to the scavengers to help them prove their case.

Most of these guys don't have any paperwork anyway and they rely on the ignorance of debtors to volunteer information and documentation to them. Avoid saying anything that directly connects you to the debt and by no means send them any documents... If they claim you owe them money, let THEM prove that by sending YOU documentation.

However, at this point, IF the debt was charged off and sold as recently as Dec. 2006, a lot of creditors (in their contracts with the scavengers) have a clause that will allow them to accept payment from you if you contact them within a certain amount of time. It sounds like yours is likely such a case and I'd call the original creditor, tell them you'd like to pay the debt to them and prefer not to deal with collectors. If they are "allowed" to accept payment, they will... trust me.

They sell unpaid debts to the scavengers for LITERALLY pennies on the dollar. If they sold your debt to the scavengers and you owed, say... $5,000... then the scavengers likely paid less than $300 for ownership of your debt. Of course they write off the loss and it's deducted from their taxes (the IRS allows this - one of the benefits of being a business and not an individual).

You and me, if we want to sell an hour of our time for $20... It's called $20 profit. Because the IRS tells you and me, our time ain't worth , then we just paid $20 profit and the WHOLE $20 is taxed. :( I don't know about you, but I sell my time for $42 an hour (that's what it's worth to me), but I still have to play this game with the IRS where they consider the time worth NOTHING and I just paid $42 profit for every hour I worked. Stupid liberal government. Go figure (sorry, different topic)...

Anyway, GET to court on the date... that's the most important thing you can do. You may even thrown in a feisty comment to them next time you talk to them like, "you're not going to get a default judgement against me... I ain't THAT easy." It's not very mature, but it's fun and they'll know you're not one of these stupid people that gets sued and ignores it, acting like nothing is happening.

Good luck. All in all, I'd just "let THEM PROVE you owe anything", while working with the original creditor to see if you can by any means pay the debt to them directly (cut out the scavenger if you can).

OH... also, try to work out a deal if you pay the debt, they clear your credit. If they say no, say, well, I guess if it's going to make my credit look bad I might as well save my money (and not pay). They'll clear your credit if you demand it. Happened with me twice. Remember this is a bit of a negotiation at this point. :)