I've read some of these complaints and although I sympathize with most of them, I do hold myself responsible somewhat for bringing Cambece into my life. I have been trying to clean up my credit for years and I finally thought it was done but Cambece decided to report to all THREE of my credit agencies that my "settlement in full" was a "charge-off." I had done all the research, asked all the questions and was satisfied that this was my debt and it was for the amount stated by Cambece.
MBNA was the original lender of the debt, Cambece works for MBNA. Since Cambece held my debt, MBNA wouldn't talk to me. I had sent certified letters to Cambece under the provisions of the "Fair Credit Act", asking for clarification of my debt. Cambece had 30 days to respond, they signed for my letter and NEVER responded to me. I sent another one, same result. Finally, after about two months, I get 3 letters over the course of 3 weeks from Cambece. One letter says that they were down to my last check payment with their office and if I don't send more, they're going to take further action against me. Huh??? I've never even spoken to these people. This letter had a balance on it of say 6 grand. The following letter I received said something about a payment plan that I was on. Again... Huh??? Oh and the balance on this letter was 1,000 bucks less than the previous letter. The third letter, dated 3 weeks after the other two, had my balance higher then the first.
The law states very clearly that once I start paying a collection bill, all interest charges are to stop. I had been paying Cambece $500 a month since November. I started receiving these letters in May. I had already paid Cambece almost 4000 at this point. Now they're sending me letters, reporting erroneous information to my credit bureaus, and continuing to tack on interest charges. On top of all this, they refuse to respond to my certified letters and requests for debt clarification.
I finally called and after being passed around from person to person, I got someone on the line. I have to admit, the guy I spoke with, I'll call him Mike, was pretty good. No pressure, no threats, no crap. I told Mike I wanted to clear this up, what's it going to take to satisfy Cambece. I was very careful NOT to use the words "charge-off". I explained to him that I had already paid Cambece in excess of $3800 through a debt consolidation program. I was put on hold, he came back and said pay the principle plus a couple hundred more, $2500 would be required. I say fine, but then I spent the next 3 days demanding that I receive a letter from Cambece stating that this would not be reported as a "charge-off".
Then they supposedly put on a manager and proceeded to perform this "good cop bad cop" routine on me. Then I wouldn't budge, they explained to me that this was a lawyers office, how could I not trust them etc. I couldn't believe my ears. I was told by this person that they don't HAVE to make any deals with me. That they're doing me a favor by talking to me. Just real belligerant crap. They demanded the $2500 be western union'd to them otherwise the deal won't be there tomorrow. They even went so far as to give me the address of a Western Union office in Manhattan that was close to my house. I wound up hanging up on this guy, no deal.
I got a call the following week from Mike who said he wasn't aware what happened but he was still interested in making the deal. I said ok, he sent me the letter, my lawyers looked it over and said it was ok. No mention of "charge-off." Cambece said on clearance of the 2500, we will consider this account settled in full and will update the credit agencies accordingly. This was in January of this year. I pulled my credit reports last week and to my surprise all three had it down as a "charge-off". I called Mike back, spoke with him. He said it hasn't been updated yet. Is this guy for real. I explained to him that if it was supposed to be reported as a settlement in full (SIF) as he stated, then there would be no need to update anything. He couldn't grasp this concept.
So even after I made good on this debt, paid Cambece what they claim I owed them, they STILL screwed me and my credit but reporting a charge-off.in case anyone doesn't know, a charge-off might as well be a bankruptcy. It stays for 7 years and tells anyone who looks at it that you're a bad credit risk. Needless to say, Mike has said he would call me back but I haven't heard anything as of yet. At this point though, I'm not sure what I can do next. Nobody cares about this stuff from what I read. It's sad really.
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