Following my divorce, relocation to a new state, and subsequent six-month long search for employment, my Providian Visa was turned over for collections. I don't remember the first collection company, but suffice it to say they were not willing to work with me during my financial difficulties and the account was acquired by National Action Financial Services aka NAFS.
Once I finally secured employment, NAFS agreed to accept payments I could afford provided that I allowed them to debit my checking account on a scheduled basis. They even sent me correspondence indicating they would "freeze" the account so no new charges (late fees, over limit fees, & almost 30% APR interest fees) would be added!
Over the course of several months, NAFS made regular debits to my account and my Providian balance was cut by nearly two thirds. Then suddenly the regular debits stopped. I contacted NAFS and was told that the creditor (Providian) had transferred the account to another collection service. When contacted, Providian could provide no information on this "transfer", and no other company contacted me regarding this debt for over a year.
When the new company contacted me they stated they had NO proof of ANY payments made to NAFS, and they also informed me that the balance had increased by several thousand dollars due to additional fees. I went ballistic! I told them I was not going to pay any more than the NAFS balance.
Subsequent contact to NAFS required me tracking them down via every known search engine since they were no longer at the prior points of contact, and when I requested proof of payments they were unable to retrieve any information on my account—it was as if I never existed!
I don't know where my money went once NAFS debited my account, but fortunately I kept good records and after many, many months of trying, I was able to use to negotiate a settlement offer with the new company for approximately the remaining NAFS balance.
Can anyone tell me HOW these companies get away with doing this? How can a creditor sell the same account over and over? How can the collection company take your money and not apply it to the debt in question? There must be SOME kind of laws against this!
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