Back in 04 my husband & I took out a loan. This was the second loan with the company, we paid the first one off early.
A few months into we had multiple tradegies and more problems than most people have in a life time.
We stopped paying on some bills at the time. A lot of things changed, and we forgot about the debt. Of course our credit suffered and we were not in any position to work on it.
Well 3/08 we get a call from Access Capital who was collecting for Stars and stripes. The guy was ok, and very understanding at this stage. I explained I just got out of the hospital for emergancy surgery and we could not afford to pay the debt off. I did offer to begin payments of $100/month. He said ok and he would send a letter.
Everyday following that call we got a phone call. I explained no letter, no information yet. About 2-almsot 3 weeks later a letter came in. It had our name on it and then it had the name of someone else and their balance, not the balance the guy told me on the phone. The letter came on a Friday, and on Monday we had a tornado, literally. On Tuesday they called and my husband explained about the letter and if they would give us the correct information we could send in the money. We could even collect the information by phone.
The guy told us the balance and said to mail payments to the Po box. The very next day 04/02/08 they called and said they wanted $817 by Friday or else. Then they said we would have to pay off the rest. Well, my credit file shows I only owe $817. I realize there is fees and collecting charges and things, but they have doubled it now up to $1700. My credit file was just updated by the original person still showing the $817.
My husband said we can't afford that today but like he said on Thursday he would mail the first payment. The man said no and got very nasty with my husband and said $817 or we would be sued. My husband said well our hands are tied then.
I called back to try to figure out why it all changed. The man was rude, said we had all these things and personal belongings that we DID NOT have. I kept saying no your mistaken, that is my moms house and we live there renting it etc etc. I kept explaining he can think what he wants but this is what we can do.
He then says he is going to send someone over to take our kids beds out from under then take our property and auction it off to pay the debt on FRIDAY. He said legal is taking it on Friday and from there not only will we lose our bank account, but we will lose our property. I said I would get a lawyer and file bankruptcy then if he wouldn't work with me and keep the inital agreement.
He then threw a bunch more stuff at me threatening me and so on. I hung up. Our phone rang 12 more times in the next 10 minutes where they had blocked their number.
They called back and said we have these credit cards and they did their homework and they were going to charge the cards. My husband explained my mom put me only on them to help establish my credit and that I do not have access to them and they better not charge them. Then they said they were going after my mother! I called my mom and now she is a total mess. She is from the olden days. She called Amex & Chase to alert them the charges are not authorized. She then took me off the cards, just in case.
We then looked up collection laws and if I am understanding it correctly they violated many of the laws by threatening to take property without properly following legal guidelines, Provided us with only a long distance phone number to contact them which costs us more money to call them, they blocked their number on our caller id, and they did not identify themselves when called us.
I filed with the FTC, BBB, now here and thinking of doing through the attorney general of Texas.
More people would pay if these collectors had a nicer attitude on collection. Everyone can find themselves in a situtation, that doesn't mean bash them and threaten them. It wasn't like we didn't pay anything because we paid them off once, paid several months on this account, then tried again when we could afford just a little bit a month on the debt. Anything is better than nothing, I would have thought
Ripped off and not taking it!
Blum, Texas
U.S.A.
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