I recently received a letter from a company I had never heard of. When I opened the letter, the information in the letter was so foreign to me, I had no clue who or what they were talking about. I became concerned because the letter stated I owed $11,398.24 and that they (ARA) were the legal owner of my Arcadia account. I didn't have a clue who ARA or Arcadia is and the letter was sounding very threatening.
When I called and inquired who they were and the fact that I had received a letter, I was put on hold (3) times before someone spoke with me. Ms. Burkhert, stated that it was for an automobile which had been reposessed in April 1998. She stated that they were going to waive the $5,433.00 in interest in November of however since I didn't respond, they were demanding the full $11,398.24 immediately or else I would be taken to court. I explained that I couldn't pay that cost at this time and then she put me on hold and present three options to me, all due immediately. First, they had been sending letters to an address that I hadn't lived at in a year, second, their letter looked as if it were from a non-profit organization, third they were making threats and I was told that the lawyers weren't sympathetic to individual "hard luck" stories.
The three options presented were: (1) Hardship settlement, payment of $1,145.54 by April 2nd., (2) Settlement; by monthly payments of $125.00 monthly, totaling $6,000.00 of the original debt, (3) monthly payments of $100.00, totaling $11,398.24. I informed them that I would get back to them, not commiting to anything. I also went to the internet and found out that this company also known as Asset Recovery Associates and Financial Credit Services has been investigated by the State Attorney in Illinois for it's questionalbe business practices.
I will be retaining counsel this afternoon, once I find out what all the costs are that has been stated by ARA. I do not believe that this is a valid attempt to recover assets from my previous business transaction. Why waot eleven years to collect and why no contact during that time until now? Whatever assistance complaint can give will be appreciated and welcomed.
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