Please someone or anyone kindly help me.
I reside in the state of Maryland
I have an incorporated company of which I am the CEO of and a credit card was issued to the company on behalf of my name. (This makes me a guarantor I believe) The card has about $8k on it and I have not make any payment going to year now. The banks has called and sent several letters but all of which I ignored and now they have sold the debt to some kind of law firm. The law firm is now calling me but I am yet to talk them, they left me two messages now.
Finally I got the courage to call the law firm back few hours ago and I demand a validation of the loan, but the lawyer (He claimed he is a lawyer) I spoke to tried to get me to make either payment plan or settlement right on the phone but I insist in getting a letter of validation from their law firm to confirm the debt and to make sure the numbers does match and most importantly that they have the right to collect the debts on behalf of bank of America. The lawyer told me that this is a law firm and not a debt collector and if I do not agree to settlement or payment plan over the phone they will have no choice but to go ahead with the law suit.
I told him, I will have to call him back and he said if I do not call back before their closing hours today (5-7-09), they will proceed with the law suit.
First of all, I am not denying this debt however I do not have money to pay it all back so I know my best bet is settlement with a good payment plan, but I would love to get the best settlement and payment plan there possible.
I just wanted to make sure that I get the best possible deal i can get in term of the settlement because I do not the full money. I have called BOA today (5-8-09) and they did confirmed that the debt has been sold to Frederick J. Hanna & Associates, PC. 2008 1427 Roswell Road, Marietta GA 30062 (770) 988-9055 | (770) 980-0528 (800) 555-1212
So I called the office back today and the person in charge of my debt told me that since I did not call him back yesterday that I have lost my right to barging and the the debt has been processed to go into lawsuit on Monday. I told him that I had a talked with my uncle who had agreed to give me a grand for the settlement for next week Friday.
He said well the only deal he can offer me now is for me to pay 3k and some change but I must commit to some kind of payment now and if not the lawsuit will continue as planned. He said I must write a post dated check for Friday and agree to $250 per month for the remaining balance but I insist that I cannot come up with $250/month and he said what about $200, I said no and he said $175 and I still say no and he said well he cannot go lower than that and is my choice because they are going along with the lawsuit and they will sue me for the full amount including the lawyer and court fees.
I told him that even with that I still cannot come up with $175/month and so finally he asked me how much can I afford and I said $50/month and he said ok, so I ask him if he can put that in writing so I can have a written evidence and he said no and we were going back and forth for a while and he asked if I would like to speak to his supervisor and I said yes. So the supervisor came up on the phone and said she will settle for $2k if I paid $1k by Friday and the $500 the following month and then the remaining $500 the next following month and I agreed but I still insist that I want it in writing so I told them that I will call then back to give them a fax number to fax the letter.
When I read some posts here I started to wonder if these people are real, Would a real legitimate lawyer be asking for payment or settlement over the phone that they are probably acting as a collecting agent.
Now I know for a fact the debt has given to this company by BOA but I am not sure if they are really a law firm or a collector or collector law firm, and here are my concerns and questions:
Am I getting the best possible deal or should I press further? Must I continue to ask them to at least have our agreement in writing because I do not completely trust the company, and if I send them a registered mail asking for validity of the debt would they still be willing to make deal with me or would this piss them off and go all out for all the money? Most importantly, how do I get these people off my back and without paying them a dime and no judgment against me?
Please advise accordingly.
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