**Disclaimer – Debtprison.net does not administer legal or financial advice. The contents of this website are my opinions on collection agencies and how to deal with them. Nothing on this website should be interpreted as legal advice or council. No opinions on this website should be used to replace the advice of your financial advisor or your legal council.

Dear Debt Prison,

On May 5th, 2009 I was summoned to appear in my County Court as I was being sued by a collection company by the name of **Debt Collector. As sat and waited my turn to be called, there were several people who found themselves in the same boat as I was. Each of them agreed that they owed money and made some sort of payment arrangement.

When I was called the Judge asked me how I felt about owing this money to this company. I stated that I never heard of **Debt Collector until I received the summons and as far as I knew I had no contract with this company stating that I did owe them anything. The Judge looked at the paperwork and said, he didn’t see any contract and that I might have a point. He since dismissed the case, but gave **Debt Collector 20 days to come up with a signed contract between myself and this collection company.

Also, on April 10, 2009 I sent the attached file (letter private via author), through snail-mail, to **Debt Collector, the Clerk of Courts and the Federal Trade Commission. I know they all received my mail, as I required signature confirmation.

What I need to ask you is, is there a possibility that **Debt Collector would continue with this case in the 20 days allowed, in other words, could they possibly proceed unless they could produce a signed contract (not a copy), with my original signature and a signature from the company?

Please, if you have the time to reply I would certainly appreciate it. Thank You.

Sincerely,

For the debt collector to continue with the suit, a signed contract must be produced, indicating that the defendant ever entered into any legally binding agreement with their client. Failure to produce the signed contract should prevent the case from moving forward. This debtor handled this properly.

When you are sued by anyone… defend yourself!

**Disclaimer – Debtprison.net does not administer legal or financial advice. The contents of this website are my opinions on collection agencies and how to deal with them. Nothing on this website should be interpreted as legal advice or council. No opinions on this website should be used to replace the advice of your financial advisor or your legal council.

• Here are the facts on the recent case.

He owed $5,000 to creditor on a high interest credit card.

He stopped paying the debt one year ago.

Received a collection letter from collection lawyer (debt ballooned to $6,000) in another state not licensed in Mississippi. I advised to ignore the letter since the collector couldn’t sue in MS court.

Debt was transferred to another collection agency in TN which has a lawyer on staff in MS. They mailed out a collection letter to my friend two months ago describing the debt in the amount of $6,200.

My friend ignored the letter and did not request validation of the debt.

Summons came yesterday for civil suit for debt.

It doesn’t always happen this way. And in the case of my friend he is an unlikely candidate for civil suit. He has no assets, is a student in college, and has a part time job. Even though it will take the creditor probably years to retrieve their money with a judgment, they still pursued the civil suit/judgment.

My other friend was sued under the same circumstances. He was a full-time student and had a part time job with no assets. However, some people go years without being sued.

So what makes a person more likely to be sued than another?

There really are no certain criteria for determining when and if a collection agency will sue you.

For some hints check out the following articles I’ve written on the subject:

How to avoid a lawsuit from a collection agency

The more money you owe the more likely you’ll be sued within 18 months or less.

If you move to another state and fail to update your information (by not registering to vote, getting a new Drivers License, or applying for new credit) you can make it difficult for the collection agency to locate you. If they can’t locate you before the Statute of Limitations has passed you should be in the clear.

If you have assets like a car or home and a decent job then you are a good candidate for a lawsuit. However, the lack of all of these items doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t sue. And the more debt you owe the more likely they’ll sue.

Don’t forget to mail out a Debt Validation Letter in response to each collection letter you receive.

I’m advising my friend to get a lawyer to represent him. This can prevent him from being abused by the collection agency by paying a bunch of phony charges. Often, without any assistance, you can end up paying much more than what you should.

** Remember, the best way to solve these problems is to pay the debt and get it out of your life.

Discuss this article and meet new people at Debt Prison Forums.

Related Articles

* What is a Junk Debt Buyer?

* Restrictions on Wage Garnishment for Debt Collection.

* The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

* Reasons not to file Bankruptcy or Settle Your Debts

* Can you go to jail for not paying your debts?

* How to settle your debts on your own

* How to deal with collection agencies

* Sample Debt Validation Letter

How do you stop a bill collector from calling you constantly… especially if the person they want to talk to doesn’t even live there? Such is the case with FSK over at FSK’s Guide to Reality. It seems the collection agency wants to get in touch with FSK’s sister, and she doesn’t live with FSK. Despite telling them repeatedly that she doesn’t live there, they continue the constant bombardment of phone calls. The interesting thing about this situation is that the collection agency is not calling a number where they can reach the debtor. There are ways to stop the phone calls – but you have to get serious with them. You should be able to stop the phone calls without getting a lawyer involved.

To file a complaint with FTC regarding a collection agency click here or call toll free at 1-877-FTC-HELP.

A bill collector has to stop calling your place of employment if you request them to – this request should be done verbally and in writing. Why are they calling despite the verbal request to stop? This is harassment and harassment is what pays their bills! They’re hoping FSK (or anybody) will pay this debt to end the phone calls.

I have an amusing anecdote about a debt collector.  My sister gave my parent’s phone number on a credit application, or they somehow got it.  According to my sister, she legitimately canceled a service but they kept billing her anyway.  Now, a collection agency owns the debt.  They’re using a dirty tactic you haven’t mentioned on your website.

The debt collector calls *ALL THE TIME*.  I told them “She doesn’t live here anymore.  Please stop calling this number.”  Whenever I say “Please stop calling”, they immediately disconnect the phone call, pretending they didn’t hear.  The debt appears to keep getting passed to different collection agencies, or the agency keeps trying different tactics.

If I tell Agency A “Please stop calling”, and the debt is sold to Agency B, then does my “Please stop calling” request still count?

I’m pretty sure this falls under “abusive debt collection practices”.  However, it isn’t practical to sue.  The person they’re calling *DOES NOT LIVE HERE*, and they hang up the phone whenever I say “She doesn’t live here” or “Please stop calling”.  By dropping the call and pretending to not hear, they’re probably technically not violating the law.  They have plausible deniability “I never heard FSK say ‘Please stop calling!’”

Well let’s see what we can come up with for this nasty, nasty problem. First of all, every time the debt moves to another collection agency you have to start all over again with any requests… just as though they are the first collector to get their hands on your debt. This means writing ‘cease and desist’ letters and recording/documenting their calls (if you want to sue them).

There are a couple of options here that will work for FSK and these pesky collectors. The first is to identify who the collector is. One way to do that is to ask them. Now there’s only certain information that they’ll give to someone, over the phone, whom is not the debtor. However, according to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act the collector is required, if you ask them, to identify their employer.

(1) identify himself, state that he is confirming or correcting location information concerning the consumer, and, only if expressly requested, identify his employer;

Cease and Desist Letter

You can also request their address, but there is nothing in the FDCPA that requires them to provide you with the address. You could ask them what state they are calling from and then look the address up. You want their address so you can write them a ‘limited cease and desist’ letter. The letter should be sent registered U.S. mail with return receipt. This way you have proof that they received the letter.

I would like to request, in writing, that no telephone contact be made by your offices to my home or to my place of employment. If your offices attempt telephone communication with me, including but not limited to computer generated calls and calls or correspondence sent to or with any third parties, it will be documented and considered harassment. All future communications with me must be done in writing and sent to the address noted in this letter by USPS.

Now bear in mind that this letter would only by legal if it is signed by the debtor. This letter should slow the phone calls down or eliminate them. Another way to get their address would be for FSK to ask his sister to get a free copy of her credit report at http://annualcreditreport.com. The collection agency’s name and address may be visible on the credit report.

Documenting the Calls

If they continue to call you can document the calls using a program like “phone tray” which works by plugging your phone line into the back of a pc. Phone Tray then works like a caller i.d., documenting all calls and call times in a format that can be printed off. Now you can document all of their calls on paper. Also, you can purchase a phone recorder like this one. It’s around $45.00 and has a variety of uses besides recording bill collectors. Some states require you to inform the other party that the call is being recorded. Twelve states require, under most circumstances, the consent of all parties to a conversation. Those jurisdictions are California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington.

You can answer the calls and tell them to stop calling and record the conversations. At this point you should have documented the calls on paper and possibly have phone recordings which clearly demonstrate these facts.

At this point, after ten or so calls, I would make copies of the caller i.d. archive and audio of the phone conversations. Now you need to send these copies to the collection agency using registered mail. You would also attach a letter which explains that the collection agency has continued calling despite requests to stop. You consider this harassment and hope to avoid a legal suit against their office if they will simply stop calling your home.

This should stop the calls and if not you can always opt to have a law office write letters on your behalf.

If the debt gets passed to another collection agency then this process starts all over.

Discuss this article and meet new people at Debt Prison Forums.

Related Articles

* What is a Junk Debt Buyer?

* Restrictions on Wage Garnishment for Debt Collection.

* The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

* Reasons not to file Bankruptcy or Settle Your Debts

* Can you go to jail for not paying your debts?

* How to settle your debts on your own

* How to deal with collection agencies

* Sample Debt Validation Letter