financeguy31

Back in Oct 05 I received a collection notice regarding a 15.00 co pay that was reported as not paid back in 03. This $15 copay grew to $65 upon the initial dunning letter. After a few letters to the OC (a Physician) and a DV that not only disputed this as it was paid, I also pointed out that the CA who was operating in Tennessee was not only unlicensed in that state but they were reporting this "collection" under two different business names; one the actual CA name and the other a name of a literary agency. This seemed to get their attention rather quickly. Only a few days passed after sending this letter to the OC and the CA when I received a phone call stating that he, the OC would look into this matter. Two days later I got several phone calls from the CA who seemed extraordinarily anxious to inform me that they were deleting this collecton acct and the associated TL on my CR. I received a letter from the CA (Innovative Accts Management) stating that the good doctor had changed the account to reflect a zero balance and that the TL on the CRA report would be deleted. I reported this odd behaviour to the Tennessee Collection board who is currently investigating the unorthodox operations of a company that reports its residence in their state but is apparently not licensed or recognized as a business in that state (they were at one time). They also seem particularly interested in the alternating names on my TL where each month the name of the CA alternated between Innovative Accts and a Literary agency; in both cases the OC is consistent as was the balance reported. Today, a new CA phoned me and demanded $305.00. Somehow this $15 alleged debt grew to $305! I have faxed the state board of commerce who is investigating the first CA and the related Literary company that marked the beginning of this collection effort this new information with a copy of the original CA's letter reflecting a zero balance and its promise to delete all TLs and I copied this new collection agency this letter as well as a copy of the original CA's letter reflecting a zero balance. I am not sure what happened but I am irritated and somewhat alarmed at this audacious behaviour. I find very little about the company named Capital Accts, LLC out of Nashville, TN. Anyone heard of them or done any business with them? Would appreciate thoughts on this and I welcome any ideas on how to best put this to bed for good. I see at least two violations of the FDCPA and if I use today's conversation the absence of the mini miranda is conspicious. Thus far, I have only received the phone call and while this new collection agency (Capital Accounts) states that they sent a dunning letter two days ago I have not received any such animal.

on hold for twenty minutes with two distinctly different queues. Wassup with the equifax?

guess not

Splendid idea. However, while both of my attorneys, who have successfully litigated on my behalf on two separate issues, are found on the NACA sight, I feel a little reluctant to simply post their names for a host of reasons. Thus, if anyone needs a consumer atty in Georgia then I invite you to PM me and once I develop some rapport with you I will be more than happy to share my information with you. Is there any wisdom in appointing a moderator or other established member in offering referrals through non public means?

Thanks. I am happy to hear that I am not alone in these dynamics. While I have been persistent and creative in enhancing my creditworthiness, it is not without a great deal of stress and emotional toll. Indeed, the moment I felt in control of my financial destiny was a major milestone for me but, nevertheless, I still have a bag of residual feelings where shame tops the list. It is affirming to hear my sentiment echoed by your response. I appreciate you. F

Finances represent one of the most common and prevelant stressors for students, couples and young adults trying to live within their means while the media and our mores encourage him to spend, spend, spend. He gets into trouble and digs into his college fund for help; school starts in two weeks. Ultimately, the crisis is three times its original size and there is no money for tuition. Our young man is out of control and it hurt his parents, his girl friend and was a major source of embarassment for the high school that made such a fuss over his acceptance. At about this point, our young man is broke and has creditors calling. He is terrified that his parents will learn that he didn't spend all of the college fund on bills like he told them and now an attorney is threatening him with seizure of his new Acura. This guy is in trouble and its growing by the day. He is already keeping secrets and that shields him from the necessary circumstances within which he can repair the credit problems. We all know that this crisis is far from over and it is only a matter of time before this guy's parents learn the real truth. Families differ considerably in how they approach problems amongst themselves or when one family member is in trouble. Some families disengage, that is grow emotionally distant sometimes angry to keep distance. Other families pull together and are well practiced in problem solving and they are more likely to embrace the issues and work towards a resolution The vissisitudes of emotions inherent in these and other financially derived crisis can leave far reaching and painful scars. The families often talk about a sense of unreality or surealness. This is their inner voices struggling with denial and acceptance. Thus, my long winded point is that there is a tremendous emotional sphere that often requires a lot of attention to deal with the myriad of feelings we encounter at differernt times in our financial recovery and in spite of this, I rarely hear people talk about their feelings or those fears beyond the JDB that has freightened them into paying an acclerated plan that may take some of the grocery money to fund. I sure would like to hear how others have dealt with interpersonal and/or emotional trouble while trying to tackle their financial issues. This kind of sharing is often catalytic in taking people to a different level of understanding and closeness, for those who choose to become closer. It also offers a great forum for gaining insight into your part(s) of the crisis and how correct them and avoid them in the future. Best of all it just feels good and invites health but if we don't share it we deprive ourselves and others of an opportunity to feel better and thus make better choices about how to resolve their issues.

Clark you sound like a real piece of work. You are articulate, able to evoke guilt in some,and then pull out your sword for the final swing. You might take a look at what your role is in the complaints you voice about others; there is a lot of understanding in those complaints that needs to happen. What is it with all the Drama? Life is dramatic all by itself! I find some degree of serenity when I see people objectively problem solving, as most do on this board, hence living in the solution to their complaints. Conversely, when I feel defensive and it just doesn't feel like me, its often because I am reacting to behaviours that get my attention in various ways. I have to ask myself two questions: what am I feeling? and, if I can identify the feeling and its incongruent with my proximal behaviour and thought process prior to feeling a change in my emotions, then I realize it probably ain't me. People set up expectations and boundaries or lack of boundaries in relationships well before anything is spoken. Attitude, word choice, diction, asking a challenging question not because you want to challenge anyone but because you expect to know the way to approach it. The use of icons, bold font, capitalized letters, tiny print, nickname, cooperativeness with others, teaching newbies, subtle gender related overtures can and will form an impression which people remember and choose the manner in which they relate to you on.Anyway, we all have a set of rules and these explain behaviour; the rules are designed for universal comprehension of signals, tone of voice, situation appropriate attire and speaking voice. Naturally we tweek these characteristics to arrive at a certain reaction from others. However, if I assume that I am not real worthy of some things and I mean way down deep I feel that way, I may find my behaviour to meet my thoughts and adapt to this sad, angry type of meloncholy and people will react to my behavioural manifestations and all the language, both nonverbal, decisional and directly dictate, to a large degree, you are going to approach or respond to me. If I appear sad and inert you probably won't keep a smile for very long and before you know it you may begin to feel sad; I have successfully transferred one or more feelings to another thus giving me the illusion that I don't have to frett over those feelings anymore. When people react a certain way to our presentation of ourselves, we get reinforcement and find a pattern of relating. Collectors love the telephone because they can effect similar control over others' responses, namely debtors and who have any stretch of ethics about life. Most callers certainly feeling quite differently after a conversationwith a collector and probably form an image of the collection agency based solely on the way in which the collectors interacted with you. When the collector can predict your behaviour given his approach, he has you in a position that is not usually derived from out of choice, but fear and perceived necessity. Know yourself and be with those you love and I really think you will find all the energy and mental fortitude to live free of stress, JDBs and some other other craziness in this world we live in. I really like to see unity on this board because when we get close and help each other we erect an extremently powerful organization. Without the empowerment that CB gave me I could not have successfully sued anyone nor could I have taken on some of the recalcitrant hospitals and the CRAs with any success. The really cool part of taking a creditboards or AoCer journey is that you will begin to find hope where none shined previously. My self esteem is significantly impacted by my new found mehtods of correcting mistaken consumer data and my sense of hope has risen so sharply that I feel more like myself than I have in a few years. Hope my thoughts are provocative in growth and empowerment and getting all you can from the wisdom of this board.

In my experience, and I have waited a long time to say that, sending DV and dispute letters to several of the more notorious JDBs and Collection Agencies can seem like an exercise in futility. Why would any JDB who is well known for doing whatever they want suddenly break with tradition and company rules of engagement, and send you a proper validation letter or an intelligent response to a dispute? I know it took me a long while and lots of anxiety before I accepted the simple fact that they really don't care. All they want is for you to own the debt by payment or promise and off they go, doing what they do best, getting paid through by your fear or by court order for wage garnishment. It works for them. Just take a look at any state or magistrate docket where your JDB is the plantiff and then compare that to the list of the same JDB who is the defendant in Federal Court (Pacer). I changed my expectation from anticipating their compliance with the law and with validation to the expectation that I must build a paper trail in order to fight the issue with a court or other higher authority. I had a problem with some company in PA who was improperly dunning me. I sent a letter warning them that they were outside of the law, copied it to the PA attorney general and got a letter of apology back. Since changing my expectations I sleep better and have fared quite well in getting things 'right,' if you will.

Me too. Dealing with EQ is like fighting city hall; no one give a good gosh-dang about it. The FTC doesn't do anything that I am aware of and EQ ignores me and my CMRRR letters. This is a little off topic but I would appreciate anyone pointing me towards links or other places for specific information about dealing with, both in litigation and otherwise, EQ and their similarly modeled agencies. I find that all but TRU pretend that they didn't read what I wrote or said on the phone. It feels like a matter of wills; who can wait out the other. The fact that FCRA is not a strict liability set of codes doesn't help.

I was recently trained in the VoIP technology and here are some points to consider: 1. You must have either DSL or Cable; this is a broadband product. 2. You can transfer your current Land line by way of "RESPORG" to your VoIP carrier. 3. Be careful not to cancel your DSL which is part of a bundled phone package or you will be in for a big disappointment. 4. There is now a process for assigning enhanced 911 to the appropriate LATA and number but I believe there remains a very small number of more rural customers who have issues with this. 5. If you use the internet a lot and benefit from having DSL service or Cable service you are foolish not to consider this. VoIP is the wave of the future and the quality has improved dramatically. Many of the smaller VoIP providers also offer a video telephone and the quality is as good as your bandwith. YOu get unlimited long distance and local service. 6. If you do not transfer your number back your VoIP carrier, you can pick ANY area code to get a number. Thus, if I live in San Francisco but my family and many friends live in Manhattan, I can simply get a Manhattan area code so that those calls from my family and friends do not cost them long distance. 7. When I visit my family in Manhattan, if one of them has a broadband connection, I can take my box and get my calls just like I do at home. This is not an add but a trained observation. I believe that in the next five years dial up will be an historical fact and broadband will be the preferred mode thus giving way to cheap, more efficient and directly routed telecommunication.

I have noticed a fair number of posts about which company to use for pulling credit reports and I just couldn't resist sharing my experience, again. I signed up for a trial of Privacy Matters and attempted to cancel during the 30 day trial. The agent taking my cancellation convinced me to incur ONE charge of $14.95 and I would be able to access my credit reports for one year at NO additional charge. Two weeks later I noticed three charges on my Visa, two for 14.95 and one for 4.95. At four weeks these charges escalated to 6 separate charges. I called Privacy Matters and complained about the unauthorized charges and demanded my money back, in full. I followed this with a letter promising action if the money was not refunded within 48 hours. They refunded my money in full. So be careful if you take any of their offers. Perhaps, more importantly, these companies, who are owned by one of the big CRAs generally, produce a credit report that is not always a complete reflection of what the real CRA is showing. This is also true of trimerged reports. There has been some discussion about these where some realize that the value of these reports is limited to some notification of a change in your gross credit reports. Beyond using it as a check and balance or notification system is about the only utility I see in using these companies. I certainly would not want to go to court with a Privacy Matters or True Credit report that reflects Equifax and my attorney tells me that he will not either.

Thanks for the heads up. My goal is to work my way back into the prime card realm and I desperately need a new PC. Unfortunately my FICO scores are very slowly moving in the upward direction since I had a JDB, an old CC acct that was derogatory and a few medical debts removed. My current active credit is good but I am still haunted by a bunch of old student loans that were charged off and later paid via consolidation. I pay those bills religiously and stay way ahead of my cc payments. I realize that the deletion of some pretty old tradelines (~5years) hurt me in terms of age but I have no idea how quickly my score will heal; its lower now than it was with the derogatory items listed.

Thanks for the info and by all means keep me updated if you will. Interesting, I opted out back in August only to find that I am suddenly getting promos in the mail that had to come from the CRAs and I see a prm dated in late 05. I found that I was not shown as opted out recently but previous "sent" credit reports listed me as opted out! Go figure. I disputed this with Equifax and of course they conveniently ignored the issue as well as a request to remove a bogus consumer statement. The CRAs seem to get more and more recalcitrant to legitimate requests by this consumer. Is this a sign of times to come. I am hearing financial people talk about the scope of CRA reporting broadening to include more information about life style and other personal information as well as less significant debts like library fines, traffic violations, etc. Guess Orwell was more insightful than I imagined but I didn't think our fearless leader would be something of a Mad magazine caricature. Any thoughts on approaching Equifax differently. I know the FCRA is not a strict liablility code, thus it is not as easy to litigate as the FDCPA which is strict liablity. Nonetheless, I would sure love to hear some information about successufully dealing with them both with ITS, litigation and other approaches. Thanks, you guys are awesome.

I keep getting promo letters from Chase for at zero APR for the first year. My FICOs are low at ~600 but I have gotten a great deal of derogs removed, have a good secured card on there with perfect payment but it was opened in Aug. My student loans also have a perfect payment record after consolidation. Any experience would be appreciated.

There are one or two former Asset Employees (Mark Weed may beone of them). Anyway one of the complaints that these filed against AAC was the practice of posting payments to older obligations thus restarting the clock for the statue of limitations on debt. see Asset Sux web site for more details.