3rd party collection

[laff13]

i agreed to have credit card chargared for repayment of a collection account in may for July 1st. this is a 3rd party collect agency. That was suppose to be the 1st payment(July 1st 2009). But on June 8th i sent and they received(june 11th) a cease and desist letter from me. This was well before july 1st payment they took out. they still charged my account checking account via a visa debit card i verbally gave them in May 2009. are the allowed to do this? the letter i sent stated, among other thing, to stop ALL collection of this debt? i called them and the supervisor said they were still allowed to do this because the verbal payment arrangement was before the letter? any help

 

[dee_dub]

Mmm, this is interesting.

I think the "before the letter" thing is a red herring - if you HAD sent them the credit card information after the letter, then presumably they would think you changed your mind from what you said in the letter, and would charge the card. Either way, they would charge the card.

Usually when you send a cease and desist letter, the outcome is the collection agency is prevented under the FDCPA from communicating further with you. It stops them from pestering you. As far as I'm aware, it does NOT mean they have to stop collecting on the debt under an existing arrangement you may have made.

The question then is whether there's any other law requiring them to honour your request that they not collect. As far as I'm aware, there is not, but what do I know. You might be entitled to rescind the agreement, however, which your letter probably did. If so, the agreement to pay was void, and they had no legal basis to charge your card. You could try suing to recover the payment if you really wanted to.