NotSoLegalEase
New Member
I have a situation about which I have been confused for a number of years. I have Googled, searched, and researched. And my confusion continues. I asked about this matter on a message board some time ago -- and the replies only added to my confusion. Please allow me to explain my story in the hope I can get a simple, direct, and correct answer.
1999: My employer closed the department in which I worked. I was unemployed for nearly a year. Unable to pay my credit cards, I considered bankruptcy but, unwisely or otherwise, I simply quit paying on them. After some months of nonpayment, these creditors wrote me off as a bad debt.
I don't recall when they began but I started getting phone calls and an occasional mail from other "collection" companies. These phone calls and mailings continue to this day. (The phone calls - computerized messages - always state 'we have an important business matter to discuss', and the mailings are an offer to accept one-half the "balance" in settlement on the account.)
The companies from which I have received these communications over the years include FBCS (Federal Bonds and Collection Services), Allied Interstate, Inc. (purchased from LVNV Funding LLC), Mercantile Adjustment Bureau (purchased by Pallino Asset Mgmt.), West Asset Mgmt., Advanta, Creditor's Exchange, Bay Area Credit Services LLC, Elite Recovery Services, LTD Financial Services, Bonded Collection Corporation and Capital Management Services. The list seems endless! I have never once replied, either by phone or mail, to any of them. That said, my question is not one of morality but rather of legality: do these "credit collection agencies" have any/every legal right to collect a debt that the original creditor had?
I have never owned real property but am considering buying a condo/house. Do these companies have a legal right to attach any property I may own now or in the future?
Too, via my online research, I am lead to believe these collection companies buy and sell accounts from each other. Thus, by doing so, any "statute of limitations" on a debt (i.e., the 7 or 10 years for a debt to be removed from one's credit report) never applies. If the debt is sold to another company the 7 year period starts all over again - ad infinitum. Is this true?
Thanks for reading. Replies which help clarify the mud are appreciated.
1999: My employer closed the department in which I worked. I was unemployed for nearly a year. Unable to pay my credit cards, I considered bankruptcy but, unwisely or otherwise, I simply quit paying on them. After some months of nonpayment, these creditors wrote me off as a bad debt.
I don't recall when they began but I started getting phone calls and an occasional mail from other "collection" companies. These phone calls and mailings continue to this day. (The phone calls - computerized messages - always state 'we have an important business matter to discuss', and the mailings are an offer to accept one-half the "balance" in settlement on the account.)
The companies from which I have received these communications over the years include FBCS (Federal Bonds and Collection Services), Allied Interstate, Inc. (purchased from LVNV Funding LLC), Mercantile Adjustment Bureau (purchased by Pallino Asset Mgmt.), West Asset Mgmt., Advanta, Creditor's Exchange, Bay Area Credit Services LLC, Elite Recovery Services, LTD Financial Services, Bonded Collection Corporation and Capital Management Services. The list seems endless! I have never once replied, either by phone or mail, to any of them. That said, my question is not one of morality but rather of legality: do these "credit collection agencies" have any/every legal right to collect a debt that the original creditor had?
I have never owned real property but am considering buying a condo/house. Do these companies have a legal right to attach any property I may own now or in the future?
Too, via my online research, I am lead to believe these collection companies buy and sell accounts from each other. Thus, by doing so, any "statute of limitations" on a debt (i.e., the 7 or 10 years for a debt to be removed from one's credit report) never applies. If the debt is sold to another company the 7 year period starts all over again - ad infinitum. Is this true?
Thanks for reading. Replies which help clarify the mud are appreciated.