A few weeks ago I posted how a bill collection agency was trying to pressure me into making

payments on a 11 year old bill that I disputed with AT&T 11 years ago and thought was settled then. Well after getting a few threatening letters and phone calls that lead me to tell them stop calling. This morning I got a call from another collection agency who I told do not call. It seems that the last bill collector bundled my old bill and sold it to another tougher bill collection agency who hopes to pressure me into paying $350 on a bill that started out 11 years ago as a $1500 long distance phone bill. I found the letter in my mail box asking me to A.) pay the $350 off B.) make a 6 month arrangement to pay the bill off which would increase the pay off to $450 or C.) a 12 month pay off plan that would cost $650 to pay off, Really?

At the time I had long distance calls blocked from my phone and they were supposedly only going to let calls go through if a numbered password was used. That was one of my dispute claims, the second one was the main phone box, not inside my apartment so I had no control over the box or who was around it, had the security locks broke off and all of the phone lines in the building showed signs of being tampered with as well as a phone sitting on the basement floor under the main box was discovered by an AT&T lineman. Did I mention I hate AT&T?

I choose D.) tell them to go to hell and take me to court. LOL, I found the letter the AT&T sent me with the original report from the AT&T lineman and the statement that I only had to pay the monthly bill that I was under contract to pay. See saving dumb shit paper work pays off. Oh btw, I also informed the collection agent that I had that letter and gave them the work order number that came on the letter. It was at the bottom of the letter and customer number was on the top.

Edited to bold point about the statute of limitations.

...and therefore uncollectable?

payment it becomes a new bill that the collection agency take you to court over and reset the 7 year limitation.

The General Rule as to Statute of Limitations is Four years from the Last time you made any payments. Exceptions exists, for example my home state of Pennsylvania has a 21 Statute of Limitations for any contract under "Seal". Such contracts are NOT for the purposes of obtains goods or services, generally mortgages and/or back loans NOT Credit Card Debts or here a Phone Service contract.

When did you last send a payment to this account? If it is outside of the statute of limitations, the collectors can't do a damn thing to you.

can vary by state. Here in Texas my lawyer mentioned 4 years I believe.

Also write them a letter and tell them you wish all corresponding to be in writing. You don't need to listen to their harassing phone calls.

We live in WA and we submitted a complaint to the attorney general. They stopped contacting us. Same type of deal you are experiencing.

There is a cease and desist letter that you can send to them. We have used this and it has worked.


http://public.findlaw.com/consumer/le12_11_1.html


U.S Fair Credit Billing
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre16.shtm

Good Luck and don't let them pressure you into something.

I live in Mass but one place that was hounding me was in Illinois. Its associate was in NY.

I contacted the AGs in both states.

This was six years ago and I haven't been bothered since.

Oh, and the "bill" was nearly 20 years old at the time and had been written off as a tax loss by the CC company back in the 80s. Not proud of defaulting on it...lots of financial troubles back then.

So almost 20 years later the CC company opened its vaults and sold off its debtor info...even past SOL bills...to Zombie Debt Collectors for pennies on the dollar.

I'll be damned if I was going to give money to people I didn't even owe it to. The original bill was less than $1500 but these scumbags wanted $5000. Fuck them.

never make any payment arrangements...do not even say that the bill might be yours.

Tell them they have to PROVE the bill is within the statute of limitations and that YOU owe them the money.

If you do an online search you can find info on what the SOL's are for each state and what bills they cover (or don't...some have no expiration period).

Zombie debt collectors are pond scum.

reasons. 1.) I wanted to warn folks that this happens and in most states you don't have to let them bully you 2.) I find collection agencies a sick form of amusement until they get really bad, but getting folks talking about the practice helps them be aware of what is going on.

If so, i hope you do and help them understand that it is not nice to play dirty and illegally.

if they continue collections after you have asked them to validate a debt, you can sue them. But always follow up with a written validation letter and send it registered. that way they can't say they never got it. and if it gets returned, then you can show that if it ever ends up in a court situation. don't ignore them. we had a default judgement against us from some company we never heard of and ended up finding out we were never served in the first place. there were a whole bunch of lick em stick em affidavits of service bob found while looking into this company. they turned out to be involved in the big thing in buffalo that happened with a debt collector here.

you write to them telling them that under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act you are requesting http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/debt_validation.shtml">validation of the debt. Now, they will send you another bill probably but that is not a validation. a validation shows that they have a right to collect a debt from you. And they under the law cannot continue to try to collect until they produce a validation. Also, you can tell them they have to communicate with you in writing (i think but am not sure). I know that since I have only a cell phone, they cannot incur charges to me by calling my phone.

Do not make a deal with them about anything. If you pay them anything then it resets the clock. If that debt is past the statute of limitations they can call you all they want but they can't collect anything. Read up on the http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDwQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ftc.gov%2Fos%2Fstatutes%2Ffdcpajump.shtm&ei=fMS9TYmrJtO2tge5rPHcBQ&usg=AFQjCNELC7R1jU8hNdNLVmkirCkSzP451g&sig2=EA4g-svkwajBo5oLEJwMzg">FDCPA. You can sue them for violating the law. If they continue collecting after you request validation you can sue them. Keep track. And make sure you ask for validation on the phone if they call and follow it up with a REGISTERED LETTER requesting validation. Make sure they understand that you will sue them.

If you have any questions, my husband has had a lot of experience with bottom feeders like these. I would recommend watching "maxed out" which is a documentary dealing with these bottom feeders. they don't care if they have a right to collect it. their goal is to try to get anything out of suckers. If you need any further help, let me know.

go to an answering machine. Calls from people you actually want to talk to you can pick up, or return. Do not ever pick up or return calls from this agency. That's one way to handle it.

It does also seem, from what you've posted, that this is simply not a debt you ever owed, even 11 years ago. As others have stated, let these bottom-feeders know that this is not a legal debt and they need to go away.

I have three different times in the past three years (ever since I moved to Santa Fe) gotten calls from bill collectors. Two were to my home phone, one to my business phone. In all cases they were intended for people that I have no idea who they were, and in all cases I tolerated three or four such calls until I finally called back, told them the number they were calling belonged to me, and that did magically make the calls stop. Obviously, this is a situation somewhat different from yours, but you could consider changing your phone number so that their calls to you will dead end.

go to CreditBoards.com.