Posted on 04/26/2010 3:49:38 PM PDT by jerry557
Among debt collectors, Steven Katz is known as a “credit terrorist.” For years, he has run what he calls the Steven Katz School of Bill Collector Education, otherwise known as the “credit terrorist training camp.”
Mr. Katz, a 58-year-old accountant in suburban Tucson, spends his free time schooling debtors on the finer points of consumer protection law to help them turn the tables on debt collectors. On occasion, he thumbs his own nose at them too.
“How many times can I sue you? Let me count the ways,” he wrote under his pseudonym, Dr. Tax, in a March posting on Inside ARM, a debt collectors’ Web site.
A former bill collector himself, Mr. Katz rebelled after a debt buyer damaged his credit score with what he says was a bogus bill. Mr. Katz sued, and in 2003 he collected his first damage award, a $1,000 check that he now keeps framed behind his desk.
“The bill collectors, when they call, make you feel like the only option you have is to lay down and play dead. That’s not true,” said Mr. Katz said, who does not charge for his advice. “Nothing validates this more than getting a check.”
Call this movement revenge of the (alleged) deadbeats. Even as collectors try to recoup debts from millions of Americans struggling to pay their bills, a small but growing number of lawyers and consumers are fighting back against what they describe as harassment, unscrupulous practices — and, most important to their litigiousness, violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
In fact, 8,287 federal lawsuits were filed citing violations of the act in 2009, a 60 percent rise over the previous year, according to WebRecon, a site that tracks collection-related litigation and the most litigious consumers and lawyers on behalf of debt collectors.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
good post!
I was harrassed by a mole removal from someone who stole my wife’s identity in Oregon, it was on our credit for 5 years until finally the credit reporting agency took it off.
They do suck, but a lot of people deserve some of the harrassment...
why do you think the obmacare wants access to your bank accounts? Since we are approaching the point where there is no hope even after bankruptcy, the government will have to create a way for INVOLUNTARY bankruptcy.
Not to pile on, but not quite 100%. Had a doctor's office send a bill to collections because "it was 90 days overdue." The problem was that they had made a mistake and it was actually new that month, and I had yet to even get the bill for it.
In the end, I got a quote from the collection agency for the amount, including their "fees" and the doctor cut me a check for the entire amount. They even paid for a credit report check.
Yes. See my post #21. I’ve amended my estimate.
I just had a hard time convincing the people that Emma didn’t live there and my issue was they continued to call after they received Cease and Desist letters.
It’s really sad the messes people make for themselves. Sounds like Elsa was a mess altogether.
I'd try to talk you down to 98% but that's probably like dealing with a collection agency. ;-)
I think the point of this article is that bill collectors need to follow the laws. People can owe money and fall behind for legitimate reasons. That’s not an excuse for anyone (bill collectors) to break the law.
That happened to my mother once and she was smart enough with it.
Several years ago my mother still owed on a car loan and the statue of limitations had expired. The collection agency even initiated a lawsuit. My mom had an attorney write a response and as soon as that was filed, they dropped the case. The lawyer said they will do all kinds of things in order to try and trick you into resetting the statue of limitations.
So if you have a debt that you havnt paid on and is past the statue of limitations, it is actually better for you to NOT pay it off. Because if you do it resets the statue AND it will actually worsen your credit score.
It’s a very odd system where you can be punished for doing the right thing.
My issue is more that these guys IGNORED the cease and desist letters they received. Plus, I was not the object of their collection, so they had no right to harrass me. However, I don’t think anyone deserves to be treated or talked to the way some of these guys treated and spoke to my husband and I. That’s my issue - they still should have to abide by the FDCPA, AND the AG should have followed through! Just as people should pay their debts, the collectors should have to abide by the guidelines that are set forth for their industry. (Then again, as an attorney can I really speak??? ;-) )
No doubt. It's just that the "everybody else does it" excuse is used with more and more frequency. There is a tipping point beyond which a fiat economy cannot recover.
And it just plain ain't fair to those of us who follow the rules and use credit properly.
Two of the fines were for having an ‘expired ticket’ on the bus. The way the system works is if I pay for a ticket it ‘expires’ after 90 minutes, regardless of whether or not I’ve gotten off the bus.
One is for a speeding ticket I got for going 70 km/h in a school zone at 7am, never mind that the law says that school zones are only from 8-5.
Then there was a seat belt fine, seat belt fine, seat belt fine and having expired insurance.
So all in all over 7 years I owe 2k to the provincial and lcoal governments. I’d settle for 200, but they will never settle. Their loss.
AT&T billed me (for months) for monthly service for a phone that I never activated, never agreed to the contract and contacted them in a timely fashion to notify them I would not be using the phone. They charged off the bogus charges and it took me years to get it off my credit and get the collection agency to quit calling.
I had a worse situation with BofA. I contacted them about being overcharged by 4 times the amount on an internet purchase resulting in a negative balance on one of my accounts. "No problem", they said, "contact us when you get it cleared up and we will waive the NSF fees." I got the situation cleared up in 42 days and called them. "Oh, we charged that account off after 30 days. When you signed up for the accounts (7 years before) the terms of the agreement said that you would contact us in writing." Forgetting the fact, that it was documented in the account notes. Next, they wouldn't cash a check from a large mutual fund company to clear the balance, then put me on a bad account list for 5 years, after they said that they would take me off 6 different times.
I would have loved to sue either one of them.
"Another practice of tyrants is to multiplying taxes, after the manner of Dionysius at Syracuse, who contrived that within five years his subjects should bring into the treasury their whole property."
See my post #21. I’ve amended my estimate to 99%.
When ever I took a phone call from a collector. I would ask them for a name and call back number in case we were disconnected. I would explain my son no longer lived with me and I do not have his permission to give them his contact info. They explained since this was the only contact number they had, they would continue to call until they contacted him. I would then ask to speak to someone who had the authority to take my off their call list.
I continued to move up the ladder until I got the guy who told me had the authority to stop the calls. He was professional about it but explained he could take my name off the list but would not until he had the info they wanted.
I explained to him, since he gave me his name and contact number at the beginning of our conservation, I would call him personally every time one of his employees called me to have this conversation all over again. I let me know, I have no problem calling him daily until he figures out I'm not giving him the info he wanted.
After a long, long pause he decided it was in everybody best interest for him to authorize the stop call
About 6 years later, I got a call from a collector about this debt. I explained that it was paid and promised to contact my bank for the proof. After I received a copy of the cancelled check from my bank (within 3-4 days of the first call), I called the collector and explained that I was mailing the proof. 5 business days after mailing it, I called to follow up. I was trying very hard to be consciencious and was pleasant with the guy and everything.
He told me yeah, he'd received the copy of the check, but I still owed the debt because they couldn't read the endorsement on the back.
WTH? Here I was being as cooperative as I could be because it was my bad to begin with, and he pulls that out of his hat? Luckily Navy Legal was available for free and wrote the guy a nasty letter. Never heard from him again.
What is the statue of limitations?
Ummm...I’ve had a bill collector try to collect on a magazine subscription I had cancelled years ago. Pretty weird.
My Mom had a hospital come after her for a bill that was paid thru insurance. Fortunately, my wife had saved the receipts...when we threatened to sue the hospital, the hospital agreed my Mom didn’t owe them squat.
No bill collector, but my recent credit check revealed my score is 800...and I supposedly have 2 credit cards with a combined balance of $2500. The credit card companies both agree I do NOT have a credit card with them, but now I get to try removing it from my record.
Deadbeats will use every excuse not to honestly pay back what they owe. It’s sickening to see people rationalize it. The latest one seems to be “but the collections guys were mean.”
Bottom line: deadbeats are pukes.
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