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How would you word a cease and desist letter to be sent to a credit card collection agency who is harassing you day and night?
To Whom It May Concern: In response to your constant phone calls and in accordance with FDCPA (15 USC 1692c) Section 805(c), I am exercising my legal rights as a consumer. You must cease all communication with me after receiving this written notification that I no longer wish to communicate with your agency or its representatives. Therefore, I demand that you "cease and desist" calling me and members of my family at home, place of employment, cell phone or at any other location. In accordance with the federal FDCPA you may only contact me to inform me that: (1) Collection efforts are being terminated. (2) Specified remedies may be invoked. (3) A specified remedy has been invoked Also be advised that I am keeping a record of your contact with me and my family members including the recording all telephone conversations. I am equally prepared to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office and further execise my legal rights under Section 813 of the FDCPA. Sincerely, (Change the wording to what best suits the individual's circumstances and be certain to include all necessary account information, the exact name on the account and the number. "Specified remedies may be invoked" is defined as, the account being sold to a third party creditor, possible arbitration action or a lawsuit. "Specified remedy has been invoked" either one of the afore mentioned actions). Consult the laws of the state of residency concerning the taping of telephone conversations.
What else can I help you with?
How can you make a collection agency stop calling you?
Remit a "cease and desist" letter to the agency via registered mail with receipt requested.
Is it a good idea to send a drop dead letter to a collection agency?
I assume the reference is to a "cease and desist contact" letter. Some debt counselors believe that it will "trigger" a lawsuit, that is unlikely. If a creditor believes they can win a judgment, they will sue, regardless of how co-operative or obstinate a consumer's behavior.
How do you stop a collection agency from calling your work number?
The easiest way would be to pay your bill. If somebody owed you money how would you handle it? Would it still be harassment? The best way is prevention. Stop agreeing to all these credit cards, loans, deferred payments. You signed an agreement and did not fulfill that agreement. I had creditors trying to get in touch with me and I was trying to ignore them; however, I ended up having to settle my debts because it was killing my credit. It is illegal for a collection agency to continue to call you either at home or work once you give them written notice to stop. This should be sent CRRR (carrier return receipt requested) so that you will have proof they received your letter. What often happens is that they will then simply pass the debt off to another collection agency who will start harassing you all over again. I suggest that you determine if the "collection agency" is: (a) the original creditor or (b) a "3rd party". If the answer is (a), they can pretty much do what they want if you owe them money (they are not subject to the FDCPA). If the answer is (b), simply get their address and send them a letter demanding that they "cease and desist" communicating with you at work, at home, or where ever you do not want them to communicate with you. (A word of warning here...if the creditor has you targeted for suit, this letter could be the catalyst for sending you and your debt straight to court. Don't try to be tough. Be smart, be professional, be responsible. Do some homework and try to resolve this thing before it gets worse.) The phrase "cease and desist" typically scares the @#$% out of most collection agencies. When they see that they start thinking "attorney general complaint". It pretty much shuts them down. While this will keep a 3rd party agency from calling you it does not make either the debt - or your responsibility for paying it - go away. You may wish to read the Fair Debt Collections & Practices Act (FDCPA) for other rights you have. Many states have laws that are more restrictive than the Federal law. Massachusetts residents, for example have very restrictive laws. Oh yes, it IS a good idea to send your letter "return receipt requested". This gives your message an extra punch and usually sends the collection dogs in someone else's direction.
Where can one find a template for a cease and desist letter?
If you are looking for a template for a cease and desist letter then you should go to the Rocket Lawyer website and find their tab for the Cease and Desist template.
What happens when a debtor sends a cease and desist all communication letter to a creditor?
It depends on the laws of the country you're in.Here in the UK, a letter like that wouldn't be sent by the debtor. A cease and desist notice would be sent by a third-party organisation such as a debt management company or the citizen's advice bureau.Once the creditor receives the notice - it is a criminal offence for them to 'harass or contact the debtor in any way'. All further communication must be made through the third-party.The third party will then negotiate on behalf of the debtor, with the creditor(s) a reasonable repayment schedule based on the difference between the debtors income and expenditure. This will usually mean all interest payments will stop, and the debtor pays back the balance on the account(s) over an extended period of time.
What should you do if you had a cc judgment against you for 6000 and you paid 3000 and three years later a new credit agency has you in court wanting 8000 and says you only paid 200?
No credit agency will sue you. I believe you mean collection agency. Send the collection people a Cease and Desist letter (google "fair credit act cease desist). Then get a free credit report (your right!!)(the score doesn't matter so don't pay to get it). Then dispute the debt w/ the credit bureaus (the dispute letter will be found w/ the Cease and desist letter).
How can you make a collection agency stop calling you?
Remit a "cease and desist" letter to the agency via registered mail with receipt requested.
A notice to cease and desist can it be written to the creditor or only to a collection agency?
A cease and desist can be written to a collection agency. However, some creditors adopted the FDCPA as their baseline for communication and ethical procedures. If you need assistance please visit www.OntrackFinancialGroup.com Ontrack Financial Group llc 888-686-6834
What does desist mean?
A 'Cease & Desist Order' means: * 'Cease' means to stop and 'Desist' means not to do it again. This comes into effect when there is a dispute about something. A person sending the Cease & Desist Order is telling the person bothering them to stop! * You can place this legal paper for: stalking, damage to your property, harassing phone calls, etc. * Copyright and trademark infringements. * Slander (someone saying something about you that isn't true); libel or labor disputes. * A Cease & Desist Order can be given to a company that that you owe money too if they are phoning you at all hours of the day or or night, BUT the Cease & Desist Order is not active until the company puts your account into the hands of a collection agency.
Does a cease and desist letter cover all accounts that the collection agency is handling?
You must list every account that is in default and collection action has begun. You may, however, do so within a single written notice.
How can you stop calls from a collection agency?
To stop calls from a collection agency, you need to write them a letter. In this letter, you should tell them to cease and desist further communication with you. Send the letter by registered mail so that you have proof you sent it. Also, when mailing the letter, ask for proof of delivery. The debt collection agency may only contact you once more to acknowledge the letter and to state what, if any further action they intend to take.
What instances can you issue Cease and desist for ex mother-in-law?
* If anyone is harassing you in any way by phone calls, sending the police with false allegations against you; harassing you at your place of work; making problems in your relationship (accusing you of things that are not true) then you have a right to get a Cease and Desist Order against that person (even if it's a family member.)
What can I do if a collection agency is attempting to collect a debt that has been paid to another collection agency I have provided proof of payment and they are still persuing collection.?
If you are absolutely sure you paid the debt, then send them a cease and desist letter. This forces them to either leave you alone, or file a lawsuit. Since you are SURE you paid, you have nothing to fear from a lawsuit because you can present your proof as evidence. If they violate the cease and desist by continuing to call or write, you have grounds to sue them under the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, as well as any applicable state laws. In actual fact, you probably have grounds right now to sue them for attempting to collect a debt which they have no legal right to pursue, but that's shakier.
How do you stop creditors from calling?
If this is in reference to a credit card debt or other unsecured debt, the ORIGINAL CREDITOR - the one who issued you the card - has the right to pursue the debt they are owed. Once they pass it off to a collection agency, you can issue a limited cease and desist letter that tells them not to call, but allows them to contact you by mail. This allows them to present offers regarding paying off or paying down the debt that you can handle.
How do you stop an old creditor from refreshing or reselling a bad debt and thereby making it stay on your credit report beyond the legal seven-year limit?
You can issue a cease and desist letter to the respective creditor(s) informing them of your rights and if they continue to press the issue of obtaining information to collect a debt you can take action against that agency or law firm retained by the person trying to collect a debt. Go on sites like Google and type in CEASE and DESIST letters and you can cut and paste some to a word document and word it to your situation and send it to the creditor and trust me it works the calls and correspondence letters will stop altogether because you're informing them that you don't want to work with a collection agency or someone retained to pursuit collection of a debt. You're telling them that you will settle the debt when you are able to.
If you had unpaid medical bills that went to collections can you pull them out of collections by paying the hospital directly?
:It's unbelievable how terrible of advice some people can give you. Credit Cavalier must have been the same guy who was giving people advice about their mortgages a few years ago too.Most medical agencies do not buy debt. They work on contingency.Pay the agency. That way they close the account and you don't have to worry about your credit etc. If you pay the provider (hospital) and they don't notify the agency then you will have to provide proof of payment. It's a big hassle.If you didn't get a bill in the mail because your address changed, the agency CAN remove the account from your credit if it has already been listed. If your address didn't change, but you pay the account within the first 30 days, then your credit shouldn't be affected.Don't take advice from people who think that they know how to "work the system". These are the same people that will tell you not to pay your taxes and how the FBI is spying on everyone.This advice might sound a little odd, but it's right on the money. Do NOT pay a collection agency a penny. I will explain: Pretend that you went to the dentist and submitted the bill to your insurance company. The insurance company did not pay what you had anticipated and it left you with a $200.00 balance. Granted, you should pay the dentist the $200.00. However, let's pretend you did not have the money to pay or forgot. Yes the letters informing you to pay the unpaid balance come in the mail every month and you keep forgetting to pay the bill. Guess what, eventually the dentist is going to write off the $200.00 you owed him as a loss. The IRS permits the dentist a "Benefit" for the "Loss". (I won't explain this, ask your CPA for clarification) Ok, now a collection agency slithers in to the dentist?s office and offers to help recover "Delinquent" accounts. The collection company will pay the dentist a portion of what they are able to collect. Typically, the older the account (money owed) the less likely the chance the collection agency will be able to collect the money and the less the percentage of the amount of money the "dentist" will receive on what IS collected. Granted, many collection agencies vary on what percentage of the money collected they will keep. The bottom line is the "dentist" will generally not receive the entire $200.00 that was owed. (Unless of course the collection agency just adds their fees on top of the original $200.00 balance) Moving forward: Any amount of money that the "Collection Agency' recovers and pays the dentist is now "Profit" to the dentist. They wrote the money off on their tax returns as a loss and now they are receiving "Profit". Yes, you should have paid the dentist in the first place. That goes without saying. However, things happen. Now here is the catch. A negative item can stay on your credit report for 7-10 years from the date of last activity. (Read that last sentence again) let's pretend that the collection agency added the collection to your credit report two years ago. If you pay the collection agency the negative item on your report will NOT be removed. If they say it will, they are full of it. The negative item will now be "Updated" on your credit report as a "Paid" collection and you scores will generally take a dip. The "Paid" collection can now stay on for another 7-10 years. Now we are at 9-12 years that the $200.00 collection is impacting your credit life. I am sure someone from a collection agency is going to rip apart what I am saying. Remember, they profit from your hardships. Moving on, you don't owe the collection agency ANYTHING. Unless you sign an agreement with them for repayment. Don't do this. You can fight the collection agency until you sign an agreement with them. Then you DO owe them money. You miss your payment and they can garnish wages, add additional fees, and levy your bank account and so on. Getting their "Claim? removed from your credit report is pretty easy if you never signed an agreement with them.~The Credit Cavalier~If the bill is legitimate, pay the collection agency.In most cases, it does not matter which you pay because the agency will be paid either way. Most work on a contengency fee basis (they get a % of the amount you pay).Whether you received a bill for the treatment is irrelevant. If you received treatment, you owe the bill. Many people have contracts with insurance companies to pay these bill (or a portion) for them.If you do not think you owe the bill, contact the agency. They are bound by federal law (FDCPA) to verify the debt.Before you begin to deal with a collection agency, please check out Ben Dover's website regarding medical collections and collection agencies in general. Don't deal with them if you can pay the hospital directly. Your adrenal gland will thank you for it, thereby avoiding the need to seek further medical care for your nerves.Credit Cavalier has his facts wrong. The dentist does NOT in most cases get any tax benefit for a bad debt. Most dentists/doctors use the cash accounting method, and the only tax paid is on money that actually comes in. A bad debt is simply a loss in income, like the dentist never earned the money in the first place.The best thing to do is to pay the debt collection agency. If you think it is your way at getting back at them by paying their client you are wasting your time. The collection agency is going to get their money regardless. Although, the collection agency is under no obligation to remove it from your credit if you have not paid in the alotted time period- they CAN. It is literally just a click of the button. If you are polite, and/or gripe enough they will have it removed. If you pay the client they probably won't. Also, the client waits to report payments to the collection agency, so you might still be called by the collection agency. They are still showing a balance in their office. It is not their fault you didn't pay who you were supposed to pay. Debt collectors are not bad people, they are just people trying to do their jobs. If you don't actually owe the bill there are things you can do to rectify the problem. Yelling and screaming and cussing out the debt collector will get you no where. It will probably make them want to call you everyday (which is not harassment).ANSWERMost of the time you can pay through either, but I recommend paying the collection agency. The client usually has a contract with the collection agency to report any payments within 30 days or so, so that they can update it in their office and on their credit. Either way the account will be reflected through the collection agency and as activity on your credit. If you pay straight to collection agency you have a better chance of keeping it from going on your credit if paid promptly or having it updated more quickly to the credit bureau as a paid collection. Plus there could always be a few payments that slip through and don't get reported to the collection agency and then you are sitting there with an unpaid collection on you credit. As for collection agencies being able to take collections off your credit if you are mean or nice enough to talk them into it by promising payment in exchange for removal from credit, well this is called credit bartering and is against collection laws, not to say some do not do it anyways, but don't be surprised or upset if you come upon one that follows their collection laws and want to keep there collection license in tact and their doors open for business. The best thing you can do is try your best to settle or set up pmts through the client before it gets to the collection agency. If it doesnt happen that way then some collection agencies give you a set amount of time to pay off before they report to your credit, like 30-60 days. You can try to borrow the money or take a small loan to build your credit by making monthly pmts on that instead of having the unpaid collection on your credit against you. If none of that is possible, then most will work with you on a payment schedule as long as it is reasonable and you stick to it. The account will then report as a paid collection once paid in full, which is usually better than an unpaid collection.ANSWER:The first post was actually written by a person who knows how these collection agencies act and harass consumers. The rest of the answers are from some collection agencies. The first post is all the way right about collection activities and their harassment acts. I am going to write few useful tips to avoid these collection agencies and to protect your credit. The main motive of these collection agencies is money money and money. They buy the defaulted debts pennies to a dollar and their main weapon is to report it to your credit report and wait until the fish get the bait means when you get hurt for denial of a credit card ,car loan etc also they regularly visit hospitals in search of defaulted accounts. Sometimes even hospital billing department does not know if the account has been assigned to a collection agency. They do it automaticLets say you receive a letter from collection agency saying you owe this money or you noted that some collection agency is posting a collection on your credit report.Mostly you have taken the treatment from hospital but your insurance paid half or you forgot to pay the half or full amount. My advice to all those in the situation is similar to post one. DO NOT PAY THE COLLECTION AGENCY A SINGLE PENNY. If you have Money make arrangements with the hospital and pay them but not to a collection agency. Hospital bills normally goes 10% of the debt. let's say $100 collection account and agency get $10 or more depends.Here is what you should do.(1) If you get a collection letter from collection agency. Write them a simple letter for cease and desist their collection actvities and validate the debt according toSection 809(a), 15 U.S.C. § 1692g via certified mail return receipt requested.If the collection agency do not validate with in 30 days send the copy of the return receipt with a letter mentioning the above FDCPA law and ask for deletion from credit bureaus. if they still keep posting that's a violation of FDCPA.· (2) Usually the collection agencies after receiving the validation request send a form with no logo for you to provide ss# address etc claiming that they need the permission to check your medical record.Dont Fall for that. search the Google for hippa laws. Any medical information is strict private and a doctor or hospital can not disclose it to any one without your prior consent.Do you understand what that means?.A collection agency has no proof so how does they put your account in collection. Another violation of FCRA,FDCPA AND HIPPA LAWS.Send it to federal trade commission. your attorney general and FBI for fraud and defamation.A collection agency can say yeah we either way get the money you pay it to the hospital or us. its better for you to pay us and we will update your account with credit bureaus as paid.Dont fall for that.Do you know that an unpaid collection cost you 150 points on your fico and a paid collection about 79 because it paid but its collection.write a letter to collection agency as stated above and pay the hospital. If the collection agency post it paid to credit bureaus and you have not paid a single dime to collection agency. Get a free lawyer to sue the hospital and collection in civil or superior court.Only the Hippa violation is more than $250,000 which an attorney general will happy to sue.To be fair send collection agency a 72 hour NOTICE OF INTENT TO SUE if they do not take your generosity and want to post that account in your credit files. Then you have to hit back hard just search the Google for free information and FIGHT BACK. There are more than 3000 collection agencies but only few are keeping legitimate tactics for their clients and they are not rude too.The rest will not care. To collect their commission in the name of business they will go beyond the law to hurt you and your families by hurting your credit.I would like to add more to this topic very soon------ the above is written by someone who has no idea what they are talking about. A collection agency has a right to obtain itemization of medical treatments so they can send proof of the debt. Under HIPAA they are allowed this info if it is necessary to collect the debt. There is so much wrong with this ignorant statement!*******************************************************************This is exactly very true. This is what happened to me and because I did not know this I was dumb enough to pay the collection agency and it is now over 14 years old, paid and it still shows up on my credit report. When I had the money to pay, it was 6 years old. I did owe it and the collection agency claimed they would remove it as soon as it was paid. Not at all they lied and updated it and now 8 more years to go and it is showing paid but that cost me dearly for a $25.00 debt.If you want to pay the original debtor within 2 years, do so, but strictly follow these exact instructions as stated above in the first answer and this very last answer. The ones in between are definatley from collection agencies. It is the original debtor that you owe and not a % to those unscrupulous collection agencies.from someone who worked at one,the agency gets the account via the client, they only work so many accounts.if the collector cannot contact the debtor and so many letters go out and phone callsthe account is still in their system, however is not worked in their list, it will sit witg them until the hosp or drs office tells them they want it back, by that time, the client has to ask the agency to report to the credit bureau, not all coll agency report to the credit bureau, the client has to notify them in writing to do so.depends on the balance.usually people want to clear up their accounts when they are buying a house,etcand that's when they see it on their credit report, so they call the agency and negotiate a deal and then have them take it off their credit reports, which update in 30 daysThe Credit Cavalier is absolutely correct! I know because I just came out of really bad credit! Score was in the mid 400's. That's horrible! So I learned a ton in 10 yrs how the credit systems works and what the laws are. He is correct that if your stuff is legitamently reported to the credit bureau and you pay the collection agency any or all the money that was due after that report, It does not come of your credit report because you paid!!! It stays on your report. So for me since that is so damaging to live with I learned on the first one that if it is reported I refuse to pay anything. I am the one that is dinged bad credit and can't buy, rent, borrow anything for a long time. This is not what I am telling YOU to do this is just what I have done. So to me if I am suffering already why suffer longer after paying off the debt??? So today my score is so much better and I am working on making my credit score really good. Don't forget that if you have something on there (report) you can fight the credit bureaus to get it off if you see they are reporting you from an incorrect date. The report must READ the ORIGINAL LAST PAYMENT MADE! That is the start date from which the 7 or the 10 yrs starts at and when those years come to and end and its still on your report, YOU FIGHT IT to get that off. Your free and clear! I did this as well and got my credit looking much better now. above 640 now. Its a learning lesson! Just one more thing! A lot of times the credit bureaus will lie and tell you different than what is legal. If you know the laws don't just listen to them! Fight them and tell them you know the laws and they must do what ever that is within the legal guidelines!"Experienced Lesson Learner"!
Is there a time limit on when a debt collector for a credit card can sue you?
Yes, states set there own Statute of Limitations for debts. Credit cards are considered to be open accounts. The SOL only applies to lawsuits not to collection procedures such as phone contact, although third party collectors can be subjected to the "cease and desist" notice under the FDCPA.
