nrgins Posted February 15, 2012 Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 I have a defaulted credit card from 2006. Balance due:$4800. The statute of limitations on this debt expired 2 years ago. Asset Acceptance owns the debt, and they've been regularly sending me letters, trying to get me to pay a smaller and smaller amount. I've just ignored all their letters, and have made no contact with them.Today I received a very strange offer. The letter stated: "If you pay us $29, we will close your account and consider it paid."Now, obviously, my first thought was that they're trying to get the statute of limitations restarted. But since they're offering to "close the account and consider it paid," how could they? If it's paid, it's paid.Another thought was that they're just trying to get me on the phone, to get me to agree to make the payment, and then pull it out, so they can get the SOL restarted. But no phone contact is necessary. There's a tear-off coupon at the bottom which states: "One-time payment of $29 to consider your account paid" and "Discounted Settlement Amount: $29."I have no intention of paying this, so no need to advise me against it. Even if that seemed like a good deal to me, I realize that it would make my last payment date on the account current, and keep it on my credit report for 7 more years. So this is a no-brainer to just ignore the letter, which is what I intend to do.But I'm curious as to what their scheme could be here. What could they possibly gain by offering me a $29 settlement? I don't see how this could restart the SOL (unless I'm not seeing something, which I'd be interested in hearing about). So what else could be their motivation in offering this?Just puzzled by this, and am interested in hearing any theories about it.Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiquita55 Posted February 15, 2012 Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 You are better off in ignoring them. You would win any lawsuit and they probably know that and will not file suit against you. But if you pay $29 then you reset the statute of limitations and I would not believe they are closing up the debt. I got a strange letter also but it was different. Threatening to give your name out to 3rd parties and if you want to opt out you have to contact them. I am ignoring them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhoCares1000 Posted February 15, 2012 Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 Restart the SOL and the debt is worth more to the next debt buyer. I would not pay them even $5 at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seadragon Posted February 15, 2012 Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 So do not settle or send them anything as a matter of fact send a cease and desist letter.That way they will not trick your family into paying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrgins Posted February 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 Again, I have no intention paying them or even contacting them. I thought I made that clear in my original post.My only reason for posting was I was wondering what they could gain by offering this $29 payment? If they're offering to close the account, then they can't restart the SOL. So what is their motivation for offering this? That's what I'm wondering.One thought I had was that: a) they get the $29 payment from the person; then before they close out the account, they sell it to someone else; then c) you contact them and say "why isn't my account closed?" and they say "we no longer own the account"; then d) you contact the new owner saying the account was supposed to be closed, and they say, "We don't know anything about that; but the SOL has been restarted."I bet that's it.....Again, I have (and never had) any intention of contacting them or paying it. I'm just trying to figure out what their scam here is. I bet that's what it is (what I wrote above). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrgins Posted February 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 Another thought is that, even if they don't sell it to another company, they just might apply the payment and not close the account, and then give a person who made the payment the runaround. After all, a tear-off coupon on a letter isn't a legally binding document. But with the evidence of the payment, they could file in court.Of course, if a person came to court, they'd probably win by showing the letter, and the judge would see their trickery and throw the case out. But probably a lot of people wouldn't show up, and they'd get a default judgment.Anyway, like I said, was just curious about this, as to what they were trying to accomplish here. I think, whatever it is, it stinks like a barrel of dead fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomnTex Posted February 15, 2012 Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 They could possibly try and get a family member to pay it for you. By making them feel sorry for you and thining that if they pay it for you that will resolve it. Instead, it would restart the SOL without you knowing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrgins Posted February 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 They could possibly try and get a family member to pay it for you. By making them feel sorry for you and thining that if they pay it for you that will resolve it. Instead, it would restart the SOL without you knowing it.Meaning they're hoping a family member would intercept the letter and just make the payment without telling me? I suppose. But that still doesn't address how the SOL would be restarted if it was closed (except perhaps by one of the scenarios I posted above).Yeah, perhaps it's just a last-ditch effort to try to get the SOL restarted by unscrupulous means before they just close out the account and call it a day. Interesting. I wonder if we'll be hearing cases involving these $29 scenarios once they play out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seadragon Posted February 15, 2012 Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 Meaning they're hoping a family member would intercept the letter and just make the payment without telling me? I suppose. But that still doesn't address how the SOL would be restarted if it was closed (except perhaps by one of the scenarios I posted above).Yeah, perhaps it's just a last-ditch effort to try to get the SOL restarted by unscrupulous means before they just close out the account and call it a day. Interesting. I wonder if we'll be hearing cases involving these $29 scenarios once they play out?and say we are trying to contact this person because we wanted to settle this before going to court. Tried to reach them today but we have a stack of papers for court going today in about an hour and a half and my supervisor said settle for this amount with anyone in this stack so I am trying to settle before the stack goes to the courthouse. maybe you have another number for them or can help them out I would hate for an oppurtunity like this to be missed and then alot of stress for everyone.You see how that could happen? maybe the family member says ok I will pay it for them and mail the reciept to them.It is a percentages game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usagi555 Posted February 15, 2012 Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 and say we are trying to contact this person because we wanted to settle this before going to court. Tried to reach them today but we have a stack of papers for court going today in about an hour and a half and my supervisor said settle for this amount with anyone in this stack so I am trying to settle before the stack goes to the courthouse. maybe you have another number for them or can help them out I would hate for an oppurtunity like this to be missed and then alot of stress for everyone.You see how that could happen? maybe the family member says ok I will pay it for them and mail the reciept to them.It is a percentages game.Exactly. The problem is, it's like playing progressive roulette. Play it long enough, and you'll get that crushing blow. Somebody will figure out what's going on and set the JDB up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentWA Posted February 15, 2012 Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 Or it could be as simple as they know the debt is totally worthless and they are making a last ditch effort to get anything they can to offset the cost they paid for it. Since it is SOL, a simple C&D them will set you up for a nice FDCPA violation payday as they are not very bright and will likely send you yet another letter in 6 months or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrgins Posted February 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 Or it could be as simple as they know the debt is totally worthless and they are making a last ditch effort to get anything they can to offset the cost they paid for it.I thought of that. But $29? Seems like they're going lower than low, just to get a payment, not for the money itself. I'd think they'd offer like $100 or $200 if they were really looking for some money from it. But, who knows. Maybe $29 covers all the expense they put into it, with postage and whatnot.One thing's for sure. If this is a new scam by them, we'll probably be seeing people who got ensnared by it posting here in a few months.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentWA Posted February 15, 2012 Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 With Asset's stock in the toilet (I feel so bad for them, NOT) and the market for SOL debt having dried up so bad that some sellers can not even move SOL debt at 1/8 of a penny on the dollar, I can see that improving the margin on non-performing portfolio's would be a boost to them. They are looking at the bigger picture than we do. If they have thousands of accounts they have never got a penny for and can not sell or sue on, it looks bad. Instead if they get even 20% of those thousands of consumers to think it is a great deal, then they can tell their stock holders they have improved the ratios of non-performing sections of their portfolio and stock price may go up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrgins Posted February 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 Yeah, you have a great point there. It could be that they're looking to sell the company, and are trying to improve their ratio of accounts that they got SOMETHING on, to look better to the buyer. That makes sense.A friend of mine works for a company that runs assisted living facilities. They're trying to sell a few of them, so they're offering bargain-basement prices to get people to move in, so that can show potential buyers that they're full (without revealing to them how much of a discount those people got).So that may very well be what's going on here. Pretty up the books before they're looked at..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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