CA is lying

[knittybear]

Heres my situation.  Any help would be greatly appreciated!!  Ive been making payments to a CA for a cc bill for the last year.  They just contacted me and want the rest in a lump sum.   I havd just made Aug payment  a week ago. They are refusing to let me keep making payments and are threatening a lawsuit.  The balance is 1800.00 

 

I talked with a rep, told him i had 500.00 to settle.  He said fine, told me I would be getting a settlement letter through email and I would then pay the 500.00  He said it would get paperwork ready  and he would call me right back.  Before we hung up I repeated  we are settling for 500.00 is that correct and he said yes.

 

Someone else called me back and said I hear you want to settle the acct for 1250.00 and I said...we agreed on 500.00 and she said no you didnt I heard the call....more or less calling me a liar.  I asked to have her put the other person on the line with us so we could get this straightened out.  She said sure then came back and said he was busy...go figure!! 

 

She then said can you hold just a minute .  A nasty lady came on the line and said we will not accept any less thatn 1250 on this acct.  I told her about phone call and what had been discussed and she said I was lying and that she had listened to the call.  I said can you please play the call for me because I know what was said.  She screamed in the phone that she didnt have time for this and said Just a minute!!!!!!  I held for 10 minutes and hung up...Have no idea what to do now

My main goal is to avoid a lawsuit and get this settled. 

 

Thanks for reading my post!

[WhoCares1000]

Gosh, a CA lying? Whoda thunk it?

At this point, since the CA has broken the payment agreement (I doubt you got it in writing), do not send them another payment. If they call, just keep offering $500 and demand that they send you the agreement in a letter through the US mail (no email, no second worker, no nothing, either we agree now or not). If they do not accept that, politely hang up because you have nothing more to say.

Save up some more money (I would not go more than $900 at this point) in case they sue you. If they do file a lawsuit, you can settle with the attorney just as easily as you can with the CA. In fact, sometimes you are better off getting sued because you might then be dealing with someone who has 2 functioning brain cells and if caught lying, could lose quite a bit more than their job. People get sued all of the time and cases get settled all of the time.

If you want to increase your negotiating power, file an answer to the complain making the attorney think they will have to fight you. That will make them want to settle even more.

[BTO429]

Good ole bait and switch.

 

Just because you attempted to make an offer to settle does not in any way mean you are bound to that discussion. They only way they can say you accepted it as final is to show a signed contract or statement that you agreed to.

 

Tell them to go flip sand and you will continue to pay in payments, if they do not like it tell them to file a law suit and the judge can order you to pay what you can afford which may be even less than what you are paying now.

 

If they sue you could use the collection tactics as a counter claim.

[willingtocope]

From the sound of things, you need to verify a couple of things.  Does this CA represent the original creditor or some junk debt buyer.  If its the OC, call them and verify they are actually getting the money you're sending.  If its a JDB...stop paying...

 

In my opinion...you should never make a deal with a CA...their whole business model is based on lies and half truths.  If you didn't get the agreement in writing, it didn't happen.

[nascar]

Is your monthly payment agreement in writing? Can you prove you've been making the payments as agreed? Does the debt collector whom you've been paying own the debt? If not, who does? Who was your agreement with? Do you know for sure?

 

It is possible, if your debt collector doesn't own the debt, they're about to have the account pulled from them and they want to get as much, as quickly, from you as they can.

 

Regardless who owns the debt, you potentially have a really good defense to any lawsuit. A creditor has a right to demand payment in full when you breach the payment agreement. Likewise, they also have the right to enter into an alternative payment plan that is every bit as binding as the original contract. It's merely considered a modification. Simply put, if you've entered into an alternative payment plan (a modification), you're no longer in breach unless you fail to abide by the modification. The long and short of it is, if you can show you've entered into a valid modification (and it does not necessarily need to be in writing), the creditor or debt collector (whatever the case), is himself breaching the agreement by demanding payment outside the terms of the modification. 

 

That said, depending upon the amount at stake, it may be worth your while to get a consult with an attorney who can explain your rights under the modified contract, and your remedies should the creditor/debt collector breach the agreement by filing suit or refusing to accept the agreed-upon payment.

[debtzapper]

Take Nascar's advice.  I just googled "Indiana consumer lawyer" and here's one I came across.

 

http://www.indianaconsumerlawgroup.com/

 

 

Also, go to www.naca.net

[BTO429]

It has been the practice of collection agencies here in Indiana, for the last few years, to forum shop. They have been filing suits in some of the smaller courts in the smaller towns in the same county. They do this because they have figured out which judges are all for paying your debts regardless of the status of the debt.

 

Some of the smaller courts in this state absolutely do not care about the defendant or their EXCUSES, as the courts have termed it. A couple of judges in the next county from me have been forced from the bench due to inappropriate business dealings and then litigating the case in their own court.

 

Midland has been one of the worst for forum shopping, Asset Acceptance comes in a close second. I am involved in a case right now over a debt that was ancient, 16 years old to be exact, but was listed as a factoring account and a new account was created by the ca and reported to the CRA's. They tried their best to remove it and get it in one of the forums that they like and use continuously, so far I have kept it out of their preferred court and in the court in the town where i live.

 

If it goes to court you have some good defenses. Once a ca makes an agreement and you start making payments they cannot just wake up one day and decide they want it all, that would be a breach of the agreement on their part. You would then have counter claims under breech of contract that would can use. Ca's think they can do as they please, and they do, unless we stand up for our rights, even though those rights are outdated and need to be revised to reflect the current economic conditions. 

[TomnTex]

Next time have a recorder set up and record the call. You should always record them. I would have bluffed them and said thats fine, I have it recorded and I will use that in court.

[BTO429]

if you can show proof that you sent them payments and they accepted it for several payments then you have an implied contract. Breech of contract can net you a pretty good sum. I would go see an attorney if i were you.

[admin]

@knittybear - you need to answer whether or not you have any paperwork.  

[BTO429]

To establish that there was an agreement all the Op would need is his bank statements showing the payments. If they accepted the payments they have accepted an agreement.