Have any experience with collection agancies? Please share.

[dud]

Cliff notes:

- Kid (20) opens a cell-phone account. company OKs account even though he has no credit.
- Kid pays first month's bill on-time.
- kid adds "friends" to account (horrible decision) ... cell company allows it.
- Within 2 months bill goes up exponentially.
- Cell company closes account after only 3 months leaving kid with 4-figure cell bill.
- Kid has no money.


I've talked to the cell company but they were no help. Apparently the debt has been sold off and they gave me a number to a collection agency. My question is how successful can one be in reducing a debt? The current debt is over half fees with very little billed against actual usage.

Anyone successfully )or not) been able to do this? Any advice?


Thanks.

 

[newnameman]

Kid should pay his bills.

 

[xSauronx]

the only way they will likely let you lower it is by paying a lump sum that will be a significant percentage of the total amount owed. otherwise theyll want to schedule payments on a monthly basis.

do not let them draft from your checking account or keep any account information on file. tape any conversations you have. require that any payment agreement plans are sent IN THE MAIL (they are legally supposed to do this, but wont if you dont push for it)

if they begin to harass you on the phone there is the option of writing them telling them that they may no longer call, but that doesnt not void the debt, just means they have to (legally) stop calling or they can be taken to court. they can send mail, and regardless of whether or not youshow or not, they can take you to court and garnish wages to cover the debt and then your SOL.

i have notes on this somewhere that i took from a credit forum, so thats just off the top of my head. if you can afford to pay them a lump sum, do it, and hold your kid by the balls for it. if your kid is a brat and will just take advantage of that, tell him to suck it up and prepare to make monthly payments until the debt is resolved.

edit: for some reason i assumed when you say kid, its your kid, else....well everything applies except where i suggested you pay. either way, kid is a moron and his friends are assholes.

 

[Nik]

Pretty successful, actually. First, slap the shit out of your dumbass kid. Second, do not contact the debt collector outside of writing and state in your first communication that you wish only to communicate via writing. DO NOT GIVE THE DEBT COLLECTOR ANY IDENTIFYING OR PERSONAL INFORMATION THAT THEY DO NOT ALREADY HAVE. Do not admit to owning the debt before they can absolutely prove that he owes it. Always mail your communications with some sort of tracking or delivery confirmation. Keep copies of everything you send. Third, challenge the debt. Ask the debt collector for a record of the debt owed so you can review it. If the debt collector doesn't have the address right or the name right or there's a mix up in even 1 number in the SSN or an incorrect address or something, you can challenge the debt in court and potentially have it wiped clean because they can't keep proper records (sometimes it gets garbled or lost or otherwise fucked up in the transfer between cell company and debt collector) and can't prove it's your kid they should be going after, etc. Look for mistakes. Fourth, if the identifying information is correct, negotiate. Debt collectors buy debt for literally pennies on the dollar. Your son may have racked up a four digit debt, but it's entirely possible that the debt collector paid two digits for his debt and anything above what they pay is pure profit. Many debt collectors are willing to settle for much much less than what is owed because even 30 cents on the dollar can still be a profit for them in many cases. Some of them may even completely remove the mark against his credit report if paid in full or close to it, so make sure part of your negotiation involves a pay-to-remove request of some kind. Settle on the final bill, make payments on time, and slap the shit out of your dumbass kid again for good measure.

 

[boomerang]

I'm curious what you feel your child will learn from the experience after you fix this up for him. I'm thinking what he'll learn is that Dad will bail him out when he does something stupid.

You've gotten some good advice here, but he's the one that should be doing it, not you.

If my reply pisses you off, so be it.

 

[DaWhim]

wow.....I guess you can neg down to maybe 50 cents on a dollar or lower depends how good you are. go to creditboard and there are a lot of resources you can get from those experts on neg debts.

I wouldn't offer you any advice, just read it up there. There are a lot of information I don't even know what I can tell you.

http://www.creditboards.com/forums/ <--I can see you spending next few hours just reading what is on there. good luck.

 

[Baked]

20 year old is no child. Cut him the fuck off and let him deal with it on his own like a man. Anything you do, don't pussy out and pay the bill for him. Anyone with a 4 figure cell phone bill should be legally certified as retarded.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

You're not doing him any favors by helping him. He's your kid and all but he's 20 and it's time to take responsibility for his actions. I got into credit issues when I was around his age, and it made me a more conservative spender.
You need to tell him to get off his ass and figure out his way out of this on his own.

 

[CountZero]

Just a quick note that in some states it is illegal to record the phone call without consent even if they say they are recording you also might need to disclose you are recording it.

For the one and only time I did it they agreed to being recorded and I had zero issues with them. I got the debt reduced by ~50% but it was lump sum as I recall my options were single reduced payment or monthly payments adding up to the full amount.

If you are helping your son out financially at least make him take care of the call. Give him the terms you are willing to deal with him on and make him take care of it from there. While you aren't helping him be responsible the sooner it is paid the sooner the seven years it takes to drop off his report can begin.

 

[CRXican]

your son is a dud

 

[mallik]

Originally posted by: dud
Cliff notes:

- Kid (20) opens a cell-phone account. company OKs account even though he has no credit.
- Kid pays first month's bill on-time.
- kid adds "friends" to account (horrible decision) ... cell company allows it.
- Within 2 months bill goes up exponentially.
- Cell company closes account after only 3 months leaving kid with 4-figure cell bill.
- Kid has no money.

I was just wondering, what does this mean and how does it result in the bill going up exponentially?

 

[wiredspider]

Originally posted by: mallik

Originally posted by: dud
Cliff notes:

- Kid (20) opens a cell-phone account. company OKs account even though he has no credit.
- Kid pays first month's bill on-time.
- kid adds "friends" to account (horrible decision) ... cell company allows it.
- Within 2 months bill goes up exponentially.
- Cell company closes account after only 3 months leaving kid with 4-figure cell bill.
- Kid has no money.

I was just wondering, what does this mean and how does it result in the bill going up exponentially?

Add additional lines to account, the friends "promise" to pay him, but end up running up the bill with overages/data/downloads/etc and do not pay as promised.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Originally posted by: Baked
20 year old is no child. Cut him the fuck off and let him deal with it on his own like a man. Anything you do, don't pussy out and pay the bill for him. Anyone with a 4 figure cell phone bill should be legally certified as retarded.

No joke. I've held a (28-40hr) job, worked and played sports since I was 16. I'm 21 now and coming up with 1-2K is NOT difficult. Make him get a part time job for a few months.

That cell phone bill is FUCKING HUGE. It's his dumb mistake, not yours.

 

[XZeroII]

Originally posted by: Scholzpdx

Originally posted by: Baked
20 year old is no child. Cut him the fuck off and let him deal with it on his own like a man. Anything you do, don't pussy out and pay the bill for him. Anyone with a 4 figure cell phone bill should be legally certified as retarded.

No joke. I've held a (28-40hr) job, worked and played sports since I was 16. I'm 21 now and coming up with 1-2K is NOT difficult. Make him get a part time job for a few months.

That cell phone bill is FUCKING HUGE. It's his dumb mistake, not yours.

No crap. Let him suffer for his stupidity.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: CountZero
Just a quick note that in some states it is illegal to record the phone call without consent even if they say they are recording you also might need to disclose you are recording it.

i thought that was pertinent only in a court of law. if they say something on the phone and he records and they change their story, he can cal them on the BS.

easier, or at least better, to just write a letter cutting off phone contact and have it ALL in writing, as has been suggested, since its really a legal matter.

 

[LifesABeta]

Wow even if it's $1000, there's some serious mis-management going on, that's enough to pay my phone bill for the ENTIRE YEAR. He wouldn't even need a job, i'm sure he has $1000 worth of stuff that can be sold, he could do side jobs, buy and resell shit... it's not that hard to come up with that amount of money in a month.

 

[mallik]

Originally posted by: wiredspider

Originally posted by: mallik

Originally posted by: dud
Cliff notes:

- Kid (20) opens a cell-phone account. company OKs account even though he has no credit.
- Kid pays first month's bill on-time.
- kid adds "friends" to account (horrible decision) ... cell company allows it.
- Within 2 months bill goes up exponentially.
- Cell company closes account after only 3 months leaving kid with 4-figure cell bill.
- Kid has no money.

I was just wondering, what does this mean and how does it result in the bill going up exponentially?

Add additional lines to account, the friends "promise" to pay him, but end up running up the bill with overages/data/downloads/etc and do not pay as promised.

Ah I see, thanks. I thought it meant one of those "fav 5" things. I assume there is some kind of deal by doing this. What is the benefit to the kid?

 

[rockyct]

Wow, you're kid is an idiot. I'm not sure I'd really help him if he hasn't learned anything about debt.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: mallik

Originally posted by: wiredspider

Originally posted by: mallik

Originally posted by: dud
Cliff notes:

- Kid (20) opens a cell-phone account. company OKs account even though he has no credit.
- Kid pays first month's bill on-time.
- kid adds "friends" to account (horrible decision) ... cell company allows it.
- Within 2 months bill goes up exponentially.
- Cell company closes account after only 3 months leaving kid with 4-figure cell bill.
- Kid has no money.

I was just wondering, what does this mean and how does it result in the bill going up exponentially?

Add additional lines to account, the friends "promise" to pay him, but end up running up the bill with overages/data/downloads/etc and do not pay as promised.

Ah I see, thanks. I thought it meant one of those "fav 5" things. I assume there is some kind of deal by doing this. What is the benefit to the kid?

there probably wasnt any deal of benfit, his friends probably asked "yo, can you let me get on your plan so i can get a phone?" and they fucked it up.

my sis worked for US Cellular and had 7 people on her account at one point. me, her, both our brother and 3 other people, and never had any issues, and she was 21 or 22 at the time. her work plan just gave her an absurd amount of minutes and bonuses anyway, and she barely used all that time, so she shared and let people get on her plan for cheap.

 

[CountZero]

Originally posted by: xSauronx

Originally posted by: CountZero
Just a quick note that in some states it is illegal to record the phone call without consent even if they say they are recording you also might need to disclose you are recording it.

i thought that was pertinent only in a court of law. if they say something on the phone and he records and they change their story, he can cal them on the BS.

easier, or at least better, to just write a letter cutting off phone contact and have it ALL in writing, as has been suggested, since its really a legal matter.

He can call them on it but he'd have zero legal recourse and if they were jackasses they could press charges. The laws vary state to state. The thing I can't recall is whether its the law of where you are calling from or to that mattered. In any case even after the recorded phone call I insisted on a written statement outlining everything and only then did I pay.

And you are more or less correct, if they won't let you record go to written correspondence only. They aren't all scum but if you assume they are it'll make life easier.

 

[Vinny N]

Originally posted by: DaWhim
wow.....I guess you can neg down to maybe 50 cents on a dollar or lower depends how good you are. go to creditboard and there are a lot of resources you can get from those experts on neg debts.

I wouldn't offer you any advice, just read it up there. There are a lot of information I don't even know what I can tell you.

http://www.creditboards.com/forums/ <--I can see you spending next few hours just reading what is on there. good luck.

QFT. Creditboards is the best bet.

From what I've read there, they'll probably recommend:
-Written correspondence only
-Send a Dispute & Validate
-If it comes back validated, then request a Pay for Delete