July 2008 Moratorium on the on-going ACI/Employee battle. Consumer comments only please.
July 2008
The following are inside collections talk offs and
procedures that will be broken down. Consumers can breathe a
sigh of relief after learning these idle threats or probes
to coerce payment or gain personal information from a place
like ACI. Collectors will be referred to as CA's.
1) If you actually speak to a CA (exercise extreme caution),
their first sentence is typically "what are your
intentions?" That is THEIR PLOY to get you to spill your
guts with reasons you can't pay. Some naive
debtors/consumers will say, "well I am not making enough
money at my job and have nothing left after house and auto
payment." You have just given them three pieces of
ammunition that can be used against you. ACI cannot sue you
but they forward notes of conversations back to their
respective creditor/contractor. Now the creditor knows you
1)are a homeowner 2) own a car 3) are employed. That will
greatly increase the likelihood of a creditor or law firm
suit after ACI exhausts their efforts. As they say, loose
lips sink ships. If you are on SSI. DO NOT FEAR. All
debts with the exceptions being student loans or child
support are NOT GARNISH ABLE if you are on SSI. ACI collects
ONLY UNSECURED DEBTS and it sickens me the way places like
this threaten the elderly with garnishments when it is
AGAINST THE LAW to imply or attempt to garnish SSI checks on
all unsecured debts.
2) "You are in a wage garnish-able state." That in itself is
an FDCPA violation a desperate CA at a place like ACI will
employ to get that dough to pad their bonus check. Any
"IMPLIED THREAT" a place like ACI cannot carry out (ACI has
no authority to sue) is a violation of the FDCPA. The "least
sophisticated consumer standard" is what the judges look at
in FDCPA suits. You likely may know it's a bluff, but
someone from Welch, WV may not and they are the "least
sophisticated consumer standard" which is held to all debtor
initiated FDCPA suits in the eyes of judges.
3) When you stand up to their bullying and refuse to divulge
personal info or give them your checking account, a place
like ACI will commonly say, "collection efforts will
continue." TRANSLATION: This CA knows you won't be bullied
and knows he/she won't be getting paid so he/she dumps your
account out of their file and the flunky sitting next to
them inherits it.
4) "The settlement offer is good through 7/31/08." CA's
bonuses are contingent on present month collections for
immediate bonus check maximization. There are NO SUCH THINGS
as deadlines. It's a false sense of urgency to coerce
immediate payment. If you do have the cash to settle, get
the OFFER IN WRITING. Preferably, propose an offer and ask
them to fax it to you on July 31st (again, you will get most
favorable settlements on the last day of the month as
desperate ACI collectors will go "extra low" just to get
paid.) Bear in mind even if you settle for 25-50 cents on
the dollar, ACI will still profit. These bottom feeders pay
usually between 5 and 10 cents on the dollar to collect your
account from the original creditor. So ACI IS STILL
PROFITTING from your settlement for 25 cents on the dollar.
Therefore, NEVER ACCEPT their first, second or third offer.
If a place like ACI truly had settlement parameters, they'd
offer you one deal and stick to it. EVERYTHING IS
NEGOTIABLE. Bear in mind consumers, you may have to deal
with the IRS when settling. It is mandated agencies and
creditors send a 1099 form to all consumers/debtors if they
settle and save over $600. So if your 20K credit card is
settled for 5K (25 cents on the dollar), you will be getting
a 1099 form in January 2009 requiring you to claim 15K as
"unearned income" on your 2008 taxes. That translates to
owing SEVERAL THOUSAND to Uncle Sam (especially for SINGLE
filers). I think that's a hefty price to pay Uncle Sam
especially if your credit is shot already (the account is
charged off to begin with and you are stuck with it for 6
years at least on your CBR (credit bureau report)). Plus,
lenders view "settlements" as a risky proposition. It shows
current financial trouble and your APR will be much higher
if approved (settling barely makes a dent in your FICO score
(score on your CBR)). Any charge offs paid or not keep you
in that "risk pool" for many years. There's no immediate
rise from 560 FICO to 710 FICO just for settling ONE DEBT.
With these risky propositions, you are better off KEEPING
YOUR MOUTH SHUT unless you absolutely need immediate credit
repair for purposes of financing a home or a car. That is my
personal opinion. Your personal livelihood is better both
short and long-term by getting enough FDCPA violations
recorded and then attempt to get the account reported as PIF
(paid in full) on your CBR as your personal proposition to
avoid taking a place like ACI to court for FDCPA violations.
Agencies will accept that sometimes instead of going to
court and paying you $1000 per violation (especially if your
debt is relatively small to begin with).
June 2008 This is my third and final installment on the collection process at ACI. Mr. Bud Hibbs says to always send a validation request whenever any third party agency sends you a validation notice. When it comes to Law Firms who DO have the ability to issue a court judgment against the debtor, then requesting validation is always recommended. It stalls the process and puts the onus on the firm to validate and buys you some 30-45 days of peace and quiet. Where I respectfully have to challenge Mr. Hibbs is demanding validation on zombie debts from a place like ACI. In my humble opinion of working there, I explained in my last post there are no "in house attorneys" or any "legal department" that has the ability to issue court judgment papers from ACI. When a place like ACI gets a validation request, very often they look at the debtor as "smart" and usually return the account to the creditor. Sometimes when dealing with a debt only 2-3 years without payment, asking a 3rd party agency for validation that doesn't have legal recourses isn't in your best interest(2-3 years about as recent as ACI has to offer collectors to call on). The creditor may get antsy and speed up the lawsuit with foregoing the 3rd party collection process of bouncing the account from A, B and C collection agency. If you KNOW the account is BEYOND the statute of limitations especially no legal action can be taken (usually 3-6 years of nonpayment in most states), a validation notice isn't a good idea. All it does is potentially allow ABC credit card to renew interest in the debtor's account and dig up years of paperwork to put the debtor in the fire. Therefore, again in my humble opinion, it's better to graze in the weeds, KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT and buy 3-6 months of this toothless tiger called ACI (without any legal authority to sue) attempt to contact you. The same goes with cease & desist letters. It may hasten the creditor into filing suit on 2-3 year old debts without payment once again if you request validation or cease and desist from ACI.
1) If your place of employment is called,
yourself or your superior only has to verbally
say "stop calling" and calls have to stop. It's
better to have "the boss" tell the ACI
collector. Why? Because many collectors are
dumber with the FDCPA law than debtors and
believe unless the debtor says it at POE, calls
can continue. Chances are good knowing most
collectors at ACI aren't bonusing that they'll
push the envelope and call again after "your
boss says stop."
2) Knowing for 3 to 6 months they will have your
account without legal recourse against you, have
family members ask "probing questions" about the
call. Again, for that bonus check (especially
with parents of young 20 somethings, collectors
will push the envelope and do 3rd party
disclosure to generate payment from parents or a
call back from debtor.
3) If #1 or #2 takes place, always have record
of conversations in writing with witness
signatures (to use when you take ACI to court).
In addition, pay $30 to Radio Shack instead of
foolishly paying ACI to renew the statute of
limitations and buy a recording device to tape
all calls (check and see if your state allows
you to record a call without debtors consent
(some states do and others don't).
June 2008 To further reiterate to consumers/debtors that may be getting collection calls from ACI, please remember the following. There is no "legal or pre-legal" department for any of the zombie accounts in their portfolio. Zombie debts in their portfolio include Providian credit cards, Chase check systems over draft checking accounts, Chase auto repos, WAMU credit cards, Resurgent judgments and Circuit City. The Resurgent Judgments are the most comical. These are accounts so old that some of them were last paid when Bill Clinton was in office. The way they work is not only are they beyond the statute of limitations, these are accounts where Resurgent Capital is trying to collect on credit cards where the debtor was actually sued and a default judgment was won against the debtor. When a judgment is won, the creditor still has to execute the judgment by going back to court a second time so the debtor under oath must verify employment, banking info etc. In most states, wage garnishment is then enforced through the courts usually. Problem with these accounts is the 2nd step/follow up was never executed and any debtor with a brain knows never to acknowledge owing on accounts this old. ADMITTING to a debt in some cases can potentially renew the statute of limitations. It's not only mailing x amount of dollars that can renew a zombie debt statute of limitations. Regardless, ACI doesn't have the ability to issue court judgments of any sorts against debtors. Their one weapon in their arsenal is "intimidation" and has the power of a spitball if you know the truth about ACI accounts. If you are severely in debt and have an account in ACI, that's actually good news. Why? Because they keep accounts of nonpayment usually between 3 and 6 months before the creditor loses patience and pulls the accounts back to their office. Therefore, at least you know your Providian card, etc. is in no danger of a lawsuit for at least 3 to 6 months. Screen and ignore calls or bait aggressive collectors into an FDCPA suit.
May 2008 I just want to say "thank you" to Bud Hibbs for all the help that he has given me regarding a debt that I had settled with Citifinancial. I received rude and threatening phone calls, and letters from Creditors Financial Group notifying me that I owed the remaining amount settled upon. Mr. Hibbs helped me get rid of these bottom-feeders, as he likes to call them. I never heard from them again. Then, 3 months later, I got a phone call from American Coradius International LLC giving me the same line of crap that I got from CFG. I thought this was over. Apparently, my name is being passed from collection agency to collection agency. So, of course, I turned to Mr. Hibbs once again. He told me what I needed to do. And, again, I got rid of those bottom-feeders too. Thanks to Mr. Hibbs, I didn't get taken. He provided me with all the information that I needed to put an end to this mess. I believe there are people out there going through what I went through not knowing what to do about it. My advice is: "contact Bud Hibbs."
April 2008 I received a call about a Macy's account. I dont remember this debt and tried explaining this. That's when this man went wild! I told him all I wanted was a letter to look over. He screamed your not worth my stamps or licking this envelope. I could hear him slamming things around at his desk. At this point I asked to speak with a supervisor. At first he was refusing to let me speak with someone else. Finally a different man came to the phone. He said his name was Mr. Duggans. I asked for a letter again and explained I was temporally on medical leave. Again I was insulted Mr. Duggans told me if couldn't afford to pay the debt then we could resolve it by my daughter working it off for me. I was shocked and pissed off. That's when I chose to end the call. I highly advise no one to talk with these scum bags, unless that is you enjoy being insulted and having sexual references made toward your daughter.
March 2008 The debt collector informed me that the monthly payments which have be automatically withdrawn from my checking on paydays was not sufficient ($150) per month. she said if i did not pay the balance, they were goint to go into my checking account and take my money on paydays as they knew my pay schedule and that there was nothing i could do, that it was legal for them to do this. She then asked me to post date a check for when my tax return was done and promised not to cash it, she did and i have received several overdrafts and nsf fees from my bank, They told you they were going to rob you if you gave them banking information and you did it anyway. Why?
The website address for American Coradius, Inc. is: http://www.americancoradiusinternational.com/