How To Stop Collectors and Creditors From Calling You

One of the most annoying things about having bad credit is getting phone calls from creditors and collectors.  You don't have to put up with it.  There is a very simple way to make the phone calls stop.  To do this, you send them a very simple letter called a "Cease and Desist" letter.

Now, you want to be careful here.  You don't want to send a "Full Cease and Desist" letter to everyone that is harassing you with those bothersome phone calls.  If you do, and you allegedly owe them a lot of money, then they will have no choice but to sue you.  So, instead, you will need to send them a "Limited Cease and Desist" letter.

The difference between the two letters is that the "Full" version stops them from contacting you at all, in any way, shape or form.  The "Limited" version stops them from calling you. The "Limited" version is what you are going to need to use most of the time.  Now, it does work, but you have to realize that if the calls keep coming, its because of one of two things. One, they don't care if they break the law, or two, they stop but they sell the alleged account to another bloodsucker and that collection company starts bugging you on the phone. 

Sometimes original creditors will claim that they have the right to contact you by phone, but they absolutely do NOT if you send them the "Limited Cease and Desist" letter.  You can tell them by phone but you will always need to follow up immediately in writing.  You can send it by fax if you have their fax number, or by email if you have that, but sending it by mail is best, and always with Certified Mail, Return Receipt.  That way, they know you are not messing around.

The only time I recommend sending the "Full Cease and Desist" letter is when the alleged account is absolutely outside of the Statute of Limitations for your state.  Even if it is a 3rd party collector that is calling, and you know if you've read much of this blog that they do not have any rights to collect anything to you, you must cover your you know what with them and not use it unless it is Time-Barred or it is so little of an alleged amount that it is not profitable for them to sue you.  Though its not profitable for them to sue you for a couple hundred dollars, they may tack on all kinds of legal fees, collection fees and court costs, to drive the price up and make it worth their while.  Also, make sure you have the documented proof that it is outside of your state's Statute of Limitations when you send them the "Full" version.

I include the "Limited" version on all letters that I write for my clients. It is the last paragraph on my demand for validation letters.  I modified it from the basic ones you find on the internet because I wanted to cover every single possible phone contact they could dream up.  Occasionally I use the "Full" version as well.  Now, I generally use this in a follow up letter to them when I know the Statute of Limitations has been reached and I know they know it, and they are still being annoying.  My "Full" version is not your typical one you find online either.  It is actually several paragraphs long because I put extra stuff on there to again attempt to force them to get their crap off the credit report.

Here are the two versions I wrote and use:

Limited Cease and Desist

I am requesting, in writing, that no telephone contact be made by your offices to my home, my cell phone, my place of employment, any friends, acquaintances, or family members. If your offices attempt telephone communication with me or people I may work for or know, it will be considered harassment and I will have no choice but to file suit. All communications with me MUST be done in writing and sent to the address noted in this letter. 

Full Cease and Desist

You are hereby notified under provisions of Public Laws 95-109 and 99-361, also known as the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, that your services are not accepted and I refuse to contract with you. You and your organization must CEASE & DESIST all attempts to collect the above alleged debt. Failure to comply with this law will result in my immediately filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and my state Attorney General's office. I will also pursue all criminal and civil claims against you and your company.

Furthermore, if any negative information is not removed from my credit bureau reports, or placed on my credit bureau reports by your company after receipt of this notice, I will have just cause to file suit against you and your organization, both personally and corporately, to seek any and all legal remedies available to me by law.

Please be aware that any telephone communications with me will be recorded for use against you in a court of law.  Your use of the telephone with me constitutes your agreement to my recording any and every communication from you via a telephone.

One more thing. If you can remember to do this, it can really benefit you.  Keep a journal or notepad that tracks all calls you receive. Note the company name, person who called, if it was a recorded message, the phone number, date and time of call, and the date you sent a "Cease and Desist" letter to them.

This is important because when you write to them, you will state every time they have called you.  You will remind them that you already sent a "C&D" to them on what date and you have the green certified receipt that they received and signed for it on whatever date. You may want to send them a bill charging them $1000 for every single call they made to you, another $1000 for every time they called your cell phone, $5000 every time they used a "Robodialer" and you have documented everything and have proof.  These are FTC and FDCPA violations. You could even offer them a settlement for their abusive practices to avoid being sued by you. Of course, your settlement conditions would include that they remove any trace of the alleged account from every credit report they furnished the bogus information to.

Good luck on your credit repair journey. As always, if you would like me to help you, I would love to be of assistance.  My contact information is up at the top, on the right.  If you leave a comment requesting help, please make sure you put your email in there so I can respond to you more effectively.

If you have found this blog helpful to you, please consider donating as a sign of your appreciation for information I have freely given to you.  The "Donate" button is on the right side bar.  Thank you for your generosity.

How to Write Follow Up Letters For A Medical Collector's Validation Response

On my last post, I had already written so much that I thought it would be good to address the follow up letters you need to send when you get a supposed validation response for a medical collection in another blog post. Collectors, whether standard alleged debts or medical, have to comply with the FDCPA and also the laws that many states have that mirror the FDCPA.  But, medical collectors also have to comply with HIPAA. That is the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act.

First of all, when you demand validation from a collector for an alleged medical debt, you really should be altering your letter a bit.  Medical providers have to comply with very strict HIPAA regulations. HIPAA governs the privacy of medical information. Failure to comply with, or committing violations of HIPAA, come with stiff penalties and even jail time.  This set of laws isn't playing around.  When you demand validation for medical collections, you need to use HIPAA to your advantage.

Medical collections are most of the time actions of 3rd party collectors.  It is very uncommon to have collections from the actual medical provider.  They are in the business of medical stuff, not collections. They have billing and accounts receivable departments, but they usually turn accounts that are not paid for in 30 - 90 days over to a collection company immediately after that time has passed.  That is wonderful for you. 

I'm not saying you shouldn't be taking care of your medical bills, but really, who has that kind of money laying around?  If you don't have insurance or you do but they are slow to take care of their part, it affects your credit, and they don't give you time to make payment arrangements usually. No, they let the 3rd party collection companies do that.  Well, you know how I feel about 3rd party collectors - you don't owe them a dime!

I hate 3rd party collectors, and the 3rd party medical collectors really turn my stomach.  Here's why.  I'm in real estate. You have a property that you listed or you have a buyer that finally got his offer accepted and you're on the final stretch in escrow.  The buyer has been approved for a loan, credit is fine, no collections that have to be paid, then...out of nowhere, on the final credit pull by the lender prior to funding...OH CRAP!!!! There's a brand new medical collection that is super old, reporting on the credit report and its screwing up the score and it has to be paid and removed or this deal goes south!

YES, THAT'S WHAT THESE BLOOD SUCKERS DO!  They monitor or ping, or somehow find out someone is buying a house and they know that people will pay even old, time barred debts so that they can finally buy their house. These 3rd party collectors are unscrupulous, low life, law breaking, scum of the earth pricks that will do ANYTHING for money!  Okay, you get the idea, I really can't stand them!

Let's take a look at the types of responses you may get from medical collectors. The first one, and the main one I like, is the letter that straight out says they are discontinuing collection efforts and sending it back to the original creditor.  That is such a beautiful thing to see.  Sometimes they will even state in the letter that they are removing all entries of it from your credit reports.  You will still need to send a dispute letter to the bureaus to make sure that they take it off.  If it doesn't come off, send another dispute to the bureaus with a copy of the letter that the collector sent you stating that they are removing it. That should definitely make it go away.

The next type of response is very similar to other types of collections.  They say they have investigated and they are reporting correctly.  That is NOT validation!  That is HEARSAY! Sometimes when they address their response, they call it your request for "Verification."  You did NOT ask them for Verification, you asked them for Validation.  Validation is forwarding copies of the actual proof of the alleged debt and alleged account.  Verification is being willing to testify under oath that they have the documents on hand, know everything that has ever transpired on the alleged account, and testifying that everything that is reported is 100% accurate.  Your follow up letter tells them what I just said.  Hold them to it, call them on it (in writing, not on the phone), and never acknowledge the alleged debt or alleged account.  It is their job to prove it.

The next type of response is also very similar to other types of collections. They may respond just like the previous example, but they include a printed statement from the original creditor. Sometimes it will be a copy of your signature agreeing to be responsible.  Sometimes you can tell that they copy/pasted the signature.  That is still not validation.  That is a paper saying that you agree to be responsible for the services, but it is not a contract between you and them.  Where is that?  Where is the full accounting?  Where is the contract showing that they have been given the right to collect on the alleged debt from the original creditor?  They don't send those because they don't have it.  And if they give the full accounting, well, you've got them on HIPAA violations really strongly.

The next type of response is my second favorite response.  It is the one where they send a full accounting from the medical provider.  It has medical procedures, medications, supplies, you name it.  It has HIPAA violation written all over it! You see, that is your information that is supposed to be very private. They are never supposed to come in contact with that kind of paperwork.  This is the one where your response letter really gets to go after them and ream them good. Here's some of the stuff I tell them when I see those:

• They committed a Level 3 HIPAA violation that comes with not just financial penalties but can also get them up to 10 years of jail time.  A Level 3 HIPAA violation is "an offense committed with the intent to sell, transfer, or use individually identifiable health information for commercial advantage, gain or malicious harm.
• They are in violation of Subtitle D of ARRA Sec. 13401 (Application of Security Provisions and Penalties to Business Associates of Covered Entities) 
• They are in violation of Subtitle D of ARRA Section 13407(1) - (Breach of Security).
• The last 2 can hold them liable for penalties under the HITECH Act.
• They will be in clear violation of HIPAA (..."no permissible business purpose in divulging protected health information to anyone on an account") should they ever inquire, report, update or verify anything on the credit report

ARRA is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which gave stimulus monies to the health care industries for IT resources. HITECH is Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health. HITECH is Title XIII of ARRA. They have a lot to do with health and medical information being maintained and communicated through technological means. Think - filing and maintaining these very sensitive files online or on computers.  

Now, another thing I look for in their responses, is if they have dates of the original bills or services.  Many times, you will find that they are outside the Statute of Limitations for your state.  You can hit them with that as well.

One thing I ALWAYS include in my responses to the 3rd party medical collector, is the fact that since they are 3rd party, they have no rights to collect anything from the alleged debtor since there is no way they can prove they were on any original contract.  I always hit them with 73 AmJur, 2nd, Section 90.  They have no right to "subrogate" (substitute) themselves into a contract, whether it is by purchase, assignment, transfer, or trade. If they "bought" the debt, they did it on their own behalf, not at the request of any alleged debtor, and therefore are a "stranger to the transaction" (voluntary payee).

One of the final things I put in the letters to these vultures that clearly violate HIPAA, is that if they refuse to delete all information they furnished to any and all credit bureaus, and they do not destroy any information about any alleged account they claim to have with me, to prevent them from pursuing any more collection activity against me, and that should they sell, assign, transfer or trade the alleged account to some other entity to attempt collection, I will file a formal complaint to the DHHS OCR against them. (Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights).

I like to hit them hard, throw the law at them and give a call to action - to get rid of it, get it off the credit report and never pull this with me again or allow some other 3rd party scumbag to attempt to mess with me either.  You can do the same.  Use the laws you find to go after them. Put the laws in their face. Its a game.  Defense is always important, but its your offense that wins the game!  Be strong. Be knowledgeable. Don't be intimidated! 

I love credit repair. I love writing. I love helping people. I love winning!  If you don't love writing, don't like research, don't look forward to repairing your credit on your own, but you want to fight, you want a chance to win the credit repair game, please call or email me.  My contact info is up at the top on the right side. I would like to help you!

If you have found this blog helpful to you, please consider donating as a sign of your appreciation for information I have freely given to you.  The "Donate" button is on the right side bar.  Thank you for your generosity.

How To Write Follow Up Letters When Collectors Claim To Validate

Today I'm going to explain how you are to follow up and send a second letter to a collector (could be an original creditor) who responded and sent what they claim to be validation. In all reality, if you ask the questions and request the production of documents I ask for, you will know that they didn't validate. I'm going to give you examples of the junk they send claiming validation. Well, usually, they claim to have "verified", but, that's not what you asked for now, was it?  You demanded validation.

Validation is "PROOF" from creditors and collectors, and Verification is used with credit bureaus. Not the same thing.  According to Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Ed., 1990, Verification is:

"Confirmation of correctness, truth, or authenticity, by affidavit, oath, or deposition. Affidavit of truth of matter stated and object of verification is to assure good faith in averments or statements of party."

What this is saying is that whoever claims to verify is willing to testify in a court of law that information they furnished is 100% accurate, truthful, and they have 1st hand knowledge of all that has transpired for that alleged debt or alleged account.  How can they be sure what they think they are right about is right unless they personally know it?  Who on earth actually knows the truth about your accounts or your debts other than you?  You are the ONLY one who has 1st hand knowledge.

Here is a typical response from both original creditors and collectors that send a letter and nothing else:  "We've investigated this account and found that we are reporting accurately."   Does that look like validation to you?  That's hearsay!  Where is the proof?  That's what your response letter will say to them.  

Dear Dummy Collector,

Thanks for taking the time to waste paper and postage on your response to my demand for validation.  How about if I send you a bill and just say, "yep, I got it right, you owe me." Do you think that would stand up in a court of law?  I highly doubt it. I asked you for proof, not hearsay, not more of your lies.  Send the proof I requested or go pound sand.

Okay, so I don't always say it just like that but seriously, claiming something is accurate is lazy and weak. Its not validation.

Here's another response you might see.  They send you a letter back claiming verification or validation and send you an old bill, probably the last month of an account that was getting ready to be charged off.  The bill might even say on it "Noncollectable Account." That is NOT validation.  Its an old bill that has  your name on it, possibly your address on it, but hmm, does it have a signature on it?  Is it a contract?  Its just a piece of paper that makes a claim but has no teeth in it.  I love getting these because they do several things usually.  They prove that whoever is trying to collect is a 3rd party collector. They prove that they don't have much in their file to come close to validation. And my favorite, as long as you are not in a state with an idiotic statute of limitations like 10 years or so, many times you will see that it is an old bill that is Time Barred!  Got to love it!

Dear Dummy Collector,

Thanks for digging into your archives to come up with a useless paper claiming to have provided proof that I owe you something.  You're not even close.  I can create one of these too with your company name as the alleged debtor on it pretty easily as well.  However, sending me some paper with what appears to be my name is not validation, nor is it proof.  Do you know how many people out there have a name similar to mine? There's no signature, its not a contract, one of the things I told you to provide, and lookie there...that paper you sent is outside my state's statute of limitations.  Now, if this is all you have, then buh-bye! By the way, since you haven't validated and you only have stuff that appears to be time barred, you had better get that crap off my credit report before I sue you in Federal court for FDCPA and FCRA violations.   

Now, a response that really looks like they validated.  They sent a Contract with Your Signature on it!  Is that validation? Nope!  Not full validation.  One of the things I request in my demands for validation is a full accounting.  I want to see every charge, every payment, interest accrued, late charges, legitimate fees, and it must include the dates every charge, change, or event occurred.  Case law for that is (Spears v. Brennan). That's not where I stop though. You'll see in my sample response below how to go after them.

Dear Dummy Original Creditor,

Thanks for sending me what looks to be a contract. It appears that you are trying to validate but you have yet to fully and lawfully do so.  Remember I also told you that I needed a full accounting - Spears v. Brennan style?  Where is that? You must have forgot to include that.  Oh, this contract you sent, I suppose it says I'll pay back what I spend, but are you saying I spent credit? Is that what you allegedly lent me?  I see you are a bank.  You do know that its against the law for banks to lend credit don't you?  If you say that you (or the original creditor) lent credit, then there is no valid contract, in fact, it means that any alleged contract we supposedly had is actually a VOID contract, completely unenforceable since it was created illegally.  

Now, if you say that you actually lent me money, well that's a different story now isn't it?  If you lent me money, then please provide the source of funds you allegedly lent me.  Because you know, being a bank and all, it is unlawful for banks to lend money from their own assets, and its unlawful for them to lend their depositors' money or assets.  So which was it?  Should I answer for you?  

I found out what you did, and you know what?  What I found out proves that you violated Regulation Z - you know, the Truth in Lending Act! Shame on you for not being truthful.  You created money out of thin air.  Well, maybe not thin air, but sort of.  Its a con game. You used my signature on a promissory note (the alleged contract) and illegally converted it into a security instrument and sold it. That alleged note did not belong to you and I did not give you the right to sell it.  You also insured it.  You have illegally received monies for something you sold that belonged to me and did not give me the money for it. 

You need to prove what I'm saying is wrong or you need to delete this from my credit reports immediately and destroy all evidence of this fraudulent alleged debt/account.  You don't have a valid contract with me - you can't even prove the 4 basic elements that create a valid contract -not with a violation of Reg Z and not when you allegedly lent money or credit unlawfully.  I don't owe any alleged debt when you committed fraud. You rendered everything void from its alleged creation. 

There is another type of alleged debt that is very common that you will want to get off your credit reports.  It is the medical collection. This post is very long already so I'm going to do another post for that one.  They have additional laws to abide by and I will show you how to use those laws to stop their collection efforts and delete their information from your credit reports.

I hope I've helped you look at their responses better.  Don't let them intimidate you and don't let them fool you into thinking that because they say they've validated or verified or that their records are correct, that it is so.  They are trained to get money from you.  Its all about the money.  Its not about being responsible. Its not about some moral need to fulfill an obligation. Its about MONEY! Your money, and they want every little bit they can squeeze from you regardless of fraud, regardless of the fact that they don't have valid contracts with you or in the case of 3rd party collections, no contract at all.

Keep fighting, keep learning, keep beating them!  If you need help fighting back, I'd love to help you.  Just use the contact information up at the top on the right side.  My email address and my phone number are there.  Use either one, use both.  I answer the phone and I respond to emails.  I'm here for you and I look forward to helping you successfully improve your credit! 

If you have found this blog helpful to you, please consider donating as a sign of your appreciation for information I have freely given to you.  The "Donate" button is on the right side bar.  Thank you for your generosity.

Will Paying Off Old Collections and Judgments Improve My Credit Score?

One question I get asked a lot is "Will paying off old collections help or improve my credit score?"  The answer to this is No!


Oh, you want an explanation?  Okay, here it is.  If you've read some of my old posts, you'll know that I often say, once bad, always bad.  In other words, if you have a bad trade line or bad credit entry on your report, especially from a collection company, whether you pay it or not it is bad.  If you pay it, it is just a paid bad credit entry.  So, you don't want to pay it, you want to get it removed.

What if you feel like you have a moral responsibility to pay the debt?  My suggestion, get therapy and get over it!  Okay, I'm kind of kidding.  But think about it.  If its a collection company, did you sign a contract with them - uh, nooooo.  You don't sign a contract and set up accounts with collection companies, they buy old bad alleged debts and then try to make you think you owe them.  But you don't owe them.  You NEVER owe them.

Did you watch the video about how loans and credit really work? I love that video.  He makes it so clear.  First of all, banks and creditors don't lend money. They create it with a few strokes on a keyboard.  They don't lend credit - well, actually they do, but that is illegal.  It is fraud and they get away with it all the time because these different entities have brainwashed and manipulated your thinking to make you believe you actually owe money that was never lent to you.  

Besides the fact that none of these creditors every really lend any money to anyone, they insure this made up debt and after 3 months of no payment, they put in a claim for insurance monies and at 6 months, they charge it off and take tax credits as well.  So, how are they hurt? Oh, well, they get hurt in that they didn't make as much of an obscene profit as they were hoping for, but, they still got money from you that you didn't really owe and they got interest for money they never lent, and they got tax credits and they got insurance monies.  

What did you get in return? You got to buy something with credit collateralized by your signature, which they insured and sold many times over and never applied the money they got from the sale of your promissory note to the phony baloney credit you used. You got harassment and credit dings, and higher interest rates and extra exorbitant fees. You probably got denied credit.  Wow, now there's mutual consideration and fair trade.  What you actually got is a void contract that they never disclosed to you, that they actually had no right and have no right to receive any money from you.

So, what good comes of paying collections or judgments? Well, if you're trying to get a loan or some new credit, the lenders/creditors like that you pay your alleged debts. But your score doesn't really go up too noticeably.  It may go up a little bit when you pay off a judgment because it really helps your debt to credit ratio.  But, what you may not realize is that when you pay these old, alleged debts, it resets your date of last activity (DLA) and that's like fresh bad credit and then you get to fight with the bureaus for another 7 to 10 years to get the crap off.

Oh, and paying off accounts with a settlement agreement.  Should I even go there? That makes me want to scream!  If you pay off an alleged debt with a settled, less than full payment, you know what you get for that moral decision?  You get a new DLA on your credit report and you get a form 1099-C to pay taxes on cancelled debt. Yes, taxes on the magic money that the creditors already got a tax break and big fat insurance bonus on. And you get a lower credit score because you didn't pay in full, as agreed. And, since it was probably already a bad debt, now you have a paid bad debt.

Do you see why I don't like the idea of paying off these old alleged debts?  Judgments, sometimes you just don't have a choice because they put liens and garnishments on you. The best thing to do before you get a judgment, is to set yourself up with some asset protection to block them from getting anything from you.  Then, in 10 years, most likely they are not going to renew the judgment and you're good to go. If you've already had a judgment put against you and your wages have been garnished or you've paid it already, make sure you get that notice of satisfaction and make sure they record that with the courts or they will be screwing you over on your credit for many years to come.

If your credit has these negative trade lines, bad credit, derogatory credit entries and you are ready to fight but need some help, please email or call me.  If you don't fight back and if you don't try to repair your credit reports, they will just stay bad.  Collectors, creditors and the bureaus will not go out of their way to remove old bad credit on their own most of the time. It is up to you to make them do it. I would love to help you get your credit back to when it was looking much prettier.  My contact information is up at the top on the right. Please call me or email me so I can help you get started.