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.

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Credit Repair Law Firms? No Thanks!

One of the most famous credit repair law firms is Lexington Law.  Probably the next most famous one is Ovation Law.  There are many others.  I am completely for people utilizing legitimate credit repair companies, but I really take issue with ones like these that have monthly charges.  Also, though they may have started out as really good companies, they have just become big repair mills that don't personalize your disputes.  Also, they are not really "law firms" in the sense that they actually provide "legal services" other than credit repair. They mostly are credit repair companies that pay to use a law firm's or lawyer's name.

When you pay for a service that charges you monthly, you can bet they are going to do things that drag it out so they can keep getting that residual monthly income coming from you.  Most people want to see their credit improved as quickly as possible.  They don't want the service to write letters in a way that gets a "frivolous letter" response from the bureaus.  That can delay progress for months and sometimes, it really blows the opportunity of getting that item removed at all.

There is another thing I really don't like about these types of law firms.  They use "Good Will" letters to try to improve the credit. Why don't I like those?  Well, they are basically "Pay for Delete" letters and I am adamantly opposed to paying to delete bad credit.  Sometimes they delete, but many times, when they don't and you follow up to the bureaus and send in a copy of the agreement to delete, they get stubborn and refuse to take it off.  Sending in a copy of an agreement is like admitting that the negative tradeline is yours.  I don't ever recommending sending proof of an account to the bureaus unless it is a completely clean bit of proof that there were no lates and it was paid off completely.  You have to remember that the burden of proof lies with the creditors, collectors, and the bureaus. If they can't prove something, it has to come off.

Something else I don't like about these "Good Will" and "Pay for Delete" letters, is that you are basically offering to settle with the creditors and collectors.  This is so bad!  Once a trade line is bad, it is always bad. It just becomes a "paid" bad. If its a couple late pays that are making it bad, its best to try to remove the lates, then there's nothing bad. You have to remove the "bad".  Usually this means needing a deletion.  Plus, when you "settle" with one of these types of letters, they have the right to send you a 1099 tax form for the amount you didn't have to pay and then you get to pay taxes on that as if it was income. Not a good thing.

The other thing that I know they do, is to include a "Cease and Desist" to their clients' creditors. That is a very dangerous thing to do.  If it is not a time barred debt (outside of your state's statute of limitations) you are allowing yourself to be put in a position to be sued.  I use a "Limited Cease and Desist" paragraph in my letters.  This is what stops the phone calls to you at home, your cell phone, your work, and anyone you might possibly know that they would try to call.  It forces them to communicate with you in writing only.

I have a lot of second hand experience with these types of credit repair companies.  Second hand because many of my clients, past and present, have used them and came to me afterwards.  It is always the same story.  They've paid for months and months, past a year, spent upwards of $1500 and slim to zero results.   They then have me write letters for them and poof!, all of a sudden they start seeing results.  Credit repair is most successful when it is strategically done and both the creditors/collectors and the bureaus have consumer laws, case laws, and other legal documentation put in front of their faces.

My goal with credit repair is to help people see deletions and improvements as fast as possible.  There is no sense in dragging it out.  If you truly want to help people, then you would want what's best for them.  If you are only interested in making a load of money off of people's bad credit, then you charge them up front and drag it out, month after month, year after year.

Credit repair can be done for yourself.  Hopefully, if you're looking to do this, you will look through the different posts I have here so you can see how to do it most effectively. Credit repair is an undertaking that you have to stay on top of, be consistent, keep records and send disputes that fall within the legal timelines so that you don't accidentally give the bureaus more time to stall and drag their side out as well.  For many people, its just a lot of work they would rather delegate to someone else to do.

If credit repair is something you need, but you just don't want to have to be writing letters all the time, I would love to help you. I provide help completely legally and use many different laws and tools to implore them to remove the bad credit from your reports. Contact me through my email or phone number above anytime if you would like some help with repairing your credit or just need some guidance while you do it yourself.

Challenging Chaudhry v. Gallerizzo From A Collection Agency

If you have been working on repairing your credit and you have sent validation letters to collection agencies, you probably have received or will receive a semi-form letter back saying that they have verified the account and they are correct.  Then they will put in a little modified excerpt from the Chaudrhy v. Gallerizzo case decision to justify their laziness and to deceive you into just accepting their false claim against you.  The modified excerpt looks like this:

"verification of a debt involves nothing more than the debt collector confirming in writing that the debt being demanded is what the creditor is claiming is owed. The debt collector is not required to keep or provide detailed evidence of the alleged debt."

When I see this in a response for one of my clients, I crack up because it just blares out to me that they don't have anything.  You see, the Chaudrhy decision is not about validation with a collection agency!!  They take a small piece of the decision and quote it, but they fail to tell you that it has nothing to do with them, has nothing to do with validation, and further, you didn't request "verification", you requested "Validation" and that is something different.  

Just so you know, the Chaudrhy decision was about legal fees.  The verification of the legal fees was being challenged and the court said that the law firm just had to confirm in writing that the fees they were claiming were the fees that were owed.  Legal fees are not collections, unless it has been assigned or sold to a collector.  Legal fees are fees that the attorney charges for services rendered.  Since when do collectors render services that you "hired" them to perform for you?  I'll answer that for you --> NEVER!!

The best way to challenge this type of letter is to send a follow up letter letting them know that you are not an uninformed idiot and that their feeble attempt at validation doesn't even come close to the legal requirements set forth in the FDCPA and appropriate case law.  I usually use some of that language in my response letters and then I follow up with laws to defend my demand for validation and what is required.  They are in the business of collecting and they are supposed to know the law, yet they are usually fairly ignorant, deceptive to consumers and flagrantly in violation of the law.

Here is a sample of what I put in my letters that you can modify and use against these obnoxious criminals. (Yes, I consider them criminals because they consistently break the law and commit extortion, mail fraud, violation of the RICO Act (racketeering, etc.), and violating both the FDCPA  and FCRA, among other illegal acts.)

 Dear Sirs, (you can put in the name that they may put on their letter or say To Whom it May Concern, what ever is your fancy)

I am in receipt of your letter dated 01/01/13 in which you claim you have verified the account which I am disputing and in which you attempt to quote a portion of the Chaudrhy case decision to justify your response or to attempt to deceive me, or both.  Please understand, your feeble attempt at validation is a joke.  In fact, you claim you verified when I didn't request verification, as we both know that verification is merely requesting that you have the right name, address, account number and original creditor.  Further, your verification doesn't meet the criteria as defined in Black's Law Dictionary which includes being able to testify to the verification under oath.  I Demanded Validation, which you did not provide.

Since  you are supposedly professional collectors, you should be aware that if you fail to validate, you are barred from "verifying" with the bureaus as that is collection activity, which is barred until full validation has been accomplished.  The Chaudrhy case is not about debt collectors and validation, it is about attorneys' fees.  Maybe your incompetence and laziness has prevented you from actually reading the entire case and the entire court decision.

I am requesting from you AGAIN, Validation.  Here is what I want from you:  The alleged contract with both my wet ink signature and your employee's signature establishing that we have agreed to do business together.  Provide proof that at least the four main elements of a contract have been met.  Provide me with the alleged contract between the alleged original creditor and me, and proof that at least the four main elements of a contract have been met.  Provide me with proof that you have the legal right to collect this alleged debt.  Provide a full accounting for the alleged account - all charges, payments, interest accrued, all fees, and the corresponding dates for which every event occurred.  (Spears v. Brennan).  Prove also that this alleged debt is not time barred, or in simpler terms for feeble minds, outside of my state's statute of limitations.

Please be aware that because you put on the bottom of your letter that it was an attempt to collect a debt, you are already in violation of the FDCPA, and until you validate, you are guilty of mail fraud, racketeering, extortion, and a slew of other felony violations of the law.  So, until you fully and legally validate as I have requested, or rather, have demanded from you, you are required by law to cease all collection activity.  Should you fail to validate within ____ days, you are to delete any and all references and reportings of this fraudulent and alleged debt from every credit bureau and or repository to which you have reported it to and you are banned from ever selling or assigning this alleged debt to another collector, as that would be another violation of law by conspiring to harass and extort again, along with other violations of law.

I then go on to quote some samples of collection activity, give them a certain number of days in which to comply with my demand for validation and usually put in a limited cease and desist.  Sometimes I add some more case law to back up my requirements for validation.  I also usually put in there that I am not requesting verification but am demanding validation pursuant to the FDCPA 15 USC 1692g Sec. 809 (b).  Then I end it with a Sincerely, and my client's name.

So, don't be afraid to send another letter challenging their arrogance and deception.  You don't have to be sweet and nice, because, when are they?  And why would you be nice to law breakers?  I don't care if the original debt was actually yours. It doesn't matter anymore.  You don't owe it to the original creditor anymore because they charged it off and got tax credits, got reimbursed from the insurance that they had on it, and they made profit by selling it.  They made money 3 times just in those ways, but they also made money from every dime you paid on it since it was created out of thin air and they never actually lent any real money to you in the first place.

So, fight, fight, fight, and challenge, dispute and challenge some more.  Its your legal right and like I always say,  "just like when you're a defendant in court, the burden of proof is not on you, it is on them."  Make them prove it.  Oh, one last thing.  They can't legally prove it!  If you want to know why, read some of my other posts regarding AmJur and "Subrogation."  You will be pleased with what you learn!

If you have any questions or comments, please hit the comment button below. (I love questions and comments).   I will respond to you.  If you have questions that you don't want to post on here, you can email me.  The link to that is up at the top right of this blog!

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.

Collections, Charge Off Required to Approve Short Sale - Part 2

Here is where I'm going to show you how to remove the collection account you get after the short sale of your house closes. Timing of your response is important. Hopefully, you won't receive the first contact for about 6 months. If it's sooner, then you just start sooner. I say 6 months because that gives plenty of time for the lender to archive the file and not be able to produce what ever the 3rd party collector might try to get from them to validate.

As soon as you get the first letter in the mail, respond with a letter demanding validation. Do this within the first 30 days of receiving the letter. DO NOT SIGN THE LETTER IN YOUR OWN HANDWRITING! Make a copy for your file, send it CMRR and keep the receipt. Look for that green proof of service card to come back to you and keep it in the file.  That's all you will do for now.

If they contact you by phone to collect, you will send them a limited cease and desist letter. This letter tells them that all contact to you must be in writing and not on the phone.  If they call you after you have sent the letter requesting/demanding validation, they have committed one of their first violations worth $1000 to you.  Document the date and time of the call, company name and name of the person, plus title (if they have one) of who called.  Keep this in your file.

Should they send you a bill at this time, they have also committed a violation.  Keep that letter in your file along with the envelope it came in. You want to be able to show that the date you received it is after your demand for validation.  They may attempt to send some kind of validation instead of a typical bill. However, if they claim that you owe it with some kind of print out, it is just a cleverly disguised bill and still  not validation and still a violation.

You next respond to their bill or amateur attempt at validation with another letter. This letter to them will state that though you appreciate their effort, that is not validation and now they have violated the law because what they sent you was collection activity. Let them know that you are documenting everything and that unless they can validate within the next 15 days, they must remove any and all negative reporting and close the account. They must agree that they will not sell the account to any other party and a violation of that will cause them to be liable to a suit you may file.

In order to make this work you will be inserting a self executing contract into the letter.  With this letter, you will include a notice and declaration of fraud against the original creditor. You can actually send this with the first demand for validation you send them.  The reason I like to send it on the second letter is because I like them to rack up the violations, thereby increasing the amount that they will actually owe my clients.

You can actually repeat this process again and tell them last chance, you're feeling a bit generous. Give them another 15 days to respond, on point, hand signed, on letterhead and notarized.  The beauty of this is that you are letting them mount up violations on something they cannot possibly validate!

But this is only half of the plan of action! It gets better. Well better for you, worse for them, and possibly the credit bureaus.  Stay tuned for part 3 where I show you how to get it off your credit report!

Credit Repair and the Cease and Desist Letter

How many times have you had an annoying collector keep bugging you to pay a bill? How do you even know if he has the right to collect or if his information is correct? Usually his infomation is incomplete, at the very least. Most of the times it is incorrect.

Fortunately, though most people don't realize it, consumers have the upper hand when it comes to collectors, most of the time. This is mainly because of the FDCPA - Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. This act outlines how and when a collector can contact you. It also describes what they can say to others when they are trying to locate you (family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc.). But, just because there is a set of laws that they are supposed to adhere to, doesn't mean they follow those laws.

If they are calling you at work, you can tell them you are at work and not allowed to take personal calls there. They are supposed to knock it off at that point. If they are calling you on your cell phone, the same is true. They are supposed to stop if you tell them to. However, most collectors are ignorant and blatantly violate the law. They try to claim that they don't have to stop unless it is in writing, and then if you do that they say they will have no recourse other than to sue you.

These statements are false. There are partial truths to them, but since not completely true, they are false. First, you can tell them verbally to stop if they are contacting you at work or on your cell. Secondly, sueing someone is never the only course of action they can take.

But, to cover your own self, here's how you should handle them. Put it in writing. You must be careful what you say though. You can stop them from calling you on any phone by sending them a "limited" cease and desist. It is limited because it says they can no longer contact you by phone, but they can send all the mail they want. All correspondence should be in writing, if they feel the need to contact you.

Now, there are times when you use a full cease and desist letter. A full cease and desist tells them they may no longer contact you anymore for any reason, at any time, through any method. If you have proof that you have paid an account that they are harrassing you over, send it. If you end up getting sued, make sure you show up for court with your documentation in hand, otherwise, they may end up scamming some more money, plus court costs from you.

Now the second time you use the full cease and desist letter is when the account is absolutely not yours and they have not provided any proof that it is indeed yours. Again, if you get sued, you must go to court and fight. Take with you all copies of letters you have sent to them requesting "validation" and their responses you've received. You must be able to show the court that what they have given you does not constitute proof or full validation as required under the FDCPA.

Now, my favorite, which is a common violation of collectors, is when they attempt to collect a debt that is outside of the statute of limitations (SOL) for your state. The debt is "time barred". Different states have different timetables. California is 4 years. In California, when a debt is out of SOL, all collection activity must cease. California categorizes many actions as collection activity. Calling you or people you may know, writing to you, sending you bills, and even better, reporting to the credit bureaus or verifying with the bureaus. Let them take you to court for this one. "Your honor, this debt is time barred, here is the proof, so therefore these knuckleheads are SOL because of SOL"!!!

Keep copies of EVERYTHING you send the bureaus and collectors. You may need it in court to defend yourself. You Will need it in court if you decide to go after them for monetary damages for violating the law and your rights!

One more thing I like to add when I send a cease and desist letter. I like to tell them that they are not to sell, assign, or give the account to any other party to ever attempt to collect again. I include a hint of a threat to sue if it appears on my credit report again. This is a good way to keep bad debt from recycling over and over again on your credit reports.