The North Carolina Bankruptcy Information Blog

“This matter is serious and will cause problems at the job.”

Believe it or not this is exactly what collection representatives from California-based debt collection company, Rincon Debt Management, were asked to tell unassuming Americans each time they attempted to collect on back debts.

But based on a complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission, often the debtor they were trying to pressure didn’t owe any money at all. In many cases either they had already paid back their debts or never had them to begin with. Unfortunately, some of these people were so afraid of the debt collector calls, they sent Rincon money anyway just to make these types of aggressive calls stop coming.…

In this tough economy, it may seem like your creditors are an ever-present part of your life…showing up where and when you least expect, or need, them.  You’re not alone.  It turns out that millions of Americans have fallen behind on paying their bills, and an unfortunate result is that debt collection law firms are now heading to court in record numbers in order to collect.

In addition to this tough economy making past-due debtors out of many Americans, the rise in unprecedented debt collection cases is also being blamed on the wonder of automated debt collection.

According to a new The New York Times article by Andrew Martin, many debt collection law firms are now relying on “computer software to help prepare its cases.…

Sometimes, it may seem like your creditors are an ever-present part of your life…showing up where and when you least expect, or need, them. While options like bankruptcy can stop most creditors cold, in the interim, unsecured creditors, the ones at the bottom of the proverbial food chain, are more likely to be the ones contacting you via phone, sending you letters, and generally harassing you for cash, any cash, where and when they can.
In the first part of the four-part series, “Creating a Barrier to Bill Collectors,” we debunked many unsecured debt collecting strategies. Now, we’ll explore the many ways you can actually use Federal law to stop the harassment altogether.…

In this tough economy, it may seem like your creditors are an ever-present part of your life…showing up where and when you least expect, or need, them. But creditors with real teeth (i.e., car lenders, mortgage holders, and landlords) don’t need to make harassing calls or threaten you in order to get what they want. They can just take your stuff: cars in default, homes in foreclosure, rentals in eviction. While bankruptcy can stop secured creditors cold, in the alternative, unsecured creditors, the ones at the bottom of the proverbial food chain, are more likely to be the ones contacting you via phone, sending you letters, and generally harassing you for cash, any cash, where and when they can.…

It is a good idea to seek out alternatives to bankruptcy when such alternatives are in fact available. As you may have discovered, though, that can be a big “if” to overcome. So what kinds of alternatives are worth the trouble…and what alternatives are not all they are cracked up to be?

Budgeting your money, restructuring your debt, seeking better loans to replace your existing debt and selling valuable assets are all alternatives to consider if they are available to you…but that can be a big “if.” Budgeting your money may be impossible if even basic survival expenses are beyond your means; budgeting is an essential financial skill to master, but in some cases it may be too little, too slow or too late.…

Okay, so this post isn’t exactly keeping with the recent holiday spirit, but it’s a pretty compelling topic given the nature of our blog. And sometimes, it takes extreme colors to paint the right picture.

A Tampa, Florida woman is suing a debt collection company for wrongful death relative to her husband’s 2005 heart failure. Dianne McLeod is charging that the ceaseless and what can rather easily be deemed as remarkably unprofessional phone calls contributed directly to the stress that initiated her husband’s cardiac arrest.

In 2002, not long after her husband had to be airlifted to a hospital because of heart trouble, the following message from an alleged Green Tree Servicing representative was left on the McLeod’s answering machine:

“Stanley McLeod, you need to call Green Tree and get your act together and make your payments on your mortgage and quit playing these games … Why don’t you have that helicopter pick you up and bring that payment to the office?”

Making such a message even more hard to believe is the fact that it was because Stanley could no longer work that contributed to the family’s debt problem.…

When you are dealing with debt collectors, it’s essential to stand up for yourself and remember that your rights are protected by federal law. Debt collectors like to intimidate debtors by making them feel like they play fast and loose with standards of debt repayment. Yet in reality, it is often the debt collectors who play fast and loose with the law. Debt re-aging is a great example of this.

Re-aging a debt is exactly what it sounds like. Debts “go bad” when you stop paying them, and they’re reported on your credit report as having “gone bad,” which adversely affects your credit rating.…

Dealing with debt collectors is no picnic. Despite increased efforts by the government to protect Americans from some of the more questionable debt collection practices, hapless consumers continue to face the rude, callous pestering of debt collectors as they struggle to stay on top of their finances. While the mental distress caused by debt collectors may be no surprise, this case may well present an issue of first impression: Dianne McLeod, a widow residing in Florida, is suing her mortgage company, Green Tree Servicing, for her husband’s wrongful death. In the suit, McLeod alleges that the illegal practices of Green Tree’s collectors led to her husband’s untimely death of heart failure at the age of 57.…

Sometimes debt collection can have a humorous side. Usually, it shows itself when the collection is happening to someone else. Schadenfreude aside, here are some collection agent slip-ups that AOL gathered from a number of their users. See if you can’t relate to some of their situations.

• A family who runs a retail business was disputing an invoice that showed they owed double their original order for supplies. Turns out, a sales rep had inadvertently doubled their order. The timing was terrible, as the rep soon after left on maternity leave and the company stated only she could repair the mistake.

…

In this age of near double digit job loss, devious credit card practices, multiple industry collapses, and out of control government spending that promises a future of oppressive taxation, it’s a wonder anyone is still able to keep his head above water. More and more people are now realizing that they are at the helms of rapidly sinking ships. What’s astonishing is that amidst all the dour economic predictions, people are still finding the will and strength to try to rise above the bad luck, poor decisions, or whatever put them in dire financial straits and get back on solid footing again.…