Sickness & Debt

[Howarde]

What is the name of your state? California

Several credit card debts overwhelmed me when age (I'm a veteran of WWII) and some growing medical problems limited my income. I negotiated on three and paid them off monthly and they were cleared.

One which I could not seem to negotiate was turned over to an agency in Syracuse, NY. The harrassment was horrendous. "How can you look at yourself in the mirror in the morning?" "Get your lazy butt out of bed and get a job." A screening dialer would ring once at four or five a.m. and awaken me; then I'd hear from them later in the day. (I take medication to sleep.) I had to take the telephone off the hook so I could sleep mornings. At the time I was undergoing radiation for prostate cancer. They had one woman with a voice like gravel girtie who called as early in the morning as she could.

The morning my son was rushed to the hospital, you can guess, it was six hours before they got ahold of me and by then he had died. I told them I was making a complaint and no further call were received for months.

Well, they turned it over to a high-powered agency in the L.A. area and two or three times a week they call. (H & Z) At times I've had a single ring early in the morning and I know that they will call that day.

Financially I have a severe problem and S.S. does not cover my living expenses. With four major medical problems I am slow to move (and get to the telephone when they call) due to cerebral palsy, and again am leaving the phone off the hook. Twice when I hung up on them, they somehow tied up my line so that I could not get a dial tone for more than an hour. If I had had to call #911 it would have been impossible to do so.

[Debt Guy]

Howard,

Take a deep breath. You don't have to deal with the abuse. We can work out an answer.

First, I need to know when was the last time you made a payment on this particular debt?

[Howarde]

This I cannot remember, but three years or more, possibly late in 2004, if my memory serves me right. The bank I had the Visa card with orginally sold it to another bigger bank, then another larger bank bought them out, and I got confused as to who was who. It may have been sold one more time. During these changes I kept fairly current, but medical problems began to affect things.

My records are in a mess and I've been devoting time these past few days to correcting this problem. Unfortunately I do a lot of clipping news items, writing, and mixed in now are old bills and bank statements.

Someone else tried to help me and used their own method of filing - paper bags with years on them, and a mish-mash inside the bags.

I'll try to get papers together and find out the proper date.

And thank you for your reply.

[Debt Guy]

OK. Keep looking for your paperwork.

Also, go to [url]www.annualcreditreport.com[/url]. You can get a free credit report from each of the 3 credit bureaus. There will be phone numbers for the credit bureaus on the web site. Call one of them and order your credit report. Insist that they send it by mail.

When it arrives, we can figure out which debt this is and get a handle on the last payment.

In the meantime, if you get a call about the account, just say "I'm sorry but I cannot talk to you right now" and then hang up. Don't explain anything. Don't engage in any conversation. Just hang up.

OK?

[Howarde]

That's okay with me. I will not say a thing, as I have not.

Thanks again.

[Howarde]

This is the first time I've seen any of my Credit Reports, and guess I've had my head in the sand for too long. I had always kept my credit in good shape until around the time of the medical problems. They shock me.

Anyway, I got Esperian and TransUnion by printer, because I could not find the option for mailing.

Now, Equifax is sauing there is a security problem and that I must mail them my personal identification. I've written them before but never got an answer. So, I am at it.

These are things I should have done years ago, on my own, so thanks for the guidance. It's a mess to view.

[Debt Guy]

OK. Read the credit reports you have. Find the line for the original creditor.

What does it say for date of last activity?

Does it say anything about date charged-off?

[Ladynred]

Equifax is the only one that will give you the date of first delinquency and the date of last activity in a readable format. Unfortunately, they're the ones who asked for more security information

Experian and TU won't give you date of last activity or a charge-off date... at least not that plainly. On Experian, it will give you a STATUS, such as 'charged off' and a DATE OF STATUS which SHOULD be the charge-off date. They may also state something like "180 days as of xx/xx/200x" - 180 days past due is when most creditors will do a charge-off.

On TransUnion they're only slightly easier to read, but they won't actually give you a date of last activity or charge-off date either. They DO, however, give you a date for when a trade-line will drop off your reports. You can use this drop-off date to back into the date of first delinquency but subtracting 7 years PLUS 180 days from that drop-off date. The 'date paid' is usually the date of last activity on a delinquent debt, and they will give you a 'pay status', which will show 'charged off as a bad debt'.

I hope that helps a little, the 3 credit bureaus really should be made to report all our data the same way, and in a way consumers can easily decipher !

[Howarde]

They seem to be suddenly very active on my account.

I received a letter yesterday offering to settle at 60%.

They have made three telephone calls to my house this morning, two by auto-caller and one by a collector. They also called on Monday. And four times last week.

I'm reviewing reports and trying to put things together.

[Debt Guy]

these things go in cycles -- it does not mean anything special

You don't owe any explanations and the more you try to explain, the harder it is. Just ignore the calls until we figure out exactly where you are.

[Howarde]

First of all, I must apologize to those who have written to try to help, because I've not logged in for days. Personal problems that came up that were most important; my son was in the hospital.

Now, I've been going over the Credit Reports and am not sure, but it looks like a B of A account, that amounts to $3,600.00 is the one in question. I never had it over $5,000. It does not show how much was due when it was closed.

It was opened in 1975, closed 11/2003.

Shows Date Paid: 10/2004. And, also, Purchased by Another Lender. Does that mean B of A was paid by other lender on 10/2004?

The Collection Agency by letter dated 4/17/08, offered to settle for 60%, if paid by April 29. They called four times on Monday. Perhaps that means they are ready to file Suit, but I do not know.

There is another card, Chase/Bank One, closed on 9/2005 also Purchased by Another Lender. So that one should be hitting me up pretty soon from somewhere. Had that one since 1992.

[Ladynred]

Ok, first, which report were you quoting from, from which credit bureau ?

Shows Date Paid: 10/2004. And, also, Purchased by Another Lender. Does that mean B of A was paid by other lender on 10/2004?

It means that's when BofA sold it to some junk debt buyer or collection agency. They MIGHT have waited a year to sell off the account, but I doubt it, They don't usually hold onto non-performing accounts that long. If the account was closed in 11/2003, DID you continue to make payments for a year or not ?

Perhaps that means they are ready to file Suit, but I do not know.

Not necessarily. The more likely reason is because collectors work on commissions and it's month end, so the big push is on to squeeze as much as possible from people so they can make those big bonuses

[Howarde]

First of all, I must apologize to those who have written to try to help, because I've not logged in for days. Personal problems that came up that were most important; my son was in the hospital.

Now, I've been going over the Credit Reports and am not sure, but it looks like a B of A account, that amounts to $3,600.00 is the one in question. I never had it over $5,000. It does not show how much was due when it was closed.

It was opened in 1975, closed 11/2003.

Shows Date Paid: 10/2004. And, also, Purchased by Another Lender. Does that mean B of A was paid by other lender on 10/2004?

The Collection Agency by letter dated 4/17/08, offered to settle for 60%, if paid by April 29. They called four times on Monday. Perhaps that means they are ready to file Suit, but I do not know.

There is another card, Chase/Bank One, closed on 9/2005 also Purchased by Another Lender. So that one should be hitting me up pretty soon from somewhere. Had that one since 1992.

[Ladynred]

I'm guessing you mistakenly copied and pasted.. ????

[Howarde]

That quote was from Trans-Union. THEY SHOW ACCOUNT CLOSED 11-2003.

EXPERIAN shows the same acct. as $3274 charged off as of Jan. 2007.

I may have made a few payments after the account was closed on 11/03 but doubt it, I am not sure. Am looking for those old records now.

They show is 30 days as of May 2004.
That must mean, then, that the last payment was made in March or April 2004, so we're right around the 4 year point, perhaps right of today.

They show month by month aging up to: 150 days as of Nov. 2004.

The Collection Agency asked for my payment by April 29, 2008 at 60%. This Agency is about 150 miles from where I live. The collector that had this account prior to this one was in up-state NY.

(Guess my last reply was duiplicated).