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enjflame

Guest
What is the name of your state? Pa

Let me give a little info on the situtation:
Last year I was going to this check advance place where they give you an advance on your paycheck. So you give them a pre-dated check for the day your pay is due in the amount they gave you plus fees. So the check was for 585.00. Well I had put a stop payment on the check when we were told at work that direct deposits were going to be a day late. So that would have put my account overdrawn 585, plus 30 dollars, so I stopped the check.

I ended up not paying this debt off and only paid 50.00 on it. Well Its been a little over a year and the company switched banks that gave the loans and sold my account to a collection agency called American Legal.
They called me yesterday and said that I need to come up with $757.24. I dont work anymore i'm a stay at home mom to my 2 month old and 9 year old.
My husband works but barely makes enough to support the 4 of us.
I explained this to the man from the collection agency and said we can make payments every week till the amount is paid off. He Told me we need to stop having kids,and I will be going to jail, since its a felony?. He would not except payments. We wants the amount in full or he will be filing changes.
They told my husband that we needed to secure a payment of 50.00 a week to them. They wont allow us to mail it in unless its through western union. Otherwise they would deduct this amount out of our checking every week.Kinda like a post dated check? Well my husband gave them our account info for our checking account. Was this wise?

My question is how long can this agency collect on this check(its been over a year)? What rights do we have? :confused:
I'm very scared and don't know what to do I dont dont want to go to jail with just having a newborn. I'm scared please help
 
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I AM ALWAYS LIABLE

Senior Member
enjflame said:
What is the name of your state? Pa

Let me give a little info on the situtation:
Last year I was going to this check advance place where they give you an advance on your paycheck. So you give them a pre-dated check for the day your pay is due in the amount they gave you plus fees. So the check was for 585.00. Well I had put a stop payment on the check when we were told at work that direct deposits were going to be a day late. So that would have put my account overdrawn 585, plus 30 dollars, so I stopped the check.

I ended up not paying this debt off and only paid 50.00 on it. Well Its been a little over a year and the company switched banks that gave the loans and sold my account to a collection agency called American Legal.
They called me yesterday and said that I need to come up with $757.24. I dont work anymore i'm a stay at home mom to my 2 month old and 9 year old.
My husband works but barely makes enough to support the 4 of us.
I explained this to the man from the collection agency and said we can make payments every week till the amount is paid off. He Told me we need to stop having kids,and I will be going to jail, since its a felony?. He would not except payments. We wants the amount in full or he will be filing changes.

My question is how long can this agency collect on this check(its been over a year)?

MY RESPONSE: PA has a 6 year Statute of Limitations on written debts.



What rights do we have?

MY RESPONSE: Your "rights" are two-fold - -
1. Your have the right to pay your debts pursuant to the contract you signed; or,
2. You have the right to be sued for the principle current amount, plus costs of collection, plus attorney's fees, plus court costs, and plus interest. Whew!


I'm very scared and don't know what to do.

MY RESPONSE: You should be scared. You did two wrong things - -
1. You failed to pay when you had the money the following day, and
2. You went ahead and had a child you can't afford. That was really dumb.

IAAL
 
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E

enjflame

Guest
So should we just stick to the payment agreement we made with them? I guess thats the best bet.
Btw,
My child wasnt exactly planned but I would never take back getting pregnant with her not for a second, after 4 miscarriages over 6 years, When I got pregnant WE COULD AFFORD the baby, but sometimes money situations dont work out as you plan. What can I say? My husband and I are trying our best. Thats all we can do. Thanks for the advise tho :eek:
 

I AM ALWAYS LIABLE

Senior Member
enjflame said:
So should we just stick to the payment agreement we made with them? I guess thats the best bet.
Btw,
My child wasnt exactly planned but I would never take back getting pregnant with her not for a second, after 4 miscarriages over 6 years, When I got pregnant WE COULD AFFORD the baby, but sometimes money situations dont work out as you plan. What can I say? My husband and I are trying our best. Thats all we can do. Thanks for the advise tho :eek:

My response:

What "payment agreement"?

You said in your initial post, "He would not except payments."

Why are you changing the "facts"?

IAAL
 
B

blameshifting

Guest
The collector was just trying to scare you with that talk about you going to jail, a postdated check isn't subject to criminal prosecution in PA.
 
E

enjflame

Guest
1. If you looked I made a late entry edit to my orignal message
"They told my husband that we needed to secure a payment of 50.00 a week to them. They wont allow us to mail it in unless its through western union. Otherwise they would deduct this amount out of our checking every week.Kinda like a post dated check? Well my husband gave them our account info for our checking account. Was this wise?"

My husband had called them back and spoke to someone else and made this arrangement. So No i didnt change my story.. you just didnt read my post correctly :)

2. The check was not a "rubber" check. The check was post-dated as I said in the orignal message. I stopped payment on a "Predated check".(Rubber check-a
check which a bank returns because it is not payable due to insufficient funds.) My account was never charged for overdrafting and therefore the check was not honored to stop payment not Insufficient funds, so I dont think you can be saying its a rubber check.
All I wanted was some advice not a lecture session about childbearing, and ridiculing over what mistake I made.
Thank you but no thank you.
 
B

blameshifting

Guest
enjflame said:
2. The check was not a "rubber" check. The check was post-dated as I said in the orignal message. I stopped payment on a "Predated check".(Rubber check-a
check which a bank returns because it is not payable due to insufficient funds.) My account was never charged for overdrafting and therefore the check was not honored to stop payment not Insufficient funds, so I dont think you can be saying its a rubber check.
Don't fret about whether or not it was a rubber check, doesn't matter in your case because it was postdated. If you had let it bounce instead of stopping payment on it you still wouldn't be facing prosecution.

So why didn't you make the check good 1 day later when your pay was direct deposited to your account? To blame all this on a one day delay in your direct deposit is weak when you go on to say you've only bothered to make a single $50 payment since stiffing them for nearly $600.
 

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