Violation of my rights as a debtor? May I sue?

[forinstance]

What is the name of your state? Florida

I have an account balance of approximately $5000.00 from Discover from which my ex-wife left me as a gift for obtaining custody of my daughter. Nevertheless, it is an account in my name and I am being pursued by a 3rd party collection agency which has called me repeatedly to the point that it is harrassing. That is just the back drop.

Here is what happened:

The 3rd party began calling me last year and I told them I could pay on Feb 7th, 2008, a settlement of 1800.00 (their call, I would pay it in full but they said it does not make a difference as it is over 2 years old and will hurt my credit just the same as paying it in full). Between my first conversation with them and Jan 30, 2008, they have still called every month and demanded the balance, I just shrugged it off. On Jan 30th, however, they called and began, by the 2nd call, to harrass me and call me names. I told them I was at work and not to call me again until Feb 7. On the 3rd call I began to take records of what they said (not going to say what type because I don't know if it could be used against me) and here are some of the things they said:

Creditor: Sir, I pulled up your credit report and I see that you worked at *******, why don't you go get that job again as a second job and pay us?
Myself: I took that job as a second job for the birth of my daughter, in school now and I can't but I can pay you Feb 7.
Creditor: Sir, like I said, I can see your credit report and the bills you have with ****** and *******, I know you hit your head but even you aren't so retarded as so you can't go rob a bank to pay us our money!
(Then he hung up)

I have records of all the calls in fact and of this call in particular, in which he actually said a lot more things but I am keeping it brief, and I would like to know what I can do about this. They are becoming very aggressive and I can feel the next action coming on so I would like to know what to do. I have offered to make monthly payments but what I can pay is not acceptable and they will only take double what I can offer through my checking account. They simply will not allow me to mail them say $100 or $200 a month..They will not let me pay them the way I can. So what do I do? Please help.

 

[TigerD]

What is the name of your state? Florida

I have an account balance of approximately $5000.00 from Discover...

The rest of this paragraph is noise that add nothing to the discussion.

Here is what happened:
The 3rd party began calling me last year and I told them I could pay on Feb 7th, 2008, a settlement of 1800.00 (their call, I would pay it in full but they said it does not make a difference as it is over 2 years old and will hurt my credit just the same as paying it in full). Between my first conversation with them and Jan 30, 2008, they have still called every month and demanded the balance, I just shrugged it off.

So you actually expected someone to whom you owe money to sit and wait for NEXT YEAR? Oh, you just shrugged it off. There's the problem.

On Jan 30th, however, they called and began, by the 2nd call, to harrass me and call me names. I told them I was at work and not to call me again until Feb 7. On the 3rd call I began to take records of what they said (not going to say what type because I don't know if it could be used against me) and here are some of the things they said:

Creditor: Sir, I pulled up your credit report and I see that you worked at *******, why don't you go get that job again as a second job and pay us?
Myself: I took that job as a second job for the birth of my daughter, in school now and I can't but I can pay you Feb 7.
Creditor: Sir, like I said, I can see your credit report and the bills you have with ****** and *******, I know you hit your head but even you aren't so retarded as so you can't go rob a bank to pay us our money!
(Then he hung up)

I doubt that. There would have been a lot more in that conversation for any person to start speaking in the manner you describe. So you are either leaving out the provoking comments you made, or you are a liar.

I have records of all the calls in fact and of this call in particular, in which he actually said a lot more things but I am keeping it brief, and I would like to know what I can do about this.

1. Regardless of how provoking you are, advising someone to rob a bank is not kosher. And the conversation may well rise to the level of a violation.
2. When the conversation is reviewed during the court battle you will have to instigate, you need to remember that your own conduct will be considered as well.
3. In your previous comment you did leave things out.

They are becoming very aggressive and I can feel the next action coming on so I would like to know what to do. I have offered to make monthly payments but what I can pay is not acceptable and they will only take double what I can offer through my checking account. They simply will not allow me to mail them say $100 or $200 a month..They will not let me pay them the way I can. So what do I do? Please help.

How much have you paid in the last six months? Why should they believe you? Debtors don't mail in payments. They wouldn't be debtors if they could mail in payments on their own. Sucks to say but you are only going to get a payment arrangement if you meet their terms.

So the question seems to be your credibility. Did you pay the $1800 you promised to pay yesterday? If not, why should they believe you are going to pay anything next month?

Try this - drop your attitude and handle the issue instead of the personalities.
You have a debt that needs to be paid. You want a payment arrangement of $200 a month on a $5k debt - it isn't going to happen. You need to be realistic.
You may be able to get $400 to $500 a month, but not lower. You have $1,800. If you want a lower payment, negotiate your $1,800 down and $300 a month.

But above all, you need to start talking to the people and not playing games. Now before you get all attitude with me, I have been doing this for quite some time and I can pretty well guess what the phone calls went like with roughly 80 percent accuracy from your posting. You tried to dictate terms to the CA and refused to be reasonable. Then you probably made some inflammatory comments and the call escalated into an argument. Yes the collector was most likely not very experienced -- but you are as equally to blame as he is. So the ultimate question is do you want to resolve the issue or be a jerk? Sometime to resolve things you have to be nice to people you don't like.

DC

 

[Debt Guy]

I pretty much agree with DC. All the attitude aside, you need to consider this matter calmly and with some perspective.

It takes two to fight. It also takes two to dance. You don't have the leverage to make the CA take whatever terms you want to offer -- even if those terms might be entirely reasonable in your mind. Likewise, they need to get your cooperation if they can -- otherwise the only choice they have is to sue you and that just adds cost to everybody. No one wants that.

I do not approve of collectors who fling insults -- mostly because doing so is counterproductive and an argument never accomplished very much for either party. Insulting you or "being mean and nasty" is not illegal. A lack of class, perhaps. Unproductive, almost certainly. Illegal, no.

Profanity is illegal. Making a threat that cannot be enforced is illegal (for example, a threat to have you arrested). Threats of bodily injury is obviously illegal.

The FDCPA does prohibit a collector from "harassing" a debtor. But, the FDCPA does not define harassment -- only a court can determine what is harassing and judges are generally not enthusiastic about their docket being clogged with what they consider nonsense. In any event, you would need to file a lawsuit against the CA/collector and it would be your burden to prove that the CA violated the law. The legal definition is a much higher standard than "annoyed me" or "made me angry". I think harassment is a tough thing to prove.

From your post, I don't see much that is illegal. I think the "rob a bank" comment was a very poor choice of words but not likely a serious suggestion that you should go commit a federal crime -- the FBI takes bank robbery very seriously. I tell people all the time to go take a leap off a tall building -- but I am not really suggesting suicide is a solution (although it would stop them from annoying me).

My advice is that you think long and hard how you can make peace with this -- a continued fight will be unpleasant.

Also, develop some perspective. This collector does not know you an does not care for you one way or another. Anything they say is not personal. Why would you let words from a stranger to cause you pain or for you to lose your temper? If you lose your temper, then you lose control of the conversation. If the conversation becomes uncomfortable, just say I can't talk right now and hang up. Just be careful you understand that doing so does not solve the big problem. If you don't deal with this you will eventually be sued. Judgments last a really long time.

 

[acmb05]

I doubt that. There would have been a lot more in that conversation for any person to start speaking in the manner you describe. So you are either leaving out the provoking comments you made, or you are a liar.

Well you may work this way, however from my experience it does not take much if anything to get a debt collector to start calling you all kinds of names. I had one who started right off calling me all kinds of nasty names. I told him that when he learned to speak like an adult and have an adult conversation he could call me back and then I hung up on him. Yes the debt was paid( divorce debt) but I did not say anything to him to provoke him into calling me anything.

 

[acmb05]

What is the name of your state? Florida



I have records of all the calls in fact and of this call in particular, in which he actually said a lot more things but I am keeping it brief, and I would like to know what I can do about this. They are becoming very aggressive and I can feel the next action coming on so I would like to know what to do. I have offered to make monthly payments but what I can pay is not acceptable and they will only take double what I can offer through my checking account. They simply will not allow me to mail them say $100 or $200 a month..They will not let me pay them the way I can. So what do I do? Please help.

Florida is one of twelve states that requires two party consent to record a conversation. You could get into a lot of trouble if you record without their knowledge. Next time they call just tell them up front you are recording the conversation also. Watch how nice they are then.

Whatever you do, do not give them your checking account information. They will use that to pull more money out of your account than you agreed to ( I know I will get bashed for that comment) but it is true.

In order to get them to stop calling you need to write them a letter sating such.