collection-agencies
(sa_ku_ra)
(Photo: Jacob Davies)
—>Jay's parents have gotten quite, uh, spendy with their retirement income, and now they've got a lot of debt they can't pay off. This has become Jay's problem not because he's a party to any of the debt, but because they've put him down as a reference and now bill collectors are harassing him. More »
—>A reader wants to know whether or not he's going to be held responsible for his fiancée's old, bad debt now that they're getting married. Because we went to Google Lawyer University just now, we're happy to try to help. More »
—>Pete received a bill in the mail that has him slightly offended and amused. A health care provider has sent his balance to collections after a payment arrived late a few years ago. They will clearly be hurting if he doesn't pay his overdue balance of ....four cents. More »
—>The New York Attorney General shut down a network of debt collection agencies today that were run by convicted felon Tobias Boyland, who along with his colleagues impersonated police officers, threatened debtors with arrest, and told them they were being sued in civil court. Boyland is also an author and a musician, and he has an awesome website, bagsofmoney.us, which—warning—launches into a street-friendly rap song as soon as it loads. More »
—>When Sean returned a rented truck to Budget Truck Rental nearly a year ago, he went through the standard inspection with an employee, who then signed off on the return. Now the company has sent a $500 bill to collection for damage they refuse to provide evidence of. More »
—>"Universal Default" is when your credit card company adjusts the terms of your loan because you "defaulted" with another company. In reader P.'s case the "default" was a Blockbuster video that his friend forgot to return. Discover Card took this opportunity to double P.'s interest rate. When he tried to fight it by closing his account, it launched him into a 2 1/2 year legal battle with Discover, a collection agency, and now the credit bureaus. More »
—>The Chicago Tribune writes that "More than 119,000 civil lawsuits against alleged debtors are clogging [Chicago] courtrooms," but since collection agencies make money off of volume business, the suits filed are based on too little information. The result: cases based on mistaken identities, or for debts already settled, or against debtors who have made good-faith efforts to work out repayment plans. "The system is out of control," one attorney tells the paper. More »
Maybe there are no more debtors' prisons, but that doesn't mean your life can't be screwed up by unscrupulous collection agencies. More »
Much as we love to lovingly prod AOL for their faults — or even just lovingly throw gasoline all over them, fling our zippo in AOL's face, then urinate on the immolated corpse — we would be amiss in our duty if we left unreported an instance of AOL treating a customer right. More »
—>An AT&T customer, Chris upgraded his plan after the merger with Cinuglar. A week later, Cingular sent him a bill for $300, an "early termination fee." Welcome to the neighborhood, indeed. More »
—>Grant had the misfortune to get into a snowboarding accident. Then he had the further misfortune of living in America where it's nigh impossible to get a bruise removed from your credit report. More »
