Too late to settle an old account?
Hi there. I received a letter from Bowman & Heintz stating that an old Midland collection had been referred to them. I asked for validation of the debt and they say that it is from an old account with Providian with a last pay date of 11/2002 so it is within the SOL. I would like to try & settle this account. Should I contact Providian who is now WAMU, or Midland, or Bowman & Heintz? Or is it too late? Any ideas how I would format the request? Thanks so much for any help.
Do not panic if they have responded your DV letter with a law suit, it is basically a tactic used by the CAs to scare consumers and force them to pay.
All you have to do is maintain all the paperworks that suggest that prove that the CA is in the violation of fdcpa.
Nelly
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Good Nelly
Did they send you Validation or just tell you about the account? I would send Bowman & Heintz a DV request by certified return receipt Mail. You always want proof in writing before you proceed with anything. Also have you checked your credit report to see if it is being reported?
mommontoya
ok: Today I received another letter from b&H stating that they have filed a lawsuit and it stated a case number. It said that if I wanted to make payment arrangements, to contact their office. I obviously want to try and settle, should I start at 50%? Should I call, or put my offer in writing?
kjshay
i know this thread is 3 years old, but I'm going through the exact same thing, so I HOPE I can get a good answer here.
I just happen to check my county courthouse records, and Bowman filed suit a few weeks ago, with a court date coming up in June. But I haven't been served yet. They are collecting for Midland, so how can I handle this?
I want to settle this, as the debt isn't that much, for 25%, so do I contact Bowman to make payment, or Midland directly?
I just want to get rid of it, I know if I go to court, they will not be able to prove that I owe this, but won't they just sell it off to the next JDB, and I'll have to go through all this court stuff again and again?
I'd rather settle, and demand they won't sell/xfer the balance to another JDB, than for the debt to keep getting passed down and possibly end up in court every year.
Thanks for you help!
rj
I do believe the debt is valid and I do intend to settle it so I'm not sure if I need to send another letter..........just wanting to know if anyone has tried to settle with an attorney, or if it would be appropriate to go back to the original creditor, or if I should be dealing with the collectin agency it was assigned to? Or is it probably too late to try to settle?
kjshay
Start with a VD letter to Bowman & Heintz, if they are the ones that last contacted you.
mommontoya
Did you send them a debt validation (DV) letter? If you already have, they can't sue you till they validate the debt. If you have not, send one now, certified mail, return receipt requested (CMRRR) and it will buy you some time.
anonymous
I don't seem to be getting any feedback on my question, but for the record, here is what I intend to do. Once I receive something from the court showing the amount they are asking for, I am going to send a certified letter to the attorney, also to the collection agency, and also to the original creditor, all offering a settlement of 35% or so. My hope is that one of them will respond favorably! I will follow up on the results of this 3-pronged approach when I have news.
kjshay
I don't think that that counts as validation. They would have to provide a copy of your contract or copies of bills. Not just a statment on thier letter head. You need to send out a DV letter and I'm someone can give a copy of one that you can use.
mommontoya
Click on the “ Do it yourself†link above …then on sample letters. You can copy the letter and edit it to meet your needs. Other folks may have better letters that they will post or have posted in other threads. You can do a search in the box on the top left side of the page.
mommontoya
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