Can anyone advice?

Question

I owe a credit company a sum of money a couple of year back. Recently, a debt collecting company is coming after me to collect back the outstanding. According to a friend, this company is no longer operating as the company have been terminated. So, do I still owe this company? And what should I do?

Answer 1

Yes, you still owe .. they probably sold the debt to another company .. .just ask them to validate the debt and even file a dispute with the credit bureau before making payments to a third part company ....

Good Luck!

Answer 2

All you ned to do is challenge the debt, by advising the collection agency IN WRITING, that you want proof that you owe this money.(keep them busy).

Also send a letter to all 3 credit bureaus to challenge the debt. If they bureaus can't "verify" the debt (because the company has gone under, then they will delete this from your record.
Once you have certification from the bureaus that the debt is invalid,you can confront the collection agency in writing that they must stop communicating with you about a debt that has been proven invalid.

If they don't listen to you, you will sue them in small claims court, you will win, and you wil be financially rewarded with a nice little court ordered $$ judgement for your troubles against them. Good luck.
NOTE:
If somehow the credit bureaus validate the debt, then you must pay this back, just offer the collection agency maybe 60% of what you owe; if you can pay a lump sum.

OR set up an "affordable" repayment agreement"in writing" and be done with it.
I work at a Major Law Firm.

Answer 3

What happened was that when the Credit co. could no longer get the money from you that you owed, they turned it over to a Collections agency. The agencies get paid by the Credit co. if they can collect even some of the money owed. They receive a percentage...after they run it for about 6 mos, & still get nothing back, they in turn sell your file, so to speak,to another collection agency, who will try to collect...its a vicious cycle. but in the end all that happens if you dont pay, is it goes on your credit. So by law what you can do, is if you cant pay the full amount owed, you can pay maybe $5 a week, & they have to accept this payment, even though they will fuss & argue that you owe more, but they have to take whatever it is that you can pay, once it goes to a collection agency...and than they cant put it on your credit!! So pay the lowest amount you can to the collection agency, because you dont want it going on your credit. They can threaten to sue & take you to court to recoup what you owe, but if the company is out of business, all there doing is trying to make money for themselves. Trust me I know..

Answer 4

I hate debt collectors. I understand it's their job to be rude and obnoxious, but I can't morally reward that behavior by giving them any money. I would call the company you actually owe (or is THAT the company that's no longer in business?) and set up payments with them. If they're no longer in business then you'll probably HAVE to deal with the debt collector, but ask for all the paperwork they have on the original debt and see what fees and penalties this collection agency is tacking on. See if you can negotiate a lump-sum amount for less than or for no more than the original debt. Some collection agencies buy debts from companies for "pennies on the dollar", or a percentage of the original amount.

Answer 5

You can easily still owe the money even if the original company went out of business. The original company would have sold all of their credit accounts to people such as the creditors. The creditors now own the debt that you owe. The original company is out of the picture. Your debt was an asset in the company and another company bought that asset.

Answer 6

The company can still recover monies owed to them thus you're still liable to repay the loan owed.

Answer 7

yes u still owe the money