I signed up for a landline last year, and paid my bills on time from about October until June. When I ordered, I was told that if I was ever unable to make a full payment, I could set up a payment plan. That was very reassuring--every once in a while, I have a money crunch and have trouble paying for everything upfront. However, I didn't expect to lose my job and be REALLY in the hole.
Well in June I contacted the company and told them I couldn't pay the bill in full, and needed a payment plan. The rep refused. I was obviously upset b/c I'd been told before that it would be okay. I just didn't have the money to pay the whole thing, and he wouldn't accept partial payment. He did say he'd extend the service cutoff date, but the phone was disconnected before the date given to me anyway.
I think they also charged me the regular monthly fee for at least two months after cutoff. Now a collection agency wants me to pay the jacked-up amount. What can I do in this situation?
2007-12-03 08:41:49 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Business & Finance ➔ Credit
I still don't have a decent-paying job, but I know I'm morally obligated to pay this debt. But can I still try to work something out with the original debtor? And do I have to pay for the months of service that weren't even rendered to me? I understand late fees, but not charging for the full service every month!
2007-12-03 08:45:06 · update #1
You can "always" try to deal with the original creditor.
There is no law that says you cannot contact them and try to work it out.
Whether they will deal with you or not depends on the company and if the debt was assigned or if it was sold.
If the phone company has a local office, you might go in person and speak to someone face to face. If you come to an agreement, ask them to put it in writing.
If there is no local office, send a letter. Be sure to send it certified mail.
2007-12-03 10:11:55 · answer #1 · answered by echo 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You should have set up a payment plan in the first place. Then if you had extra money you could have paid it off and if not, you would have the payment plan already in place. If it is not in writing that you can set up a payment plan then you are hosed. What they say verbally does not matter.
Read your contract, it has a clause in there about "assignees" or other such term meaning they can sell or give the contract to someone else and it is still a valid debt. When you failed to pay, rather than them wasting their time trying to get the money from you, they SOLD the debt to a collection agency for a lesser amount of money. They took a loss on the contract and had every right to turn off your service. It is too late to deal with them as they no longer hold the contract.
The collection agency makes money by getting what they paid for the contract PLUS what they can on the remainder of the original debt. If the contract amount is $200 and they bought it for $100, they have to get at least $100 from you to break even. But you can bet they will want as close to the $200 as they can get. If you do not pay, they can stick the fact you were late in payments and are now in default on your credit report.
Good luck getting a loan at a reasonable rate after that!
If you do not have documentation you do not have a chance in hell of getting out of paying the debt. If you have the bills from the company showing they did charge you after the service was turned off, you could perhaps argue out of the extra two months but without that kind of documentation, you may as well pay up.
2007-12-03 08:52:53 · answer #2 · answered by forgivebutdonotforget911 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not much you can do but pay it. Once it has been turned over to the collection agency, the original account owner is not supposed to accept any payments, calls, correspondence. Any correspondence is supposed to be handled thru the collection agency. What happens is that the collection agency buys the account and it becomes property of the collection agency. However, you can try to make a payment to the original owner. Most of the big companies have a whole area dedicated to collection and posting of any and all payments. Every time that you make a payment and they accept it, you balance will decrease. This may only work for a few payments, but it is a way to get in there and around the collection agency. Most companies will accept the payments because when turned over to a collection agency, they only receive about half of the total original bill.
2007-12-03 08:51:29 · answer #3 · answered by T 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Once it's more than 30 days past due, it can be reported to the credit bureaus. And at that point, even if you pay it, it will still show up as a negative entry on the credit report. If you absolutely don't have the money, don't worry about it for now. If the collection agency gets really aggressive they can threaten to attach your wages, but you'll have plenty of time before that happens, if it ever does. Find a new phone company.
And next time you make any agreements with a company for service, tell them you want all promises in writing, and write down the date and time every time you speak to them, and make sure you always get the person's name.
2007-12-03 08:48:30 · answer #4 · answered by kathleenjohnson 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You can TRY to go through the original company but I seriously doubt that will work. They have sold your account to the collection agency, so even if you pay them, the collection agency still wants their money. The collection agency will continue to bother you until you give them the money. Try setting up some kind of payment deal with them. A lot of times they will accept a lower amount if you pay up now.
2007-12-03 08:52:13 · answer #5 · answered by RayRay 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I had a friend who got stuck in this particular situation. Collection agencies cannot force you to pay the full amount at one time, they just want their money all up front.
I got stuck helping this guy make arrangements because I used to work collections. It took several calls and asking to speak to a supervisor before I got anyone to get off the pay all pay now routine. In fact I had to threaten to report them for unfair practices before they started listening.
Be strong, be firm and don't let them inimidate you. Be honest and make it an amount that you can live with. If the agency won't work with you, find out who governs them in your state and file a complaint. Let the agency know you are doing so and then send them a copy of the complaint if it goes that far..
~good luck
2007-12-03 09:08:32 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I had this type of problem once with a phone company. When I contacted the phone company they had no record of my debt since they had "sold" it to the collection agency. I had to deal directly with the collection agency. This "jacked-up" amount may be interest on the original debt so you would have to pay that.
2007-12-03 08:51:38 · answer #7 · answered by Emanon 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Judaism concurs with you. A year max in a sort of purgatory, and that's if you're really awful. Jews stop praying for their parents after 11 months because you don't want to imply that they were horrid enough to warrant the full 12. :-) But then we understand that making mistakes is a normal part of human life. You learn from it, you make amends, you try again. Quite sensible, really, despite the complicated metaphysics.
2016-04-07 06:22:56 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes you can contact and pay them.
2007-12-03 08:45:31 · answer #9 · answered by True 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋