This issue of DEBTOR CHATTER and will bring you liveley discussions about how to resolve the debt and credit problems faced by an ever increasing number of Americans today.

You can address your questions to ceo@creditwrench.com or you can simply talk to the author about your problems by phone by calling 405-616-7901.
There is no charge or obligation to speak with Bill Bauer, America's #1 debt and credit counselor and get great answers and solutions to your problems.

Our first question is asked by Matt.

Hey Everyone, I have an old charge off from back in around 1996-1997 that I'm having trouble trying to remove. It was a CC from Boatmens Bank that has changed to Nations Bank and now is Bank of America.
The CL was $1500. It shows up on Eqifax and Exp and the DOLA (Date of Last Activity) on Equifax is 9/1997 and the DOLA on EXP is 7/1998. I have disputed this a couple of times with no luck. This is the last derog that I need to remove, but I'm at a stale-mate with this one. Could you guys throw some advice my way please, maybe I've missed something.
Thanks! Matt

Bill Bauer replies. Yes, Matt, I believe that you have missed something indeed. The problem is trying to get things removed only by disputing things with credit bureaus. You need to send a letter to Bank of America demanding that they prove the debt first. It is highly unlikely that they can prove the debt and when they fail to do so within 30 days you can then use that as a lever to coerce the credit bureaus to delete the listing. Be advised that you may end up having to sue them to force them to delete the item but the fact that the bank did not prove the debt will be a big help. And if the bank keeps on verifying then you also have a cause of action against them.
There is always a way to get the job done if you are inventive and persistant enough.

My sister sent me this email asking me if this is real or if it's a hoax. Seems like a hoax to me, but wondering if anyone else has seen it.

You will most likely hear lots of ideas on this topic over time. Stuff like "sue them" or tell them you know they aren't licensed in your state, file a complaint with the attorney general and probably a few more. All of those ideas leave a whole lot to be desired. First of all, in most states a citizen does not have the right to bring suit for such violations under state law because they are not considered to be the injured party. It is the state whose laws have been broken that is the injured party and has sole rights to file suit or take administrative action.

In any of the above ideas, the collector would be notified of his failure to comply and would then either take steps to cure or sell it to someone licensed to do business in your state. I believe that the most sensible thing to do is to keep the knowledge to yourself until such time as they attempt to sue you and then tell it to the judge. That gets the case dismissed and usually gets the attorney in trouble with the court as well.

I believe that doing it that way would get the debtor a lot more mileage than any other way I can think of.

The history is I have 3 cc accounts with MBNA that I have been trying to settle on since my husbands layoff last June. First they sent me to NCO (sent same settlement letters to NCO) then started getting letters from MBNA saying that the
third party collection agency has returned the account (which I thought was funny) to them.

Now I am getting letters asking to make certain payments are else and they give me three options that they may do
1-an other third party collection agency 2-Referring my account to an attorney for legally binding arbitration
3-selling my account to a third party.

I have sent numerous letters again to the people stated in these letters about my financial situation, offering to make payment arrangements, and sending a small payments to show my good intentions.

The problem is that every time they send a letter its a different person (how can MBNA have two First Vice Presidents?!) and they are purposely trying to get me to call them rather then send me a settlement in writting because they always leave
me very little time to respond to their offer (which is usually crap, anyways) and they never have a cooresponding address for the persons name that is on the letter. Any body out their have any experience with this part of the collections with
MBNA?

Bill Bauer answers:
I believe that was totally the wrong thing to do.
MBNA normally turns such accounts over to Wolpoff & Abramson who are even meaner than MBNA. They demand payment a time or two and then send it to NAF for arbitration. You aren't going to even get a chance in arbitration. You are
a gone gosling the minute they get the case. W&A then typically gets the arb award reduced to a judgment in your local court system and then goes for garnishment and all with almost lightning like speed.

The average debtor hasn't a crying chance before the wolf is at the door and he isn't going to listen to the debtor telling him he should have brought a picnic basket either. The only way of combatting W&A at arbitration would be to file for an
award with NAF against W&A before they can get the case before NAF.

That might work but I seriously doubt that it would. I doubt that NAF would even accept the case against them. But if they did refuse then you would have built the grounds for a law suit on the grounds of unfairness of arbitration as well as the
original complaint. That just might work for the very simple reason that more and more court cases are being decided in the courts in favor of those claiming that arbitration is intrinsically unfair. But those cases usually refer to labor relations or
HMO type cases rather than debt collections cases. So I have no idea how one would fare if he brought an unfairness case like

I suggest.
I would suggest that you get the rest of that payment in to MBNA and keep your payments current at all costs unless you are well prepared to file law suits on your own behalf as pro se litigant and be well enough prepared to take it to at least the
higher appellate courts and maybe even the Supremes to win and I seriously doub that you are anywhere near that knowledgeable in the law. So unless you want a real rude wakeup call I'd suggest you get yourself on the best possible terms with MBNA. I can guarantee that fighting them using the methods I suggest would be more expensive than paying them and a lot less likely to succeed.

Hi, I talked to FUSA today. They said that the $8900 I owe will be charged off on April 8th. They offered me a $7100 settlement. I told them I know they can go lower. They also offered me a payment plan with %10 interest. With the payments being $158 a month. If I make a payment on this will they go another 6 months before charging off? Just trying to buy some time until I may be able to come up with settlement money. Thanks!

Bill Bauer replies:
I believe that the only effective way to deal with such situations is with a contractual agreement in writing that calls for them to re-instate the account and re-age the debt as well. Your letter suggesting such an action will need to stipulate that unless
the contract is hand signed by an officer of the company authorized to make such agreements before the due date of the expected payment no further payments will be forthcoming. Doing that at first is not a wise way to go about it however.

One really needs to have at least some verbal agreement to re-instate the account or consider such re-instatement and then make at least one or two payments on the account before submitting such a demand otherwise they have no reason to believe
that you would complete the agreement. When dealing with open ended contracts one really needs to have the account
brought down to just below the card limits before attempting the tactic. Payments also always need to be well above the minimum monthly payment. In the case of a low limit card from say Penneys or Target or whatever let us say that the debt has
climbed to maybe a hundred or two above the set credit limit.

One would need to make an arrangement to pay say $50 per month and maintain those payments even though the minimum demanded payment may have dropped to as little as $10 or $15 until the card is brought to just under the credit limits
before dropping the demand on them. That way they have something to lose by refusing the demand. If they refuse at the point where the card is below limits then back up your statement that no further payments will be made until you receive the hand signed agreement. And if no answer is received within about 15 days before the next payment is due one should resend the demand reminding them that unless it is received no further payments will be made under any conditions.

Be ready to back it up no matter what.

Can you still validate a collection agency when the debt in question is a returned check?