I've been sporadically hounded by collection agencies for the past 18 years. I moved out of the country after college and allegedly forgot to close the balance on some store credit card with a balance of like $20 or so. By the time I returned and got a US phone number and address, I was getting calls and mail from collectors.
It freaked me out at first, but I did some research and sent a debt validation letter with no reply. Of course, they were citing numbers like a $ 2,000 balance and threatening civil action all the way.
Now, it's a certainty that every few years I start getting the robo calls and have to track down the actual company. It's such a pain because I don't want to answer the phone but I need to get the actual account number and company (so many of these companies have similar names or could just be scams). So it's usually a case of my waiting until they leave a voicemail of the company and call it directly to get this info and send the letter.
It's getting harder. The last time it was voicemails from "MRS" which could be any of 3 companies. I eliminated two since I discovered they are local to other regions but for the life of me, I could not get what I needed from the supposed correct MRS. I'd call up, and one agent would say "Yes, we have your account but it's under a different name". Another would say "I'm not seeing your account". Sometimes they would try to transfer me to some other department only to drop the call.
I finally answered a call and validated my info to speak to the agent. I refused to acknowledge anything and only asked for my account number in their records, the delinquent account they were calling about and their address to send mail to. The agent gave me what must be a bogus number since I can lookup what an MRS account number should look like. I also offered to validate my current address if they would send me anything in the mail. They refused and said "My client will be pursuing civil legal action" and hung up. I did get in there that I do not want calls and to please mail me anything from now on in the call.
I ended up filing a Consumer Finance Protection Department complaint. I'm aware the agent violated a few things, like threatening legal action they don't intend to pursue and not validating those info points.
Can anyone recommend a good call recorder for iPhone? Also, I assume I'd need to inform them it's being recorded since I don't know from where they are calling.
It freaked me out at first, but I did some research and sent a debt validation letter with no reply. Of course, they were citing numbers like a $ 2,000 balance and threatening civil action all the way.
Now, it's a certainty that every few years I start getting the robo calls and have to track down the actual company. It's such a pain because I don't want to answer the phone but I need to get the actual account number and company (so many of these companies have similar names or could just be scams). So it's usually a case of my waiting until they leave a voicemail of the company and call it directly to get this info and send the letter.
It's getting harder. The last time it was voicemails from "MRS" which could be any of 3 companies. I eliminated two since I discovered they are local to other regions but for the life of me, I could not get what I needed from the supposed correct MRS. I'd call up, and one agent would say "Yes, we have your account but it's under a different name". Another would say "I'm not seeing your account". Sometimes they would try to transfer me to some other department only to drop the call.
I finally answered a call and validated my info to speak to the agent. I refused to acknowledge anything and only asked for my account number in their records, the delinquent account they were calling about and their address to send mail to. The agent gave me what must be a bogus number since I can lookup what an MRS account number should look like. I also offered to validate my current address if they would send me anything in the mail. They refused and said "My client will be pursuing civil legal action" and hung up. I did get in there that I do not want calls and to please mail me anything from now on in the call.
I ended up filing a Consumer Finance Protection Department complaint. I'm aware the agent violated a few things, like threatening legal action they don't intend to pursue and not validating those info points.
Can anyone recommend a good call recorder for iPhone? Also, I assume I'd need to inform them it's being recorded since I don't know from where they are calling.