dailykos.com — I just heard a piece on NPR about Experian selling your credit history to collection agencies. They constantly monitor your credit activity and if you start to pay off your credit and are getting back on your feet, they notify the collection hounds and let them have at you. This sounded pretty damn wrong to me so I got on Google
Jun 25, 2007 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountJun 25, 2007
but they do start f-ing you and make it very demoralizing and difficult, when you are down they hit you in the balls with the fees and just keep on doing it again and again and again. it is very predatory. also, the central bankers, like Chase, create credit money from nothing through the Federal Reserve and use this to loan to you. Look up "fractional reserve banking" and "federal reserve" on googlevideo/youtube. you'll learn a lot. at first it is hard to believe but real. Ron Paul just introduced a Bill to dissolve the Federal Reserve board. If you look into it, you'll see why. It took me a while to get it, then powie, you see it. The money the Federal Reserve member banks loan comes out of thin air at no cost to them.
dogstar0125Jun 25, 2007
@Dlebar04, and others who think this is just about going after deadbeats: First, I agree that if you're a deadbeat, get over it and pay your debts. But collection agencies are also widely used for blackmailing consumers into paying disputed debts. For example, my wife was sent a parking fine when she had a valid receipt properly displayed on her dash. She sent a photocopy of the parking receipt to the collection agency. They didn't acknowledge this, and just kept hounding her. Personally, I love conflict, so I took up the cause for her and suffice it to say that we are no longer bothered. Here's are some tips that work for me. 1) Collection agencies are all scams. If a creditor has a legitimate claim, let him prove it in court. On principle I will never under any circumstances pay a collection agency. 2) Never tell a collection agency that you agree that you owe money. Tell them that you absolutely dispute that an amount is owing, and tell them that you will never under any circumstances be paying the debt that they claim to have against you. 3) If the collection agency asks you for a letter explaining why you dispute the amount owing, don't give it to them. This is like giving the prosecution an advance view of your defense. If they think they have a legitimate claim, let them prove it in court. 4) When you are contacted by a collection agent, tell them in no uncertain terms to never call you again. Let them know that if they call again, you will be filing charges for harassment. 5) If the collection agent has a 1-800 number, call it continually until you get a live operator. Then tell the operator to have the agency stop calling you. 6) Remember that these people are bloodsucking parasites and extortionists who are using harassment and intimidation to get you to pay. Ignore their threats. If they had a real case you'd already be in court. If you pay them, you are simply telling them that these tactics work, and they will continue to use them on you and everybody else.
vichislopJun 26, 2007
I'm sure your advice is valid according to your life experiences, but why would you think that everyone else has experienced the same? In reality, most of these situations involving debt are absolutely unforeseen and in fact an embarrassment to those involved. Most of bankruptcies and credit problems arise from catastrophic illnesses (exacerbated by the poor state of the U.S. health care system) or divorces. Honestly, try to by empathetic sometime and imagine awful situations that you have been lucky enough to not have been involved with. These things do happen to other people and they do have grave consequences, often through little fault of their own.
paulwelchJun 26, 2007
That's why there is something called insurance. Good health insurance protects you financially if you get sick. Good long term disability insurance gives you some of your income back if you can't get back to work immediately. Good term life insurance replaces your income for your dependents if you die. And how about a rainy day fund for those little things tat come up that you weren't expecting? The problem is that so many Americans are living right on the edge just trying to pay off debt while making really good money. Americans don't manage their money well and then if a little blip comes into their plan, they have to go get more debt, sinking them into the hole even more. America needs to break the cycle because we're just making banks richer and richer.
pyro789xJun 26, 2007
Sorry to offend your delicate sensibilities. Does your mommy know you're on the mean old interwebs?
indigodearbornJun 26, 2007
I have been following the "prescreened offers to lend" for sometime now. This is how they get through the privacy loop holes to sell your information. Below is a link so you can opt out... but remember, when you sign up for things you are opting back in if you don't opt out with that company. I sent the email below to frients, family and all of my clients to get as many of them to opt out as possible... i have heard great things about reduced junk mail, phones calls so give it a try. I recently came across some news that I wanted to share with you about ?prescreened offers to lend? better known as junk mail & unwanted solicitation calls. In the last several weeks I have talked with many clients, ran credit and had them call me to tell me they had received several phone calls and were concerned with how they got their telephone number and were they calling on my behalf. What I have learned is that the three major credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion sell our information to anyone who wants to pay for it. They call it a ?prescreened? solicitation; because we the consumer apply for credit we are authorizing the major reporting agencies to notify thousands of companies (who pay them for our information) that we are looking for credit so bombard us with phone calls and mail with additional offers, these ?prescreened? offers also pertain to insurance requests as well. I couldn?t believe what I was hearing, how could this be true in this day of privacy and credit fraud and identity theft could this be possible. The reason I am hearing more about this is there are so many mortgage companies out there and they don?t have a steady stream of refinance business they are looking to get business any way they can. If they can?t find customers on their own they are going to pick on people that they know are looking. One other thing to mention while I am up on my soap box, mortgage lenders DO NOT have to be licensed individually, we use the license of our broker. What that means to you and me is that the guy next door could be selling cars, flipping burgers or fixing computers one day and trying to sell you a mortgage the next. What I found out is that as consumers we have to ?opt-out? using the ?optoutprescreen.com? web site. They offer several time frames to ?opt-out? for including forever, but if you want to do that one you have to put it in writing. I personally did the 5 year opt-out. Of course, if you decide you want to get un-wanted solicitations you can always opt back in (yes, that is an option). I find this totally amazing that I have to ask not to have my name, address and phone number sold to thousands of people I don?t know who want to sell me something that I may or may not want. If you want more information on mortgages or credit go to our website at www.indigodearborn.comI have listed the link to the web site for those of you who want to check this out; <a class="user" href="https://www.optoutprescreen.com/opt_form.cgi">https://www.optoutprescreen.com/opt_form.cgi</a> . I have also attached a link that explains what ?prescreened offers to lend? are and how they can get away with selling our information without having to worry about privacy laws. <a class="user" href="https://www.optoutprescreen.com/faq.htm#new">https://www.optoutprescreen.com/faq.htm#new</a> . Please pass this information to as many people as you can, in 2002 less than 6% of the American population had ?opted out? according to a study done by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Systems dated 12/2004 <a class="user" href="https://www.optoutprescreen.com/UnsolicitedCreditOffers2004.pdf">https://www.optoutprescreen.com/UnsolicitedCreditOffers2004.pdf</a> , until 2006 I didn?t know they were selling my information to even know I had to opt-out.
optimistic112Jun 29, 2008
Last year I paid off all of my debt and I was instructed not to apply for anything for about 6 months or so. Well I just recently applied for something and got denied so I checked my credit report and low & behold most of the creditors failed to report that I paid them in full and I was really shocked that AES didn't report my student loan as being paid in full. I am a little upset because my credit score is low and I will be ready to buy a house soon and I need to get this thing settled. Does anyone have any suggestions?
optimistic112Jun 29, 2008
I agree. But alot of people such as myself tend to accumalte debt at a young age. When I was 18 I went crazy applying for every meaningless credit offer that came my way and now at 26 I have paid off all of that debt. But it doesn't happen that easily for most people. I won't ever apply for anything I don't need ever again, LESSON LEARNED! LOL
jiangsueAug 1, 2008
I can't stand FGM, they're real crooks. And they're even run by a crook....