MovingForward
Wellington,#2Consumer Comment
Sun, February 28, 2010
ASSETCARE is a collections agency for Portfolio Acquisitions. Portfolio can be either a collections agency OR a junk debt buyer (JDB). The debt itself may or may not be real.
What is common now is for some of these JDB's to buy large portfolios of zombie debt. Most of the time Portfolio has no documentation that you actually owe the money. In the case of this type of debt, telecommunications type debt, the TCPA is your friend. Look up the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
Also go to CreditInfoCenter.com to get a copy of a good DV letter (debt validation letter) so you can see if this debt is yours or not. Then you can determine, if it is yours, if it is in the SOL or outside of the Statute of Limitations. The SOL for telecommunications type debt is 2 yrs unless you agreed to more in a contract with the provider. Of course, the collector would actually have to have to the contract in order to enforce the contract.
Do your homework and send the letter disputing the debt right away. Send it CMRRR (Certified Mail Return Receipt Request) to protect your rights. This is especially important whether you owe the debt or not.
Tim
Grand Haven,#3Consumer Comment
Sun, February 28, 2010
If I am not mistaken, Southwestern Bell operates under the d/b/a of SBC and/or Ameritech, and at times was tied to AT&T and god knows what other companies. Telecommunications companies have morphed so much over the past fifteen years that it can be pretty hard to figure out who you are (or have been) dealing with.