morganforms
United States of America#2Consumer Suggestion
Mon, November 02, 2009
I forgot to mention an additional step:
if you are on government benefits, you can mail in a judgment proof letter, say you have benefits, and that you will pay at a future date when you can afford to pay.
if your report is ruined by the charges and late fees, contact the credit bureau and explain how the company is advantage of you. the credit bureau may block their negative info. Sometimes when small claims start and letters like judgement proof letters are sent, the credit bureau will not report the bad credit. I have something that has been in collections for years, but I sent a judgment proof letter, plus filed small claims and I still haven't seen it on my credit report as negative.
morganforms
United States of America#3Consumer Suggestion
Mon, November 02, 2009
Solution to annoying collector calls:
First, don't answer the phone and don't listen to their threats that you must pay now or else suffer more financial damages.
Mail by certified mail a cease and desist letter to ask the collectors to stop calling. Just write a letter with your address, the companies address, include your account number, and ask them to cease and desist their calls, and say by law they must stop calling you when you've asked them too.
Lastly, you could file a small claims action to make them reduce the fees and tacked on charges. Once the file is in small claims, many companies will immediately stop all their bull with you and even offer to reduce charges.
Take action, don't be victimized anymore. You probably feel too stressed by now, but it doesn't have to be this way. These companies will take advantage of people if they don't do the above or take actions to stop them. It's not as bad as the collector will make it seem. Don't worry.
morganforms
United States of America#4Consumer Suggestion
Mon, November 02, 2009
Solution to annoying collector calls:
First, don't answer the phone and don't listen to their threats that you must pay now or else suffer more financial damages.
Mail by certified mail a cease and desist letter to ask the collectors to stop calling. Just write a letter with your address, the companies address, include your account number, and ask them to cease and desist their calls, and say by law they must stop calling you when you've asked them too.
Lastly, you could file a small claims action to make them reduce the fees and tacked on charges. Once the file is in small claims, many companies will immediately stop all their bull with you and even offer to reduce charges.
Take action, don't be victimized anymore. You probably feel too stressed by now, but it doesn't have to be this way. These companies will take advantage of people if they don't do the above or take actions to stop them. It's not as bad as the collector will make it seem. Don't worry.
annoymous
USA#5
Thu, September 17, 2009
I have worked for HSBC as a collector and it was my experience that a lot of time when people say they canceled the card they didn't actually call in and close the card. They just payed it off and throw away the card, cut it up, mailed it back to the company at the payment adress, or called in to cancel it and then was suggested to leave it open for one reason or another and then decided to do so. You are informed when you first open the card of an annual fee. If you don't like it don't open the card its that simple. And they do call on an automated system if someone doesn't answer a about 4 to 5 rings then the rep on the other end of the line will pass the call and move on to the next. So if you just answer the first time you can take care of the calls. FCC doesn't regulate the # of times a credit card company can call to collect its the FDCPA. And HSBC has a company policy to not leave a message. Under the FDCPA again the company and let a third party know what the perpose of the call is. So they don't leave messages because they don't know if a third party my hear it. If one did HSBC could be in a lot of trouble. Even though you didn't buy anything you did have you anual fee which caused the card to carry a blance thus you got late charges because you did pay your min payment. If you did call in and canceld the card and it was HSBC mistake for not taking care of it then yes everything should be removed. And as a note to people reading this... sending a letter or anything other then a payment to the adress that your payment goes to means the company doesn't get it. That adress is just for payment processing you can call or go online to get the corraspondance adress or fax #.