Complaint Review: Merchants Credit Guide Ken Hughes - Chicago Illinois

Susan, You did the right thing! NEVER speak to any collector on the phone. Yes, changing your number to an unlisted one the the best thing you can do. And the phone co will do this for free if you just tell them you are getting threatening/harassing calls from an UNKNOWN caller. Now, for Karen. No, the bills do not have to be paid! That is because MOST of the debts MCG CO attempts to collect on are past SOL and cannot legally be collected, and the ones that are not time barred usually cannot be documented fully or at all. Furthermore, I have beaten MGC Co TWICE. So, yes, you lowlife do just go away, and move on to the next person who will not put up a fight. MCG CO is a scam operation who attempts to coerce unsuspecting consumers into validating an otherwise uncollectable debt. They do this by pressing the "debtor" to make even a small payment that reaffirms the debt and restarts the SOL and 7 year negative reporting! The best thing to do is immediately send a CEASE COMMUNICATION request as per your rights under the FDCPA which you can read and print out from FTC.gov and you can file a complaint online against them to. My favorite is to make about 150 copies of that CEASE COMM letter in large text/bold print and wait until an hour after they close and saturate every available fax machine so they run out of paper and toner, and fill memory. This stops them cold every time! Have fun with these crackheads! They are truly incompetent and lazy. If you make it hard on them, they WILL go away. I have proven this, TWICE. "Agency" Details: Merchants Credit Guide Co. aka/CFB Financial III, LLC 223 W. Jackson Blvd., #900 Chicago, IL 60606 Phone: (312) 360-3000 888-249-4134- Fax: (312) 360-3024 Also: 1308 State Highway 37 West Frankfort, IL 62896 Phone: (618) 937-4665 Fax: (618) 932-6127 CFB Financial III, LLC Barry P. Siegal, Agent for Service 55 W. Monroe St. #500 Record Office: 223 W. Jackson Blvd., #900 Chicago, IL 60606 Web Address: http://www.merchantscreditguide.com Head Debt Collectors: Daniel F. Burtis, President Michael Fromknecht, President Gregory Fuchs, Vice President Edwin S. Burtis, Secretary, Treasurer Kenneth Hill, VP Operations

To Karen in Chicago, Yesterday I did a full check of my credit (all 3) and the report is excellent 790, no outstanding invoices, every thing current and on time. I have put a credit watch on all 3 agencies and have contacted my attorney. If anything does show up in writing he will handle it in the appropriate way. The point here is is that I do not owe any outstanding bills, these guys are pfishing, and they are in fact SCUM!

This company often times has the wrong information on a person, just like TransUnion Credit Reporting Agency. Make sure you file a report with Federal Trade Commission and you are correct, if there is nothing in writing to you for you to contest...DON'T PAY IT! Get a copy of your credit report to check for mis-spellings of your name, addresses you have not lived at and then contest it.Place a seven year Credit Fraud alert on your credit, if you are in a state where you can place a credit freeze do it. Make a Police report for Identity theft and send a copy to Mr Hughes. Obatain an attorney a sue the daylights out of them they are not Alpha and Omega.

What people don't realize is that debt is here to stay. No matter how you receive the notices, or the phone calls, you are still in debt. People complain because they don't understand the collection industry. There are laws that have to be followed in collections. If you catch a bad collector with his/her pants down, hats off to you. I am not in favor of bad treatment of consumers, and they should be punished. But what Merchants Credit Guide does is not illeagal at all. The letters are legit and so are the Ken Hughes messages. Most collection offices operate in the same way, and are still in existance. People fear what they dont understand. The people who work in collections are not monsters; they do a job the same way you perform your job everyday. If the bills were paid to begin with you would not have heard from Ken Hughes. This company has been around since 1896. ITS NOT GOING ANYWHERE. There are other collection agencies that are worst than MCG. Its a good comany, and not because it pays the bills. Stay out of debt, and you can avoid them all together. Its just an attempt to collect a debt, dont be offended because the creditors want their money back. NO I AM NOT ONE SIDED. (I was a debtor too, I filed bankruptcy last year). And believe me, when other collectors know you owe debt and your in "the business", they treat you like crap. IT IS NOT HARASSMENT. 6 calls in one day is harassment.