Complaint Review: Merchants Credit Guide Zenith Aquisiton HouseHold Credit - Chicago Illinois

I have worked in the credit industry in the US as well as around the Globe, with extensive knowledge of laws surrounding debt collection. There IS a solution here, so bear with me. I want to make sure you understand the law as I understand it. You should confirm everyting with with an attorney. While I sympathise with this person, unfortunately, the law states that the divorce decree cannot override the responsibility of the debt as far as the Credit Company is concerned. In otherwords, if you were a JOINT cardholder on the account, you are responsible for the debt, and the law will back them up if this goes to court. What the Divorce decree does is defer the debt to her husband, so if the husband does not pay the debt, she can turn around and sue him, and include any costs she has incurred to defend herself against the debt. To summarise, you have a contract with the credit company to pay the bill, and you have a contract with your ex-husband that he is to pay the bill. So if the sue you, you turn around and sue your ex. Steps I recommend for this person: 1) Confirm that she is a JOINT cardholder, not an AUTHORIZED USER. The difference is that a JOINT cardholder would have had to sign the application, where an authourized user is simply given a card to charge with, but is not financially responsible, ie: no signature. 2) If she is a JOINT cardholder, request a copy of the original application, which should include the signature. If this portfolio has been sold to another company, which is common industry practice, they may not be able to produce this document. She might be able to get away with not recalling this being a joint account, but that might tough. 3) You will have to deal with whatever company owns the debt now. 4) Get all documentation of statements, payments, copies of cancelled checks, dates and copies of all correspondence from the husband and the credit card company, especially documentation on how the balance went from 1000 to 6000. 5)If you end up having to pay, keep records of what you pay, so you can go back and sue your ex-husband for not paying. 6) Lastly, most of the time, if you remain calm and represent yourself as if you want to resolve the situation, they will work with you. Many times, they are able to negotiate a "settlement", which can be a sum that is substantially less than the balance today. Since the actual balance started at 1000, I would advise offering something between 500 and 1000. When these accounts are sold, they have often already been deemed as losses by the original company, so they are sold for significantly less than the balance that originated on the account. So, just about any amount they can collect is seen as a profit. Again, keep a record of what you pay to reclaim it back from your ex-husband. Good luck!

You need to send a letter to this collection agency, certified mail, return receipt requested, advising them they are not to contact you. You can advise them that you have court documents stating this is not your debt, but I would not give them a copy of anything. To be on the safe side, you should contact the original debtor, and if they give you any problems about the bill not being paid, send them a copy of the divorce decree and advise them that the bill has been paid by the responsible party. This may show up on your credit report so you may wish to copy all correspondece and send it to the credit bureaus to advise them that this is not your debt. Notify the FTC if this collection agency bothers you after receipt of your cease and desist letter. If they make any real threats, contact your local police department and file a complaint. If you can afford to do so, hook up a recorder to your phone and advise anyone calling regarding this debt that the conversation is being recorded. Check the state laws (I think this is also on the FTC site)...you may be able to tape record the conversation without the other party's permission.