Complaint Review: Viking Collections Barb Swan - Phoenix Arizona

I've been reading this thread with some interest. First, to the gentleman who fell on hard times, filing bankruptcy sounds like the best solution. Even under the new laws, enacted because MBNA was Bush's biggest campaign contributor, you'd qualify. Once you get out of debt you can rebuild credit in a year or two. You're credit's already shot if you have all of these problems anyway. Next, as far as companies like Viking go, in an ideal world it would be an agency who resolves disputes. Do a Google search on them and you'll see this big ad for collectors and promises of all the huge commissions they'll make. In other words, their employment target attracts people who aren't exactly the elite of society, and probably get a big kick out of talking down to people. I had a problem with Viking over a debt that wasn't even mine. I started getting these calls two or three times a week, "I need someone to call me back today" or "It's very important that you return this call." Now what kind of genius thinks anybody's going to respond to that? Here's my advice: 1. Don't feel like you're cheating a bank. You've already more than satisfied their risk by paying exorbitant interest rates. 2. If you have a legitimate debt and want to pay it, pay it only on the condition that all derogatory information be removed from your credit report. Regardless of what they tell you, if they don't, you have no incentive to pay it. A collection account only lowers your score by about 40 points, and paying all of your bills on time for three or four months will bring it back up. 3. If they won't remove derogatory information, tell them, then follow through, that you would rather use the money to pay down your credit card debt, which will bring up your credit score and offset their negative information. And mention that they can drop dead.

There are these little entities called "junk debt buyers" who try to collect non-existent "debts" (such as my two-year battle with Calvary Portfolio over a supposed Sprint PCS account that I never had and even Sprint acknowledged that I never had). You have these lovely companies who get information from Transunion on consumers with good credit and try to pretend that they have bills from 1998 or so from Fingerhut and companies like that, in an attempt to extort money. It is interesting to me that so many of these phantom debts appear right after people prequalify to buy a home. The bad thing is, a lot of these people pay these phantom debts, thinking it will clear their credit and all it does is get the statute of limitations clock started and makes their credit worse, causing them a higher interest rate or getting declined for a mortgage or other major purchase. Then, once these JDB's see that someone will give them money, other phantom debts seem to "pop up". When you dispute these, they sell your information to yet another JDB and you can end up with multiple entries for the same alleged debt. I actually had to have my attorney intervene and did get a reasonable interest rate on my mortgage. I am not saying that there are not good collection agencies and collectors who follow the FDCPA and try to help, but.unfortunately, these are overshadowed by the junk debt buyers. Viking is one of these who don't seem to give a d**n about FDCPA..just gimme the money, whether you owe it or not.

There are these little entities called "junk debt buyers" who try to collect non-existent "debts" (such as my two-year battle with Calvary Portfolio over a supposed Sprint PCS account that I never had and even Sprint acknowledged that I never had). You have these lovely companies who get information from Transunion on consumers with good credit and try to pretend that they have bills from 1998 or so from Fingerhut and companies like that, in an attempt to extort money. It is interesting to me that so many of these phantom debts appear right after people prequalify to buy a home. The bad thing is, a lot of these people pay these phantom debts, thinking it will clear their credit and all it does is get the statute of limitations clock started and makes their credit worse, causing them a higher interest rate or getting declined for a mortgage or other major purchase. Then, once these JDB's see that someone will give them money, other phantom debts seem to "pop up". When you dispute these, they sell your information to yet another JDB and you can end up with multiple entries for the same alleged debt. I actually had to have my attorney intervene and did get a reasonable interest rate on my mortgage. I am not saying that there are not good collection agencies and collectors who follow the FDCPA and try to help, but.unfortunately, these are overshadowed by the junk debt buyers. Viking is one of these who don't seem to give a d**n about FDCPA..just gimme the money, whether you owe it or not.

There are these little entities called "junk debt buyers" who try to collect non-existent "debts" (such as my two-year battle with Calvary Portfolio over a supposed Sprint PCS account that I never had and even Sprint acknowledged that I never had). You have these lovely companies who get information from Transunion on consumers with good credit and try to pretend that they have bills from 1998 or so from Fingerhut and companies like that, in an attempt to extort money. It is interesting to me that so many of these phantom debts appear right after people prequalify to buy a home. The bad thing is, a lot of these people pay these phantom debts, thinking it will clear their credit and all it does is get the statute of limitations clock started and makes their credit worse, causing them a higher interest rate or getting declined for a mortgage or other major purchase. Then, once these JDB's see that someone will give them money, other phantom debts seem to "pop up". When you dispute these, they sell your information to yet another JDB and you can end up with multiple entries for the same alleged debt. I actually had to have my attorney intervene and did get a reasonable interest rate on my mortgage. I am not saying that there are not good collection agencies and collectors who follow the FDCPA and try to help, but.unfortunately, these are overshadowed by the junk debt buyers. Viking is one of these who don't seem to give a d**n about FDCPA..just gimme the money, whether you owe it or not.

There are these little entities called "junk debt buyers" who try to collect non-existent "debts" (such as my two-year battle with Calvary Portfolio over a supposed Sprint PCS account that I never had and even Sprint acknowledged that I never had). You have these lovely companies who get information from Transunion on consumers with good credit and try to pretend that they have bills from 1998 or so from Fingerhut and companies like that, in an attempt to extort money. It is interesting to me that so many of these phantom debts appear right after people prequalify to buy a home. The bad thing is, a lot of these people pay these phantom debts, thinking it will clear their credit and all it does is get the statute of limitations clock started and makes their credit worse, causing them a higher interest rate or getting declined for a mortgage or other major purchase. Then, once these JDB's see that someone will give them money, other phantom debts seem to "pop up". When you dispute these, they sell your information to yet another JDB and you can end up with multiple entries for the same alleged debt. I actually had to have my attorney intervene and did get a reasonable interest rate on my mortgage. I am not saying that there are not good collection agencies and collectors who follow the FDCPA and try to help, but.unfortunately, these are overshadowed by the junk debt buyers. Viking is one of these who don't seem to give a d**n about FDCPA..just gimme the money, whether you owe it or not.

Tom, that is such a typical response from a collector. Yes, there are people out there who are scamming the system. They have no intention of paying their bills and are trying to skip on out their obligations. I think for the most part, however, that most people want to pay what they owe. Unfortunately, things happen. People get sick, people lose their jobs - life happens. Kevin sounds like he is trying to work things out to pay his bills. It seems to me that companies would want to work out something to get their money. The only alternative is to tell 'em to drop dead and file bankrupucy and then where does that leave the company? People like "Swan" (yeah, right thats her name) who probably work on commision, only wants to collect as much as possible. Nobody deserves to be treated like crap. I would hang up on her.

I forgot to say that the collection agents made the fair offers of making payments. I believe they were smart enough to know they could accomplish their goal by being fair and decent instead of demanding all of the money at once. Also your assumption Swan wanted to work with me is wrong. She made it clear by inferring that because I missed the payments in the past, that I was a deadbeat without wanting to know why. Swan told me from the start she wanted all the money now and would not consider anything else. She demanded I give her my payroll department phone number and if I didn't she would call them herself and tell them what was going on. This was a clear violation of the law about 3rd party contact and I told her no. Do you call that working with me? Her company would call and not leave a name or what company they worked for just a 800 number. I tried to get a loan, rearange other budget items but I could not come up with all the money she demanded that day. Is my family suppose to strave and live on the street because she tried to strong arm me? I don't think so. I told her when I could start paying her but she hung up on me in a fit of anger because I didn't say what she wanted to hear. Tell me Tom when you were a collection agent did you act that way; make threats, demand the money that day, didn't care how you got the money just as long as you got it? Did you play it smart and treated people with decency? Swan was not nice from the start and had no intention of being decent and fair or to work with me. So Tom do you still say I was incorrect to say she was mean because she refused payments?

I didn't give all the facts. Due to a loss of income I was barely making my bills. I had to make certain choises as who to pay and who not to. I did my best to pay everyone but I didn't. I never claimed I was a saint. Even when I owed back taxes ( when my problems started )the IRS was nicer than Swan was of Viking. I had two other credit cards go into collection because I couldn't pay on a regular basis. You are right I shouldn't have let it happen. But it did and I knew it was owed in full if they so wished. The difference was the other collection agents were nice, they understood my situation and my desire to pay them. They didn't have to threaten me, try to bully, and insult me because of what happened. I will have those two credit cards paid off the first week of June. I am doing exactly what you suggest and get rid of the debt and never get another credit card again. The big difference between Viking and the others was that they treated me as a human being, knew I made dumb mistakes, and they had the decency to want to help instead of wanting to destroy me. But what made Swan so mad was she had to wait two weeks until I had the money to start payments and felt she was the only one who should be paid and I would have to default on my other payments. That is just pure greed and meaness on her part. So I will bypass her and talk to the creditor themselves.

My name is tom : I have been a collector for 16 years. I am now a consumer advocate. I come to this site to try to help the plight of many who have been abused by collectors and phantom debt. Most of the time i am on the consumers side. However, you mention that you 'like to pay your debts' ..... If a collector from an agency is calling you -and your original post seems to indicate you have dealt with collectors on some kind of regular basis before - that means you DO NOT like to pay your bills or honor your contracts. Collectors only get involved long after the contract is broken and is long since deliquent and unresolved with the creditor. yes, try rebudgeting - or if money is tight , cash only -no credit whatsoever, until you can balance your budget and not get into debt in the first place. Collectors / Agencies / nor the original creditor are NOT obligated to 'work with you' when your account is charged off and bad debt.It becomes legally payable in full. It is not your right to 'make payments' . Collectors do TRY to work with consumers -but trying to make it seem as though someone is 'MEAN' for not accepting them , is to suggest it is your 'RIGHT' to make payments on a charged off debt you did not pay when you were supposed to in the first place .This is not accurate. If you heed my advise -you will never ever hear from a collector again -CAUSE YOU WONT HAVE CHARGED OFF UNPAID DEBT.

Or are they collecting for someone else? If thats the case, tell them that you will not deal with them and that you will call the people you owe money to and work out the payment with them. You don't have to tolerate that from them. Simply tell them that they are NOT to call you again, send them a Cease and Desist letter.. Or do what my friend did... tell them when they can speak to you like an adult they can call you back, then hang up on them.