and then demand that you pay THEM? Is there a place somewhere in the legal system that says that this is not fair?
Not my bills Mr. belgrade!
resources please! I want to see.
Bostonian In MO
Favorite Answer
Not at all. The constitution has no such prohibition. If the debt is still valid and legally collectible, there's nothing to prohibit the practice. It's widely used.
However, there is one practice that you should watch out for. Sometimes creditors rest on their laurels and an uncollected debt's statute of limitation expires. This varies based upon state law and the type of debt. Once the date passes, collection of the debt becomes legally impossible.
Many creditors will sell bundles of those old debts to collection agencies for pennies on the $100 or even less. The collection agency needs only convince a tiny fraction of the debtors to pay up to realize a staggering return on their investment. The practice is not illegal in most states but consumers need to be extremely wary of them.
If you are dealing with this type of collection you should usually ignore it. If you do anything to admit the validity of the debt the dates will be updated and the debt may become collectible all over again. If nothing else, it will show up on your credit report again and may be difficult to remove. If you do have any contact with the collection agency, ONLY request a "Proof of Debt" or "Verification of Debt" and say NOTHING else. They'll probably try to get you to agree to payment if they can prove it or shame you into paying the debt. Don't do it! In nearly all cases the POD or VOD no longer exists. The collection agency bought a computer file with a bunch of names, addresses and amounts on it. The original proof of the debt has long been discarded by the original creditor. In many cases they may not even be able to tell you who the original creditor was.
Again, your best bet is to simply hang up. If they persist, tell them to stop calling. If you tell them to stop calling they must honor that request although they can still contact you by mail. If they do and you know for a fact that the debt is no longer legally collectible, just throw the mail notices in the trash after you shred them, of course.
Andy P
It is perfectly legal and a very common practice. Be wary of asking whether something is unconstitutional. Something can be illegal yet still be constitutional. The constitution does not determine legality in many different areas. For instance, it is illegal to buy alcohol under 21 years of age in most states, but the US Constitution is silent on the subject, other than delegating that decision to the states.
Anonymous
No, there is nothing in the constituion that would prohibits these practices. You may want to contact your states attorney general and see if what laws are on the books pertaining to collection agencies.
However, as I stated earlier, currently there are no laws that prohibit collection agencies from purchasing past due debts. If anything there are laws that regulate the practices that they use to collect a debt.
davidmi711
No, it's perfectly legal. You owe the debt and the original creditor has the right to sell the debt in order to recover some of their losses from dealing with deadbeats that look for the easy way out.
You owe the money. Concentrate your efforts in paying your debts, not dodging them.
Anonymous
You have the right to deal with the original creditor and not some sloppy debt collection agency. Go to budhibbs.com.