“Dear Steve,
I am helping a 78 year old neighbor with diminished capacity get settled into an extended-care facility, and noticed that there is an amount of $99.02 starting to come out of her bank account paid to a JJD Collections LLC in California.
Her social security is $675 a month, and her section 8 rent amount is $515.15, and phone is $25. With the $99.02 coming out of her social security, she has no money on which to live. I did find a telephone number of 888-328-4329 for this collection agency, but got no answer.
How can I get this collection agency to stop harming this frail women by collecting this amount from the limited social security moneys that she gets each month, even though she may owe it, as it is putting her in a perilous financial condition?
Ann”
Dear Ann,
The easiest way would be to just get the bank to change her account number so the drafts get rejected. The collection company may reappear but if they do, then we’ll know exactly what the deal with this payment is.
Go ahead and get that done tomorrow.
Bless you for caring for her.
Bonus Video Answer
Please post your responses and follow-up messages to me on this in the comments section below.
Steve
Love the videos! You should make them mandatory. They’re that good!
Anyway, closing the account may cause her some issues with getting her social security payments. I’m assuming their direct deposited?
Ann, a more simpler and seamless solution will be for her to call her bank and to put a block on all future ACH’s from this company. If you guys decide to go this route, make sure that you provide the bank with the name and address of the company and the amount of the ACH.
The bank may attempt to charge a fee for this, but considering her income situation and her age, you should be able to overcome that and get it waived.
Also, you should be able to obtain the contact information for the company from the bank as well. So if you don’t have this info, the bank should be able to access it from your neighbors account. Including the companies phone number.
And finally, once you handle the ACH cancellation with the bank, call the company and advise them to cancel the transactions as well. Make sure to write down the contact information for the collector that you speak with and require that a manager confirm the cancellation as well.
Ann, it’s so nice of you to help your neighbor out. We need more people like you in this world.
Good point on the social security. It’s actually fairly easy to change that.
I’ve seen a bunch of people not able to get their banks to really stop an authorized debit. It might get held up but they get run through again with a valid account.
For me, the bigger issue was what did the woman agree to when she gave them her bank account information.
Changing the account number will close down the debits for certain.
I was concerned about hoping the collection agency would take care of the matter for two reasons. First, no answer. Second, I didn’t want to alarm anyone but that number appears tied to the same fake collection scam that has been hot and heavy the past couple of years.
Check out http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-888-328-4329
I could be completely wrong but my gut says they are not to be trusted.
Great point on their credibility. I just Googled the number and the first thing that popped up was “He then told me he could put a two hour hold on the Sheriff coming to my home and I may call 1-888-328-4329 regarding case number CF112338…”
Wow! Yeah Ann, close the account! 🙂 lol
Make sure to call the Social Security office right away though. Your neighbor probably can’t afford any delay in benefits.
You dont need to call SS you can do it really easy online. You will have to create an login for her.
Right you are.
Great tip! That will save them a lot of time.
Thanks for the feedback about the video.