Douglas
“Dear Steve,
My mother received a collection letter at her home of which I have not lived for a number of years. The letter stated that a sheriff would be sent shortly to serve a complaint. The collection letter said that they are not a law firm, that they were just trying to collect a debt. The letter says CACH vs [redacted].
The only thing I can think of is that I was in a debt settlement program when I was about ready to settle a debt with Washington Mutual when CACH bought the debt. CACH would not settle on an amount. I then wrote them a letter to cease and desist all collection activity until they sent me the required information.
They did not send me the required infornation and I have not heard from them since March of ’08. I then get this letter sent to my mother’s address. The letter listed a case #, but no amount was listed. Do you think this a scare tactic? I know CACH is an aggressive collection agency and they are not kosher in some of their collection practices.
What should I do about this letter that the collection agency sent to my mother’s address.
Douglas”
Dear Douglas,
First thing I would do is to advise you to not panic. I know that is easier said than done but let’s get some facts first. And yes, it is a scare tactic, and it almost always works to scare.
CACH has a notorious reputation of bullying, intimidating and maybe even bending and breaking the boundaries of collection activities. I would not first assume that you are being sued, but I also would not disregard the letter.
I think the first thing you should do is to get a copy of your consolidated credit report. It is very important that it is a consolidated credit report and the one linked to is the one I use and love.
The consolidated credit report will show you if there are any outstanding collection items out there.
Next, if you do have outstanding debts that you owe we need to come up with a plan on how to deal with those.
Get your consolidated credit report, come back to 
Dear Steve,
I am Jolene. My husband is out of the country working.
He asked me to continue this for him. I have his Power of Attorney.
He asked me to look at his credit report from July of ’08.
I have all three.
The Washington Mutual/Proviadian shows a charge off on all three reports. Then it goes to CACH and under comments it says “consumer disputes this account information” on Equifax and TransUnion. On Experian it says “Account in dispute under Fair Credit Billing Acts.”
When we tried settling this account with CACH, they would not budge on an amount and was very belligerent. We then went to the Bud Hibbs site and we have done everything he said to do. Now this shows up at his mothers.
What is our next step. For the most part his credit is good. Just in Feb. his score was 665.
Sincerely,
Jolene
Hi Jolene,
If this is a bill that you owe, pay it or make payment arrangements. If it is not a bill that you think you owe then find a lawyer that can help you with Fair Debt issues. You will have to pay for the attorney. If the debt is so large and the creditor will not make payment arrangements that you can afford and you don’t want to pay for an attorney to represent you then you will have to consider bankruptcy as a way out.
A creditor does not have to offer you a payment plan you can afford and they be as demanding and unfair as they want to be. They know this will either push people into finding the cash someplace of falling on the sword and filing bankruptcy.
Steve