It seems more and more people are getting tax form 1099-C issued now for the forgiveness of old debt from as long as twenty years ago. That’s a problem for consumers. This old debt is sometimes called “zombie debt” because it appears to come back from the dead. The first thing you should do is …
“Dear Steve, I was a comcast customer Years ago. I returned all of my gear and i just received a bill for almost $1100. They are saying that I did not turn in my gear. Remote Control and Cable Box. It has been almost 6 years since I canceled my service with them. This is …
“Dear Steve, I’m back again. This time I talked to Citi about getting a higher limit because they offered me 18 months of no APR again on the same account. They said no because I had an account in collections. What do you do when you hear this? You freak out. Was my ID stolen? …
“Dear Steve, I had accumulated about $20,000 of debt 10 years ago. I never addressed any of it, and had one judgement for $2500 come through the local courts. I’ve never been able to pay any of this debt. About 3 years ago I looked into my credit report to see what I could do …
THE KING OF ZOMBIE DEBT: THE 1099-C. WHAT TO DO WHEN COLLECTION CONTINUES AFTER RECEIVING A 1099-C By Gregory M. Fitzgerald, Esq. Most folks who get a 1099-C accept that it is a good news/bad news thing. The bad news is you must include the 1099-C as income on your taxes. The good news is …
A reader brought the following article to my attention, America’s Abusive Debt Collectors on the DailyBeast.com. It is an interesting look into some of the bad collection outfits by Gary Rivlin. Gary includes first-person accounts of some of the actions they were asked or required to do to keep their jobs as collectors. These bad …
Do collections agencies have access to Credit Bureaus? It seems like every year we pull our free credit reports, within days we start to get calls from strange collection agencies trying to collect on debts we had 10+ years ago. Every once in awhile I get a call on an old VISA card I had …
How am I able to see what check into cash / pay day loans I have taken out? In 2008 I was in college and working an internship. At that time, I took out a few loans and now have a detective calling me. Is there a way to see where these loans are and …
Here is a great research paper worth reading. It certainly helps to focus the robo-signing issues we’ve all heard about with mortgages to a problem that debt relief providers will need to deal with. For a while we’ve talked about the issue of a debt relief provider that either sets up a payment plan or …
“Dear Steve, When I was 18, I had 2 Visa credit cards. I maxed them out within the first year, not realizing the consequences. Now, 11 years later, a collector that has purchased the debt has sent me a letter saying that I have 45 days to pay or make payment arrangements. The last payment …
