Collection company's practices under fire Kansas.com
A company you never heard of may be getting ready to raid your bank account for money you may or may not owe it.
Midland Funding has filed more than 3,300 debt collection lawsuits in Sedgwick County in the past 5 1/2 years, totaling more than $7 million in claims.
It's part of a nationwide sweep by Midland of old and often written-off debt that has brought the company more than $1 billion in collections in just the past two years.
The majority of the local lawsuits result in default judgments in Midland's favor, because the defendants don't show up for court.
It is unclear how many of the no-shows knew they were being sued because Kansas law doesn't require proof that the defendants received the legal papers.
When it wins judgments, Midland usually seeks to get money from the alleged debtors by garnishing their bank accounts.
Midland is under fire in Minnesota and Texas, where the attorneys general have filed legal actions alleging that the company illegally mass-produced legal documents that defrauded debtors and hijacked the court system into serving as a collection agency.
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Are these violations of fair debt collection practices act?
My husband fell 6 months behind on a credet card bill. The account was turned over to a collection agency in Texas.After repeated phone calls to both my husband and his employer. My husband called the CA and asked them to stop contacting third parties. He tried to make arrangements to pay the debt. He was not able to come up with the sum that they wanted so the calls continued. They called us numerous times. Sometimes 10 or more times in one hour. They continued to call his employer even when the employer asked them to stop calling. They called our neighbor, parents, and siblings. I contacted them and made arrangements to pay the bill in monthly enstallments. Two payments have been made as agreed. We have not missed a payment. Yesterday I was contacted by them stating that if I couldn't settle the debt that day they would send a 1099C form to the IRS. Claiming that my unpaid debt was considered nonwage income even though I was paying on it. they also called a third party this same da
We still are not sure how they got our neighbors address. We hardly ever even talk to him. I don't even know his last name. All that we can figure is that they looked up our address and then did a search on our neighbors address to get his contact information.
What really gets me is that they are continuing the harrassment even though we are paying on the debt. I could see if we had missed payments or something but we haven't.
The 1099 C form doesn't even apply to my debt. They were not offering to eliminate the debt. The lady who I spoke to on the phone tried telling me that if I didn't pay the debt that day she would file the form. When I spoke to the manager and asked him about the form he told me that it was used if part of the debt was written off and did not apply to a debt that I was paying. He is looking into the matter to find out why she would tell me this. It felt to me that she was just trying to bully me into paying it that day.
We have the payment details in writting and have made payments as agreed. We are sending a certified letter tommorow to stop contacting third parties as they are not doing so with any intentions of finding out contact information about us. They already have our information.
Turn them in to the better business bureau. Also tell them you will contact your attorney(you don't have to have one) if they don't stop calling your family and his employer. They legally can't contact the IRS about your debt, so don't worry about that. Make sure you tell the BBB about all of the threats that they have made, this is wrong and against the LAW! personally I would contact an attorney and sue them for harassment and breech in privacy if they are telling other people any info about how much you owe.
They can't contact you by phone, if you've asked them to stop-
Unpaid debt is NOT income!
From another site:
When the 1099-C is issued to you and to the IRS, you must claim the indicated amount as income in the year the debt was forgiven.
Once you pay the income tax on the forgiven amount, the creditor can not come after the same amount again. The debt is forgiven.
The taxes are surely less than the debt, pay it, and forget about it.
Did you have any of this in writting. That is did your husband send them a certified letter stating that they were not to communicate with anyone else. Did you have the payment arangements in writting? If not there is really no proof other than a you said/they said sort of thing.
However, having them give you a 1099-C may not be the worst thing that could happen. Once they do this they are officially writting off the debt and can not come after you again for it. You will have to pay taxes on the amount but depending on your tax situation this might be a very small percentage based on the settled amount.
Illegal Debt collection practices ?
I do not have medical insurance. I have a chronic illness that
puts me in the hospital a lot. I can't work because of it. But,
because I haven't work enough to acquire enough credits, I can't get Social Security Disability. Because I can't get that,
I can not get Medicaid to help with my medical bills.
I had over 1 million in medical bills when I filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It was discharged in 2000.
Now, I have a lot more bills that I can't pay. One collection agency -West Asset Management located in Georgia keeps
harrassing me over an $18,000 bill I owe a hospital in Texas.
I have explained the situation to everyone that calls. I have sent
6 letters via certified register return reciept requested mail, requesting that they have no further contact by phone wih me. my husband, my children, my neighbors, etc. I have the reciepts where someone signed for 4 of the letters.
But, they continue to call - often 6 times a day at my home -
they even call neighbors, etc
Did you tell them to cease and desist all contact or just stop phoning? You have the right to send them a cease and desist all contact letter and they have to stop. Normally, the creditor just brings suit to collect.
However, there isn't any right to tell creditors to stop phoning. You can ask and most will stop calling and just send collection letters. They can also call multiple times a day if you don't answer the phone. They can contact neighbors and family members trying to find you since you aren't answering the phone.
Have you tried contacting social services to see if there is any assistance for your treatments? Or if there is a charity group associated with your illness, maybe they have information on assistance.
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