Poor Advice from Steve Bucci Concerning Old Debts Pursued by a Collection Agency
Posted on November 28, 2007
Filed Under Bad Advice
By Paul Rushing
Steve Bucci the president of Money Management International Financial Education Foundation must be playing into the interest of lawyers. In a recent article he claims authorship of he tells consumers:
If the debt is older than the statute of limitations, see an attorney. The attorney can write to the collector, say you aren’t going to pay a penny and demand that all further communications concerning the debt come to the law office. The collector has to comply with the lawyer’s request or face a possible lawsuit. Any sane collector will back off at this point and leave you alone.[www.goerie.com]
Steve why not just tell consumers to send the collection agency a letter telling them to FOAD via certified mail and maintain a copy of it in their records. Then if they are contacted again by that collection agency an attorney would gladly sue them for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act with that kind of documentation in hand, without making the consumer pay an attorney for an hour of their time.
Certified Mail is cheap compared to the hourly rate of an attorney. Granted some attorneys may do it for nothing if you have an established relationship with them. But come on man don’t tell people to go out and spend money they do not have to.
If a debt collector is trying to collect a debt that is past the statute of limitations you can send them a letter saying:
Dear Debt Collector,
Do not ever contact me again regarding your account number #xxxxxxxx.
You can F… off and die.
Sincerely,
A consumer
Sent via Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested
Tracking # xxxxxxxxx
Save a copy of the letter you mail them and the return receipt. Then if the debt collector ever contacts you again go see an attorney. They will love for you to hand them that kind of proof to sue a collection agency for a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Chances are they will represent you for a contingency because their fees are collectible in a Federal Law Suit.
By all means though make sure the alleged debt is outside of the Statute of Limitations before you send a letter like that. Each state is different!!
Just don’t pay an attorney to write that kind of letter!!
People who looked at this item also looked at…
Related items
Comments
One Response to “Poor Advice from Steve Bucci Concerning Old Debts Pursued by a Collection Agency”
Leave a Reply
There is a time and place for an attorney to step in and the initial leave me alone letter is not one of them. I fully agree before feeding a lawyer, try to write to the company yourself and state your case. Keep copies of every communication with them, send all letters certified mail, return receipt. If you are contacted again, send a follow up letter getting tougher and threaten legal action should they continue to contact you again.
Should they still not heed the warning have an attorney draw up a simple cease and desist letter which usually does work. BUT make it your last resort to do this.
If you read and know the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) you can state your case with statute back up very well without the aid of an attorney.