Also, a good suggestion from a woman at Consumer Protection Agency, whom I spoke with earlier today:

when sending things in writing, FAX the letter.. cheaper than certified mail, faster, and you have instant proof that it was rec'd.. SAVE the receipt and a copy of the letter, of course.

Hi Amanda,

Oh gee, you need to get that in writing! Do you at least have proof that you paid.. a cancelled cheque, perhaps?

The biggest mistake you made is hand over the money without getting the agreement in writing. I still can't believe till today people hand over their money without the agreement.

Hi, I am having problems with MJR , They have been bugging me for money for the past few months and everytime i have abided by them and paid them what they asked so i could get rid of them. The last time was just before x-mas when the person told me if i paid so much by jan.22 they would send a letter of release, I paid the money days before it was due and even got a confirmation call saying it was paid, but a few days later they called again and said i still owed more money when in fact the deal was if i paid the last bit they'd cut me a deal and send the letter of release. How can they do that to me and not hold up their end of the bargain? Isn't it a legally binding verbal contract? I even have the msg saved saying thy acknowledge my payment nothing even being said on that msg i owed more money. Now they are threatening to sue me and send me to court. I have so far ignored their phone calls since then. Please someone can you help me.

Looks like this isn't exactly a preferred agency for creditors, going by the voice msg I received the other day from some very frustrated anal retentive knucklehead. Essentially he advised me to grow up, take responsibility for this debt and call him back. He then quickly left a call back number and (in my opinion) slammed the phone down.

I saved the msg as it was quite entertaining. Probably one of the most comical I’ve received to date.

Thanks for your good wishes.
I have to ask why you are in collections but posting advice on this site?Do you wish you had another job or are you happy where you are?
Not being real personal, I'm just curious.

Not at all, as a collector my self, it was the first and hopefully last agency I will be in as a debtor.

Good luck with your situation.

jamiedude,
Thanks very much for the advice. I gather you aren't too impressed with MJR, eh? LOL.

With debt purchase, you will more than likely end up with nothing.

Although, I wouldn't not ask. And while your at it, I'd fax them a cease and desist. Make sure you do it about 10 times, just to make a point. The morons over there don't like to alert their collectors that one was sent in, and have em go in blind. Stupid bastards.

jamiedude,
Thanks for the info. I suspected that MJR might have purchased the debt because they are the third collection agency that has contacted me re: my AmEx debt. Up until their phone call, things had been quiet for quite some time. When I receive the (requested) letter from MJR, should I send them a "demand to validate" letter?

Monty,
Way to go on google!