hey kimgirl,
just a quick question...

How is this item reporting on your credit report?
How old is the debt?

How much is owing?

Ok, so I've been on this site for months and many hours going through discussion after discussion to try to figure out what to do. I've found some answers and calmed down (THANKS), but I still have questions and need real directions from those with the knowledge who have been there before... so please... HELP!

Here's the situation...

Towards the end of last year I ran into financial problems. I started juggling bills (some got paid in full, others in part each month. This method got me into this collection situation, because some bills I thought I had paid, weren't... hence this CC bill I thought I had paid hadn't been for 3 months.

Normally, I expected this CC company to call me to remind me that I hadn't made a payment (as they had done in the past and since i had been with them for many many years and never had any problems with them) but they didn't. Instead they sent it straight to a collection agency. I still can't figure out why they did this and they refused to speak to me.

Enter Total Credit Recovery collection agency.
This guy called me in the beginning of this year to inform me that I had breached the CC contract and owed just over $5000 and demanded payment. He claimed TCR did not buy my account, that it was still with the original CC and that they only worked for the CC to collect the money. Over a period of weeks, he harassed me non-stop, called me endlessly, broke every collection agency law in Ontario and stressed the heck out of me.

After doing some research on the internet and going through your website, I wrote TCR a letter asking them to identify themselves, prove licences, etc., to contact me only by mail, sent a letter to their ombuds-woman explaning her agent's contravention of the laws, and reported TCR to the Consumers...

After two weeks, they stopped calling. Two more weeks after that, Consumers... called and told me my file was being looked into and I should just go ahead and send TCR any amount of payment I could afford because after all I did owe the debt. I questioned Consumer's... logic, that if TCR did not buy my account then why should I pay TCR. Why not pay the CC directly. She said to go ahead and try to deal with the CC and write them a letter to see if they would take back the account. Strange words... "take back" an account which SUPPOSEDLY was still with the original CC? Hmmm. To this day I never heard from that TCR ombuds-woman... go figure

Anyway, what I did was just send money to the CC, which they accepted and have been accepting for several months now. So I figured all was well in the world, I could continue to pay the CC until I was back on my feet and able to pay them off.

Enter the second collection agency, IQUOR (formerly Canadian Bonded Credits Limited)

About 2 months ago I received a call from this agent who says, in short, that he's from Iquor collection agency and that he works for the original CC and that I still owe the money and how do I plan to pay it off. Since he was polite enough, I explained that I ran into some financial trouble, could not pay the debt in full, and could only pay monthy amounts which I had been doing for the last few months. Instead of listening to me, he went all over my credit report telling me about it, telling me that my rating with the original CC is R5 and could stay that way if I pay the debt in full, and yapping about my other CCs and that I must have some way of paying this debt cause I was paying my other CCs... blah blah blah.

Anyway, to make a long conversation short, I told him I had no job, no money, no assets (I'll be lucky if my car is worth $500 bucks) and no way of paying the debt in full. I acknowledged that I owed the debt and would continue to pay the amount that I had until my financial situation changed. I am living by the grace of friends and family until I can get back on my feet.

For weeks now Iquor have been ringing my house down, more than 3 times a day, even at midnight... from 1800 numbers to private numbers to local numbers, their calls are non-stop. I have tried some of the soft get rid of the collector's calls suggestions found on this board to stop them, but those haven't work.

Finally about 2 weeks ago I asked them how much they would take to settle the account (just to get rid of them). I told them I would try to get funds from friends, settle and asked that they write acct closed and R3 on my credit report. This guy says they will write acct settled, R9 because it's a settlement and that's the CC's policy (no exceptions) and they want $3900 to settle. He says if I pay the full amount (just over $5000) they will write R5 and acct settled.

Unfortunately my friend was not going to lend me that much money, so with combined funds scraped together from a few friends and family, I offered them $3000 and again requested they put in my credit report acct closed and R3. The agent refused saying that they wanted the full $3900 or they were going to go to the next step (whatever that is) and then he began his intimidations. I told him that was the best I could do and if not I would continue to pay the monthly amount I had been. I also again asked him why he couldn't take that amount since they had bought the account and were the second collection agency. Moreover why wasn't he going back to his superiors with my offer instead of outright refusing it. This guy insisted they did not buy the account and that they worked for the CC. He said if they had bought the acct then he would have settled for $1000 just to get rid of it. Then he started with his intimidating, condesending crap, so i hung up.

Now they've returned to their same old tatic of calling me every day and night again. Today I got a call (left on my machine) from the supposed Manager of Iquor who wants to hear my side of the story and come to some agreement or whatever he said before he "goes to the next step" with or without speaking with me.

Frankly I'm fed up and want to just get rid of this thing... I truly abhor their tatics and collection agency really is too nice a word for these agents and agencies.

So my questions are (based on what little knowledge I've gleaned here and on the net):

1. What is the next step to take? HELP! Please give me detailed info as to suggestions on what to do.

1a) Should I write them a letter immediately and tell them to stop harrassing me and only contact me

in writing (so I can start a paper trail)?

1b) Should I just stop paying and let them sue me?

1c) What are the likely outcomes if they take me to court since i have no job, money or assets?

In this scenario what would a judge likely do?

1d) Is it worth settling this debt?

1e) Should I just continue to pay the original CC?

1f) Is there some way for me to shorten the bad credit time (7 years)?

1g) Is my credit already shot to hell?

1h) Any suggestions??????

2. BTW, why are these collection agents saying they did not buy the account but are working for the CC? I though if a CC debt went to a collection agency the account was sold to them.