Collection Agencies - Can a collection agency take all your money out of your bank account? - Canada

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RE: Can a collection agency take all your money out of your bank account?

Postby dominoes20 » Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:51:42 AM

Definitely! They know that there is a right way and a wrong way to resolve past debts and if they choose to flagrantly abuse those rules then by all means they deserve their just desserts.
...and besides that, its fun lol
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RE: Can a collection agency take all your money out of your bank account?

Postby Marquisse » Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:31:56 AM

Dominoes, if I am lucky enough to get validation from the C/A and try to negotiate small payments and record the conversations, can I also take you up on the offer to help deal with them becoming abusive? LOL
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RE: Can a collection agency take all your money out of your bank account?

Postby dominoes20 » Thu Feb 04, 2010 04:02:50 PM

lol please, please record them the next time you speak with them and then pm me. I have 15 years experience in the collection industry and would work wonders with a recording. If you do be carefull to not say anything negative yourself just offer to make small payments and let them work themselves up. Then PM me lol.
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RE: Can a collection agency take all your money out of your bank account?

Postby Lawnsong » Thu Feb 04, 2010 01:12:53 PM

Thank you for all of the information! She had missed one payment, and for another, she could only pay part. There was no contract. When she'd phone them, they were extremely abusive and threatening, so she didn't call them again. That's one of the things I find offensive. They would call her at work and threaten to take away everything she owned....things like that. It was a Visa bill she was having trouble paying because she only worked part time and was going to university. She kept up partial payments, but suddenly the collection agency called.
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RE: Can a collection agency take all your money out of your bank account?

Postby jillian53 » Wed Feb 03, 2010 01:15:18 PM

Thank you for the update...I was worried there for a minute that they could touch my acct..Not there is much in it, only a disabilty check which is extremely small, goes in one hand and out the other for meds..lol...
I believe the debt they are chasing me for is for some products purchased which I have no idea when I would have ever in my lifetime purchased them..I am in the same boat..Have written them 3 registered letters and to no avail and yet they continue to send me threatening letters about a law suit as well as calling several times a day..Grrr..
I did belong to another forum until I found out there was someone who worked for a collection agency reading all the posts..That made me feel a little violated..That's the problem with not talking to a person one on one..You never know who you are conversing with at times..This forum is much, much, much friendlier..Thank you folks for the info on the bank situation!
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RE: Can a collection agency take all your money out of your bank account?

Postby Marquisse » Wed Feb 03, 2010 09:18:49 AM

"Maybe your lawyer didn't explain it properly. A collection agency is an authorized agent for the creditor or bank. The collection agency works in connection with the bank to remove the money from your account. So its the bank taking the money out, not the agency."

Yup, just had this confirmed by our in-house counsel. BTW, I'm a commercial paralegal with *some* experience in this field.

However, if a defaulted loan/CC is in dispute, they are not supposed to remove funds from your account until the dispute is resolved. Finally, other than in this situation where the bank is your creditor, no creditor may touch your bank account without a judgment. If they do, they've committed an offense.
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RE: Can a collection agency take all your money out of your bank account?

Postby RichardC » Wed Feb 03, 2010 08:59:25 AM

Maybe your lawyer didn't explain it properly. A collection agency is an authorized agent for the creditor or bank. The collection agency works in connection with the bank to remove the money from your account. So its the bank taking the money out, not the agency.

It goes like this:

Collector sniffs out money in your account > tells their client (bank) > bank offsets money > you are ticked off.

The thing you need to remember about lawyers is most are experts in experts in a certain field. IE family law, Intellectual property law, criminal law etc.

There aren’t too many lawyers that practice in an area of law that covers collection agencies simply because there is no money in it. Unless you are a collection agency lawyer IE Deanna Natalie. If you aren't paying them for the advice, they aren't researching anything for you and you are probably getting a generalized answer.
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RE: Can a collection agency take all your money out of your bank account?

Postby jillian53 » Wed Feb 03, 2010 08:25:19 AM

I was told by my lawyer that unless the loan was made directly from the bank in question that they could not remove funds from a bank acct. without a judgement in place first?..So basically what he was telling me was that unless the loan was made from the bank removing the funds that a collection agency could not do this...Could he possibly be wrong?

Also, my friend who is on a disability was told they are not allow to access someone's bank account or touch their disabilty funds?
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RE: Can a collection agency take all your money out of your bank account?

Postby RichardC » Wed Feb 03, 2010 08:04:44 AM

Its pretty simple actually. Contracts require:

1) offer

2) and acceptance

If they offer to settle in writing and you accept by paying and meeting the terms/deadline date etc. Its binding if you keep proof.

That’s not to say you wont have to chase them down for a release letter or that the difference may get assigned to another collection agency because the first collection agency didn’t close the file as a “settlement.” We sometimes spend as much time chasing down release letters here at our company as we do negotiating. Some collectors just dont return calls after they make their commission. But they aren't all bad.

You dont really need a release letter, its really just the cream on the cake.

At the end of the day agencies make mistakes. Intentionally or not, they can be fixed. IF you keep the offer and proof of payment meeting the offer.
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RE: Can a collection agency take all your money out of your bank account?

Postby Marquisse » Wed Feb 03, 2010 07:38:51 AM

I was just advised to never, never, never, never pay a collection agency with anything but a money order sent via registered mail, and never without getting a release letter from them. My question is, if you do settle and they agree to give you a release, what's to stop them from renegging on their promise to provide a release letter once they have cashed your money order? How does one arrange to get the letter and give them the money order so that both parties are satisfied that each have gotten what the other has promised?
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