June 4, 2009
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Looking for Debt Settlement; Beware!
Lying collections agencies -- story 2Dealing with collections? Then beware of false promises. Whether its credit cards or any other kind, what they say isn't what they do. Another person set out to make things right. In this case, the person had perfect credit and all the best credit card deals going. Then one day, he was denied an limit increase on a credit card. TransUnion was reporting three 'derogatories' in his credit report. After securing his credit report, he discovered that all three were from the same credit agency over one $394 unpaid medical bill that had been split three ways to make three hits on his credit card score. One was for $55, one for $130 and the last for $209.
AR Resources in Blue Bell, PA was listed as the source. After calling AR Resources, he spoke with Bonnie. Not wanting to add any further credit card debt, he negotiated a deal to pay the two lesser amounts on the spot (not an easy thing to do with six other medical entities trying to squeeze another $14,000 in six other payments). The agreement was that, by paying those two accounts in full right away, those two derogatories would be removed from his credit report. $25 was to be paid each month on the remaining $209 debt. This was in January. Came May and he was turned down again when requesting a credit card limit increase. Boom! Same thing.
Calling AR Resources to find out why, he happened to get Bonnie again on the phone. Bonnie's remark was "Oh yeah. I have it right here. After you've paid off all three accounts, they'll be removed from your credit report." Ok, so we wait four more months. This week, Bonnie called the man who had been paying faithfully $25 every month since January. Now she demanded a $50 payment right now. After explaining that the agreement had always been $25 each month, Bonnie got hostile. She now demanded the full amount right now or none of the derogatories would ever be removed. Then she hung up the phone. So, here we have a cheating collection agency who have squeezed $319 dollars in 5 months out of a person already strapped with six other medical payments instead of the $125 that should have been paid for a single debt over four months, reneging on the promise that got them the extra monies in the first place. Moral of the story -- don't trust lying collections agents like Bonnie at AR Resources in hopes to restore your good credit card rating.