http://collectionsworld.com/pagedisplay.html?pagename=2006topdebtbuyers
We've been over this debt buying matter many times in previous posts.
Many of the primary and tertiary debt portfolios being purchased are contained in articles of trade publications like collectionsworld.com. The above link gives all the top debt buyers and collection agencies in the US, though sometimes they have Canadian stuff too.
7 cents on the dollar is way too much for old stats barred debt that companies like PMS and ARO buy. Some of it goes for .1 cents on the dollar. One of my earlier posts contains details of a hospital bad debt portfolio that was proudly advertised in the above publication for .07 cents on the dollar .
As well, it's simply not true that, collection attorneys will not bluff you by sending out misleading threat letters. If that were the case, Deanna Natale would have been out of business a long time ago. So would her sometime partner Mark Silverman (Global and Various), Joel Miskin (of MJR fame), and Ian A. Daley (from iQor, Inc formerly CBCL - Canadian Bonded Credit Limited - Now Iqor Collection Agency ). The way the phoney drafts are worded is as follows
"A draft Statement of Claim indicating that you are scheduled to be sued by ABC company has been prepared in my office in connection with the above noted matter. Please find enclosed a copy of this Statement of Claim that will be issued and served on you within 15 business days from the date of this letter. You can restrain this action by .[...]..If your payment is not received in this office by (blah blah)...your next communication from me will be service on you of a Statement of Claim.."
The way PMS looks at it, as I told a poster last month who was dealing with that buyer over his Home Depot account, is that they know they're going to strike it rich on only a small percentage of accounts. Still, while it might appear that they don't spend a whole lot of time on any one given account, that doesn't mean they have necessarily forgotten you. They are constantly doing credit and asset searches on people looking to see if their financial circumstances have changed and if an opportune time to strike has come.
That's why I tell people: You may have forgotten about them, but they haven't forgotten about you. A check of the hard inquiries on your credit file will confirm that.
In fact, one blogger I corresponded with last month in several private emails ignored a judgment that had been obtained against her husband 12 years previously. The creditor had sold the debt to a collection agency in Barrie, Ontario, I think. I suggested she have her husband pull his TransUnion credit file and see what, if any, inquiries the debt buyer had made on it. Sure enough, there was a very recent one on her husband. That means they were getting itchy to strike. They wanted over $12,000 on an original $2600 debt that was accumulating interest at almost 20%. I told her not to leave her cars parked in the driveway at night and make sure the home ownership was in her name until the matter was settled.
This above anecdote illustrates that debt buyers will sue or collect on a judgement that's already been obtained. So, if you get a call from a debt buyer, don't assume you are safe unless the the debt is stats barred.
In many states of the U.S., even if a debt is stats barred, an action will still be allowed and so the person still has to show up for court to defend himself or risk a default judgment. However, he can use the limitation period as a defence to have the case dismissed. Fortunately, it doesn't work quite the same way in Canada.
Cases like the above illustrate why buying up outstanding judgments has become a lucrative business in the U.S.
Ray