That's when you (calmly) respond... "Is that your way of saying you don't actually have the requested info, or are you simply asking me to send you a registered letter requesting it."

If you say it with a simle on your face the smile will come through the phone.. :)

OK, well I guess I good cop, bad cop now. From all the posts on this site about TCR I really shouldn't be surprised. Up to now the experience hasn't been too bad. But now that I've requested information via writing, EVERYTHING has changed.

The rep actually yelled at me today. "Do you have the money or not?!!"

What to do? What to do? What to do?

Collection agencies do have a tendency to say that, but I don't know whether, in this case, they will actually be permitted to follow through.

Make the offer by verifiable means... even if that verifiable means is a tape recording... and if it goes to court you at least have proof that you tried to pay it.

Look up the collection laws for Ontario so you know what they can and can't do... record any violations... and counter sue for harassment when they violate.

My gut... if they've sent you this and are calling you as often as they are, it's probably a scare tactic... but I'm not sure enough to say "don't worry, they will never sue".

PS... I'm not sure of the Ontario laws, but if they're lying about the R9 - in Alberta that would be a misrepresentation... and that is not allowed. I do know that the court document, if they don't sue, is a definite misrepresentation. Keep that.

I think I forgot to mention that they've already mailed me some Judgement / court document. I don't have it with me so I can't tell you exactly what it said, but I know it said that they would be doing that if I didn't pay the total within 5 days.

Have you checked your credit file yourself? I expect that the collection agent is lying. Amex doesn't play around with people not paying their cards off in full. (My ex had this experience with them) and no, they pretty much don't play nice.

I'd be willing to stake my next paycheque on them having noted you as "bad debt/uncollectable" on your credit file... which is R9, so at this point you need to handle however is best for YOU, not the collection agency.

About all I can suggest is you tell the collection agency what you can afford to pay, record it, let them know you're recording it.... and then tell them you expect to see their response to this in writing before you'll pay it. I don't know whether Amex will allow them to take you to court... I know they didn't take the ex to court and he paid it off as he could.

The other option is to try to find a co-signor for a loan that will be lower interest than the AMEX bill.

Then, take what you're willing to pay and put it in a trust account every month for them until you receive what you're looking for.

Ok, well I hoping that someone will legitimately be able to help me here, and not some collection agent PRETENDING to help as I've seen on other discussions.

I have a new AMEX debt that went 3 months with us not being able to pay the entire payment. I'm not sure how much information I want to give here considering TCR employees and others seem to watch these boards. Anyways, the bill is close to $9000 and I tried to get AMEX to take the debt back but the account has been closed and they said that I have to deal with the collection agency.

Since this is our first time dealing with this, I thought I'd just neogotiate monthly payments with them. Obviously if we can't pay the monthly due, we can't afford to pay the whole amount, which is what TCR is insisting AMEX is demanding. The person on my account suggested that we try and get a loan or borrow the money from friends since the account hasn't been flagged as an R9 yet, and if we paid it right away then our credit would be saved. I find that hard to believe. Doesn't that just mean that it hasn't shown up on our credit history yet?

After applying a number of places and getting turned down, I finally found this site. After which, I contacted Agent X and left a message saying that before I told him the final outcome that I wanted him to mail me a document saying how much we owe, how we arrange to pay it and that if we payed it, that the R9 would not appear on our credit history. I asked him not to contact me anymore, except to confirm receipt of my vmail as I would contact him in writing after recieving the document above.

He has tried contacting me everyday since, once at work, which is a no-no and at least once a day on my cell. Instead of telling my voicemail that he recieved my message, he just continues to leave his name and number, doesn't even say to call him back. I know he probably wants to talk on the phone to tell me he can't promise anything about the R9, but what are my rights? Really, I want him to stop calling. Mostly I want to figure out a way that I can pay them so they'll stop harassing me.