It appears I spoke too soon. I was wrong about the Somali pirate gunboat business waning. Just after I finished the last post, I saw today's CTV headline.

BRITISH COUPLE FREED BY SOMALI PIRATES AFTER A YEAR
14/11/2010 3:24:41 PM
CTV.ca News Staff

A British couple has been freed more than a year after they were kidnapped from their private yacht by Somali pirates, bringing to a close one of the most protracted hostage situations since modern piracy surged off the East African coast.

Hmmmmm....Expect a steady influx of them to be working the phones at CRS, TCR and Global Credit and Collections shortly. They're in big demand as they are considered to be already "pretrained." On a brighter note, they were told, while in Canada, they can't bring their guns to work like they used to.

omg...LOL..ok.time will tell

Well, ok, I admit you don't really know. But if they have no accent or a French one, I assume they're either patched or a prospect. If they have an African accent, I assume it's a Somali pirate on the lam through a phoney refugee claim siphoning money back to his brothers now that the gunboat business is starting to dry up.

oh really, how interesting, how does one know? She dropped my payments from $171 a month to $75 and one phone # she called from was from down east..

Since you received no death or extortion threats, I can only assume, unlike Libertyn, you weren't talking to a full patched or patched-over CRS collector, only a prospect.

I too, fell behind in payments with mba, next thing I know CRS is calling, my wife was the go between, because am not home during the week. Marie is whom we have dealt with, she's been ok, she said if we soon didn't settle with her, it would have to go to the legal department and something to do with our combine incomes...they dropped the payment a couple of thousand minus the interest, but since coming on here and doing alot of reading, I think they could do better, last week I asked Marie to send a statement, so will wait and see, no statement, no money

Sounds to me like they have your partner's Credit Card info, correct? If so, that should put you in a better position if you haven't yet sent in that authorization email. If by chance a charge does get applied to the card, your partner could argue that he/she never authorized the charge.

Yes, it is wise. If you could start from scratch and renegotiate, it would be very much to your advantage. Like I said, they may settle for 50% or less. Send a private email to Nameuser. I think he was/is in litigation, albeit in BC, but I believe he'd be able to predict a fairly accurate range.

Tell CRS, not to rush you; it's been 10 months outstanding....you'll settle but you need a couple of days more...... It isn't going to make any difference. If it is, they know where the Small Claims Court office is.

Daniel, first I wanted to say thank you for taking the time to write back and explain the situation to me. I just wanted to ask, I have been advised to cancel the credit card from which I made payment and to not send that authorization email (I haven't sent it yet). Part of me is very angry at the way I have been played and wants to do this. Is that wise?

You should have told them to talk fast because you had to catch a plane to go back to the UK - for good!

I suppose when you called them they couldn't believe their fortune and didn't want to let you slip away. Hence the "We want all our money in one hour" schtick. Usually it's "24 hours" or "by 5PM"....or whatever.

No one was going to take you to court in one hour or one day or likely at all. If they were going to sue you, they would have done so shortly after the debt went R9 and left MBNA internal collections to CRS. Apparently, since mail was still arriving at your old address, they believed you still lived there; especially, since you were making payments for a while after you left for England.

MBNA is one of the more lenient credit card outfits in terms of what they'll accept for settlement. I'm surprised you didn't find earlier letters from their internal collection dept. offering you 65% on the R9 amount (principal + interest after 180 days) if you act within such and such a deadline. I'm pretty sure they would have settled for a lot less if they anticipated extra problems in coming after you. I think Nameuser mentioned 40% or 50%, perhaps even less, somewhere. The main point is that there is no particular rush to settle and even less to pay any legal fees unless they are awarded from an actual judgment.

The worst that would have happened had they carried through on their threat to go to Small Claims Court is there would have been a pretrial settlement conference, and then an actual trial if that failed. It would have taken additional months and the judge would likely let you off with low monthly payments - and maybe even no interest while not in default. Even judges appreciate what gougers these guys are. MBNA might have been looking at $20 to $50 bucks a month with a capped paralegal fees and court costs.

That's why they wanted to get the money out you fast.Their tactical modus operandi is to get you off balanced through intimidation and threats and obtain compliance before you have a chance to regain your composure and consult with someone as to what your rights are. The idea is to get the debtor to scurry around like around like a "chicken with his head cut off."

Part of the psychology is to induce a state of panic through false threats as they realize people in a sate of fear can't assess things rationally. They won't raise obvious questions such as "if this debt is a year old, why do I have to settle the blasted thing within 1 hour?" Any rational calm man can see that the answer is "You don't!"

At this stage, since you've already given them half of the money, you've substantially lost your bargaining position. But what's done is done. I'd probably offer them 50% on the balance if you can pay it over a reasonably limited period, say 3 to 6 months. That's 50% on the principal with interest as it was on charge off date. And forget any other interest or court costs.

In fact, if they refuse tell them you (or a paralegal rep or a friend - if you're not in town) will see them in Small Claims Court. Remember 50% on the balance is fairly generous because you've already paid 100% on the other half. So that's like them getting 75%. Really, you should offer them 40%, but the situation is changed since you've already paid half and by now they think you're a pushover for the rest.

Don't worry, the worst that could happen then would be a pretrial settlement conference even if they're not bluffing. Then they'll be waiting a lot longer for any money they get.