Hi,

Please read this letter, it can be used for all collections agencies. All collection agencies are third party interlopers and never possess the documentation that would allow them to collect legally. One thing you must know. NEVER EVER talk to them on the phone!!! Only through mail, i.e. postal service. You are NOT obligated to ever talk to these people. There are certain legal requirements that must be met in order to collect and they count on your ignorance to trick you into submitting to their demands. Here is the letter and simply add what needs to be added as it applies to your circumstance.

A.R.C. ACCOUNTS RECOVERY CORPORATION

DATE

Re: ACCT #: ---------

It is apparent that either;

1) You are acting on the presumption that some relationship that you may have with the -----------------, is somehow related to me, which if such presumption is the case, I confirm that I am not a party to this implied relationship you have with the ---------------- either directly, indirectly or by means of any tacit consent, and accordingly I do not understand how to respond to you inasmuch as I am unaware of any contractual relationship between us; or

2) You have entered into a contractual relationship inclusive of evidence of consideration paid to, or agreed to be paid to the ---------, which contractual relationship has caused you to become the legal holder in due course of an alleged obligation between Ms. ------------ and the --------------------

If indeed you have entered into such a contractual relationship with the ----------- as set forth in clause 2) above, then I hereby confirm that I accept your offer to reduce the amount of the alleged obligation to $0.00; and I confirm that I would like to make arrangements for settlement of the alleged referenced matter immediately, upon you providing me with your written and legally binding assurance that you will accept payment in full settlement of the alleged obligation in direct and immediate exchange for your surrender and delivery to me of my original debt obligation instrument in its original and unadulterated form that you must be holding pursuant to the aforesaid contractual arrangement between you and the ----------------

Please confirm in writing your willingness to accept my payment on these terms within 10 business days of your receipt of this letter. Your failure to provide said written confirmation within the allotted time will be considered as your legal acknowledgement that you are unable or unwilling to return my original debt obligation instrument in its original and unadulterated form to me, and that the alleged loan balance has therefore been paid in full.

Sincerely,

Official agent for the corporation known as _______Write your name in ALL CAPS letters here and sign your signature above. Write the word for before you sign with your normal signinf signature.

I just received a letter from the ARO for some outstanding transit tickets going back 8+ years.ARO has obviously bought the account from a third party.The letter stated that if no payment is received within 30 days, your account will automatically be registered with the Credit Bureaus. If this third pary could have collected they would have by now. I phoned ARO and read the letter out to the collector. She wanted to know my date of brith and said by law she could not discuss anything with me unless she had that information. I refused. I told her that I had been told years ago that the outstanding amount was put on my credit reorts and she replied that it will be put back on. Then I told her under the law there is a statute of Limitations and she told me I was "being rude" that this law is not true. She warned me "this" will continue and ended the phone call.

British Columbia - Section 3 (5) of the BC Limitation Act sets 6 years as the limit for debt.

I was attending an employment course for women and a financial advisor gave a talk. One of the topics she covered was debt collection and she stated that "they will lie" when she referenced collection account collectors. They will say the debt will be put on your credit file with the credit bureaus, but there is only a certain type of debt that is reported. I can not remember the term she used, for instance if I did not pay my Visa account or a mortage, or car payments that would show up on the credit bureau accounts as being delinquent. Library fines and parking tickets would not. The fines were never on any copies of Transunion or Equifax I received since. So what I am saying is be forewarned when dealing with the collection agency people. I imagine they will try to harrass me and would change my phone now except I need to keep the same number for the next short while.

UPDATE: I spoke with an EQUIFAX representative by phone and she informed me that the Company who the money was owed to would have to place the collections account on the credit file. She said it would be manually removed and that motor vehicle tickets or skytrain tickets are not kept.

I will heed the advise of the poster who advised not to talk to them on the phone, they can write.

Netsurfer....next time ARO, ARC...or any other collection agent calls you about this debt, just state that it is not your debt and they are to sue you if they intend to pursue you for the debt. As soon as a Collection Agent is told to sue you, they are to immediately stop all phone calls, and letters unless it is from a lawyer. Then, since the debt is over 2 years old and past the SOL, they can not sue you.

Once a collection agency figures they can't get money from you, they will sell your account to another agency to recoup a few of the $0.01 on the dollar they paid for the account in the first place.

Your explanation is greatly appreciated footloose. This will help me and hopefully help others as well.

I hate to keep asking or repeating myself as I do not want to become annoying :), but this is a little history of events of this delema:

This all started in 1994 and since I have moved twice.

I was contacted in 2004 by "......" can't even remember the agency name, anyways I told them I know nothing of what they are talking about so after a few calls they stopped calling.

Later in 2006 I believe Arrow was the name of the agency that called and again I said the same thing to them and after a couple of calls they moved on.

In 2008 I had ARC calling, and again I never gave any info or admit to any debt. I said to the agent that I have nothing to say to him and hung up. He called back and left a voice mail saying if you want to cooporate for moral reasons to call him back. I ignored him and never returned his call. He never called back.

Now 2 years later ARO is calling, someone in my household answered the phone, they asked for me and they were told I was not there so they hang up. They called again the following day about the same time no one was home, call showing on my call display. Both of the calls happened before Christmas. The last call was a couple of days ago, no voice mail.

To me this sound like the debt was purchased and trunkeded down correct?

And if the previous agencies knew that there is a potential or a way to collect this debt, they would keep pursuing it or I don't have a clear idea of their process?

Thanks.

All collection agencies and debt buyers know when a debt is past the SOL because they possess all the documentation details of when a debt went into default. They also know the details of all Limitation Acts pertaining to all of the provinces/territories. They either maintain on staff or have access to very knowledgeable legal counsel who are experts and specialize in the laws and legislation of collection agencies and their related practices.

Generally speaking, a creditor, collection agency or debt buyer will give careful consideration before deciding whether or not to pursue a debtor for an unpaid debt through the court system. Such considerations, while not necessarily inclusive, would include the following:

1. Is the debt statute-barred?

2. What is the total amount of the debt?

3. What is the likelihood of obtaining a judgment given the supporting documentation to be presented at either the pre-trial conference hearing or at trial?

4. If a judgment is obtained, what is the likelihood that it can be enforced?

5. Is the debtor "judgment proof"?

6. Does the debtor have any source of income that can be garnished or a bank account or assets that can be seized?

7. What is the company's policy or mandate in regards to commencing a legal action to obtain a judgment? For example, a company's policy may be that any unpaid debt of $1,000 or less will not be pursued through the courts due to the time and costs involved.

If a judgment is obtained, by default or otherwise, that judgment will appear on both of your credit reports. On a TransUnion Credit Report, all judgments obtained in ON, PQ, NB or NL are automatically purged 7 years from the date of the judgment. All judgments obtained in all other provinces and territories except PEI are automatically purged 6 years from the date of the judgment. All judgments obtained in PEI are automatically purged 10 years from the date of judgment. On an Equifax Credit Report, all judgments are automatically purged 6 years from the date of judgment, regardless of where the judgment was obtained.

Any attempt to obtain a judgment, by default or otherwise, but fails, does not appear on a credit report.

Thank you for your reply footloose. Any other feedback will be greatly appreciated.

My other question is if 2 other collection agencies did not pursue this debt and now has been passed on to another. Would this mean that they know that the debt is past the statute of limitation and not collectable in court? Or simply they don't have enough supporting documentation to pursue? And If any of the previous agencies tried getting a default judgement in court it should show on the credit report on both bureau wouldn't it? and able to renew?

I am just trying to rule out all possible scenarios. I have never acknowledged this debt to previous agencies. I don't even think they know if they are contacting the right person.

Thanks again.

Ignore the ARO calls and eventually they will move on to easier targets. There are only so many times that you can "flog a dead horse".

For all of you folks that by knowledge and or experience should I just ignore answering the ARO calls at this point? They called once before Christmas and again yesterday no voice mail left.

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

@montyloree Thank you for your reply.

I am also the type of person that like to clear their consience. In fact I am the type that also like to give and help, whenever possible I donate to selective charities.

My only issue with this past debt that it was done by my ex without my knowledge and refuses to pay it or at least pay part of it. Which made me responsible for it.

I think a charity will benefit of any amount of money more than the bill collector.

I have pulled last week both bureaus and both don't show any hard/soft inquiries or delinquent accounts sent for recovery. My fear is that I don't want to have any negative hits against my credit at this point. Could they still sneak any entries?

And is it safe to just ignore the debt collector at this point as this debt is dated back to 1996 when it possibly went to collections?

The first time I was contacted about it by a debt collector was in 2002 and apparently it is being acquired since by a couple others.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

netsurfer... yes... you should get your transunion and equifax reports if you haven't done so already..

I agree with the previous posts... unless the debt is SOL exempt like student loans... the collection agency hasn't got any recourse and the debt isn't collectible in court..

This is common practice... collection agencies buy up old debts and then try to collect them... some people pay out of guilt, or whatever, and it makes this business practice profitable for the collection agencies...

They're in essence dialing for dollars...

I know a lady whose business collapsed.. it took her years to regroup and start making money again.. as soon as she had enough money, she went back to all of her former creditors and told them she would pay them back... most had written off the debt years ago... the lady did this to clear her conscience and make everybody whole... it wasn't legally required though... she's the type of person that pays her debts