Oregon Junk Debt Defense Attorney

Oregon Junk Debt Defense Attorney in Portland

The ‘Old Debt Collection’ Industry

Purchasing and collecting debts by a collection company is now a huge industry in Oregon and Washington. Old accounts once thought to be completely uncollectible are now sold on the open market. The reality is that collecting even a very small percentage of these debts from consumers by the debtor can be incredibly profitable. They will keep on calling you to collect a debt using obscene languages or send you notices telling you to pay. Sometimes there is also the threat to sue and take you to court. If you are experiencing harassment about an old-time-barred debt you owed by an abusive debt collection agency, it’s time to reach out to an experienced Oregon junk debt defense attorney. Harassing you is never acceptable and is unfair. Sometimes taking legal action is the best way to move forward.

The game-changer in debt collection practices was the shift from contingency collections where agencies would work for the original creditor and take a percentage of the amount collected as their cut. Now the collections agencies purchase the debts for themselves at a discount and work for themselves to collect. If you are dealing with debt collection in Washington and Oregon and they would not stop calling you, call our law office at 866-388-5106 to get in touch with our trusted debt collection lawyers who are experts in debt collection laws!

The Typical American Debt Situation

After receiving a credit card, you may encounter financial difficulties due to mounting debts incurred. As such, job loss or economic difficulties could not be far behind. As a result, difficulty making payments and loads of credit card debt may be expected. While many people make an attempt to cooperate with their credit card providers, it is typical for people to fall behind on payments. After a credit card account has been overdue for at least 120 days, it is “charged off.” This indicates that the initial creditor has discharged the “bad debt.” The creditor will then take one of the following actions:

• Eliminate bad debt from your books
• Take a tax deduction

Collect from bad debt insurance

• Contract with a third-party debt collector to recover the loan (debt junk buyer)

When a loan is charged off, you continue to owe money; it only means that you no longer owe it to the original creditor because it was purchased by someone. Once the creditor sells the account to a bad debt buyer, it is combined with a large number of other accounts to form a portfolio. Each portfolio may contain thousands of accounts.

These portfolios will be purchased for pennies on the dollar by junk debt buyers. This means that you will be dealing with the debt buyer rather than the original creditor. This is normally when a lawsuit for the full amount will be launched against you and you will be sued. It may even include interest-bearing court costs and attorney’s fees. Your credit score will also take a big hit.

What you should know

Usually, a trash debt buyer has little knowledge of the debt. They have a spreadsheet with thousands of debtors’ names, which they will use for tracing people with whom they will attempt to collect. They will send a written notice to each one to tell them that they are willing to go through with negotiating with them. They frequently do not need to establish that they owe the bill because consumers will disregard the litigation.

This is the incorrect course of action. If you disregard the litigation, you would still be held liable and a default judgment against you will be entered. This gives the bad debt buyer the ability to garnish your earnings, withdraw funds from your bank account, and potentially freeze your assets.

If you contest the case and request proof, you significantly increase your chances of winning or perhaps settling for a lesser amount. This can be accomplished outside of court and is referred to as a “settlement.” Because they purchased your debt for a low price, they are frequently willing to let it go for a lower price because they will still profit from their investment.

A Charged Off Junk Debt Is Still Collectible

Aggressive collection agencies in Oregon and Washington buy charged-off credit card accounts from the original lenders for pennies on the dollar and then use credit scoring and advanced technologies to focus on debtors that are more likely to repay. It is no wonder then that junk debt has become a multi-billion dollar industry that has produced a sea of violations of both federal and state collections laws. If you need legal help with your consumer debt, talk to our Vancouver debt defense attorneys in Washington and Oregon to discuss what steps you can take.

Debtors often wrongly assume that because debt is charged off they are somehow off the hook for the debt itself. The problem is that charge-off has little meaning outside of tax law. In essence, the tax code allows creditors to charge off debts that have become worthless and sell them to these junk debt buyers. In a nutshell, the tax code enables creditors to take a loss on their income taxes when a debt they are trying to collect becomes worthless while allowing someone else to collect. If you’re having trouble with a junk debt buyer, contact our Oregon junk debt defense attorney today.

Re-aging Accounts in Washington & Oregon

One bad byproduct of the explosion in debt buying in Oregon and Washington is the practice of re-aging accounts. Re-aging is reporting a debt as newer than it really is. When debt buyers do this, it makes credit scores plummet as the re-age is interpreted as a recent default.

What Junk debt buyers are attempting to do is “time-barred” or “Expired Statute of Limitations” accounts. Mislabeling the date of the last activity allows debt buyers to try to extend the Oregon or Washington Statute of Limitations. You should be extremely careful about making a small payment that can revive either the Oregon or Washington Statute of Limitations.

Collecting on debts barred by Oregon & Washington Statutes of Limitations

Junk debt buyers often pressure Oregon and Washington consumers for payment of some small amount, often as little as five dollars, just to bring the debt back under the statute of limitations. The unpaid debt can then be resold to yet another collector to start the collections process all over again. Sadly junk debt buyers often purchase debts that are outside the statute of limitations for lawsuits. Again, you should be extremely careful about making a small payment that can revive the Statute of Limitations.

Get Help From Our Oregon Junk Debt Defense Attorney!

Junk debt buyers want to get your charged-off debts. Sometimes creditors will try to collect on a debt for a few months. Maybe they will use their own collections department or hire a third-party collection agency. Under this model, when they hire debt collectors, the creditor still maintains the legal claim to the account. The bill collector must act as an agent of the original creditor.

These days, more often than not, creditors sell off delinquent debts to third-party junk debt collection agencies. When they sell the account they sell off all rights to the account as well. Delinquent debt accounts rarely stay in the hands of any one debt buyer for very long: your old account might end up with ten different debt buyers over the course of a few years. It is no wonder then that you can’t keep debts straight when you get multiple calls over a year on the same debt. It can be kind of scary and actually keep you from wanting to pay the debt off for fear of handing cash over to the wrong company.

Know your rights. Our law office is always there for you if you need to deal with collection companies regarding debt settlement. Northwest Debt Defense attorneys are just a phone call away.