Things Anyone Dealing With Zwicker and Associates Should Know
Among the things anyone dealing with Zwicker & Associates should know is the firm is a collections agency. Thus, if you are in receipt of a phone call or a letter from the company, somebody has turned one of your accounts over to collections in the belief that you are in violation of the terms of a loan agreement. Here’s the thing, it might be true or it might be false. The only way to find out is to engage with the company to see what they have and investigate it for yourself.
Take The Call
Rather than trying to duck them in the hopes they’ll go away, the better play is to take to the call so you can see what it’s about and more importantly — what they have to back up their assertion. This is called validating the debt.
So take the call, but do not accept responsibility for the debt. Record the call so you can have documentation of it, should you need to file a complaint later. Some collectors enjoy their jobs a bit too much and use their position to heap humiliation upon people they believe to be indebted. This is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and you can file a complaint against them — with the proper documentation.
Verify The Debt
Collectors have a finite window within which they can institute legal action to collect upon a debt. If that window has closed, they can’t take you to court — even though you do still owe the money. However, if they can get you to accept liability, the window opens again.
So do not — under any circumstances — accept responsibility for debt, send any money in connection with debt or agree to a payment plan until the debt is proven to be valid.
Dispute the debt with the representative of Zwicker & Associates, p.c.. and ask for a validation letter. This document should list the current balance due, contact information for the entity with which the debt originated and by whom, as well as the original amount of the obligation. They have 30 days to get this to you once you’ve asked for it. If they do not respond, you can ask the credit reporting bureaus to remove that debt from your reports.
Negotiate a Settlement Amount
Your best play when the debt is validated is to negotiate a settlement agreement. Collections agencies will often accept an amount less than the outstanding balance to settle the account if you offer to make a one-time payment in full of the amount upon which you agree.
In some cases the amount owed might be greater than you can afford to pay all at once. Negotiate an installment payment agreement in order to put the matter to rest if this is your situation.
In a Nutshell
Upon first contact, request validation of the debt. If they don’t have the ability to do so, you don’t have to pay. If the debt is proven valid, check of the expiration of the statute of limitations. If that window has closed, you don’t have to worry about a lawsuit and can refuse to work with them.
However, if you do, that debt will stay on your credit report for 10 years or so and drag your credit score down. In other words, you still owe, even if it’s old. And finally, among the things anyone dealing with Zwicker and Associates should know is collection agency will accept less than the outstanding balance to settle an account, but the only way to get there is to take the call.
Things Anyone Dealing With Zwicker and Associates Should Know
