AMEX bounces me around

[Lajazz947]

I was sent to two different attorneys and now I am getting calls from AMEX.

Any idea why I am back with the original creditor?

[ansky0007]

Strange... I owe amex close to $200k and they sold me off almost immediately after I told them we were going CH7, At 60 days late the collection company was willing to settle for $40k which is 20 cents on the dollar so I would guess they sold it for much less. Now that we filed I wonder who owns it now... If the collection company gets stuck with it or it goes back to Amex?

[rockyroad]

I owe AMEX $250k and they never once called me about paying. Just sent it to a collection agency... Nationwide who calls 20 times per day along with calling every authorized user on the account. Is Nationwide their in house collections? Those people sound so uneducated and unprofessional. They don't even use proper grammar on the messages they leave. I wouldn't even feel comfortable DISCUSSING a debt this large with them, let alone think about paying them!!! I haven't spoken to them at all, not even once.
Should I talk to them and tell them I cannot pay or just keep avoiding the calls?

I'd rather AMEX be calling me directly instead of these people!! UGH!

[ansky0007]

Are you sure it was sold? Amex does not generally sell their debt. They like to keep it in house and work it for about a year past the charge off.

Neither of the companies mentioned here were the collection companies that were calling me for my Amex debt. Did any of you guys inform Amex that you were going BK? I informed them very early at around 15 days past due that due to economic issues my business has suffered and we are filing BK and when asked which chapter we told them Chapter 7. Maybe they looked into it and noticed we had no assets and decided to move it quickly instead of getting nothing. We did not ignore their calls and were honest with them upfront. Within 60 days the collection company offered me a settlement of $40k, Since I referrred them to my lawyer they tried to negiotiate additional lower settlements with my attorney.

[allavdj]

I have two Amex accounts a Blue card and Platinum Business Card. Here is what Amex does: At 90-120 days past due the account is assigned to either Nationwide Credit (business card) or United Recovery (blue card) it is not SOLD they are only trying to collect on behalf of Amex. If you DV them then Amex will send out statements. Before Amex had even sent the statement from the first DV's, the accounts were transfered to Zwicker & Associates (business card) and James A West (blue card). Now both of these places claimed to be law firms but you never spoke with an attorney nor could you (I asked). They are more than rude, they are ruthless, call multiple times a day, everyday, and its the same crap over and over and tell you they will sue you when they can't. If you tell them on one your broke they call the next and ask when you can make a payment. If you push them hard enough they connect you with someone at Amex to deal with you. Its all stupid and just games. I just C&D'd them and it stopped. Then Amex sent the blue card to NCO collections and that was more than fun matter of fact there are multiple posts on this board of my conversations with NCO, they are terrible and just disregard the law in almost every way. Again I C&D NCO and it finally stopped.

So it was all quiet for about a 3 months, since end of August. Then Amex starts calling me again this month. Both accounts are back with Amex and Amex wants to "settle" them. I told them to go fly a kite and why don't you sue like I was told was going to happen by Zwicker and West?? Amex says, don't you want to avoid that and settle? No, bite me.

The whole Zwicker, West, NCO, Nationwide, United Recovery is nothing but Amex sending it out and trying to get someone else to collect on it. Its stepped process to get you to think they are really going to do something. I was less than worried since neither Zwicker or West are part of the Bar in my state. When Amex really does sue, and they do, it will come from a local law firm.

Its a very odd business model they use but it must be rather effective to a point, I know BoA seems to like to keep everything in-house and not send anything out for collection. BoA will offer only pennies on the dollar for a settlement. I guess they figure they rather 1099 you and settle than give it away to someone else.

What I don't get is if you keep telling them you have no money, and have been telling them that for almost a year why do they bother to send me a letter telling me I have to act now and I can save $12K off one account I owe Amex if I just send them a one time payment of $15K. Holy crap, if I had $15K I wouldn't be in the position...LOL

This story is really familiar somehow...oh yeah...it's exactly what they did with me! The last credit report I looked at showed AMEX as Charged/Written off...so maybe they've actually sold it now.

[anime-chicka]

They did the same thing with me: kissed me off to NCO. I was lucky when I went to see my lawyer last week that the day before I got NCO's dunning letters for the accounts. He simply added them to my petition and said it would be taken care of.

But yeah, I'm seeing that it's quite typical of Amex: they won't help you when you need it, but once they do find out you can't pay them, they kick you to the curb. Gee, is it any wonder Amex wants a bailout? I suspect that within the next year or so, Amex will fall flat on their respective faces.

[allavdj]

Funny side story, I got a letter about a month ago from AMEX saying that if I wanted to open up a new account, they could settle with me on the amount owed and roll it into the new account (this is after I stopped paying on it almost 2 years ago). I had to read it a couple of times to make sure I was reading it right. Sometimes you gotta wonder what's going through their heads

[rockyroad]

Doubt they would want to roll my 191K Biz open card and 49K gold card into a "new" account!
I did receive a credit alert through the system I subscribe to that stated AMEX 0.
I guess that means they charged it off, but I'm not sure which account it is yet.
Haven't paid on the Biz open acct. since July, but I did make a payment on the gold card of $500 when the bill was due. I understand it was only about 1% of what I owed but Within a few days, United Recovery was calling on this acct. What the???

Have any of yall actually been sued by AMEX?
Also, since my credit report shows AMEX 0, does this mean they've written it off and it will NOT go back to them for collections?
One more question...How do you DV Nationwide? Is there a sticky somewhere to explain?

[getmeoutofhere]

Well an Update: As of today, I got a call from the Law Offices of Mitchell N. Kay about my Amex Business Card. A simple look up of them on Bud Hibbs site let me know who I was dealing with. Another low life slime ball. But they are registered to collect in my state and have an office local to me and are part of the bar. So I do now expect to get sued by them on my business card here shortly.

I have fought with Mitchel N Kay on many of my Amex accounts (I have 8 in default). They will send you a letter...which interstingly enough has some statement about "not" being an attorney blah blah. I have yet to be sued by them, just bounced back to Amex. They are able to collect in my state...but yet they dont!

[StartingOver08]

Well an Update: As of today, I got a call from the Law Offices of Mitchell N. Kay about my Amex Business Card. A simple look up of them on Bud Hibbs site let me know who I was dealing with. Another low life slime ball. But they are registered to collect in my state and have an office local to me and are part of the bar. So I do now expect to get sued by them on my business card here shortly. They are rude and very slimly. I don't like threats when I told them I had no money I was told well them we will refer this to our legal department. I asked, I thought you were the legal department, you said you are a law firm. She said, we have a legal department that will look at your file. And I said, OK, then what? Well we will make you pay...(oh really?) I said, what will the legal department do? She says, they will take legal action. I asked like what? She said, we will take legal action, I again said, like what? She said they will make you pay... around and around we went until she put someone else on the line. He told me, if I didn't make payment arrangements they would take legal action...LOL....Ok here we go again....like what? He said, we will refer it to our legal department for legal action....oh my god, this again?

So I ended the call with, don't ever call me again and sue me.

I know I am not supposed to laugh, but this conversation you just had with AMEX sounds sooooo familiar! LMAO...

[BigJohn]

Doubt they would want to roll my 191K Biz open card and 49K gold card into a "new" account!
I did receive a credit alert through the system I subscribe to that stated AMEX 0.
I guess that means they charged it off, but I'm not sure which account it is yet.
Haven't paid on the Biz open acct. since July, but I did make a payment on the gold card of $500 when the bill was due. I understand it was only about 1% of what I owed but Within a few days, United Recovery was calling on this acct. What the???

Have any of yall actually been sued by AMEX?
Also, since my credit report shows AMEX 0, does this mean they've written it off and it will NOT go back to them for collections?
One more question...How do you DV Nationwide? Is there a sticky somewhere to explain?

The account was charged off (Balance 0) but is still owned by AMEX. When you get a letter saying the account has been assigned or purchased by another company, then you will know AMEX has no longer interest in this account.

Collection Agencies will be assigned to you account but that doesn't mean they own the account. I know it might seem confusing.

[rockyroad]

So if the CA is only "assigned" to the debt, but AMEX has charged it off, then who actually "owns" the account, if anyone?
Can AMEX ever come back and try to collect?

[debtmonster]

I owe AMEX $250k and they never once called me about paying. Just sent it to a collection agency... Nationwide who calls 20 times per day along with calling every authorized user on the account. Is Nationwide their in house collections? Those people sound so uneducated and unprofessional. They don't even use proper grammar on the messages they leave. I wouldn't even feel comfortable DISCUSSING a debt this large with them, let alone think about paying them!!! I haven't spoken to them at all, not even once.
Should I talk to them and tell them I cannot pay or just keep avoiding the calls?

I'd rather AMEX be calling me directly instead of these people!! UGH!

(Not judging you, just very curious) What ON EARTH are you doing owing more than TWICE what I paid for my house on a CREDIT CARD?!?!?!

I thought $1,000 to $5,000 on a credit card was high... but $250,000?!?!?! How were you able to get away with that? (Judging AMEX): AMEX has to be insane to float that kind of money, even for business.

[debtmonster]

I just posted about this in another thread, this is Amex's business model. You are now stuck in house and charged off. Have to wait and see what they want to do. I think what they really want is you to settle with them, I just got a settlement letter for $12K less than I owed if I paid it by....(they left that part blank) LMAO!!! They did this with two accounts I have with them. Both went to a collection agency then each to a different law firm, Zwicker and XXXXX the usual, then they sent the accounts back to Amex who has been calling asking how I can settle it....I just told them to sue me, that what Zwicker said they were going to do..so F'n do it....LOL.

I enjoy your posts.

When I get collection agencies calling or writing me letters asking me to pay a debt, I print and mail this to them 100% of the time (see link below). The author looks like he's in the same boat as many of us. I use his letter on the web site to send to my CA's (never the original creditors) and never hear another peep from them. A friend of mine (that I talked about in another post) still lives with his mom. He's defaulting on tons of cards. He has his own phone line and lives on the opposite at the house. His mom has her own phone line. They also rent out a room to a tenant that has her own phone line. The CA's are calling all of the different phone #'s in the house including his mom's and the tenants talking about his debts. Then when he calls them and talks to them about it, they completely deny it. It's a shame he didn't have a recording of it.

Anyway, I told him about this link:

http://www.hogvalley.com/2007/09/06/collection-agency/

He told me he cut and pasted it into Word, edited the stuff and sent it off to the company who has been calling him 2 to 3 times per day, several times per week. He said after they got the letter, he hasn't gotten a single phone call ever again. That letter ROCKS!! I used to use that letter on all of my CA's. Now I simply give them my bankruptcy attorney's phone # instead. I no longer use the letter since I am actually going BK this time. I love this forum.

I guess telling them on the phone, "STOP CALLING ME EVERY DAY" doesn't work. It has to be in writing. So in today's cost, it's a $.42 cent stamp to tell them to stop every time.

I remember using the letter in the past, I would see my account bounce to as many as 3 or 4 different CA's. After I mailed out 4 letters, I never heard from any of them ever again. No lawsuits. No nothing. At least the letter bought me time to do the bankruptcy.

[debtmonster]

Well an Update: As of today, I got a call from the Law Offices of Mitchell N. Kay about my Amex Business Card. A simple look up of them on Bud Hibbs site let me know who I was dealing with. Another low life slime ball. But they are registered to collect in my state and have an office local to me and are part of the bar. So I do now expect to get sued by them on my business card here shortly. They are rude and very slimly. I don't like threats when I told them I had no money I was told well them we will refer this to our legal department. I asked, I thought you were the legal department, you said you are a law firm. She said, we have a legal department that will look at your file. And I said, OK, then what? Well we will make you pay...(oh really?) I said, what will the legal department do? She says, they will take legal action. I asked like what? She said, we will take legal action, I again said, like what? She said they will make you pay... around and around we went until she put someone else on the line. He told me, if I didn't make payment arrangements they would take legal action...LOL....Ok here we go again....like what? He said, we will refer it to our legal department for legal action....oh my god, this again?

So I ended the call with, don't ever call me again and sue me.

That sounds like what happened to me in 2002 after I was evicted when my unemployment ran out. I was homeless and had to move in with my sister for a few months. Capital One was calling me and tell me the same crap. I BEGGED and PLEADED with them to sue me. I INSISTED ON IT. I said, "Don't talk about it, DO IT!" I told them that I WANTED to go to court.

Then I said something that really blew the CA's mind... I told her, "If you sent somebody here with a gun to try to force me to pay, I would BEG them to pull the trigger." The CA was speechless. Back then, I meant every word I said. I had my car repo'd that year. My other wife left me and I became homeless all in 2002. That was a very bad year after the DOT COM crash.

Not long prior to that, a co-worker that I used work with was on hard times as well. He lost his job, was evicted, had his truck repo'd and his girlfriend dumped him all in a short time. He went out in the street with a gun and pulled the trigger on himself. It was very tragic. He was a super nice guy. I felt awful hearing the news.