How do get debt information from people who want your money?
A little back story: I defaulted on a credit card debt. The bank charged off the debt. I made arrangements with the bank to pay it off. There were errors aplenty, and I thought I was done because it had stopped being taken automatically out of my account. This was not so (it was just that the person taking it out of my account quit the bank). There was a court proceeding that I was allegedly invited to (my invitation must have gotten lost in the mail), a judgment filed against me (which obviously was also lost in the mail) and the next thing I know there was an attachment on my wages. Then I was laid off from the job that carried the attachment (I'm sure the attorney [read: collection vulture] thought I did it on purpose). I got another job and started paying again. Letters and phone calls abounded so I could find out exactly how much I owed (fees, interest, judgment fines and whatnot), and I never got the same numbers twice. I asked for a statement a few different times and got a printout from the collection vultures that didn't detail anything, so I asked for a line-item detail and got one, but it didn't make much sense. Asked the bank for a statement and they said the collection vultures were handling it. Sigh.
Jump ahead to now. I was recently able to pay a settlement to make this go away (I need the bank to finance a car for me - my poor little Jeep) and called the bank today to see if the vultures paid up. What I found was that the bank says I owed $678.09, it hasn't been settled, and that the vultures had been paying them rather sporadically, in creative amounts (I had been paying $100 per month). What I paid to the vultures for the settlement was $1,970. That's a difference of $1,291.91 - but who's counting... I called the vultures and was told that the bank has the wrong numbers, and that I shouldn't have been calling the bank anyway. Vulture-man said that the collections reps wouldn't have the super secret (I assume) judgment information. I asked him why the bank would have different information, being as how the vultures were supposed to be paying the bank on MY behalf. This wasn't a debt that was sold, oh no. I get the feeling that I may have been played. Big time. I've put calls in to the bank collections Supervisor and also the collections VP to try to find out how I can get the real numbers, in writing, but no one has returned my calls. This makes me really angry. And sad. And bitter. Because I'm smart, resourceful, and know how to read, I will get to the bottom of this. I will get the information I need - I may not like it; it may be that super secret judgment numbers equal exactly $1,291.91 more than what the bank says I owed. Who knows? What really chaps my ass is that there are people who may not be as smart or resourceful as I am, and they will get screwed. Even if they know how to read.
Just an aside... My friend recently applied for a loan for a car. She is very good about managing her money and has an excellent credit score. She qualified within minutes over the phone and is getting a low interest rate. Her epiphany was thus: So long as she was willing to sell her liver in order to make payments on time, she didn't even need proof of income... That's sad, but she's not wrong.