Settlement Scams - When the creditor wants more money
What happens if the creditor tries to get more money from you? Is it extortion? Theft? Fraud? Here is an example:
Courtesy of Household - HSBC Watch:
"I made a settlement agreement with a gentleman by the name of Eddie Anderson at HRS. Our agreement was a down payment of 500.00 on a balance arrangement made by him of 1298.00 and 6 month payments of 133.00 to pay off agreed balance beginning May 2004. This gentleman told my last payment would be in Sept. 2004. Which was a miscalculation on his part. My last payment would be October 2004.
"He asked that I make one more payment of 133.00 for October which I did. Now he says that I need to make an additional 70.75 for finance charges because one of my payments was past the billing date. He says that if I don't come up with it by today, that our agreement will be null and void and I will owe the full original amount I had from the beginning.
"I have sincerely made an effort to communicate with him by phone on a monthly basis. I have not slept for the past 4 nights knowing I will need to call him today without the finance charges he wants and that all I have done to be responsible will not have made a difference. I am deeply disturbed and concerned about this situation."
In the case quoted above we see that Fast Eddie Anderson does not have a signed written agreement with the customer, but the customer has a lot of money invested in the payoff. It's another good reason to follow our advice as shown on the front page (home page) of this web site.
