Cavalry Portfolio Services A company trying to collect $7,000 from me for a repo car. Car was a 1998 Neon with 100,000 miles ripoff Hawthorne New York

If so, you need to do a search of all of the complaints on this site (not to mention all of the other sites) dealing with bottom feeder debt collectors. Calvary is one of the worst. I'll bet they can come up with a bill of sale all right...even a nice forged one. The point is, you don't seem to be paying attention, this person can't pay what Calvary is demanding even if the money is owed legally to Calvary (which I highly doubt). I agree with Steve. He didn't give bad advice.

In the first response I will simply add that when the vehicle, which was sold at auction...was not sold retail, but rather wholesale. Who goes to the auctions? Dealers and anyone else liscensed to go in.

In regards to the advice in the 2nd response...

1. When Cavalry Portfolio Services buys a portfolio of debt, trust me, a bill of sale can be produced if necessary. But who are we kidding here, if you're certain that you were the person there that day signing the contract, then why would you not realize that you owe the debt?

2. Cavalry Portfolio Services is liscenced in all of the 50 states that require it to be liscened in. That is just a stall tactic to try and get out of paying a debt. You can find out that information first hand by contacting your local state government.

3. In regards to staying off of the phone. There are two things I will mention in regards to this comment.

First, If you stay off the phone, then you will never have an opportunity to work out payment arrangements and you are putting yourself at a higher risk for lawsuit if the account is in statute.

Secondly, Sure there are some nimrod collectors out there, but there are some good ones too. I have received countless letters etc. from customers who have been helped.

Karen,

The things that happen in your personal life, although tragic, are not at all relevant to the issue at hand. Business id business. Big business has no obligation to take into account your personal life issues.

And, the value of the car, or the number of miles on it, etc, also is irrelevant.

The only relevant factors here are that you had a contract for the financing of a car, and you did not make the required payments. The car was repo'd and sold at auction. The auction did not bring the amount owed plus costs. That leaves a deficiency amount that can be legally collected.

Now, a JUNK DEBT BUYER purchased that contract. They have nothing to do with your prior lender, who by the way was a high risk lender.

Now, you will have to respond to this JUNK DEBT BUYER/Collection Agency. DO NOT refernece the original debt, or give them any personal, financial, employment information.

Again, stick to the issue at hand. Clearly dispute the debt and demand that they show you a contract that shows you owe THEM the money, as well as a complete account history and itemization of charges. Also demand proof that they have the legal right to collect on the said debt, and proof that they are licensed as required to do debt collections in your state.

This is called a DEBT VALIDATION request, and should be sent by certified mail, return reciept requested. put the certified# on the letter itself, and keep a copy for your records. This is very important.

And, STAY OFF THE PHONE!!! There is never a reason to speak with ANY debt collector on the phone. It will NEVER do anything positive for you and will always make things worse.

Good luck.

Before I say anything, I'm very sorry to hear about what happened to your daughter. As a father, I cannot imagine how I could handle what you have gone through.

That said, let me explain what happened when your car was reposessed. At the time of your reposession you owed a certain amount of money on the 1998 Neon. I'm going to make up some figures here, so obviously the numbers I'm talking about don't mean anything, but the explanation will tell you what's happened.

At the time of your reposession lets say you owed $11,166.67. You car was reposessed by the lender and sold at auction for, say, $4000.00. The $4000.00 was subtracted from the amount you owed at the time, and the balance left was $7,166.67. The amount they're trying to collect represents the amount still unpaid on your contract, commonly referred to as a 'deficiency balance'.

That's a very basic explanation however- what they're really trying to collect is the balance left over after the sale of your car, plus the auction fees, reposession fees, and any storage fees, as well as any collection costs.

Unfortunately regardless of circumstances, your contract is set in stone and this isn't a matter of 'if' you owe this, but rather 'that' you owe it. You should be able to negotiate the amount down to something more managable, though. There are a lot of options for you at this point as far as how you can deal with this issue, but basically they're going to continue trying to collect this money from you until you do find some kind of resolution.