Calvary Portfolio How legal is all of this? Phenox Arizona

There is NO such thing as a Cease and Desist letter for Debt Collectors. There is a Cease Communication letter which states that they are to no longer call you. But it does not make the debt go away, nor stop them from taking further action. Also, if they do call you after they receive this letter(send it by Certified Mail w/ Return Receipt) you can sue them under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act(FDCPA) not the FCRA.

Now, as to the OP's issue. You signed a legal contract that states that you would make sure that the loan was paid. If the signer does not pay it, you agreed to. Since they have not, the bank has come after you. A debt is required to be written off by the IRS, this is strictly an accounting principal and does not make the debt go away.

The one thing you did not mention directly is when it went delinquent and was reposessed. There is one thing that may be in your favor, the Statute of Limitations. Once it is Reposessed in ends the original contract and a new SOL starts for the deficiency balance, which is the $9600 they are coming after you for. In most states the SOL for this is the UCC Statute of Limitations of 4 years.

If you are out of the SOL and they are aware of it. If they threaten to take you to court or actually sue you, you can turn the tables on them by suing them under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act(FDCPA). If they are still in the SOL, you can always try and negotiate with them just be sure do to it in writing only. Never signing your name and never sending a single dollar until you get an agreement from them in writing stating what they will agree to.

You have found out the primary reason why you should NEVER co-sign for anyone. That is unless you are not only willing to make the payments if they don't, but keep on top of the payments to make sure they are being made in a timely fashion.

What you need to do is mail this company a cease and desist letter. When they call inform them that you have sent a cease and desist letter and if they continue to call you that you will sue them under the fair credit reporting act. Start a log of times they call you so that you have a record of it.

Unfortunately everything you are describing is legal. The debt is still valid, the writing off of the debt was probably when the debt was sold off to collections. It really sucks, but they can still collect on this debt. It sounds as if the company that is after you is not very serious about collecting the debt, and I wouldn't be concerned until they turn it over to an attorney. At least when they do that, you can deal with a sane person.