Cornerstone Credit Services I question the legality of Cornerstone Credit Services practices & their ethics! Anchorage Alaska

Ok, the first rule when "dealing" with ANY collection agency is to NEVER fall prey to their threat tactics. The second, no matter how much they threaten you (usually illegal threats under FDCPA), NEVER give them your bank information for any kind of payment arrangement OR even a ONE TIME ONLY small payment. Enough said there.

I would close the account and reopen it with new #s . if they ask for the new account# refuse to give it. I would also refuse to pay thier attorney fees as well.If they call refuse to answer the phone ir better yet change your # and hahve it unlisted and request the phone company not to give out any further imformation

I would close the account and reopen it with new #s . if they ask for the new account# refuse to give it. I would also refuse to pay thier attorney fees as well.If they call refuse to answer the phone ir better yet change your # and hahve it unlisted and request the phone company not to give out any further imformation

I would close the account and reopen it with new #s . if they ask for the new account# refuse to give it. I would also refuse to pay thier attorney fees as well.If they call refuse to answer the phone ir better yet change your # and hahve it unlisted and request the phone company not to give out any further imformation

I have a HUGE bone to pick with this company.

To start, the first time I got ANY communication from the was in December 2008. They left one of those messages that makes you wonder who is calling and why, so I called them back.

The guy on the phone was not only RUDE, but threatening and yelled at me.

I asked what they could possibly want with me and that is when he told me they were collecting a debt from a medical bill from 2003 and 2004. They had 3 bills that were 5 and 6 years old that I knew NOTHING about. (any of you that have gone to the hospital probably know how hard it is to track who is going to bill you and when).

He then lied to me and said that they have been sending me mail every month and calling my house every day for 5 years. (SOOOOOO not true) And since I am not in the habit of moving from house to house every few months... if anyone really wanted to find me, they could have done so.

By the end of the call he yelled at me and told me the ridiculous amount of money was due immediately.

No proof of debt, attorney says debt is past statute by a few years, non-compliant collection agency!

I used to work for CCS and thought I could pass along some information to you. I'll go through your report and try to address things in order.

1. Making your payments: This does not apply just to Cornerstone, it's more of an overall rule of thumb. If a collection agency is holding your account, then the best way to pay is directly to the collection agency. If you want to call your provider and verify that they did send it to the agency, then by all means do so. But when you send the payment to the doctor's office instead, it delays that payment being credited to your account. In some cases, it will even prevent it from being credited because the doctor's staff may not notify the collection agency that they have received a payment from you.

2. Mystery messages: As Don said, it is illegal for a third party collection agency to identify themselves to anyone other than the debtor unless they are specifically asked what company they are calling from. I can tell you from experience that every collector at CCS is trained in FDCPA, (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act,) and that they are required to follow it to the letter. Say, for example, that you came home and had your mother or a friend with you and you checked your answering machine or your voicemail on speakerphone. If a collector says, "This is Joe from Collections R Us and you need to call us about your delinquent doctor bill," they would have just told your friend or your mother or whomever was in the room with you about your debt. That is a huge no-no. The state of Alaska is not a community property state, which means they can't even tell your husband what they are calling about unless you have specifically said, "You may talk to my husband, Bob, about my accounts with your office." I can't tell you how many ticked off spouses I talked to in my day because of this.

Let me preface this next set of answers with this. You should have called Cornerstone before you did anything with the papers. They could have laid out your options for you. They could have explained the various fees and charges associated with the account now that it was involved in litigation. And they would have.

3. "Unpaid debt plus attorney fees and interest": This is the catch all that is used on all of the court filings. It covers everything and tells the court the gist of what the suit is based on. Which is, in fact, unpaid debt. The amount that is listed is the principal balance only. I'm not sure what the interest rate is these days, but what the collection agency charges on a collection account is different than what the court charges on a judgment. And on a judgment it is compounding interest. Which makes it that much more expensive.

4. The blacked out information: Once a case is filed in the court system, every last piece of paper that is given to the courts is public information. There is a law called HIPAA that governs what medical information can be shared and what can't. Whenever you seek medical attention and they talk to you about a privacy act and have you sign a piece of paper saying that they shared the information with you, it is regarding HIPAA. When you sign that paper, you are saying that the doctor/hospital/whoever has permission to share your information with those associated with the provider, whether it is your insurance company, an attorney or a collection agency. Most people don't bother reading it. They should. The point to the blackout of information is that although the collection agency may have permission to see the information, the public does not. If that information was not covered, then everyone would know your name, date of birth, social security number and what you saw the doctor for. Some people are okay with everyone knowing all of that information. The majority get pretty pissed off when that stuff gets out. Hopefully you are in the latter group.

5. The missing payments: See point number 1.

6. Agreeing with the Plaintiff: By checking that you agreed to the account, you basically told the court that you had no objection whatsoever to the lawsuit and that they could give Cornerstone everything they asked for. The courts don't usually bother with the "but..." part. What you should have done was either marked that you did not agree and state why or called CCS before filing the paperwork. You had 20 days to do either, so it wasn't a time crunch issue.

7. The court clerk and your payment: The only reason I can think that the clerk told you that you couldn't pay it when you were there was because the judge had to have signed off on the judgment before there actually was one. The court has to compute the amount of fees and interest on the suit before they can issue a final judgment amount, which you can then pay. By telling you to go back to CCS and pay, she might have been trying to be helpful but really wasn't. The only thing that CCS could have done would be to accept your payment and then notify the court that they had received it. At which point the court would have applied the payment to your judgment. And you still, most likely, would have had some interest left over to pay.

8. The amount you were quoted over the phone: That sound about right. It is $40 to file a small claims case, ($75 for cases over $2,500,) plus there is the cost for CCS' attorney and then any interest that accumulated on the account. Which, by marking that you agreed with the Plaintiff, you agreed to pay all of. As you recall their paperwork said, "Unpaid debt" (your original doctor bill of $700+,) "attorney fees", (the $40 or $75 filing fee and the however much they are paying their attorney these days,) "and interest", (on judgments issued in 2007 it is 9.25%.)

9. And lastly, the next phone call: Hopefully your husband gave permission to disclose information to you. And because the bill was paid in full, you won't have to worry about another lawsuit. The only thing I will say is to make sure that you requested a receipt showing that you paid your account in full and that you get a copy of the cancelled check once it clears your bank account. Put both documents in a safe place so that if the doctor's office were to inadvertantly send it to another agency in the future, you have documentation to show that you paid your accounts. Also be sure to keep a copy of the paperwork showing that you paid your judgment in full. Cornerstone and the court both will have a copy as well. So long as your paid, then you dont have to worry about your PFD or your bank account.


**RE: Your update and the thing about them stealing money from your bank account... if money comes up missing from your account and no one has a writ, then you need to sue the bank faster than they can blink! Cornerstone, nor anyone else, can touch the funds in your accounts unless the bank hands it to them. If the process server didn't show up with the court papers and the bank just hands them a check, the bank has much bigger problems!

I hope that by walking through each of your questions, I have been able to help you. Yes, it is totally legal and within the rules of ethics.

A Friendly Advisor

I used to work for CCS and thought I could pass along some information to you. I'll go through your report and try to address things in order.

1. Making your payments: This does not apply just to Cornerstone, it's more of an overall rule of thumb. If a collection agency is holding your account, then the best way to pay is directly to the collection agency. If you want to call your provider and verify that they did send it to the agency, then by all means do so. But when you send the payment to the doctor's office instead, it delays that payment being credited to your account. In some cases, it will even prevent it from being credited because the doctor's staff may not notify the collection agency that they have received a payment from you.

2. Mystery messages: As Don said, it is illegal for a third party collection agency to identify themselves to anyone other than the debtor unless they are specifically asked what company they are calling from. I can tell you from experience that every collector at CCS is trained in FDCPA, (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act,) and that they are required to follow it to the letter. Say, for example, that you came home and had your mother or a friend with you and you checked your answering machine or your voicemail on speakerphone. If a collector says, "This is Joe from Collections R Us and you need to call us about your delinquent doctor bill," they would have just told your friend or your mother or whomever was in the room with you about your debt. That is a huge no-no. The state of Alaska is not a community property state, which means they can't even tell your husband what they are calling about unless you have specifically said, "You may talk to my husband, Bob, about my accounts with your office." I can't tell you how many ticked off spouses I talked to in my day because of this.

Let me preface this next set of answers with this. You should have called Cornerstone before you did anything with the papers. They could have laid out your options for you. They could have explained the various fees and charges associated with the account now that it was involved in litigation. And they would have.

3. "Unpaid debt plus attorney fees and interest": This is the catch all that is used on all of the court filings. It covers everything and tells the court the gist of what the suit is based on. Which is, in fact, unpaid debt. The amount that is listed is the principal balance only. I'm not sure what the interest rate is these days, but what the collection agency charges on a collection account is different than what the court charges on a judgment. And on a judgment it is compounding interest. Which makes it that much more expensive.

4. The blacked out information: Once a case is filed in the court system, every last piece of paper that is given to the courts is public information. There is a law called HIPAA that governs what medical information can be shared and what can't. Whenever you seek medical attention and they talk to you about a privacy act and have you sign a piece of paper saying that they shared the information with you, it is regarding HIPAA. When you sign that paper, you are saying that the doctor/hospital/whoever has permission to share your information with those associated with the provider, whether it is your insurance company, an attorney or a collection agency. Most people don't bother reading it. They should. The point to the blackout of information is that although the collection agency may have permission to see the information, the public does not. If that information was not covered, then everyone would know your name, date of birth, social security number and what you saw the doctor for. Some people are okay with everyone knowing all of that information. The majority get pretty pissed off when that stuff gets out. Hopefully you are in the latter group.

5. The missing payments: See point number 1.

6. Agreeing with the Plaintiff: By checking that you agreed to the account, you basically told the court that you had no objection whatsoever to the lawsuit and that they could give Cornerstone everything they asked for. The courts don't usually bother with the "but..." part. What you should have done was either marked that you did not agree and state why or called CCS before filing the paperwork. You had 20 days to do either, so it wasn't a time crunch issue.

7. The court clerk and your payment: The only reason I can think that the clerk told you that you couldn't pay it when you were there was because the judge had to have signed off on the judgment before there actually was one. The court has to compute the amount of fees and interest on the suit before they can issue a final judgment amount, which you can then pay. By telling you to go back to CCS and pay, she might have been trying to be helpful but really wasn't. The only thing that CCS could have done would be to accept your payment and then notify the court that they had received it. At which point the court would have applied the payment to your judgment. And you still, most likely, would have had some interest left over to pay.

8. The amount you were quoted over the phone: That sound about right. It is $40 to file a small claims case, ($75 for cases over $2,500,) plus there is the cost for CCS' attorney and then any interest that accumulated on the account. Which, by marking that you agreed with the Plaintiff, you agreed to pay all of. As you recall their paperwork said, "Unpaid debt" (your original doctor bill of $700+,) "attorney fees", (the $40 or $75 filing fee and the however much they are paying their attorney these days,) "and interest", (on judgments issued in 2007 it is 9.25%.)

9. And lastly, the next phone call: Hopefully your husband gave permission to disclose information to you. And because the bill was paid in full, you won't have to worry about another lawsuit. The only thing I will say is to make sure that you requested a receipt showing that you paid your account in full and that you get a copy of the cancelled check once it clears your bank account. Put both documents in a safe place so that if the doctor's office were to inadvertantly send it to another agency in the future, you have documentation to show that you paid your accounts. Also be sure to keep a copy of the paperwork showing that you paid your judgment in full. Cornerstone and the court both will have a copy as well. So long as your paid, then you dont have to worry about your PFD or your bank account.


**RE: Your update and the thing about them stealing money from your bank account... if money comes up missing from your account and no one has a writ, then you need to sue the bank faster than they can blink! Cornerstone, nor anyone else, can touch the funds in your accounts unless the bank hands it to them. If the process server didn't show up with the court papers and the bank just hands them a check, the bank has much bigger problems!

I hope that by walking through each of your questions, I have been able to help you. Yes, it is totally legal and within the rules of ethics.

A Friendly Advisor

I used to work for CCS and thought I could pass along some information to you. I'll go through your report and try to address things in order.

1. Making your payments: This does not apply just to Cornerstone, it's more of an overall rule of thumb. If a collection agency is holding your account, then the best way to pay is directly to the collection agency. If you want to call your provider and verify that they did send it to the agency, then by all means do so. But when you send the payment to the doctor's office instead, it delays that payment being credited to your account. In some cases, it will even prevent it from being credited because the doctor's staff may not notify the collection agency that they have received a payment from you.

2. Mystery messages: As Don said, it is illegal for a third party collection agency to identify themselves to anyone other than the debtor unless they are specifically asked what company they are calling from. I can tell you from experience that every collector at CCS is trained in FDCPA, (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act,) and that they are required to follow it to the letter. Say, for example, that you came home and had your mother or a friend with you and you checked your answering machine or your voicemail on speakerphone. If a collector says, "This is Joe from Collections R Us and you need to call us about your delinquent doctor bill," they would have just told your friend or your mother or whomever was in the room with you about your debt. That is a huge no-no. The state of Alaska is not a community property state, which means they can't even tell your husband what they are calling about unless you have specifically said, "You may talk to my husband, Bob, about my accounts with your office." I can't tell you how many ticked off spouses I talked to in my day because of this.

Let me preface this next set of answers with this. You should have called Cornerstone before you did anything with the papers. They could have laid out your options for you. They could have explained the various fees and charges associated with the account now that it was involved in litigation. And they would have.

3. "Unpaid debt plus attorney fees and interest": This is the catch all that is used on all of the court filings. It covers everything and tells the court the gist of what the suit is based on. Which is, in fact, unpaid debt. The amount that is listed is the principal balance only. I'm not sure what the interest rate is these days, but what the collection agency charges on a collection account is different than what the court charges on a judgment. And on a judgment it is compounding interest. Which makes it that much more expensive.

4. The blacked out information: Once a case is filed in the court system, every last piece of paper that is given to the courts is public information. There is a law called HIPAA that governs what medical information can be shared and what can't. Whenever you seek medical attention and they talk to you about a privacy act and have you sign a piece of paper saying that they shared the information with you, it is regarding HIPAA. When you sign that paper, you are saying that the doctor/hospital/whoever has permission to share your information with those associated with the provider, whether it is your insurance company, an attorney or a collection agency. Most people don't bother reading it. They should. The point to the blackout of information is that although the collection agency may have permission to see the information, the public does not. If that information was not covered, then everyone would know your name, date of birth, social security number and what you saw the doctor for. Some people are okay with everyone knowing all of that information. The majority get pretty pissed off when that stuff gets out. Hopefully you are in the latter group.

5. The missing payments: See point number 1.

6. Agreeing with the Plaintiff: By checking that you agreed to the account, you basically told the court that you had no objection whatsoever to the lawsuit and that they could give Cornerstone everything they asked for. The courts don't usually bother with the "but..." part. What you should have done was either marked that you did not agree and state why or called CCS before filing the paperwork. You had 20 days to do either, so it wasn't a time crunch issue.

7. The court clerk and your payment: The only reason I can think that the clerk told you that you couldn't pay it when you were there was because the judge had to have signed off on the judgment before there actually was one. The court has to compute the amount of fees and interest on the suit before they can issue a final judgment amount, which you can then pay. By telling you to go back to CCS and pay, she might have been trying to be helpful but really wasn't. The only thing that CCS could have done would be to accept your payment and then notify the court that they had received it. At which point the court would have applied the payment to your judgment. And you still, most likely, would have had some interest left over to pay.

8. The amount you were quoted over the phone: That sound about right. It is $40 to file a small claims case, ($75 for cases over $2,500,) plus there is the cost for CCS' attorney and then any interest that accumulated on the account. Which, by marking that you agreed with the Plaintiff, you agreed to pay all of. As you recall their paperwork said, "Unpaid debt" (your original doctor bill of $700+,) "attorney fees", (the $40 or $75 filing fee and the however much they are paying their attorney these days,) "and interest", (on judgments issued in 2007 it is 9.25%.)

9. And lastly, the next phone call: Hopefully your husband gave permission to disclose information to you. And because the bill was paid in full, you won't have to worry about another lawsuit. The only thing I will say is to make sure that you requested a receipt showing that you paid your account in full and that you get a copy of the cancelled check once it clears your bank account. Put both documents in a safe place so that if the doctor's office were to inadvertantly send it to another agency in the future, you have documentation to show that you paid your accounts. Also be sure to keep a copy of the paperwork showing that you paid your judgment in full. Cornerstone and the court both will have a copy as well. So long as your paid, then you dont have to worry about your PFD or your bank account.


**RE: Your update and the thing about them stealing money from your bank account... if money comes up missing from your account and no one has a writ, then you need to sue the bank faster than they can blink! Cornerstone, nor anyone else, can touch the funds in your accounts unless the bank hands it to them. If the process server didn't show up with the court papers and the bank just hands them a check, the bank has much bigger problems!

I hope that by walking through each of your questions, I have been able to help you. Yes, it is totally legal and within the rules of ethics.

A Friendly Advisor

I used to work for CCS and thought I could pass along some information to you. I'll go through your report and try to address things in order.

1. Making your payments: This does not apply just to Cornerstone, it's more of an overall rule of thumb. If a collection agency is holding your account, then the best way to pay is directly to the collection agency. If you want to call your provider and verify that they did send it to the agency, then by all means do so. But when you send the payment to the doctor's office instead, it delays that payment being credited to your account. In some cases, it will even prevent it from being credited because the doctor's staff may not notify the collection agency that they have received a payment from you.

2. Mystery messages: As Don said, it is illegal for a third party collection agency to identify themselves to anyone other than the debtor unless they are specifically asked what company they are calling from. I can tell you from experience that every collector at CCS is trained in FDCPA, (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act,) and that they are required to follow it to the letter. Say, for example, that you came home and had your mother or a friend with you and you checked your answering machine or your voicemail on speakerphone. If a collector says, "This is Joe from Collections R Us and you need to call us about your delinquent doctor bill," they would have just told your friend or your mother or whomever was in the room with you about your debt. That is a huge no-no. The state of Alaska is not a community property state, which means they can't even tell your husband what they are calling about unless you have specifically said, "You may talk to my husband, Bob, about my accounts with your office." I can't tell you how many ticked off spouses I talked to in my day because of this.

Let me preface this next set of answers with this. You should have called Cornerstone before you did anything with the papers. They could have laid out your options for you. They could have explained the various fees and charges associated with the account now that it was involved in litigation. And they would have.

3. "Unpaid debt plus attorney fees and interest": This is the catch all that is used on all of the court filings. It covers everything and tells the court the gist of what the suit is based on. Which is, in fact, unpaid debt. The amount that is listed is the principal balance only. I'm not sure what the interest rate is these days, but what the collection agency charges on a collection account is different than what the court charges on a judgment. And on a judgment it is compounding interest. Which makes it that much more expensive.

4. The blacked out information: Once a case is filed in the court system, every last piece of paper that is given to the courts is public information. There is a law called HIPAA that governs what medical information can be shared and what can't. Whenever you seek medical attention and they talk to you about a privacy act and have you sign a piece of paper saying that they shared the information with you, it is regarding HIPAA. When you sign that paper, you are saying that the doctor/hospital/whoever has permission to share your information with those associated with the provider, whether it is your insurance company, an attorney or a collection agency. Most people don't bother reading it. They should. The point to the blackout of information is that although the collection agency may have permission to see the information, the public does not. If that information was not covered, then everyone would know your name, date of birth, social security number and what you saw the doctor for. Some people are okay with everyone knowing all of that information. The majority get pretty pissed off when that stuff gets out. Hopefully you are in the latter group.

5. The missing payments: See point number 1.

6. Agreeing with the Plaintiff: By checking that you agreed to the account, you basically told the court that you had no objection whatsoever to the lawsuit and that they could give Cornerstone everything they asked for. The courts don't usually bother with the "but..." part. What you should have done was either marked that you did not agree and state why or called CCS before filing the paperwork. You had 20 days to do either, so it wasn't a time crunch issue.

7. The court clerk and your payment: The only reason I can think that the clerk told you that you couldn't pay it when you were there was because the judge had to have signed off on the judgment before there actually was one. The court has to compute the amount of fees and interest on the suit before they can issue a final judgment amount, which you can then pay. By telling you to go back to CCS and pay, she might have been trying to be helpful but really wasn't. The only thing that CCS could have done would be to accept your payment and then notify the court that they had received it. At which point the court would have applied the payment to your judgment. And you still, most likely, would have had some interest left over to pay.

8. The amount you were quoted over the phone: That sound about right. It is $40 to file a small claims case, ($75 for cases over $2,500,) plus there is the cost for CCS' attorney and then any interest that accumulated on the account. Which, by marking that you agreed with the Plaintiff, you agreed to pay all of. As you recall their paperwork said, "Unpaid debt" (your original doctor bill of $700+,) "attorney fees", (the $40 or $75 filing fee and the however much they are paying their attorney these days,) "and interest", (on judgments issued in 2007 it is 9.25%.)

9. And lastly, the next phone call: Hopefully your husband gave permission to disclose information to you. And because the bill was paid in full, you won't have to worry about another lawsuit. The only thing I will say is to make sure that you requested a receipt showing that you paid your account in full and that you get a copy of the cancelled check once it clears your bank account. Put both documents in a safe place so that if the doctor's office were to inadvertantly send it to another agency in the future, you have documentation to show that you paid your accounts. Also be sure to keep a copy of the paperwork showing that you paid your judgment in full. Cornerstone and the court both will have a copy as well. So long as your paid, then you dont have to worry about your PFD or your bank account.


**RE: Your update and the thing about them stealing money from your bank account... if money comes up missing from your account and no one has a writ, then you need to sue the bank faster than they can blink! Cornerstone, nor anyone else, can touch the funds in your accounts unless the bank hands it to them. If the process server didn't show up with the court papers and the bank just hands them a check, the bank has much bigger problems!

I hope that by walking through each of your questions, I have been able to help you. Yes, it is totally legal and within the rules of ethics.

A Friendly Advisor

Don;

It doesn't make sense to me that it would be legal in any form, not to have some kind of identification required when calling a client.

There was no "real" person to talk with, when the phone is answered.
There was no caller ID to help determine whether or not the call was legitimate.
There was no way to make an *informed decision*.

In the earlier times that they began their collection calls, I spoke to live people, once a month. Even then, the caller ID was blocked. The person I spoke to did not know why.

When it came to the automated calls, in this situation, I was unable to make an informed decision because of no ID & it could be a scam, for all I knew. Actually, since I couldn't see their # when I talked to live people, I may have been making payments to a fake debt collector!

Also: As for them knowing my bank account # now .... If they take anything out of it without my approval or a court decision, they are stealing & I could sue them!

Priscilla,

By them leaving automated messages without saying who they are, they are following the law. They are not trying to be deceptive, but they are not allowed to disclose the debt to someone other than the debtor (or their spouse legally). A live person can ask questions to determine if they are speaking to the correct person.

As for Michael, her complaint was not that they have done anything illegal. If she paid her bill (and the one for her husband), then why would they continue to take money from her account? Any extra money they might be able to get would not be worth the lawsuit that would result from it.

Priscilla,

By them leaving automated messages without saying who they are, they are following the law. They are not trying to be deceptive, but they are not allowed to disclose the debt to someone other than the debtor (or their spouse legally). A live person can ask questions to determine if they are speaking to the correct person.

As for Michael, her complaint was not that they have done anything illegal. If she paid her bill (and the one for her husband), then why would they continue to take money from her account? Any extra money they might be able to get would not be worth the lawsuit that would result from it.

Priscilla,

By them leaving automated messages without saying who they are, they are following the law. They are not trying to be deceptive, but they are not allowed to disclose the debt to someone other than the debtor (or their spouse legally). A live person can ask questions to determine if they are speaking to the correct person.

As for Michael, her complaint was not that they have done anything illegal. If she paid her bill (and the one for her husband), then why would they continue to take money from her account? Any extra money they might be able to get would not be worth the lawsuit that would result from it.

Priscilla,

By them leaving automated messages without saying who they are, they are following the law. They are not trying to be deceptive, but they are not allowed to disclose the debt to someone other than the debtor (or their spouse legally). A live person can ask questions to determine if they are speaking to the correct person.

As for Michael, her complaint was not that they have done anything illegal. If she paid her bill (and the one for her husband), then why would they continue to take money from her account? Any extra money they might be able to get would not be worth the lawsuit that would result from it.

Now that these pirannahs have your bank account info they are going to drain every cent out of it that they can. Close the account and open another one. Then go to budhibbs.com for information on how to deal with these and other sewer rats like them.