One great option for fixing your credit is to contact a credit repair service in Austin, Texas.
It’s important to remember that collectors are trained to be persistent and can therefore make your life miserable, and that collection accounts can negatively impact your score. With such issues in mind, you should do your best and take the initiative when dealing with a collection agency; you can even negotiate Pay for Delete to resolve debt issues and maintain a good credit score.
Is Transworld Systems a Legitimate Debt Collection Company?
For some debtors, the first question they ask themselves when receiving a letter or call from Transworld Systems is whether it is a legitimate debt collection company or not. No one can blame you if you have had the same thoughts in your head; after all, there are so many debt collection scammers across the United States. Doing your due diligence is also highly advisable before you begin conversing with such companies or sending them any money.
In the corporate world, Transworld Systems Incorporated, or TSI, is a legitimate debt collection firm that has been operating since the 1970s. It has over 600 employees and, as of 2019, had collected over $725 million on behalf of its clients. The firm also has twenty-nine service locations nationwide.
What Does TSI Do?
As mentioned earlier, TSI is one of the largest debt collection agencies in the United States. In case you have ever looked up the difference between pre-qualified and pre-approved, then you might have come across it during your research.
That said, creditors seek out their services for different reasons, including debt collection or debt selling if they cannot collect. In situations where an individual’s debt is sent to them, they will initiate contact via call or mail to collect the debt. To find you, they use a technique referred to as skip tracing, which helps to pinpoint the location of debtors who might have moved or are simply not picking up calls or replying to their letters.
It would be fair to say that throughout the years it has been in operation, TSI has achieved low consumer ratings regarding its fact-checking ability and customer service levels. According to various reports, the company was taking excessively aggressive measures to collect debts, such as making persistent calls for days and forwarding wage garnishment letters to debtors. Regardless, most debtors will tell you that TSI is a challenging firm to deal with, so you should do all you can to resolve your debts or validate that you owe money as soon as possible.
An In-Depth Look at Transworld Systems Incorporated
Dealing with debt collections can be scary, especially if you’ve never experienced the stress of letting a credit account go delinquent. Debt collectors come with a variety of outlooks on how they should treat consumers in their efforts to collect a debt. Many are polite, professional, and communicate clearly all options available to you, but others are not so polite, unprofessional, and don’t communicate options very well.
All debt collectors, however, are subject to restrictions listed under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), which requires them to behave in above board practices when attempting to collect a debt. While many collection agencies adhere to these requirements strictly, there are some debt collectors that seem to walk the line between above and below board.
Transworld Systems is one such company. Besides the countless complaints about Transworld over the past decade, this company has found itself butting heads with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC ended up issuing a fine to Transworld Systems parent company, Expert Global Solutions, in the amount of 3.2 million dollars.
The premise behind the fine was that Transworld was giving personal consumer information out to third parties that were not one of the credit bureaus, harassing consumers over the phone, and ignoring consumer account validation requests, all of which are prohibited under the FDCPA. The FDCPA was passed in September of 1977 in an effort to provide more protection for consumers against unfair debt collection practices. Because debtors’ prison was no longer an option by the 20th century, the practice of harassing and threatening consumers in an attempt to collect debt became quite common up to this point.
Since the passing of the FDCPA, those types of practices have subsided to a degree, but violations still occur on a consistent basis, and complaints are still being made against a variety of debt collectors today. While some complaints are expected, especially when dealing with such a stressful personal problem as debt collection, many of these complaints can be substantiated by the language of the FDCPA.
Under the FDCPA, consumers are protected from a variety of predatory practices by collectors. Violations of these practices are prosecutable under the law.
Harassment
Consumers cannot receive robocalls or unsolicited texts on their phones from debt collectors. They cannot be subject to vulgar, offensive, or derogatory language. They cannot be sent mail that is outwardly indicative that the collection agency is attempting to collect a debt, or contain any information on the envelope that would be embarrassing for the consumer. Debt collectors cannot send postcards and may not call repeatedly or continuously.
Threats
Collectors may not threaten a consumer with violence. They may not threaten to take any action they don’t intend to, are not capable of taking, or don’t have the authorization to take. They may not misrepresent themselves as law enforcement, a government agency, or a legal firm if they are not.
Reasonable Correspondence
Consumers cannot be contacted at work once the consumer has indicated to the collection agency that they wish not to be. Debt collectors cannot call consumers after reasonable waking hours (before 8:00 AM or after 9:00 PM) or after hours appropriate to someone working an alternative work schedule.
Ignoring Requests
You have the right to request debt validation. Once you’ve made the request, the debt collector is legally obligated to send a debt validation to you in writing; this document contains all of the details of the debt for which the collection agency is pursuing you. If there are any inaccuracies or misrepresentations on this validation, you have the right to dispute it.
Misrepresentation
Debt collectors cannot agree to do one thing and then do the other. If they make a promise to clear your debt line entry from its report to the credit bureaus in exchange for settlement of the debt, then they must do so. Unless you get it in writing, however, you have no proof that the agreement was ever made.
Dealing with Debt Collectors like Transworld Systems
Despite the protections set forth by the FDCPA, violations still occur. Whether a debt collector is aware of the violations and fully engaged in the unlawful practice, or an honest mistake has occurred, you’ll need to make sure you are protecting your rights.
Put Everything in Writing
Fully record all of your correspondence with the debt collector and require the collector only communicate with you in writing. If you request a Debt Validation report, request it in writing. If you agree upon a payment settlement agreement in exchange for the removal of the debt, make sure that correspondence is in writing. Discuss nothing over the phone, as having all correspondence in writing means you can prove everything you say about your experience with the debt collector.
Credit Report Disputes
Always make a request for validation with any new collector that comes knocking on your door within thirty days of the initial correspondence. If you do find inaccuracies, you’ll need to file a credit report dispute with each of the three credit bureaus–Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian–in an effort to resolve the mistake or remove the credit line completely from your report.
Statute of Limitations
All debt has a certain number of years before it falls off your credit report. Bankruptcies last seven to ten years, while foreclosures last seven years. Some debt collectors will often engage in unscrupulous practices in order to keep your account alive, as the statute of limitations begins with the last contact with the consumer. Be aware of the statute of limitations on your debt, but don’t ignore debt that can be civically litigated against you.
If you are suffering from outstanding debt that’s gone to collections, understand your rights and collector obligations under the FDCPA before negotiating with any debt collector. Many collectors will operate in somewhat of a gray area legally to get you to pay your debt–knowing exactly what they are and are not allowed to do will help you keep them accountable for their actions.