komiiro

... And thanks to a few debt lawyers the following has been *personally* confirmed by me... not by second hand, rumour, or hearsay.

I was recently called by a company called "ARC Collections" about my really old student loan that I paid off,in full, a *long* time ago claiming that I still owed $6000-ish on it. I was a bit offput and rather suspicious, and asked, firstly, if that was the case then why have I not seen anything in relation to it from the National Student Loans Center or the originating bank from which I borrowed the money (ie: the Royal Bank). She didn't even answer the question, she quickly moved to asking how I would arrange to pay the debt. I told her I didn't acknowledge the debt (key word here!) and that if she could please confirm by mailing me all information on said debt, I would look it over and take it to a professional financial and debt advisor to doublecheck.

She very quickly leaped to saying that she had called where I work and that Industrial Alliance had said that I don't work for them (well, duh... I don't... per se... it's not that I'm a salaried employee, I have a contractual agreement as an insurance advisor to be able to sell their products should a client deem IA as their best option...). I demanded to know why she would have done that first when she clearly had my phone number as we were conversing on it, and she demanded an income statement so that we could come to an agreement on how I would pay the loan and threatened to send a collector to my door to "repossess" my car (which I don't own... it's my Dad's) as well as anything else of worth to settle the accounts.

First, I paid it off a long time ago and I already told her that I wasn't acknowledging a thing until she provided written proof of the debt, in great detail, so that I could confirm it.
Second, never, ever threaten me with an action outside a legal bound when it was obvious that she had gone through the bother to find out what I do for a living as it not only wrecked her credibility, but also made her look like a massive idiot.

I may be in insurance, but I started with personal & financial end of said insurance, which deals directly with CFP's (Certified Financial Planners) and accountants on a DAILY BASIS... nor someone who is midway through a Bachelor of COMMERCE. I may not know everything there is to know, but I have fantastic resources that, when combined, do know everything.

Sure enough, she has called me (and I have ignored her calls, instead letting them be recorded in my voicemail, which on a Blackberry also voiceprints and types the message into my email inbox, with a trace on time, origination, etc) for the past three weeks but I have not received a single piece of paperwork to prove their claim or their identity. They haven't even so much as sent me a letter, demanding or otherwise... Pretty shady if you ask me.

So, finally annoyed to the point of losing it; I called around to a few reputable debt consolidation agencies and the Better Business Bureau. Sure enough, not only is ARC Collections Agency under financial review (ie: they're in major trouble), but there are so many legitimate claims against them that the debt lawyer is kinda surprised they're still in business.

Which basically means ARC is the skinny hair away from having their license pulled and are simply desperate and don't care if what they're doing is legal or not so they're calling around on debts that have been paid off, settled, etc. in the efforts to save their own arses.

So, bottom line: If this particular company calls you, be calm. Don't acknowledge a thing until they can prove every red cent in writing and, for pete's sake, DOUBLE CHECK it, don't just take their word for it because they will lie and say anything to separate you from your money.

Secondly, if you get called from them and you do have a debt but are currently paying on it, don't listen to ARC but go back to the agency/lender that you borrowed the money from and find out what is going on.

Er, evidently there's a Dragon Age movie... animated but still...