My mother has a large bill under her name and just today I received an E-mail from my bank stating that my overdraft protection fee kicked in and I checked my account online and all of my money has been withdrawn from both savings and checkings by the collection agency. Is this legal? Can I do something about it?

In the US – only if they get a court order to do so.
You never got anything in the mail stating they would sue with a court date?
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Do collection agencies have the right to garnish pending balances from lottery winnings, inheritance or court settlements?
What if you have had a home forclosure? Would this change anything meaning are there more chances that they would garnish money recieved?

Yes, if they can find it. the most common garnishment is your job income. any income is fair game if they know where to find it. If you don’t owe a lot they probably won’t look past your job.

http://www.creditdebt1.com

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk This is the first part of the first video in a series of five looking at how best to deal with debt collection agencies.

This is some background information on the “industry” as a whole.

Duration : 0:6:43

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Even the very rich and famous are struggling to pay their bills in todays awful economy. Both Dr. Phil and Arnold Schwarzenegger get calls from collection agencies due to them not paying their bills, but Dr. Phil thinks that his expertise in the field of psychology could get him out of paying his debt and Arnold believes that since Indian casinos dont pay taxes then neither should he.

Duration : 0:8:30

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Why do collection agencies persistently lie to the debtor, the press and the public at large? It is not just for money, but also because they actually believe themselves to be the last gasp between economic stability and financial ruin.

As we shall see with this message, the truth is anything but, and we shall also see that they as in my previous recordings are irrelevant, almost utterly useless and in the eyes of most, an inconvenience.

Like sharks, once they smell blood (or money), they will attack. However, such a parallel would be insulting to sharks, since recent research has shown that sharks do possess intelligent characteristics, such as memory and a sense of peril. This is more than can be said for the staff at these companies, who will selectively lie, threaten and bully if they think theres a chance they can worm money out of you.

You sent an angry letter to them? What letter. You sent a payment last month? What payment? You have a settlement letter proving you paid off this debt with the last company it was with? The last company dont have any record of this, so it must have been sent out by fluke.

Well, this message exposes and takes apart many of the most common lies or half-truths that such companies will use against you. Im sorry the whole message is a long one, but with lying and collection agencies in the UK as anyone who has had to deal with one already knows – theres a lot of ground to cover.

***1 small mistake made is during the ‘Rankin Vs HBOS’ dissection. This is untrue – it should have stated that it WAS a High Court case. But no legal precedent was set, and the necessity of a valid CCA was amplified by the judge. The DCAs will omit to mention that part.

The judge actually held Mr Rankin at fault for his manner, which was bad enough to swing the case in the favour of the creditor. Hardly a legal precedent when the judge decides to make an example of the plaintiff.

Yes, I did see the Panorama programme, and yes, I think the Rankins came across as textbook ‘debt avoiders’ that the DCAs like to paint all their ‘customers’ with***

Duration : 0:9:37

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A video of phones i’ve owned over the years.

Duration : 0:2:3

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Danny Duggan, played by Postlethwaite, runs a failing building contractors, and resorts to gangster tactics to keep the business afloat. However, with the bottom falling out of the building game, Duggan finds that playing at gangster is only fun when you’re on the winning side.

In this missing link between “The Black Stuff” and “Boys From the Black Stuff” – Pete Postlethwaite excels as the out of his depth Duggan and the piece has all the warmth and incisive writing you’d expect from Alan Bleasedale. Responding to success of “The Black Stuff”, the BBC commissioned Bleasdale to expand each character into a separate drama. The first of these, The Muscle Market, featured Pete Postlethwaite replacing Calder as the owner of the building contractors, and Alison Steadman (secretary & mistress). It went out under the Play for Today banner in 1981.

Duration : 0:4:5

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The Bill Collector – the movie, starring Danny Trejo (from Disney’s Spy Kids), Brandon Hardesty and Gary Moore, is coming soon to theaters. Stay tuned for the count down to The Bill Collector – the movie.

The Bill Collector is the story of Lorenzo Adams, a hard driving manager of a collections agency. Adams must pay an old debt of $100,000 in a matter of days or face certain death. An unlikely friendship with his would be killer and a cockamamie scheme to hire desperate down­and­outers from an inner­city mission all amount to nothing when Lorenzo finds himself staring down the barrel of a gun.

Duration : 0:2:27

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http://cbs13.com/local/clinton.campaign.debt.2.694498.html

Duration : 0:1:49

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A shelf of old Krylon – this was on display at the YouTube headquarters for a long minute.

Duration : 0:1:14

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