Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in New Hampshire

Re: enforcing agreement clear collection account

By the way, as a post-script, you didn't mention that

you put onto the BACK of the check any phrase to the

effect of "your signature below signifies acceptance

of the terms outlined in the accompanying letter".

That's what would make a 'restrictive indorsement' I

believe.

If you didn't write that, you probably can't get your

terms to stick; it's too easy for someone to deny they

ever read your letter (and they might really not have

done so, since check handling is such a routine procedure!)

never mind consciously agreeing to the terms within it

(and having the authority!).

Heck, big institutions don't even hand-sign a check;

did they? Can you see whose signature it is? Have you

thought of calling or contacting that person to see if

they intended to agree to your terms? Again, though,

even if they REALLY DID agree and they admit it to you

in court, it would probably be unenforceable for lack of

consideration as I discussed in my prior reply.

Good luck!

Re: enforcing agreement clear collection account

Good question. Possibly not valid.

First year law school contracts course: an agreement for a reduction in

a debt in exchange for a partial payment of that debt fails for lack of

consideration. Likewise, your 'agreement to a new set of payment terms'

fails for lack of consideration, i.e., what did you give the school in

in exchange for you getting your new terms? You can't say you gave them

$2,000 unless you don't want that counted in against your $5,000 owed;

in other words, paying someone what you owe them (or worse, just part!)

isn't giving them anything at all, is it? And if you didn't give them

anything, they're not required to give you anything.

Tiny lecture on the subject of consideration being required: if you

wrote to me and promised to send to me $100 cuz you like me, or even

because I gave you good advice out of the kindness of my heart, then

you didn't do it, I have no recourse against you to enforce your promise.

A promise becomes a contract and thus enforceable when there's 'consideration'

-- something of value (not necessarily equal!) being given in exchange.

Were your terms decent or did they fail to take full account of current

interest on the remainder of the debt over the length of time you plan to pay it?

However, on another subject, they may be violated Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices

Act where you've started the payment with the obligee already -- I don't actually know,

but you should have gotten a pamphlet about the Federal law when the debt collectors got

involved, I think, and it seems like this is just the kind of thing that should cause them

to back off a little bit. But I haven't read that and I'm not sure of that.

nforcing agreement to clear collection account

The previous reply is excellent advice. I'm posting this to react to the book you were relying on, "The Guerrilla Guide to Credit Repair." I'm not familiar with this particular work, and what I'm about to say may not apply to it, but IN GENERAL, most of the "credit repair" plans that are popping up all over the Internet are SCAMS. Most of the instructions in these plans are, AT BEST, ineffective, like the one causing your problem, but some of them are ILLEGAL, AND INVOLVE CRIMINAL FRAUD. Because many of the "moves" in these plans are done through the mail and involve banks (credit card issuers), following these instructions constitutes FEDERAL BANK FRAUD and/or MAIL FRAUD. You can do serious time in federal prison for this.

BE CAREFUL!