Consumer complaint received 2019-06-24
Company: ENCORE CAPITAL GROUP INC.
State: IL
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Attempted to collect wrong amount

Complaint:
I am a debtor Of Midland Credit Management and Asset Acceptance Corp. In and around XXXX of 2012 I hap appointed my father as my Attroney-in Fact with Power of Attorney to help resolve numerous financial issues I had become entangled in. Using my credit report my father reached out to both XXXX XXXX XXXX and Asset Acceptance Corp. asking for validation of the debt and available documentation ( Exhibit 1 & 2 ). At the time we were not aware that the XXXX  XXXX XXXX debt and that of Asset Acceptance Corp. were the same debtors that Asset Acceptance had purchased the debt from XXXX  XXXX XXXX, who subsequently wrote the remaining debt off. We did not receive the requested information back from either party. On XX/XX/2012, we received a summons for Mandatory Arbitration from Asset Acceptance , Corp in which they represented as an assignee of XXXX XXXX XXXX. ( Exhibit D & E ). During the court proceeding the attorney representing Asset Acceptance , Corp. approached us outside of court with a payment arrangement that we accepted and was in compliance with until they altered the payment arrangements. ( Exhibits A, B, & C ) Once the payment arrangement was shifted from their appointed attorney to Midland Credit Management our requests to satisfy payment arrangements were responded to limitedly. We then turned to the Illinois Attorney Generals office of Consumer Protection for assistance and through several months of communication were given the offer of account settlement in the amount of {$1200.00}. ( Exhibit 7 ) The settlement communication stated that their legal department would be reaching out to us to make the necessary arrangements to make the settlement payment. After a few weeks, we made several attempts to reach Midland Credit Management to arrange the payments but were advised that they would be in contact with us to settle. During this period we learned that Midland Credit Management, Asset Acceptance, and its subsequent subsidiaries and legal partners were under numerous investigations and suits, including by the CFPB and made an assumption that we were lost in limbo or part of a bigger finding. $ years later I received notice of wage garnishment for the remaining balance of the original debt including additional interest and fees. We attended several court dates to settle the matter, remove the garnishment and address issue it created with my employer. In a few incidents, the case was postponed because their appointed attorney did not appear. After several months, and missed work, we were told that the original acceptance of {$1200.00} to settle was no longer acceptable, even though it was in writing because we did not fulfill the payment offered even though their offer stated they had to contact us and we made attempts without any resolution. The resulting resolution was that I made the full payment owed less a slight removal of court cost to Midland Credit Management.

I believe that this debt was deliberately pushed aside by Midland Credit Management and that they had no intent to settle for the {$1200.00} dollars as stipulated to the Illinois Attorney General office. Additionally, by holding the debt for 4.5 years they accumulated additional interest earnings, Midland Credit Management , Corp and its subsidiaries made what they knew was a false offer leaning on the lack of knowledge of my self and father in the legality of following their need to make arrangements to collect, is the letter not a legal binding contract? 

I additionally believe that my debt was part of a consent order that the CFBP had against Midland Credit Management , Corp and Asset Acceptance XX/XX/XXXX-CFPB-XXXX and that by holding my debt and shifting it around was not reported to the CFPB and accounted for in the resolution of the consent order.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation