Consumer complaint received 2018-04-18
Company: Premier Holdings
State: MD
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Auto debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action
Sub-issue: Threatened to sue you for very old debt

Complaint:
Thursday evening (XX/XX/XXXX) I received a call from Premiere Holdings ( a debt collection agency ) in which a threatening voice message was left.

The caller informed me there was a judgment against the car I currently own, and that he would hate for me to wake up tomorrow morning and my car is gone.

I initially called the auto dealer from whom I purchased the car. He advised me that " someone is just messing with me ''.

The call did worry me, because I don't want to wake up with my car gone.

So, I called the number left in the voice message. The man who left the message answered the phone, but immediately transferred me to a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  advised me this was regarding a car loan I had from XX/XX/XXXX. I advised her that, that car had been repossessed and I had thought that cleared me of any further payments.

She advised me, that the loan still existed even if the car was repossessed. She went on to say the current balance is {$13000.00}.

I gasped at the amount, and advised her that it ' s been so long ago that I don't even remember the terms of the car loan. I asked her if she could send me a copy of the original loan.

She took on a confrontational tone and told me I was in no position to ask for anything. She said that letters had been sent to me at various addresses over the years, and I now owe late fees as well.

She told me that I had to settle on that phone call or a judgment would be made against my current car. She advised me that the state of Maryland ( where I reside ) released information to them regarding my property and they planned to move forward with filing for a judgment if I didn't agree to some type of payment on that phone call.

I asked her could I have a day to verify what she was saying because the voice message left stated that a lien had 'already ' been made against my car.

She said, at that point, it had not been made, but if I didn't settle before the phone call ended it would be.

I advised her that the loan was from so long ago, wouldn't it have been written off? I think she said it had been written off, but it could still be collected ( something of that nature ).

I stated although I am aware of the original debt, it had been so long ago, so I wanted time to research if any action could still be taken against me regarding it.

Again she stressed I was in no position to make ( even ) any requests, and that I needed agree to some type of payment then and there.

Fearing that my car could be taken I acquiesced.

She said there were two conditions available : Pay a settlement of {$3200.00} total ( or in 6 or 12 month installments ), or pay by a hardship payment plan of {$100.00} until the entire {$13000.00} is paid. Again I gasped. She advised me one final other way to settle would be for me to make an offer.

I advised her that I have no extra income, that my only source of income is Social Security XXXX, and that can't even afford to pay all my necessary bills without state assistance.

Fearing that I would lose my only source of transportation, I gave her my bank routing number and checking account number, and E-signed an agreement to make the hardship payments.

She did say that if I was somehow able to come up with the settlement amount of {$3200.00}, I have until the end of the month to settle that way.

I applied for and was granted a loan from my bank for the settlement amount, but during the course of gathering information for me for the loan, the loan officer advised me that the debt in question does not show up on my credit report, and that she herself was skeptical about the collectors right to pursue it after so long.

___________________________________________ I spoke at length with a telephone representative of this office. She gave me information about my state 's Attorney General, and other ID protection in case this is a scam.

I am still submitting this online report to attach all that I have received from the company so far.

Company public response: Company believes complaint represents an opportunity for improvement to better serve consumers
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation