Consumer complaint received 2017-11-21
Product: Debt collection — Credit card debt
Issue: False statements or representation — Attempted to collect wrong amount
Company: ENCORE CAPITAL GROUP INC. (TX)

The original creditor was XXXX ( XXXX/XXXX ). The account was a credit card acct for a limit of {$400.00}. I opened this account up on XX/XX/XXXX. Several years later my family and I went thru difficult times of unemployment, and hardship. I also XXXX XXXX XXXX and became XXXX that year which was XX/XX/XXXX. We notified the company of our situation, and was told to to try to pay something on the acct when we could. In XX/XX/XXXX we made a {$100.00} payment at the store of XXXX, in XXXX, Tex. It was then we were informed that the account had been charged off, and we were told to not worry about it, but the payment was applied to the charged off account we were told.The bill amount was listed as {$1200.00}. Later on we started getting calls of harassment from a collection agency who said they were attempting to collect on a debt. They were unable to give us specific info of what the debt was from, or how much was owed on it. In succeeding months, suddenly bills started showing up with this collection company and information on their letters indicated syncb as a company the debt was owed to. The collection agency, named~ XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX kept telling us we owed {$1300.00} and they wanted to know when we would pay.We did not know who XXXX was at the time.I later learnt that XXXX was affiliated with XXXX . Since we knew this amount was not correct, that the collection agency of XXXX XXXX was demanding us to pay~ we told them we had already paid on the bill and to correct the amount owed.In our view this collection company was already " Misrepresenting the amount of the debt ''. We did not hear from the company for a while and then a few more years later, this resumed collection attempts calling all times of the day and sending out collection letters. This collection company has managed to report to the credit bureaus wrongful info claiming the debt occurred recently in the past 3 yrs ~ when it was actually closed back in XX/XX/XXXX. Also just recently, the collection agency reported on my credit report, that this bill was a recent one~ when in fact it was a very old debt .All this mess has since ruined my ability to establish credit with anyone. I have learnt that there is a statue of limitations to collecting on debt in Texas. My last payment was made in XX/XX/XXXX, to XXXX, and this is now XX/XX/XXXX ~ I feel that this company MCM, XXXX XXXX XXXX* has violated the statue of limitations for collection of debt. I received today another letter several months after disputing this with them, of another attempt to get me to pay, and this came a day after I got more calls from the company again. The letter today is dated XX/XX/XXXX. They claim that the acct is still in collection and want me to choose a payment opt to settle the debt. I would like this company to remove ALL derogatory reporting status on my credit report showing new corrected info, and stop attempts of collection on a debt that is past the statue of limitation of collecting. This company has possibly may be also in violation of Surety Bond requirements are outlined in Texas Finance Code, Title 5, Chapter 392, Section 101.Bonding requirements for debt collectors to legally collect debts in Texas, even if the debt collectors business resides in another state. A debt collector must have an active Surety Bond in the State of Texas to legally collect debt. This company is well known to be deceptive. See XXXX XXXX XXXX