do some research on credit forums before u pay them. sometimes paying these off are worse than juts letting them go off your credit in 7 years. dont be scared by there only 24 hour crap. these guys will tell you ANYTHING to get you to pay. you can also negotiate with these bastards. i tried to "do the right thing" and pay an old debt off that was like 4 years old. now the thing is my credit for another 7 years...i found out after that it would have been much better to never pay it even though this was something i really did owe. do some research. your credit can be a tricky thing. jim
Just got off the phone with them, and they've extended the deadline until 2 PM today. What an infurtiating conversation. Every one of them constantly oscillates between professional and condescending, like some schizophrenic good cop/bad cop routine. Plus, they're constantly pumping me for information (like where I currently work and how many notices I can confirm I've received) while trying to make it sound casual... ammo for a potential lawsuit. Re: Ripley Unfortunately, I am fairly young. I only managed to get a $300 credit card due to my lack of credit--how easy will it be to get another credit card once I've got a major black mark? And how can you explain the link I just posted? Is credit rating only a concern with margin levels above the normal maximum, or is that company just an exception?
I had a huge debt at this one brokerage. And they sold it to some kind of collection agency. But, it wasn't due to my fault, thus I had my moral ground to stay on. Thus, I knew I WASN'T going to pay it. They used to call me all the time, like morning, afternoon, and evening.. and I actually enjoyned talking to those $5/hr chipmunks.. I just changed my phone number after a while. And in my state, all the outstanding debts go invalid after 2 yrs. Never pay anything that you already paid. Leave your phone off the hook or something.. better yet, change your phone number. Credit rating doesn't have anything to do with the margin you receive at a futures brokerage. Anyone can trade as long as you can fund an account. And you can get a lot more credit card offers, when you charge a lot on your existing credit card and pay them all of by the month's end.
Won't that make it difficult to get other brokerage accounts in the future? How was it NOT your fault? Just curious? If you can't straighten out an error like this and have to "hide" from collection people how you gonna make it as a trader?
lol... Brokerage houses are not really the honest bunch. I filed my complaint to CFTC, and they advised me that.. most people tend to file a complaint to get the money back after they already paid it. That, it would be better for me to NOT PAY IT, if I have my proof on my side that I was an innocent victim.
Just FYI, under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) you can simply tell a collection agency to stop calling you and they must comply: http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/creditorharassment.shtml To the OP: I monitor my credit reports very closely and have never seen any hard or soft inquiries for any brokerage accounts I've opened (which means they never did a credit pull when I opened the accounts).
Let me clear up some misunderstandings on this topic. 1st. since the Patriot Act Brokerages ARE pulling credit reports on accounts. They run your SSN to make sure you ARE who YOU say YOU are. 2nd. Leverage/Margin is determined by the risk profile of the trade as determined by the Futures Exchange and your Broker. 3rd. If you are billed for services not received then the burden of proof is on the Creditor/Collection Agency. They have 30 days to verify that the account is actually yours or not. If they can't prove it i.e. with your signature etc. then the account MUST go off your credit report ASAP! I go into great length on my website about how to clear up trade lines and improve your FICO score. I do this all the time both for my clients and also for myself. NO! I don't charge a fee at all. Why not? Because I show my clients how to do it for themselves for FREE in exchange for their business.
Pulling your credit report is not the same as using information in your credit report to verify your identity IMO. It doesnt count as a credit inquiry (e.g. your FICO score is not impacted, like applying for credit would) nor are they looking at your credit history to make the decision about your account application - they are as you say only validating you are who you say you are. According to some quick googling they also have the option of using other means (e.g. passport) to establish your identity; using a credit report to establish identity is the easiest option but it is not the only option.
I got into the WAY overleveraged lifestyle in the silicon valley right after the paek in 99. I had a house, cars alot of material stuff. Then the job went away and I lost everything. Even with having lost a house to bankruptcy and telling all my creditors to fsck off for like a year and a half, I was able to open 2 different futures accounts with full leverage and no questions to my dot com era pay references. red
Ok, I just got off the phone. It's done, and boy and boy can they get nasty when they realize you aren't going to give them any money. Thanks for the input--you all made this decision a lot easier for me. Unfortunately... The minute history link isn't working. The tick history is, but it's kinda useless without the minute history (and the minute history is the expensive one.) I do not know why it's expired already--they were supposed to be good until the weekend, and they were both working as of 4 hours ago. I will send them an email seeing if they can reactivate the link. In the meantime: http://www.anfutures.com/history/TAECDQD4/total_d.htm (doesn't work) http://www.anfutures.com/tickhist/TA2UITHS/total_d.htm (works) Their converter is more than a little flakey, by the way, but the site was recommended by several people on these forums...