Introducton Time - Do you know me?

I guess I will take the podium and be next. :lol:

My name is Rhonda Martin-Castillo and I have only been part of the community for a short time, but I have gained a lot of knowledge from everyone here. I work for a nationally known payroll company as a Senior Payroll rep. I have tried many times to go back and get my degree, but with three kids it is hard to do.

I joined this group to learn more about debt consolidation and credit without being ripped off :twisted: Which tends to happen with a lot of companies out there. I have told a lot of friends and family members about this site. Hopefully I shall see them here soon :) Now to pass the torch to someone else............


Rhonda

Welcome Rhonda to the club, you can go to http://forums.debtcc.com/forums/username-change.html and change your forum name.

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Great idea, Vikas! It's neat to know more about the people who you work alongside!

I am Lindsey; I'm 19 and am a Lockheed Martin contractor supporting the US Army. For nearly 2 years, I was a DoD employee, working with computers. I came to this site after receiving harassing calls from "Ellis Crosby & Associates." I'm really glad I found this forum!
In my free time, I enjoy helping others on this board that are now in a position I was once in. I also love playing guitar, collecting 80's hair metal records, learning about computers from my Sys Admin fiance, and dancing.
Ah, and MY favorite movie of all time is probably "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." :-P

::takes a bow:: Nice to meet you all! :-)

Hey Katie! That's awesome that you volunteer with the SPCA! I'm very active with PETA and I pet sit as a side job! It's good to give a voice to those that can't speak---animals can be such stress relievers!
:-)

Nice to hear for Lindsey and Katie, Katie I see that you are posting as guest, you can join the community as a Debt Samaritan. I really appreciate your help to the community.

Please let me know if I can be of some help.

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I am Sarah. I came to this site because I have A LOT of credit card debt and was trying to find the perfect debt consolidation company because A LOT of them out there are not good.

This website hooked me up with the company DebtWave and I have been very satisfied so far. They always got back to me with questions and set everything up really quickley. Told me EXACTLY what to do. Now I am all set up and look forward to see my debt reduce.

When I first signed up I didn't think I could afford the monthly payment, but they gave me an option to take money out weekly and they did out my budget. So I actually could afford it very comfortably...it was BEFORE I joined I couldn't afford paying the credit cards comfortably.

My advice to anyone that is just reading through this forum is if you have any problems with debt to at least talk to one of the counselors and they will give you a proposal on what they think you should do...and you can always turn it down. But trust me, you won't.

My hobbies are softball, being online, enjoying the outdoors and tiddily winks. Ok just kidding about the tiddily winks :)

Hope everyone gets the information they need out of this site.

Thanks! :D

Thanks Sarah for the lovely introduction.

I am also happy to know that you are able to see your debt shrinking through this program.

Hopefully, we will reach many more people in the coming times through our noble efforts and wipe off debt from this world. I appreciate your spreading the good word.

Do let me know if you have any problems.

Regards
Vikas

Hello,

I am very new here. I am still awaiting my call from the company I was assigned. My name is Dawn and I am a SAHW&M to 3 special needs kiddos. I love dachshunds and try to help out with rescue, when I can do so. I also love to scrapbook, love Christmas and gospel music.

I am still nervous about this whole proceedure and am looking forward to hearing from other people using DebtWave.

Beepshouse,

Welcome to the forums! DebtWave is the company I am using also...they are very helpful. They will explain everything and answer all of your questions. Good Luck and have fun chatting with us in the forums!

Thanks Vikas!

Hi,

My name is Kathy and I am fairly new here. After receiving threatening phone calls from Ellis Crosby and Associates, I did a little research on the Net and found you guys. This is such a great site. I have learned many new things.

Kathy

Hi Kathy, Hi Beepshouse

Welcome on the board! :D

Beepshouse, relax; the companies that have partnerships with us are the reputed ones. We understand the needs of the people and that is why we have done extensive research on choosing good companies for you.

We feel that you will be full of praises here after you have done a discussion with Debt Wave. :D

Kathy, I have seen you many times actively participating on the discussions of Ellis Crosby. Ellis Crosby has now filed bankruptcy. :D

Your advice was taken by many people in this community and they stepped back from making wrong moves.

Hope that you will actively participate in the forums and help many more. Keep sharing the knowledge. :D

Regards
Vikas

Welcome to the site Kathy! I hope you have fun contributing to the community! Good Luck!

I joined some time back, but never formally introduced myself. My name is Toni. I have been married to my soul-mate and best friend for seventeen years and we have a 18 month old miracle baby, who is the light of our lives. We also have two German Shepherds, an Akita, a Chihuahua and two cats.

I work part-time at a veterinary clinic. My DH is a police officer. BB (before baby), I worked as a reserve (volunteer) deputy sheriff. If I had not been able to have a baby, I would have pursued a full time law enforcement career.

I actually found this site when my sister was unfairly harassed by Asset Acceptance for a debt that was not hers. She merely had the misfortune of being the next person to get that particular phone number after the debtor. :( Of course, it turned out to be a wonderfull blessing for me as well. We were struggling to make ends meet and now we will be debt free in less than three years! I am so excited about that!

This site has been a Godsend to us and I can't tell you how much I appreciate it!

Hi Toni

Thanks for introducing to all of us. :D

I prey for the good health of your darling baby and also wish you and your husband success on all events.

Hope you will have a good time with us. :D

Keep visiting this board often

Regards
Vikas

Hello all!
My name is Adria, and I am a single mother of two wonderful children. I currently reside in Austin, Texas.

I work as a programmer by day and enjoy live music and anything involving natural bodies of water.

I came upon this site when I was searching for advice and help on negotiating with less than helpful payday loan companies. The information here has helped me to understand my rights as a consumer. It has given me the courage to not bend to their scare tactics and properly pursue a payment plan that is beneficial for myself and the loaner. It's scary when collectors are putting so much pressure on you to pay them ASAP - and I was at the end of my rope.
This community is so great. All of the combined experience and sound advice could help anyone working to pay off their debt and improve their credit rating!

Hi Adria,

We are glad to have you in our community. It is true that some agencies often pressurize in making a financial decision without giving you enough room to think on it. That is why we have come up with a forum like this so that the community gets a platform to interact with each other.

We hope that you will get the required knowledge on your consumer rights and will be able to handle the situations skillfully.

Best wishes and happy moments here with the community :D

Regards
Vikas

Hello,

My name is Heather and I relatively new to this site. I don't even remember how I found this site, but it has helped me a lot and I have learned so much from everyone. It is a great support group and I don't feel so bad that I am not the only one who made some bad decisions. Hopefully everything will work out and I can get it all straightened out. I am on my way....

Hi Adria, Hi Heather,

I have been always saying that don't let pressure crush you; lift yourself during these times of pressure. We will gain some unknown power from inside and will be able to tackle any problem.

It really feels nice to hear the praises for our community. We are always trying to lift those who are struck in hard times and make them aware of the power that they have inside.

We will always appreciate your sharing of thoughts with us and encourage more people to join this board!!

Best of luck and good wishes forever!

Regards
Roxette

Good Morning Everyone,

My name is Tyeisha and I have been married for 70 days and counting. I have an 9yr old son who I love dearly.

I am a full time employee at a very popular News Paper in NY. I found debt consolidation care when I was looking for someone else who had a similiar problem when it came to the Payday loan sharks (What I call them) and I found a lot of individuals who is in the same boat as me. Now I feel like this is my new place to vent and to help others like myself.

I am in the process of consolidating my debt and becoming debt free in a few years!

I like this site and I feel comfortable in posting to all of you and also getting great feedback. I hope to get to know all of you and seeing you around the boards.

Good luck to all!!

Tyeisha

Congratulations and wish you a very happy married life ever after :D

Yes, this community is really an asset and the forum is a cove of useful information. This forum has achieved this glorious height because of the active participation of all of you.

We will hope to stay in touch at all the times and help someone in need. May God bless us all!

Regards
Roxette

I am a very recent on this site. One day short of a week to be exact. I have found so much help on this website. My life has done a total turn around with all that I have learned. I will continue to share my ups and downs in hopes that someone else will benefit

Linda

Hi Linda,

We will like to get your introduction here. :D

My name uis[/quote]

Hi! My name is Linda. I was lucky to find this site a little over one week ago. I had so many problems and felt as though there was no hope for me. I did a search on how to stop my ach's going to these payday companies and this awesome webdsite popped up. I was glued to it for hours. Reading what is happening to all of these people. I knew I was not alone.

Thanks to all of these wonderful people that have helped me, I stopped all ach's at my bank so I can start building up my money again. I have enrolled in a debt management problem who works strickly with payday loans. And I do have to mention that I will never find myself in this situation again,

This all started when I pulled my credit report a few weeks ago. I have always had financial problems and did not know why. I now know it was all because of me. I never learned the importance of money, budget or my credit report. So now I have to teach my self through trial and error

My life has now changed. I guess you could say a new years resolution came early. I am paying off all the payday loans. I am tackling some negative things on my credit report once I get my paydayloan consolidation underway.

My goal, is to clean up my act, clean up my report, save my pennies for a rainy day and if it weren't for the support of this forum, I would not be feeling this great today.

A little about me in general. I am an office manager for a software company. I am older and I wish I could say wiser but I am learning :)

Hi Linda,

God helps those who help themselves. As you are making the effort to clear up your past problems, god will be with you and will guide you towards the right direction.

My best wishes are with you.

Regards
Roxette

hey guys. i'm sure many of you have seen my posts in the 'collections' forum, now it's time for me to introduce myself.

my name is matt, i'm a scorpio.... just kidding.

actually, my name is matt and i an a scorpio, but that's besides the point. i live in the phoenix area and have been a professional debt collector for several years now. i am very well trained in both federal and state collecting laws. the company i work for is world wide with over 8000 employees. for safety reasons i will not disclose which company i work for. i work in 3rd party collections and i am a top collector on my team. the reason i am a top collector is because i don't treat debtors like dirt-bags who are trying to skip out on their debts. i understand everyone goes through hard times and i try to work with people as best as i can. there is no need to harass people and make threats which are not only illegal, but also which i cannot follow through on. the company i work for, although has had bad issues in the past (what company hasn't?), for the past year or so we have gone through huge changes in regards to collector training and strategies.

it really hurts me to hear about collection agencies breaking federal and state law. that is not what collections should be about. it should be about helping people with their debt. most people in collections know they owe money and they are just looking for a little help. in fact, i call numerous debtors who are very young and are scared. they have never been in collections before and they aren't sure of their options. if i call on a balance of 2500, i would be perfectly happy setting up a 5 month payment plan, rather than kicking and screaming to get the balance in full, if that person can't pay it. it's all about communication and coming to a mutual understanding. although, people need to keep in mind that i have company policy to follow and i have policies to follow laid out buy our client. some things i am unable to agree to - such as a 24 month payment plan!

my intention here is to give information on how collection agencies work, and suggest ways of paying off debts. although i do cite specific laws, it doesn't mean i agree with tactics other collectors use to get around them or even bend them. also, i am very busy and if some of my responses seem a little 'short' i apologize.

Wow!! You are a lovely and precious addition in this forum :D It's even better to have you from the debt collection industry. :D

thanks roxette. and i am a professional photographer with my own photography business. so, if anybody has any questions related to that subject.....

:D Great to hear about this additional talent. Is it one of your art in the avatar? Just guessing. It's so perfect.

yup. that is my work.

Hi everyone! I'm a newly knighted member of the forum her to lend a helping hand to all the innocent people. I'm 26 years old and currently a student. For six months before I moved from Rockland, MA to Pensacola, FL I worked as a professional debt collector of defaulted student loans. I loved it, I loved building rapport with people, helping them hoist themselves out of the money pit, and above all; restoring thier confidence.

I'm not naive, there was once a time when i was on the recieving end of collection calls, it was because my ex-husband had illegally used my name and ssn to shop in catalogs. He left me haning with a heavy bill, and it really does feel lousy to hear it from a stranger that you owe money somewhere.

I came across this forum on a google search. I was bowled over by what evil some collectors are still doing. During my first week as a collector, I had to the study the fdcpa. The beauty of the FDCPA is that it serves as an ice-breaker between collector and borrower as you build rapport and establish trust.

I have since been compelled to check in on this forum often just to give advice and make sure everyone is all right.

Although there are stiff penalties for FDCPA violations, there are still collectors liberally violating it. Are these penalties really that stiff? For someone like me who is just starting out in life, yes. Maybe for someone else, perhaps someone who is in the collections business for nothing more than the sick pleasure of bullying, someone who has parents who bail them out every time they screw up, it may not be much of a penalty. I fear that it will get worse before it gets better, that someone will believe a false threat to be true and commit suicide. Only then, will there be more attention paid to the FDCPA? I think violations of the FDCPA should call for some time spent in federal prison. That might encourage the unlawful collectors to shape up.

Unitl then, I'm here to provide a safety net with my knowledge!

Welcome Ari and CollectorMatt! It is great to have you both as an addition to the forums. I am sure we will learn a lot from your knowledge and experience in the collection industry.

ari, the problem with collectors violating federal and state law s - it's hard to prove it. there are 3 things which must be proved in court in order for a successful prossecution. you must prove: intent, extent and frequency.

1. intent - did the collector intend to violate the law

2. extent - to what extent did the collector violate the law

4. frequency - how often the collector violated the law

if you can't prove all 3 things beyond a shadow of a doubt, then you hardly have a case. and trust me, it's very hard to prove intent.

Matt, that really opened up my eyes. If I have a crippling fault, it's naivete. Sometimes I fail to see the forest through the trees. :)

Aw man I just jammed my foot in my mouth! First I said I'm not naive then I said I don't always see the forst through the trees. How embarassing!
Let me elaborate, I'm not naive to the fact that most debtors who are in collections have extenuating circumstances. When it comes to law breaking, I do tend to think in absolutes, I expect someone who breaks the law to be arrested and go straight to jail. I guess that line of thinking is way too cut and dry for reality.

Hi Ari,

I thank you for that day when you did the google search and landed up in this site. You will get practical experiences of many things that would not (or shall I say, should not) have been expected in the debt related industry. But sad to believe, its' true and it's on the roar.

We really need people like you and Matt in this forum so that you can give us the insight on this industry.

So, what else you do in your leisure time? Do you have any other hobbies? :D my favorite pass time is eating and sleeping. :D especially in this chilling weather.

My name is Annmarie, I am 29 yrs. old and first found this site when I defaulted on a few payday loans. I only found this site after Ellis Crosby contacted me and scared the living daylights out of me and I sent them $400.00. I wished I had found them sooner. I have been in debt my entire life. I had a baby at 19 and it was a financial hit. I learned to rob Peter to pay Paul to survive. Now 11 yrs later I am in the position to turn my credit around and I get caught in the pay day loans. Now I am paying those off. So much for fixing the old credit issues, I now have to deal with these.
Annmarie

Annmarie,

Welcome to forums :D I am pretty sure that you will get immense support from the members of this forum and life will be on track very soon :D

Thanks Bryan... I have no doubt about that. I have been more of a lurker since August and find this place to be very helpful.

Hi Annmarie

Welcome to the forums.

We are glad to have you in the community. I am sure you will have a good time here.

Do keep in touch often :D

Regards
Roxette

My name is Toni, I am 29 and am currently in my last semester of nursing school. I have worked in the medical field since I was 20...became an EMT, worked for an ambulance service, then worked for a doctor and somehow got roped into becoming his office manager and medical assistant. I have done medical billing and collections for quite sometime, so I have some experience with collections...about 5 yrs. But I never treated anyone the way some of these collectors do, and neither has anyone working under me, because they would be fired:). I stumbled upon this site and find it very helpful to keep my sanity while I am going through financial difficulties myself. I have been telling everyone about this site, because I really believe if alot more people become aware of this site, that will be the end of collections as they know it:) Thanks for all the helpful info.

Hi toenails1976

Welcome to the forums.

Guess what!! I wanted to become a doctor and because of this, I underwent some training for a certain period of time. But that's a matter of the past. :D

Anyways, thanks for being a part of this community. Let's keep sharing our knowledge in this platform and rock this forum!! :D

Can you please add an avatar under your username? Your posts will really appear beautiful. :D

Regards
Roxette

Ok, how do I put an Avatar under my name?

I was actually pre-med for a little while, but then started a family instead and it was just too time consuming, so that is why I am becoming a nurse. So, I have LOTS of college credits.

Hi toenails1976

Welcome back.

The procedure to upload an avatar has been mentioned in this thread. Please follow the steps and your avatar will be uploaded.

http://forums.debtcc.com/forums/avatars.html

If you pick an image from outside the forum's gallery, do save it in your computer first and then upload it here.

Do let me know if you face any problems.

Regards
Roxette

Hi!

My name is Mary and I just joined this site today...I'm sure I will be asking a million questions and you will all get tired of me, but I will keep on asking! :)

I am a proud Mom of 2 kids: my son is 3 and my daughter will be 2 in a couple days. I am trying to clear my debt so that I will be financially stable enough to take care of them in the way that they deserve...not having to worry about paying for their first car, college, etc. I know that I will be able to pull myself out of my credit problems and make something of my financial situation. I have already learned tons of great information from this website, and I hope everybody out there takes advantage of the friendly environment and the folks here who have the experience to help us through our credit problems.

So thanks for having this site here for us!

~Mary

Mary, welcome aboard!! Be online here and you will never know how time will pass by.

It's good that you are taking control of your finances in a proper way. Stick to your payments and nothing will go wrong with you.