How to Resolve a Debt with Meade & Associates

Legal Expert
Sarah Edwards, BS

Sarah Harris is a professional researcher and writer specializing in legal content. An Emerson College alumna, she holds a Bachelor of Science in Communication from the prestigious Boston institution.

Edited by Hannah Locklear

Editor at SoloSuit
Hannah Locklear, BA

Hannah Locklear is SoloSuit’s Marketing and Impact Manager. With an educational background in Linguistics, Spanish, and International Development from Brigham Young University, Hannah has also worked as a legal support specialist for several years.

Summary: Meade & Associates is a well-established debt collection agency based in Lewis Center, Ohio. If Meade & Associates has contacted you about a debt, SoloSuit can help you request a debt validation, respond to a lawsuit, and settle your debt before your court date. Keep reading to learn more.

Feeling a little concerned about a debt collection notice you received from Meade & Associates? If you are, that’s completely understandable. No one likes dealing with collection agencies, especially ones that call you frequently and send threatening letters. If Meade & Associates is on your back about an old debt, you can take action.

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What is Meade & Associates?

There are a lot of scammers out there, so it’s critical to research a debt collection agency before you fork over your hard-earned dollars. You want to make sure it’s a legitimate enterprise with a debt collection license in your state.

Meade & Associates is a collection agency based in Lewis Center, Ohio. It is an established collection company licensed in multiple states, so you may receive a letter from Meade & Associates even if you don’t live in Ohio. Debt collectors with Meade & Associates might contact you over debt related to any of the following services:

Student loans
Commercial debt
Credit card debt
Banking institutions
Veterinarians
Utilities
Service providers
Hospitals
Primary Care Providers
Specialty Care
Nursing Care
OB/GYN
Clinics
Dental Practices
Individual Practices
Chiropractors

Here is Meade & Associates phone number and other contact information:

Address: 737 Enterprise Drive, Lewis Center, Ohio 43035.
Phone: 614-436-6160
Toll-free number: 800-686-3233
Email: info@meadeandassociates.com.

Meade & Associates is accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), with a current rating of A-, but despite its good BBB rating, many consumers have submitted complaints against the company. In fact, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has reported hundreds of complaints against Meade & Associates in the last several years.

Some of the complaints are concerning. Many of them accuse Meade & Associates of violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by failing to validate debts upon request. You should know that it is your right as a consumer, granted by federal law, to receive validation of the debt.

How to handle a debt collection letter from Meade & Associates

If you receive a debt collection notice from Meade & Associates, it’s vital to be proactive and respond. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) allows consumers to request debt validation from a collection agency. Under the act, Meade & Associates can’t report your account to consumer credit companies for 30 days after its initial communication.

If you dispute the debt during that time, the agency must provide you with evidence that you owe the debt before it can take any further action against you. To start the dispute process, send Meade & Associates a Debt Validation Letter requesting all of the following:

The name of the original creditor.
Proof that Meade & Associates now owns the debt.
The amount of the obligation.
The age of the debt and comparison against your state’s statute of limitations.
Meade & Associates’ debt collection license number for your state.

Once Meade & Associates receives your letter, it must respond with the information or stop contacting you. If you’re lucky, you’ll never hear from it again. However, if the agency has the details you requested, it will send them to you, and you’ll need to decide on your next steps.

Watch the following video to learn how to request a debt validation in two simple steps:

Respond to a debt lawsuit against Meade & Associates

Ignoring a debt collection notice from Meade & Associates will have consequences. It will likely continue to report your account negatively to the credit bureaus. Even worse, the agency may decide to sue you if you don’t attempt to resolve the debt.

A debt lawsuit is not only scary, but it can also impact you financially. If you don’t take action to defend yourself, Meade & Associates may win a judgment against you. It can use the judgment to garnish your wages or take money from your bank account.

If you receive a Court Summons from Meade & Associates about a debt, you have a few alternatives to avoid a judgment. You can fight the lawsuit in court, repay the debt, or settle the debt before your court date.

In order to avoid losing your debt lawsuit automatically, file an Answer to the case. In your Answer, respond to each claim against you. You can deny, admit, or deny due to lack of knowledge. You should also include a list of your affirmative defenses. These are legal reasons you should not be held liable for the debt.

To learn more about how to fight your debt lawsuit, check out our guide on How to Answer a Summons for Debt Collection.

Repaying your debt stops the debt lawsuit in its tracks. Once Meade & Associates receives your money, it will drop the case since there’s nothing to sue you for. However, if you don’t have enough cash to repay the debt in full, debt settlement is another option that may work.

Settle your debt with Meade & Associates

In a debt settlement, you offer Meade & Associates a percentage of the total outstanding debt. The higher your offer, the more likely that Meade & Associates is to accept it. SoloSuit recommends offering at least 60% of the debt’s value for the best chance of success. However, if that’s too much for you, you can start negotiating with a lower amount.

If Meade & Associates accepts your settlement and you pay the agreed amount before your court date, it will drop the lawsuit against you. You won’t need to worry about a judgment. However, it’s smart to get the agreement in writing and keep a receipt of the money you paid.

To learn more about how to settle debt with Meade & Associates, check out this video:

SoloSettle, powered by SoloSuit, is a tech-based approach to debt settlement. Our software helps you send and receive settlement offers until you reach an agreement with the collector. Once an agreement is reached, we’ll help you manage the settlement documentation and transfer your payment to the creditor or debt collector, helping you keep your financial information private and secure.

Now, let’s consider an example of debt settlement with Meade & Associates.

Example: Tony has an outstanding debt that Meade & Associates is pursuing. He owes $1,000. Meade & Associates decides to sue Tony because he hasn’t repaid the debt. Tony doesn’t want a judgment on his record and knows he owes the money. Tony chooses to offer Meade & Associates a settlement for $600. Meade & Associates accepts his offer and provides him with a written settlement agreement. Once Tony pays the money, Meade & Associates drops the case against him.

In the example, Tony stops the lawsuit by arranging a settlement. If he hadn’t taken action, his case might have resulted in a judgment.

Don’t ignore a debt collection notice from Meade & Associates

Whatever your thoughts are about debt collectors, you’ll need to communicate with them to move past the situation.

Start by requesting validation of the debt. If Meade & Associates proves you owe the money, you’ll need to either repay it or settle it to avoid a lawsuit. While coming up with the money may be hard, a little pain now is better than future hardship.

Do you need help settling a debt with Meade & Associates? Try SoloSettle, SoloSuit’s solution for settling individual obligations with collection agencies.

What is Solo?

Solo makes it easy to resolve debt with debt collectors.

You can use SoloSuit to respond to a debt lawsuit, to send letters to collectors, and even to settle a debt. SoloSuit's Answer service is a step-by-step web-app that asks you all the necessary questions to complete your Answer. Upon completion, we'll have an attorney review your document and we'll file it for you.

SoloSettle can help you contact your debt collector or creditor and negotiate the debt to settle for less, all online. It simplifies and streamlines the process to settling your debt.

No matter where you find yourself in the debt collection process, Solo is here to help you resolve your debt.

>>Read the FastCompany article: Debt Lawsuits Are Complicated: This Website Makes Them Simpler To Navigate

>>Read the NPR story on SoloSuit. (We can help you in all 50 states.)

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