Legal Expert, Paralegal
Dena Standley, BA

Dena Standley is a seasoned paralegal with more than 20 years of experience in legal research and writing, having received a certification as a Legal Assistant/Paralegal from Southern Technical College.

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.

They say nothing goes with PB quite like some Justice (or is it Jelly?).

Summary: Is Wilshire Consumer Credit coming after you for a debt? SoloSuit can help you take a stand and win in court.

Debt collectors can make you cringe when your phone rings. They could be calling for the umpteenth time to ask for their money. It gets worse when they use robocall software to make the calls, and you cannot have a meaningful conversation on the way forward.

Wilshire Consumer Credit (WCC) is guilty of all of this and more. WCC is a small auto-financing company located in Los Angeles, California. It offers loans to consumers looking to buy a new car. The company has been in business for over 33 years, with an A+ from Better Business Bureau (BBB). WCC's BBB customer rating is 1.36 from 10 reviews, with over 81 complaints raised in the last three years. In addition, Google gives it a star rating of 2.9 from 283 reviews.

The complaints raised in these platforms mostly mention WCC violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), which protects consumers from bad business practices, fraud, and abusive debt collection tactics. Apart from the law violation concerns, consumers usually have questions on how to handle debt collectors, why they are not dealing with the original creditors, and when or if they should negotiate a settlement. SoloSuit answers these questions and offers options for legal documents to send if WCC sues you.

Why is Wilshire Consumer Credit collecting on behalf of the original creditor?

Original creditors avoid the debt collection process because it can cause more revenue loss than gain. It involves following up with people who may not be willing to pay the debt, resulting in wasted time and potential legal problems. Some other concerns original creditors have about a debt include:

Is the debt worth the time, investment, and effort?
Are they able to prove the debt in court?
Is the debtor still in their jurisdiction?
Could the process of debt collection be dangerous for them?
Will you be too emotionally invested and violate the law?
How long will it take to collect the debt?
What is the debtor's financial situation? Can they pay?

These concerns can be challenging to handle. Hence, creditors prefer selling the debt at a lower price or employing a debt collection agency to follow up.

What can I do to stop Wilshire Consumer Credit from calling me?

The law allows collection agencies to call you seven times a week. Still, most of them violate this law and make several calls a day. The following are the steps to take to stop WCC from calling you:

Send a cease and desist letter: This document asks WCC to stop all calls because it infringes on your rights. Send it via US-certified mail to ensure delivery and use it as leverage in case of a lawsuit.
Request WCC to validate the debt: Collection agencies do not like to receive this request, and they may stop their attempts to collect once they receive a Debt Validation Letter from you. This document requires WCC to send more information regarding the debt in question.
Dispute the debt: If the information received contains errors, or you believe the debt is not yours, dispute it with Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion credit bureaus to remove or correct it. The bureaus will investigate with WCC before deciding on which action to take.
Plan to pay the debt: WCC will stop their attempts to collect once you commit to paying the debt. Show your commitment by making the first payment promptly and following up to make sure they update your account's information.

These steps stop WCC from contacting you repeatedly, which gives you time to plan your way forward. Remember to report any law violation to the Fair Trade Commission website or your attorney general's office as you go through this process.

When can I negotiate settlement payment with Wilshire Consumer Credit?

Debt collectors are known to intimidate consumers until they blindly make payments without verifying the debt. They may play along with your request to pay less but later send a balance because you did it without a written agreement. Do not negotiate for payments until you:

Confirm the debt collector is from WCC and not a scammer
Request more information about the debt and confirm that it's rightfully yours
Send a Debt Validation Letter to acquire the creditor's information and verify the debt details
Ask WCC to enter into a written agreement after negotiation, and they accept to sign

Begin negotiation after going through the above process. Aim at getting an agreement that allows you to pay 50% or less of the original debt. WCC will require you to pay the whole amount or more than three quarters and the rest within a short period.

If WCC has already taken the case to court, you should file your Answer in court before you begin the settlement negotiation process. This will prevent Wilshire Consumer Credit from reaching an agreement with you, then going behind your back to file a default judgment in court when you don't file your Answer. Keep reading to learn more about drafting and filing an Answer to your lawsuit against Wilshire Consumer Credit.

Can Wilshire Consumer Credit sue me if I do not pay?

Yes, WCC can sue you if you fail to pay the debt if they have enough evidence to prove to the court that the debt is yours. If you do not have the money to pay, talk to a WCC representative and agree on a payment plan. Additionally, if you share enough evidence of your inability to pay, they may stop contacting you for a few months or years. However, debt collectors often refrain from filing a lawsuit when debtors prove to be well-informed about their rights under the law.

Sometimes they may not believe that you cannot pay the debt and may sue you for permission to garnish your wages or gain access to your bank account to retrieve their money. Do not panic when you receive a lawsuit from them. SoloSuit can help you handle a lawsuit by providing you with an Answer.

An Answer is a mandatory document you must send after receiving a court Summons and Complaint from WCC. Send the response within 14–30 days from the date you received it, or else WCC may request a default judgment, meaning you automatically lose the case by default. With a default judgment, Wilshire Consumer Credit can garnish your wages, put liens on your property, and use other methods to take your money away. To learn more about responding to a debt lawsuit against Wilshire Consumer Credit, check out this video:

If you wish to settle the case outside the court, you can send a Debt Lawsuit Settlement Letter that requests WCC to settle the case outside the court. There is absolutely no need to go to court if the debt is familiar to you and there is enough evidence against you. WCC may win the case, and you may pay more than the debt you owe.

What is SoloSuit?

SoloSuit makes it easy to respond to a debt collection lawsuit.

How it works: SoloSuit is a step-by-step web-app that asks you all the necessary questions to complete your answer. Upon completion, you can either print the completed forms and mail in the hard copies to the courts or you can pay SoloSuit to file it for you and to have an attorney review the document.

Respond with SoloSuit

"First time getting sued by a debt collector and I was searching all over YouTube and ran across SoloSuit, so I decided to buy their services with their attorney reviewed documentation which cost extra but it was well worth it! SoloSuit sent the documentation to the parties and to the court which saved me time from having to go to court and in a few weeks the case got dismissed!" – James

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