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You when you beat Account Services ^^

Summary: Is Account Services suing you for a debt? SoloSuit can help you take a stand and win in court.

If you've received a debt collection letter from Account Services, you're likely wondering what it's about. You probably have never heard of the company, and you'd likely remember if you had borrowed money from them.

If you're like many people, you throw the letter away, thinking it's some sort of scam. Before you do this, you should take the time to read through it.

Account Services, like many other debt collectors, purchases aging debts from creditors—usually for a fraction of what the outstanding debt actually is—and attempts to collect it from the original consumer.

Often, they'll purchase thousands of debts at once. They earn their revenue when they manage to collect an old debt via their debt collection procedures. This article will break down everything you need to know about Account Services and how to beat them in court.

Let's jump right in.

What is Account Services?

Account Services is a legitimate debt collection agency based in San Antonio, Texas. The company purchases a wide variety of consumer debts, including overdue healthcare bills, credit and consumer loans, retail debt, utilities, telecommunications, and apartments.

According to the Better Business Bureau, the company has had 11 complaints over the past three years. Most of these complaints were related to repeated phone calls and harassment or non-verification of the debt that was presumably owed.

If Account Services has purchased an old overdue bill that you may owe, you're likely to continue to hear from them via phone and letter until the matter is resolved. Make sure that any collection activities are handled respectfully and don't violate the Fair Debt Collection Privacy Act (FDCPA).

What collection activities violate the FDCPA?

The FDCPA was signed into law in 1977. Its intention is to protect consumers from abusive and harassing practices by debt collectors. The FDCPA established a slew of regulations on the industry and created a list of rights for consumers. Actions that are prohibited by debt collectors under the FDCPA include:

Calling at odd hours, such as before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m.
Threatening you with arrest
Pretending to be a member of law enforcement or an attorney, if they're not
Demanding more than is actually owed
Using profanity or other abusive language

This is just an example of a few of the prohibited actions. If you're being pursued by Account Services for an old debt, and you believe their actions are over the top, you can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or the BBB.

You may want to file a counterclaim against Account Services for violating the FDCPA, which may entitle you to up to $1,000 per violation.

Send a Debt Validation Letter to Account Services

If you've received communication from Account Services about a debt, you should carefully review the information they sent to see if you can learn more about what the original debt was for. When attempting to collect a debt, most debt collection services will list the original creditor, the amount you owe, and possibly other information, such as an account number.

Account Services should reach out within 5 days of initially contacting you to verify the debt with the information listed above. If Account Services fails to do so, or if you suspect that the information they've given is incorrect, send a Debt Validation Letter within 30 days of initial contact.

The Debt Validation Letter requires debt collectors to validate a debt before they can continue collection efforts. In order to validate a debt, the collector must provide the following 5 points:

The amount of the debt.
The name of the creditor.
The collector will assume the debt is valid unless the consumer sends them a Debt Validation Letter within 30 days.
If you send the collector a Debt Validation Letter they will need to mail you validation of the debt.
If you send them a Debt Validation Letter they will need to mail you the name and address of the original creditor.

Many collectors have a hard time gathering all this information, and they would rather drop the case altogether than spend the time and money to validate a debt. You can stop Account Services in its tracks today when you use SoloSuit to send a Debt Validation Letter.

What should I do if I'm being sued by Account Services?

If you've received notice of a lawsuit to collect a debt from Account Services, you don't want to ignore it. If you do and the action goes to court, a default judgment will likely be entered against you.

A default judgment stays on your credit report for up to seven years and gives additional rights to Account Services to enable them to collect the money due. They may be able to garnish your wages or freeze your bank account.

The first step to beating Account Services in court is to draft and file a written Answer in the court. Here are 3 steps to follow when responding to a debt lawsuit against Account Services:

Answer each claim listed in the Complaint document
Assert your affirmative defenses
File the Answer in court and send a copy to the plaintiff

Now, let's break each step down a little further.

1. Answer each claim listed in the Complaint document

When you are sued for debt, the collector or creditor should send you some court documents called the Summons and Complaint (or Summons and Petition, in some states). The Summons notifies you of the lawsuit, while the Complaint lists each allegation against you.

The first section of your Answer should respond to each claim listed in the Complaint document. You can respond to each claim by stating:

Admit—like saying, “This is true.”
Deny—like saying, “Prove it.”
Deny due to lack of knowledge—like saying, “I don't know.”

Keep in mind that most attorneys recommend to deny as many allegations as possible, or at least deny due to lack of knowledge. Denying requires Account Services to do more work to prove their case. In many cases, debt collection agencies purchase thousands of accounts at once. They may not have the supporting documents needed to support your debt. If they don't, the lawsuit will be dropped.

You can draft an Answer with SoloSuit in less than 15 minutes.

2. Assert your affirmative defenses

After you've responded to each claim in the Complaint, you should include a section where you assert your affirmative defenses. An affirmative defense is any legal reason that Account Services does not have a case against you.

Let's consider an example.

Example: Suzie is sued for an old credit card debt in California, but the debt is so old that she barely remembers anything about it. She decides to do some research and discovers that the debt is from more than 15 years ago. In the state of California, the statute of limitations on credit card debt is only 4 years. This means that the creditor only has 4 years from the last activity on the account to sue. Suzie includes this information as an affirmative defense on her Answer document, and she ends up winning her case.

SoloSuit can help you make the right affirmative defense, in the right way.

3. File the Answer in court and send a copy to the plaintiff

After you've drafted your Answer document, you should file it in the court and send a copy to the plaintiff (in other words, the attorney representing Account Services). Keep in mind that you have 14-35 days to file your Answer in court, depending on which state you live in. If you miss the deadline to respond, you run the risk of losing the case by default. Make sure to file your Answer as soon as possible to avoid default judgment.

SoloSuit can help you file an Answer in all 50 states.

Check out this video to learn more about these 3 steps to responding to a debt Summons and Complaint:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQAKQ0G2KhE

Do you need help filing an Answer against Account Services?

If you're being sued by Account Services for an overdue debt, SoloSuit can help. Our free web app provides you with the paperwork you need to file an Answer to a debt collection lawsuit in your local courts. Simply by answering a few questions, you can download a PDF that is personalized for you—all for free!

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