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Respond to a South District Group Debt Collector

Dena Standley | May 29, 2024

Dena Standley
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

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: A South District Group debt collector can cause you sleepless nights with their many calls, a wrong entry on your credit report, or after sending a debt collection lawsuit. SoloSuit can help you respond in these situations.

As a consumer, you may feel helpless when a debt collector from a company like South District Group comes after you. However, you can respond to them confidently because the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act protects you from mistreatment and exploitation.

When you familiarize yourself with the FDCPA guidelines before responding to South District Group, the debt collector will be careful when communicating with you. In the next section, we will explore how to respond to debt collectors when they contact you multiple times, after entering an inaccurate debt on your credit report, and when they send a lawsuit letter. But first, what is South District Group, and what kind of reviews do they have?

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What is the South District Group?

South District Group (SDG) is a financial account management company that has been in operation for over 30 years but has specialized in the debt collection industry since 2020. They help clients get their money from consumers who have stopped paying their debt for over 90–180 days.

According to its website, SDG uses advanced scoring and in-house skip tracing functionality, in addition to national forwarding and network management solutions. South District Group is first and foremost a debt collection agency that collects for retail and commercial business owners, including credit grantors, hospitals, utility companies, and debt buyers. Their contact information is as follows:

Are South District Group legitimate debt collectors?

Yes, South District Group is a legitimate debt collection agency. Consumers are often concerned about debt collection scams and are often disappointed when they search “South District Group scam” to find that they have been around for decades. If SDG contacts you and you've never interacted with them, chances are high that you owe a creditor money, and they have transferred your account to them.

In some situations, creditors sell pending accounts to debt collection agencies, and SDG could be in complete control of your account. Once you confirm the debt is genuinely yours by sending a Debt Validation Letter (more on that later), you can request settlement of the debt using SoloSettle. Learn more about settling debt from the following video:

South District Group debt collector reviews

Since South District Group has only been in the debt collection business for about four years, minimal information about consumer experiences with them is found online. Additionally, they do not have a Better Bureau Business profile, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) does not have a complaint or review listed.

ScamAdvisor gives them a trust score of 91% based on 40 different data sources that were automatically analyzed using information such as the technology SDG uses, the years they have been in operation, the location of the company, and other similar websites. There is no indication that SDG is involved in debt collection scams. However, it’s always advisable to proceed cautiously when a debt collector seeks personal financial information.

Respond to South District Group’s Calls

The first step South District Group takes when they receive an account from your creditor is to contact you. Debt collectors often prefer phone calls because they rightly assume the calls annoy consumers and that they’ll pay to make the calls stop. Under the FDCPA, you can stop SDG calls by sending a Debt Validation Letter. This document requires SDG to give you more details on the debt and the original creditor. They are required by law to stop calling until they respond to you with a verification letter. The verification document should have information such as:

  • When and where did you acquire the debt
  • How much you paid toward the debt
  • The balance remaining
  • The account charges

If you do not have these details, respond and request them to give you more information. You must send this second request within 30 days of receiving the verification letter. Many debt collectors stop their collection attempts if they lack the exhaustive information required to validate a debt.

Respond to a wrong credit report entry made by South District Group

When you see an inaccurate SDG entry on your credit report, respond by sending a dispute letter to the three credit bureaus. First, send a Debt Validation Letter to SDG to confirm the information they have and if it differs from the entry on the credit report. Next, gather any evidence to support your claim, such as invoices, receipts, and bank statements. Send the letter and a copy to SDG and wait for at least 30 days before taking further action. The three credit bureaus will investigate and respond within those 30 days and either correct the error or remove the entire debt from your report.

Respond to South District Group’s lawsuit with an Answer

When SDG’s debt collectors fail to get you to pay the debt, they may resort to legal action by filing a debt collection lawsuit. Most consumers panic at this stage, but you can still have a chance of winning your case by responding with an Answer document.

If you’ve been sued by a debt collector, you will receive a Complaint document that outlines the accusations the collector has against you. To avoid a default judgment against you, you must respond with an Answer document where you address each accusation. You can admit, deny, or deny for lack of knowledge in response to each allegation in the Complaint. It may be in your best interest to respond with “deny” so that you give SDG the task of proving their case against you. If they do not have enough evidence, they may withdraw the case or approach you about settlement.

In your Answer, you should also raise affirmative defenses to strengthen your case. Affirmative defenses are legal reasons you should not be held responsible for the debt or why you shouldn’t pay it as it is. Examples of affirmative defenses include:

  • The debt expired.
  • SDG has no legal standing to collect from you.
  • You already paid the debt partially or in full.
  • The debt was canceled.
  • SDG violated your consumer rights.

SoloSuit can improve your chances of winning your debt collection lawsuit by using our easy Answer document. It has pre-drafted sections that you can easily customize to your case.

Settle your debt after responding to the South District Group

The best outcome in a debt lawsuit is settlement, especially if the debt is valid and owed. Luckily, you can settle your debt with South District Group to avoid having to go to court and fight over the case.

Solosettle is an online tool that helps you approach South District Group with a settlement offer. The software has a pre-drafted template that you can customize to your situation and kickstart the debt settlement negotiation process. After you reach a settlement deal, SoloSettle will take care of the paperwork and help you transfer the settlement funds to keep your financial information safe from debt collectors.

We wanted to learn more about how to settle a debt, so we asked an attorney for some pointers. Check out the video below for tips on how to settle with South District Group.

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