“My name is Jaina Johnson. I must say I’m truly happy I went with National Credit Federation. Not only did they provide me with great customer service but they also made me feel comfortable about the situation with my credit and letting me know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Krista and Monique kept me updated through the whole process. Best part was once my credit was in good standing’ they showed me how to manage and boost it as well. I’m pleased to say that now I’m able to start house shopping for me and daughter. Thank you so much again for making this possible for us!”

– Jaina

Learn How to Deal with Zombie Debt

Facts about Zombies

Zombies have long been a Halloween and horror movie staple, but have just recently skyrocketed to pop-culture-phenomenon status. Films and wildly popular television shows have only served to feed the insatiable fascination many have with the flesh-eating walking dead.

While zombie hordes are a focus in much of mainstream America, Zombies, à la The Walking Dead, fortunately they don’t exist in the real world. However, history of the undead reaches farther back into our culture than you might think.

Here’s a look at some interesting facts surrounding these monsters of our time…

• The term “Zombophiles” is a term used to describe fans of the zombie genera.

• Zombies are mentioned in Haitian folklore, with the Haitian word “zombi” meaning “spirit of the dead.” These tales showed voodoo priests who had the ability to resurrect the deceased through the administration of a magic powder.

• The very first zombie movie ever made was the 1932 American film White Zombie. It was also the first horror movie that was not a silent film.

• The Night of the Living Dead was the first zombie movie to show a physical cause of zombification. Previously, zombies were created through Voodoo or other type of black magic.

• Zombie fans hotly debate whether Dr. Frankenstein’s creation can be considered a “zombie.” One side of the debate claims that a zombie should be defined as a reanimated corpse, regardless of how that reanimation occurs. The other side says that the corpse must be reanimated by either a virus or radiation and eat human flesh.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) jumped on the zombie bandwagon, with a post on their website in May 2011 entitled “Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse.” The post was a lighthearted way to promote real disaster preparedness.

• One of the most well organized zombie survivalist sites is ZCORE, which stands for Zombie Coalition Offensive Response Elite. It costs $4 to join.

• Critics note that zombies are an extreme representation of conformity and represent the inner struggle many humans have regarding the conflict of individuality versus conformity.

The post NCF’s Tuesday Tidbit – 10/13 appeared first on National Credit Federation.

Sometimes old debt that you thought was long ago dead and forgotten comes back to haunt you.

A scary practice performed by junk debt buyers and collection companies is the purchase of old and often outdated debts for pennies on the dollar and then come after you for payment.

These outdated debts are known as Zombie Debts which you may have to kill if they resurrect from the grave.

Over the last several years debt buying has emerged into a multi-billion dollar industry.  Junk debt buyers from small one man operations to large publicly traded Wall Street companies are buying up this old debt by the billions and are banking on the consumer being ignorant of law and their rights.

Here are a few things you can do if you are contacted about an old debt:

1 Do not acknowledge the debt. When you agree to pay a portion or even acknowledge the debt as yours you can hurt your credit by restarting the 7 year clock which is how long most bad credit can stay on your credit report.  If you’re close to the 7 year mark it may be best to do nothing at all and just let it fall of your credit report.

2 Simply ignore the phone calls. Just speaking with these debt collectors may extend or even restart the clock on the statute of limitations for the debt let alone restarting the 7 year clock the debt may be reported on your credit report.  If the statute of limitations has run out on a debt then you cannot be sued for it.

3 Get the phone calls to stop. If the phone calls become harassing and continue simply write a letter demanding the collection company ceases any phone contact.  Federal Law requires collection companies to comply with all requests to cease phone contact but make sure you send this letter certified and that you state in your letter that you are not acknowledging nor agreeing that the debt is yours.  You simply do not want further phone contact.

4 Check your credit report. At a minimum once per year I’d even suggest more often because collection agencies have been known to stoop to downright illegal tactics in order to squeeze any money they can out of you.  They will report the old debt to the credit bureaus as if it was a brand new debt which is known as re-aging in order to restart the 7 year credit reporting clock which can drop your credit score like a rock!

5 Demand the debt to be validated. Debt validation requires the collection company to produce a copy of the original signed paperwork as well as the payment history of the debt.  Most often they simply can’t do it and will go away.  Proof that they are licensed in your state as well can send them packing as they are in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and any negative entry they make on your credit is a violation of the law and must be removed.

6 If you must negotiate with caution. If you want to pay the debt move ahead with extreme caution and make sure you get everything in writing.  Collection companies purchased the old debt for pennies on the dollar so anything over that is pure profit to them.  But BE CAREFUL these companies are ruthless and will hang you out to dry if you don’t know what you’re doing by selling the remaining debt owed to another collection company and thus the cycle continues.  They may even report the remainder to the IRS as “income”.  See how well that “income” pays the bills!  You can find more on how debt settlement might help at www.smartdebtrelief.org

7 Beware of the collection company false promises. Many times you as a consumer run into a brick wall trying to remove a bad credit rating by requesting a letter of deletion.  Some debt collectors will lie and use any dirty underhanded tactic they can in order to collect money from you.  So if they do agree to any request you might make, just be sure to get it in writing.

So in your battle of dealing with this Zombie debt which can include any charged off debt, debts included in bankruptcy, debts incurred due to identity theft as well as debts you never even owed keep in mind most of these debts will be well past the statue of limitations and uncollectable.  If you’d like to have your credit report reviewed and find out what might be done get a no obligation credit consultation with a certified debt specialist.

Drop me a quick line below and let me know of your Zombie stories and what happened.  Just keep in mind if you run into a zombie collector…

BE BOLD!

The post How to deal with Old Debt…Zombie Debt appeared first on National Credit Federation.