“August, 2007” Archive
Aug
21
A few folks have asked what happened to me as my last post was over two weeks ago. Well, let me explain what has been going on.
About three weeks ago, I was contemplating stopping the blog for a while and going on a hiatus. It wasn’t fun for me anymore to focus so much energy around my debt repayment. I was missing the things in life that were happening around me so I needed to take a time out.
I went on a ‘personal retreat’ for 10 days in the Redwood forests of southern Oregon and northern California. I did lots of hiking and spent lots of time in my own head ‘figuring things out’.
So I’m happy to say I’ve decided to keep blogging away and get back into a more regular posting schedule like I had been doing the first few months.
I’ve got some significant updates to share, including an update to the Debt-O-Meter so stay tuned for the news later today.
Thanks to all my loyal readers for hanging in there with me. My Feedburner stats have dropped off a bit but not too far.
Also, LUCY, if you are out there, please contact me so I can send you your prize. I sent you a note, but haven’t heard back yet.
Aug
5
I know many of you have been waiting for the winner of the Vista giveaway to be announced. Well, wait no longer.
I am happy to announce that one of my more loyal readers, Lucy–who I think is from Wisconsin–is the lucky winner of the Vista Home Premium Edition, which was to celebrate my two-month anniversary of blogging.
Lucy, I will be contacting you via email to arrange for shipment of your prize.
I used a random number generator in Excel to generate the winning entry in case anyone was wondering. I don’t play favorites with the giveaways; I make them as fair as possible.
Look for another good giveaway when I reach the six month mark of blogging.
Thanks to everyone who entered and I hope you all are still loyal readers of this site.
Aug
3
It has been a while since I have had any dealings with American Express so I wanted to keep my loyal readers (and my new ones) abreast of the situation. The latest, and most interesting development, was having my one other account with AMEX–which I have been paying on-time each month–sent to collections without any notification whatsoever. Fortunately, it was sent to the agency that my lawyer has already been dealing with so the negotiations should be swift.
As I reported in an earlier post, my lawyer had sent letters to the collection agencies asking for verification of the debts. To date, they have not responded and, as I come to find out, aren’t legally required to respond. This is interesting, given I have the legal right to dispute the debt under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).
Regardless, I have advised my attorney to start the negotiation process with both collection agencies. There are two key things that I would like to get from the process:
- Settlement of the debt for less than the total amount due as I simply don’t have the means to pay that amount in a lump sum.
- Deletion of any negative credit reporting to the major Credit Reporting Agencies (Equifax, Experian and Trans Union). This is commonly referred to as a “pay for deletion”.
My lawyer has indicated that both of these are quite possible, particularly given the amount of the debt I owe to AMEX. The process will probably take another few months to completely wrap up, so in the meantime I am stashing away funds so I can pay whatever settlement is reached in short order.
I will keep you all posted as things move forward.
CLARIFICATION: Although there is no legal time limit for the collection agencies to respond to the debt verification request, they cannot continue to pursue the collection of the debt until I am given a written verification of the debt.
Aug
3
As my loyal readers have noticed, I have not been posting for quite a few days now. I am sad to report that my ex-wife’s father passed away about 10 days ago and I have been trying to focus on being there for her as best I can as well as spending some quality time with my own family including my daughter. In so doing, I realized I needed a brief break from blogging and focusing on my debt repayment so I could spend some time reflecting on what means the most to me in life.
Family and friends are clearly the things that matter to me the most. My father and I have had a very rocky relationship over the past few years as my parents divorced and I hope we are able to repair things over time. Being a great parent is also of paramount importance to me. I want to be the best parent I can possibly be as my daughter grows up.
That said, I’m coming back to both blogs as they have served as a wonderful outlet for me, particularly when I have been feeling down about the debt.
To that end, I will be putting a survey on the site over the weekend to see what things my readers want to hear about. I often feel like I am ranting about things, but I want to ensure that I’m giving my readers what they want; good, usefel content and advice.
Finally, I will be announcing the winner of the Vista Home Premium giveaway. I’m in the process of tabulating the entries and I will be using a random number generator to determine the winner. Stay tuned for the winner!
Again, I want to thank all my readers for the great comments and incredible support. My Feedburner numbers haven’t changed much during the hiatus so I want to thank everyone for being patient with me and sticking around.
