Is Ascension Recovery Management, LLC calling you? Here’s what you need to know.
Owing more money than you can ever hope to pay back can play havoc with your stress levels. Making monthly payments doesn’t stop the balance from going up, and when you fall behind due to illness or job loss, the situation spirals out of control. It gets even worse after your creditors turn the accounts over to debt collectors or simply charge them off and sell them to junk debt buyers, who aggressively pursue you for profit.
A consumer protection law called the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or FDCPA, regulates what third party debt collectors may say and do while trying to collect a debt from you. Prohibited activities include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Using profane or obscene language
- Telling you that you can be arrested and imprisoned if you do not pay the amount they are demanding
- Using the phone to harass you: calling and hanging up, or using an autodialer to make preprogrammed calls
- Calling you before 8:00 a.m. and after 9:00 p.m. in your time zone
- Publicly posting details of your debt on social media and other public outlets
- Ignoring a formal cease communications request
- Contacting you directly even after you’ve hired an attorney to represent you in the matter
Although FDCPA has been in effect for nearly forty years, many collection agencies ignore it and do whatever they think it will take to part you from your money.
Ascension Recovery Management, LLC is a collection agency located in Santa Clarita, California. It was established in 2001 and employs a small staff of under 20. Records archived by the PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) website confirm that consumers have accused Ascension Recovery Management, LLC of violating the FDCPA while attempting to collect a debt from them.
Richard Saettone v. Ascension Recovery Management, LLC
According to PACER**, prior to December 2007, Missouri resident Richard Saettone checked his credit report and discovered that Ascension Recovery Management, LLC had reported an AT&T debt to Trans Union LLC. Mr. Saettone, who did not recognize the debt as his, sent a dispute letter to Trans Union and asked them to delete the item from his credit profile.
Ascension Recovery Management, LLC responded to the dispute by reporting the debt as accurate and failing to note it as “disputed by consumer.” In response, Mr. Saettone hired a consumer attorney and sued the agency for violating 15 U.S.C. § 1692e(8).
The suit was later dismissed.
The phone number for Ascension Recovery Management, LLC is 1-661-702-0080. If it appears on your caller ID, be aware that a debt collector is trying to contact you about a debt you may or may not owe. If you dispute a debt and they fail to report it to the credit agencies, contact a consumer attorney.
Failure to mark a debt as disputed is illegal, and if the matter proceeds to court, you could win statutory damages of $1,000 per FDCPA violation as well as actual damages (e.g. pain and suffering), court fees, and attorney costs. The law grants you certain rights when it comes to debts you owe and how they may be collected, so never hesitate to assert them.
**Case taken from PACER (www.pacer.gov). File number is (Case: 4:08-cv-00863-CAS, from United States District Court, Eastern District of Missouri, St. Louis Division)
*Disclaimer:
The content of this article serves only to provide information and should not be construed as legal advice. If you file a claim against Ascension Recovery Management or any other third-party collection agency, you may not be entitled to any compensation.