United Recovery Systems, LP Collection Agency may Violate FDCPA & Settlement Agreement in Refusing to Accept Settlement Payment

A U.S. District Court judge in the Eastern District of New York, which includes Queens County and Kings County / Brooklyn NYC, denied a motion by debt collection agency United Recovery Systems and credit card lender Capital One Bank which sought dismissal of the consumer rights lawsuit.

United Recovery System complaints are very common, as are abuse by United Recovery System BBB (Better Business Bureau) reports.

In this case, the consumer owed a debt to Capital One Bank (USA), N.A. for a credit card account that went into default. The consumer decided to enroll the account with a debt settlement company to settle credit card debts with affordable monthly payment amounts.

The consumer then received a credit card debt collection letter in the mail from United Recovery Systems, LP. The collection agency letter said that United Recovery Systems, LP was attempting to collect a credit card debt owed by the consumer to Capital One Bank (USA), NA . The debt collection letter from United Recovery Systems also included an offer to settle the debt for a reduced amount, less than the total amount owed, which the debtor could pay in low monthly payments.

The debtor, through his debt settlement program, accepted United Recovery System’s offer to settle the Capital One credit card debt, and made all the monthly debt settlement payments to United Recovery Systems as required by the debt settlement terms contained in the URS letter. The consumer made all of the debt settlement payments through automatic check by phone payments.

However, debt collector United Recovery Systems, LP refused to accept the consumer’s final debt settlement payment to let the debtor to complete the payment plan and receive the promised discount off the total amount owed.

The judge in the Eastern District of New York (including Brooklyn / Kings County & Queens County NYC) determined the collection agency United Recovery Systems, LP and the creditor Capital One Bank’s statement that they agreed to settle the debt for a reduced amount was false, deceptive and misleading ” to the extent [ United Recovery Systems, LP and Capital One Bank ] did not intend to accept such a total as a settlement.”[1]

Accordingly, the judge denied the motion by United Recovery Systems, LP and Capital One Bank to dismiss the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act lawsuit.

If you have received a debt collection letter containing an offer to settle a credit card debt, whether it is a new default or an old charged-off account, be sure to carefully read all of the terms of the settlement to make sure you understand how to satisfy the agreement. If the debt collection agency refuses to honor the settlement agreement, you may have a consumer rights claim under the FDCPA.

Note: In this debt collection matter, Capital One Bank was represented by the debt collection agency United Recovery Systems, LP. However, there are a lot of debt collection agencies handling accounts for Capital One Bank, include many debt collection law firms. Please visit our Debt Collector List to review some large debt collection law firms representing Capital One Bank in Brooklyn (Kings County), Queens County and throughout New York City.

Contact our professional debt settlement law firm for a free consultation and help understanding the terms of a credit card debt settlement agreement before you start making settlement payments.

You may consider enrolling in our debt settlement program to settle your debts with one easy monthly payment, and our debt settlement company will monitor the collection agencies to make sure they honor the settlement agreements and provide debt forgiveness as promised.

[1] Russo v. United Recovery Systems, LP, 14 CV 851, NYLJ 1202713356111, at *1 (Decided December 11, 2014)

EDNY – includes Kings County / Brooklyn & Queens County, NYC