over 30 years ago, i got myself into some financial difficulties, and was unable to keep up on all my bills. i was independantly struggling to pay off my credit card bills, while these banks kept charging me huge amounts in fines, interest, penalties, etc. i finally had to borrow money from my parents just to keep up with my monthly rent, because i had been layed off from my job, without warning, and just couldnt keep up on the unemployment benefits i was receiving at the time. my mom told me to gather up all my bills, and bring them to her, so we could go over what the amount would be, that would help me get myself out of this mess. my parents knew i was always extremely responsible, but due to my age, i just wasnt mature enough to expect something like this to ever happen in my life, or with this job i loved and had for many years. but it did, and my parents were right there explaining to me, how sometimes our financial situation can get so bad or deep in debt, that with all these added fees, or late charges etc. could render this to be impossible for me to ever recover from, myself. so they took down all my bills, and the amounts i was in debt to all these credit card companies, and my mother just wrote out checks in full to each one, so that i could have a new fresh start, now that ive just had to learn this life lesson the hard way here myself at the time. i sat there, with my mom who was writing these checks from her check book in her home, and she was urging me to then make phone calls to each of these credit card companies, letting them know, i was sending in this final payment due on these accts. and making sure of the exact amounts that i owed each one at the time as well. i also wanted to make sure they knew when they got my final payment, that the check would be in my mothers name, not mine, so to make sure that they were all applied to these right accounts. i did not want any problems hanging over me after this gift was given to me by my parents so i can start all over again, and rebuild my credit again too. the only credit card company i had a problem with, was the one that had pressler and pressler assigned to collect for them on my acct. i can only assume that because i sent this check directly to this credit card company, instead of sending my final payment to pressler and pressler, collection agency. that they were angry, because they just deliberately ignored all my attempts, to alert them that this was already settled and paid directly to this bank. and when pressler and pressler continued to hassle me, and send these collection attempt notices on this same debt, after it was paid and satisfied with this bank that held my credit card acct. i contacted this person at this credit card company, to request several times, that they now let pressler and pressler know, this debt was paid to them directly and in full. because everytime i tried to clear up this problem with pressler and pressler, they told me that this info coming from me, meant nothing to them. it had to come to them directly now from this credit card company. this woman there, also tried many times to get pressler and pressler now off my back, but nothing ever worked, to satisfy them that this was indeed paid to this company directly. this woman at the credit card company told me, as far as she and this company was concerned, my debt was cleared off their records, so that although this ignorant collection company was refusing to acknowledge this debt as being paid now, that i just shouldnt worry about it anymore, because there was no debt in their records anymore for them to now still be collecting on here legally. it was as if, this woman just gave up helping me resolve this after trying to assist me, unsuccessfully with pressler and pressler too now here. and so i had no choice but, to take this womans advise, and just start throwing out the notices they sent to me asking for me to pay this again now to this collection agency. because she convinced me that all they were doing was retaliating by harrassing me still with these collection notices being sent for many years after it was already paid in full by my mother. so if i just threw them out, she said they would eventually get bored, or tired of wasting this time and money to aggrivate me this way, and move onto harrassing others, who legitimately still owed these debts they were assigned to collect over the years. well this never stopped, and went on for so many years, that i finally opened one of these notices again from pressler and pressler, to see if they were still actually coming after me for this paid debt all these years later. because at times, these noticed did stop coming to me, but started up again each time too. so i wanted again to try and see if i could clear this up, again, just because it was still this black cloud hanging over me, years later in my life. and was just bothering me enough to give this another shot. but by then pressler and pressler was still claiming that this credit card person never faxed, called, or contacted them in any manner, to let them know this debt was paid to them directly all these years ago. so since i now had another agent handling my collection acct, i thought if i called this bank person again now, and asked her to send this again to pressler and pressler, because they are still treating this as an unpaid debt, but i found out then, that this woman was no longer there to help me. in fact, this credit card company had been taken over by some other bank now, and they had no records of my acct at all, so they told me here. then i think this debt was bought over by another bank too. so this really made it hard for me to get this debt cleared, from pressler and pressler trying to collect from me, after it had been paid in full so many years earlier. so i tried to talk to this new collection agent here, and complain about how all these years they have been harrassing me, illegally, or someone in this office who was handling my acct earlier at this collection agency was so angry at me that they did not get their cut or pay for collecting this debt from me, because i sent the check directly to the company, knowing full well, that it was a debt already assigned to this company to be collecting on. i think at the time, i just felt less horrible as a person, to pay these companies this outstanding balance directly. because then they would have been paid on my acct in full, without having to pay a portion of it to this 3rd party here. and boy was i wrong. this worked ok, and perfectly fine with all these other debts i owed in credit cards, that were also now assigned to other collection agencies to collect on from me. but this one arrogant, persistant, ignorant, and angry company pressler and pressler, just wouldnt ever acknowledge this debt was ever paid in full. so now i was being threatened with legal actions, by pressler and pressler, if i didnt start making some kind of payments now on this paid debt. and i explained all this again to another collection agent, then a few supervisors too, and they now told me, i had to provide this evidence that they got so many times before over the years from myself and this woman working in the accounts receivable dept of this credit card company. and all these years later, i found this woman was no longer accessable to help me now resolve this once and for all. and over the years since this became such a major problem for me, to just have this collection agency apply my payment info to this acct and close it once and for all. they are still asking me for this same payment evidence. and with legal threats now to pay it, i was stuck in this situation where my now elderly mother, who suffered losses in a house flood etc. has no idea if she still has these bank records from this long ago. and unfortunately too, she doesnt even remember this situation at all, or helping me so many years ago in my life. but i was able to explain to pressler and pressler how i know the approximate date this check was sent to this credit card company, all because of the fact, that all my other credit card and outstanding debts were paid by her at this one same time. and you can seel this reflected on my credit report, or you could have back when i was still trying to have this collection agency acknowledge this as a now paid in full debt. i was trying to back my case with them, and how for this time i was behind on all my bills, and was barely able to pay off just the interest, late fees, etc. and they just kept adding up more and more, rather than being reduced at all, in some of these cases here with these debts i owed at the time. and suddenly you can see on my credit report, how all these outstanding debts, in collections or not, were all satisfied at the same exact time, to have them all paid in full, in large amounts owed on some of them too, in the thousands. and how suddenly all of these old debts were paid in full, and removed from my credit report, as negatives. anyway, i explained how this would also prove my story here to them today. because why would i suddenly have all this thousands of dollars, to pay off all my other debts, and not also pay off this one credit card debt too. I still did have just one smaller store credit card bill left to pay that was passed due. but that was because i was more worried about getting my mom to pay off these large overdue bills i owed back then, and this one slipped though the cracks, but i was ok with paying this one small bill myself, because i now would have more money to do so, and quickly too, once my mom did this to give me a clean slate, so i could start all over again, doing it right now this time. i have to say, that i learned my lesson really well, this very 1st time, it happened to me this way. i know now, how these totally unexpected life events can come along, with no cause by you, out of the blue, and you need to have savings behind you just in case, this ever happens again. so i have since, not used any credit cards again. because the interest etc i just cant afford, and i know how fast this can pile up, so that you just cant keep up, and then more charges will be added to make this even more difficult again to ever pay off. and so i was smart, and decided with my mom now being 80yrs old, that i would go and search her new condo, to see if i could find this cancelled check in her possession, before she is no longer here, for me to do so. and i just couldnt find it in time, and i told pressler and pressler i was still searching for this payment evidence, but they went ahead anyway, and filed a case against me in court to have a judgement now force me to pay this debt again now to this agency. and i was prepared to show up in court to defend this claim by pressler and pressler against me, and if needed ask for more time to come up with this evidence i needed to prove this. but that court date was cancelled, and i was never contacted or notified again, by the court, or pressler and pressler, of this new court date, so i could have defended myself or explained all this to the judge in court that day. and it was only afterwards when i got this court notice, i thought from pressler and presslers office, stating that there had been this judgement against me, and this huge amount i would now legally have to pay them again here. and i actually thought at 1st this was just another deceptive type practice of pressler and pressler, to try and get me to agree and pay this debt now to them. so i just ignored all these letters i got, saying there was this court judgement against me, to pay this now. or the letters i got insisting that by law i was ordered now to provide pressler and pressler all this personal information, about my job, salary, possessions etc. but when they started to seem more serious or threatening to me, with legal punishments involved if i didnt comply by a certain time frame. i decided to comply and provide this info required of me, thinking that i would be avoiding other possibly more severe punishments than this now by the court possibly being involved here. but these court notices and letters i received that stated there was this judgement against me in court that day. to me, never really seemed to be officially from our courts offices. they were copies of letters, that were all crooked, too. like pressler and pressler was using this more serious and threatening, legal type pressure on me to pay this debt, that i know as a fact i paid in full many years ago, directly to this credit card company. and whats worse is how every other collection company assigned to collect these debts from me at the time. just automatically applied this payment info to my accts so that these files were now closed. and not one of them ever complained or bothered me again, to collect on these now paid in full accts assigned to them to collect from me as well back then. and over the years, this one collection company that has deliberately refused to apply my payment, or close it after it was paid in full directly like i did with all the other bills i had back then piled up on me. and have also added on all these rediculous amounts on legal fees, interest, etc. like over the years, it was like they just deliberately used this deceptive practice so that right now, after believing that i have this legal court judgement against me, for this now huge amount, that is way, way higher in all these charges added on over the years. for example i think this original debt was around 1, 000 -2, 000 dollars, that i owed to this credit card company. and now because i was convinced and afraid i might suffer some legal consequences. i did eventually send pressler and pressler this private and personal information that they were demanding of me, and now i have this huge judgement of somewhere around 10, 000 dollars, that is being garnished now from my weekly paycheck. and i am so upset and angry, because i have since just said, its not worth it to fight this, or try to have the court reverse this judgement, if an actual court ordered judgement really exists here in my case at all. and now after paying this garnish now for years, i have no clue how much i would even owe them now. or when will this be paid off. or even to get a balance sheet from this horribly unethical offiice, who collected knowingly a paid debt, that they had no right to do in the 1st place here, once this credit card company notified them several times, to back my claims that it was paid in full and closed now in their records of my acct with them. and i am now so furious and angry, that the courts too, would allow these things to happen to inocent people like me, . and i think there needs to be a practice by the court of sending out these court date notices to defendants with a return receipt required so that the court will know in fact if everyone involved has received these notices, so that they can be present to defend themselves in these matters also. to this day, i am paying off this already paid debt, in garnishment to this horribly deceptive collection company. and i still dont know if this was in fact, a court ordered judgement or not. because the notices both i and my employer received concerning this debt payment now, legally, didnt actually seem to be a legitimate court type document. so i am still under the impression that this pressler and pressler collection company, tricked me in everyway they could think of to now be paying them this money that i dont even owe anymore to this credit card company., and another fact id like to mention, is how this credit card company changed hands several times over the years and although this original credit card company assigned my acct over to pressler and pressler to collect on back then. i really dont know for sure, if they actually legally have the right to be collecting on this debt, since it was originally a debt with another banks credit card, and they were bought out by another bank, and this was the bank that i paid this off in full to directly. and since this time, there have been other banks involved, that did not have any part in assigning this debt to pressler and pressler in the 1st place here. so i think its a matter of this collection company using every deceptive, illegal, and ignorant practice they can think of, to force inocent people like me, to just cave at some point, and pay them for these debts that are no longer valid, and should have reflected this with closing my case in their office long ago. and since i have never before been in a situation like this, and got the advise from everyone ive asked, that all i needed to do was ignore them, and these notices that i was receiving from them all these years after this was paid. i was told by a legal representative that these collection agents feel disrespected or robbed when they are assigned to collect these debts, and dont get paid for any work involved, when someone like me, sends these payments directly to these companies, instead. but this woman told me, it was fine to send it directly to her office, because once these accts are turned over to a collection company to collect on, they are paid a percentage on whatever they are paid now on these collection accts. and for me it was a matter also, of making sure when i paid these final payments in full, on all these outstanding credit card bills. that i paid the right amout, with interest, and other late fees etc all added in that day, so i knew when i sent out these final payments that there would not be anymore money owed, for me to then have to pay after i was getting this financial help from my mother. and i had no idea that on top of this one single collection company refusing to acknowledge my payment all these years. that a judge could order a judgement against me, in such a huge amout, over the amount of my original debt. i mean now, even if i wanted to just pay this off again in full to finally have this aggrivating and frustrating, deception over with once and for all with this collection company. there is no way possible i can now, because the judgement is so high now, about 80% higher than this debt was that i owed in the 1st place here. so i have no idea, what i can do now, but i just wished the courts here, would support the defendants rights more, and make sure that everyone involved gets these court date notices. or if the court sends notices to someone like me in this legal type situation. that they would at least have the sense and responsibility as well, to make sure that these notices look official since they are supposed to be sent by our courts. so that someone like me, who is so naive and inexperienced, or ignorant of the laws involved in such cases. know for sure completely that these are in fact legal documents, that a genuine court has sent to you, concerning these legal matters. because to this day, i still dont know if pressler and pressler just turned up the heat or pressure on me, using these deceptive legal type documents, that i still have to doubt right now while i am being forced to pay this now a second time, to pressler and pressler. that it was indeed a court ordered judgement or garnish that a court has imposed on me, legally, because these notices i was sent, and that were sent to my employer, looked like badly made copies, that possibly pressler and pressler use in their offices collection practices, that include docket numbers etc. but have no real court seal etc. so i am now upset and so aggrivated that after having this garnishment imposed on me for so long now, on a weekly basis. that these collection agencies, have no legal obligation to send me some sort of statement showing what was paid to date, and what is still owed now at this point years later. i mean, how do i know that this unethical, collection agency, is actually applying all these payments towards this so called judgement amount balance, in their records today. or if they will even care to notify me, when it is paid in full. i have no idea at this point after paying towards this judgement amount for years now. if they will even bother to let me know when i have paid this amount in full, or if in the meantime, they are legally still allowed to be adding on more charges, in legal or other fees that they might still feel entitled to receive at some point here in this situation, so this all really stinks, because had i just insisted or demanded, to get this problem with pressler and pressler legally resolved back then years ago. this would never have been able to take place at all here. but i felt so frustrated and helpless, and thought like everyone else did, that this company would just stop harrassing me for this paid debt at some point. it was as if they were punishing me this way, because i caused them to not be paid for their collection efforts on behalf of this credit card company. maybe thats the reason this woman in accounts receivable told me to send to her directly. and the reason why at some point she gave up on helping me resolve this now paid in full debt with pressler and pressler. because now thinking back, maybe this credit card company i paid directly, never paid this collection agency the collection percentage at all. so this could have created a stand still, where pressler and pressler was saying, that unless this credit card company pays them for collecting this amount from me, they just decided to then refuse acknowledgement in their records of my case either here. so this could have caused me to be placed in such a vulnerable, defenseless situation now today, when so many years have passed, that its kind of impossible now to dig up this old evidence to defend myself here. and even if i could manage to find this cancelled check in my mothers records today, this justice system we have to use in these cases today, totally failed me as this defendant, when they changed this original court date at presslers and presslers request, so that i then never got notified so i could have appeared to defend myself against this so called judgement against me. and ive seen how this same thing happens alot, with our courts today. they seem to always manage to notify the plaintiffs of these legal changes etc. but somehow manage to drop the ball, in notifying defendants so that they can exercize their right to defend themselves in these courtrooms today., anyway ive heard that the laws and rules have changed so i only hope that now i find that these changes affect me now too.

A couple of years ago, i was laid off and I got very delinquent in many of my bills. I receive a three notices of garnishment from my employee stating that Pressler and Pressler were going to garnish my salary all three of them back to back. i never received any notice to go to court to tell the judge that I have been clearing up my credit little by little. I am a single parent, and I was starting with my lower bills first. I figured since there was a garnish on my salary that I would try to clear those judgements up. However, last Friday, I go to withdraw money from my account at Chase and the receipt kept telling me that I had insufficient funds. I knew this couldn't be possible because my pay check had been deposited via direct deposit that morning and I had 600.00 in my bank account. I ran home and checked my accounts via online. All three accounts were 00.00 balance. Literally, I almost had a heart attack because I leave all my money in the bank and withdraw it when needed. i called the bank and asked them to please release some money to me because I didn't have any money for food for my son or for the rent. They told me that I had to call the court officer on Monday. All weekend, I had no money. First thing Monday morning, I called the court officer but he wasn't availabel so I had to speak with the clerk. The clerk asked me to call Pressler and Pressler. Well, I begged them to release at least enough money so I could buy some food. They asked me to make a payment arrangement. I agreed to pay 200.00 monthly commencing on thre 9th of April. They told me that they would not release the money from the bank and that in addition to my monthly payments, They were also going to garnish my salary. I begged them. The manager asked me to go to my bank and get a copy of my statement that showed the levys. the bank wouldn't give it to me so they faxed it to the manager. The manager said that he never received it and I called the bank and asked them to refax it. So I called the court officer back and pleaded with him to help me. To no avail. So I was on line trying to get information, and I stumbled upon your site. These people are legal criminals(I am a social worker in a jail), and they should be where I work. I am having so much anxiety because if my next paycheck's direct deposit can;t be stopped, I will be 30 days late with the rent, and my landlord can start eviction proceedings. How can it be allowed that every penny I have can be taken. i can see even taking half of the money and leaving some for living expenses.Tommorow, i am going to go to the courthouse to see if I can file a motion claiming hardship and ask for the levy to be lifted. Any advice, I would surely appreciate!

I recently received my tax refund directly deposited into my account, my account was frozen due to a lien put on by Pressler and Pressler. The problem is the lien was for someone else not me, upon trying to provide Pressler with the documentation without taking off of work became a nightmare. I tried 5 times to fax the information over, all different times of the day. I was then told the firm had one fax machine, obviously that is not enough. I have been getting the run around by them for over a week now, to prove to them something that could have been varified by my bank in one day. In the mean time automatic withdrawls have kicked out and I am losing money through overdrafts.

The sad thing is I can't get any assistance from a legal system which is suppose to protect me!

I went to check my account balance before writing my rent check and to my horror saw that my entire checking account was wiped out in addition to a growing list of overdrafts being tallied (I have lots of automatic deductions). I'm in a total state of shock, have been on the phone all day trying to figure out what to do. The situation: it appears that a while back my banking information was stolen from Wachovia (along with tens of thousands of other people) and sold to the Pressler & Pressler law firm... they also are debt collectors. This past week, without notifying me EVER about a CitiBank credit card bill from over 10 years ago , they obtained a bank levy and cleaned out my account.

They will not furnish a copy of the account information or if it was real, a receipt showing that they purchased the debt from CitiBank. They took all of the money available out of the account and stated that there is still over $2000 owed, which they will continue to seek without my permission. I stupidly told them where I worked and they advised that they will move to garnish my salary, which would have me fired from my city job. as an RN Director of Medicare for a Health and Hospital Corp. subsidiary as soon as they are contacted by P&P.

The bank informed me that they need only be showed a paper signed by a clerk in the court that a levy has been obtained (I don't think a clerk can sign this) to deduct the money without my knowledge.

I just received a summons from superior court (Monmouth County) for Verizon bill from 2002 (they did attach a copy of a bill) and when I checked my credit rating there are numerous issues, all stated by P&P or their related companies. When I was first notified by Wachovia of the account theft, they stated that they would supply a year of TransUnion reports. I could never obtain that from them, their links did not work, but i subscribed myself and was able to remove quite a few erroneous claims (all from P&P affiliates) that did not belong to me.

The summons states that any judgments obtained will be in effect for 20 years. I am terrified that my life has come to an end. I will be unemployable and they will continue to search and destroy. How can they be allowed to continue...