"travisarizona"
has said that:

I am engaged in the process of cancelling 2 credit cards through one
Court Mediation Services. By sending each company a consideration
money order to get them to agree to an Addendum to the card
agreement, they both cashed the money order binding them to the
Addendum that is VERY MUCH in my favor (ie 0% interest rate, no late
fees, no overlimit fees, arbitration by any licenced arbitration
company of my choosing,and they cannot sell the account to a third
party.)

I was contacted by letter by a third party collector. After sending
them a "Get out of my face. I will not be lured into ANY third party
agreement with.", I have not heard from them again. They don't call
me, send me letters or statements.

The other card company, CHASE, continues to send me statements that
are imposing late charges, late fees, and minimum payments. I
recently sent them a letter reminding them of the Addendum of which
they have bound themsleves to. They are pissing in the wind.

I beleive that you are correct in that NEVER NEVER NEVER contract
with a third party collector.

There is also the thought of these companies that advertise on the
radio who can elliminate up to 70% or so of your alleged "debt."
I this can be done, is there a legitimate "debt" in the first place.
Think about it.

Yes, anyone attempting to use this kind of strategy ought to think about it a whole lot before attempting to use it. Here is why.

When you do this kind of thing you are attempting to create a novation to the credit card contract or agreement that was created when you opened the account. Let's look at the legal definition of a novation.

no·va·tion (nō-`vā-shən)
n.

[Late Latin novatio renewal, legal novation, from Latin novare to make new, from novus new]
The substitution by mutual agreement of one obligation for another with or without a change of parties and with the intent to extinguish the old obligation

You simply cannot do that without the mutual agreement of both parties involved. The credit card companies do it all the time and at their whim. The reason they can do it and you can't is because you agreed to let them do so when you accepted the original contract with them.

Lots of people have fallen for this dumb trick and got badly burned in the process.

There are always lots of people who dream up some new trick to beat their creditors and then go out trying to get others to try them and often try to charge a great deal of money for their latest dumb trick.

The only way to win is to use the law to beat them at their own game. Richard Cornforth started off with that premise and has stuck to it ever since and that is why he and those who adhere to his teachings and strategies have a much greater chance of winning the collections game than by any other method.

Their having cashed the novation check does not bind them to anything whatever. In fact, if they want to take it so far (and they often do) they can immediately cancel your card, declare the full amount due and payable and take you to court because you attempted to defraud them or change the terms of the contract without their permission and agreement.

Anyone attempting this so called "strategy" is in for a rude awakening.

Bill Bauer
Moderator