Bank of America has sold collections agencies rights to sue over credit card debts that it has

[avaistheone1]

privately noted were potentially inaccurate or already repaid.

In a series of 2009 and 2010 transactions, Bank of America sold credit card receivables to an outfit called CACH LLC, based in Denver. Co. Each month CACH bought debts with a face value of as much as $65 million for 1.8 cents on the dollar. At least a portion of the debts were legacy accounts acquired from MBNA, which Bank of America purchased in 2006.

The pricing reflected the accounts' questionable quality, but what is notable is that the bank could get anything at all for them. B of A was not making "any representations, warranties, promises, covenants, agreements, or guaranties of any kind or character whatsoever" about the accuracy or completeness of the debts' records, according to a 2010 credit card sales agreement submitted to a California state court in a civil suit involving debt that B of A had sold to CACH.

In the "as is" documents Bank of America has drawn up for such sales, it warned that it would initially provide no records to support the amounts it said are owed and might be unable to produce them. It also stated that some of the claims it sold might already have been extinguished in bankruptcy court. B of A has additionally cautioned that it might be selling loans whose balances are "approximate" or that consumers have already paid back in full. Maryland resident Karen Stevens was the victim of one such sale, which resulted in a three-year legal battle (see related story).

http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/177_62/bofa-credit-cards-collections-debts-faulty-records-1047992-1.html?zkPrintable=1&nopagination=1

[freshwest]

1. When you give control of your money to a computer, does it care if the data is wrong?

[avaistheone1]

2. Computers simply spit out the garbage that BofA put into it.

Garbage in, garbage out.

Don't blame the computers.

[freshwest]

5. That's obvious. You miss my point. n/t

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. Title is in error

Bank of America sold the debt, not just the right to sue. They also sold them for all intents and purposes undocumented which means even valid ones are going to hard to collect upon.

Debt collectors have been a source of personal revenue to me a couple of times over the years. They screw up, I report them, collect the fine. The fun part has been I never owed them anything.

[aquart]

6. Damn. You can profit from it?

And I was so pleased just to make them go away. (They were insisting I owed for a year I couldn't possibly have been spending money.)

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. Seach on line for

FlyingIFR and debtor boards. Some of the details are there. Basically if they think they can they will violate the rules and then you can pounce. Entrapment here is often your friend.

[aquart]

4. My reply to such a series of calls was "Fine. Send the paperwork."

Haven't heard from them.