How to Beat Direct Recovery Services

Dena Standley | October 19, 2022

What it feels like to beat Direct Recovery Services in court ^^

Summary: Is Direct Recovery Services suing you for a debt? SoloSuit can help you take a stand and win in court.

Calls from Direct Recovery Services may throw you off balance. Instantly, a million questions come buzzing in your head: Is this a legitimate debt collection agency? Are they planning to sue me? Will they ruin my credit score? What rights do I have in this situation?

It's important not to panic when Direct Recovery Services contacts you. The company's purpose is to get money from you to settle a debt they think you owe. If you lose your cool, you may play right into their trap and end up worsening the situation. Your best reaction is to take a deep breath and stay calm.

Here are the answers to your questions and what you can do to beat Direct Recovery Services at their own game.

Is Direct Recovery Services a legitimate company?

Direct Recovery Services, LLC is a legitimate company and has been in business since 2011. According to its website, DRS is a consumer-oriented debt collection agency that provides the most "suitable payment arrangement."

Many consumers worry that Direct Recovery Services is a scam. As a third–party debt collection agency, DRS collects on behalf of creditors from all sorts of industries. So, if you've never heard of Direct Recovery Services before when they contact you about a debt, it's because the debt came from another company that hired DRS to collect on its behalf.

Just because you don't initially recognize the company's name, doesn't mean that Direct Recovery Services is a scam. You should take all communications with DRS seriously. To make sure you're not being contacted by a company impersonating DRS, check the company's contact info, which is:

Address: 629 7th Ave Ste 1, Two Harbors, MN 55616-1400
Phone number: 855-269-9628 or 646-938-3123
Support email: info@directrecovery.org
Website: www.directrecoveryservices.com/

Will DRS ruin my credit score?

Every debt in collection negatively affects your credit. Likely, the debt has already been reported to the credit bureaus by the original creditor before selling it to DRS. If Direct Recovery Services credit reports, then you will have their account in addition to the original creditor's account in your report until the debt falls off your credit report in seven years. The presence of a debt collector in your report lowers your credit score. However, DRS claims that they don't report to the credit bureaus.

Direct Recovery Services has received many complaints

DRS's self-proclaimed adherence to the law hasn't stopped consumers from filing complaints with the BBB and other government agencies. The company is not BBB accredited, but it has a customer rating of 1.48 stars out of 5. Its Google review rating is even lower, with 1.1 stars out of 5.

On its BBB profile, DRS has received 498 complaints in the past three years. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has reported 255 complaints against Direct Recovery Services as well.

As a consumer, you may have one or more complaints against DRS, and you are clearly not alone. Consumers who aired their grievances each have one or more of these complaints about the collectors from Direct Recovery Services:

They will not provide proof of debt.
They are persistent and harassing with calls.
They use recorded calls.
They resort to threats of arrests.
They keep calling the wrong numbers.
They don't identify the creditor company they are calling for.
They sometimes ask for consumers' Social Security numbers.

Many of these actions are considered violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), which protects consumers like you from unfair treatment by debt collectors. You should understand your rights under the FDCPA to know how to defend yourself from Direct Recovery Services.

Why does Direct Recovery Services feel like a scam?

Consumers have safeguarded rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) that protect them and govern what a debt collector can and cannot do when contacting them about debt. If you feel harassed by DRS, they likely have overstepped their mandate.

According to the FDCPA, a debt collector cannot:

Bypass your attorney if you have made it clear that they should communicate through an attorney.
Call you at work if you have told them you are not permitted to receive such calls at work.
Discuss the details of your debt with family or friends.
Call you several times in one day.
Call you outside the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m.
Collect an expired "zombie" debt.

Despite understanding these rights, DRS continues to violate them, as evidenced by consumer complaints. Let's take a look at an example:

Example: A consumer at BBB complains that Direct Recovery Services are calling her parents' address asking about her debt from twenty years ago. Everyone knows that a debt that old (if it exists) is past any state's statutes of limitations. Some consumers even suspect that DRS buys old, stale debts and tries to collect them using scare tactics.

What if DRS violates my FDCPA rights?

What if you realize that your rights have been violated? You can take the following steps:

File a complaint with the FTC.
File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
Hire an attorney to sue DRS.

Although the FTC doesn't handle individual complaints, they monitor several complaints about a business from consumers and eventually take action against them. The BBB, on the other hand, is a welcome resource where your grievances are aired, and DRS is allowed to respond.

Another available avenue is to defend your rights in court. If you decide to go this way and win, you are entitled to recoup any financial damages and your attorney's fees. This option is viable when you can prove that your consumer rights have been violated. In fact, you can sue DRS for up to $1,000 per FDCPA violation.

Is DRS going to sue me?

What if the debt is yours and you can't pay and are scared that Direct Recovery Services may be coming after you with a lawsuit?

There are two reasons you shouldn't be overly anxious. First, it's not DRS's normal practice to sue consumers. They can if they want to, but it's not the company's common practice. The debt they are trying to collect isn't originally theirs. According to most of their responses at BBB, they would rather take the account back to the original creditor than hire an attorney to sue you.

Secondly, you can still protect yourself in the unlikely event that Direct Recovery Services sues you. SoloSuit's Answer is your easiest way out. File the Answer within 14-30 days. It takes less than 15 minutes to create, and an attorney reviews it to make sure it's ready for filing. SoloSuit can even file the Answer for you if needed.

Respond to a debt lawsuit against Direct Recovery Services

On the off chance that Direct Recovery Services sues you for a debt, you should be ready to defend yourself. You can save a lot of money and stress when you represent yourself, as opposed to hiring an attorney. Use SoloSuit to represent yourself in court and win. Here's how.

Follow these three steps to respond to a debt lawsuit against Direct Recovery Services:

Answer each claim listed in the Complaint document. Try to deny as many claims as possible, as this forces Direct Recovery Services to prove all their claims.
Assert your affirmative defenses, which are legal reasons that Direct Recovery Services does not have a valid case against you.
File your Answer with the court within the deadline, and send a copy to Direct Recovery Services's attorneys.

Learn more about these three steps in this video:

How can I outsmart Direct Recovery Services?

What to do now that DRS is calling you because of a delinquent account? Again, you are not without help. Try one of the following options to free yourself from debt collectors' calls:

Send a Debt Validation Letter.
Use the 11-word phrase: "Please cease and desist all calls and contact with me immediately."
Send a Cease and Desist Letter.

Let's take a closer look at each of these options.

Request that the company validates the debt they are trying to collect. When you send a Debt Validation Letter to DRS, they are obligated to prove that the debt is yours, that it's accurate, and is not past the statutes of limitations of your state. The Debt Validation Letter also requires the company to report the debt as disputed, and so they should stop any collection calls until the debt is validated.

The 11-word phrase has become popular in the wake of persistent debt collectors' calls. Did you know that you can ask debt collectors to stop calling you? Instead of calls, you can demand that they contact you only in writing. It is good to follow that call up with a written communication asking DRS to stop calling you.

If Direct Recovery Services continues contacting you about the debt even after asking them to stop, send a Cease and Desist Letter. Use certified mail so that there is verifiable proof the company received your letter. After receiving your letter, they will stop with the calls and leave you with peace of mind.

Direct Recovery Services' calls can be intimidating to deal with, but you can stop them. You have rights and endless resources to outsmart debt collectors, no matter their strategy.

What is SoloSuit?

SoloSuit makes it easy to fight debt collectors.

You can use SoloSuit to respond to a debt lawsuit, to send letters to collectors, and even to settle a debt.

SoloSuit's Answer service is a step-by-step web-app that asks you all the necessary questions to complete your Answer. Upon completion, we'll have an attorney review your document and we'll file it for you.

Respond with SoloSuit

"First time getting sued by a debt collector and I was searching all over YouTube and ran across SoloSuit, so I decided to buy their services with their attorney reviewed documentation which cost extra but it was well worth it! SoloSuit sent the documentation to the parties and to the court which saved me time from having to go to court and in a few weeks the case got dismissed!" – James

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