George Simons | January 23, 2025
Edited by Hannah Locklear
Hannah Locklear is SoloSuit’s Marketing and Impact Manager. With an educational background in Linguistics, Spanish, and International Development from Brigham Young University, Hannah has also worked as a legal support specialist for several years.
Summary: To settle debt with Account Services, validate the debt, negotiate a settlement offer (30-50%), get the agreement in writing, and pay promptly to close the account. Solo can help you resolve your debt at any stage of the debt collection process.
If you've received a debt collection letter from Account Services, you're likely wondering what it's about. You probably have never heard of the company, and you'd likely remember if you had borrowed money from them.
If you're like many people, you throw the letter away, thinking it's some sort of scam. Before you do this, take the time to read through it.
Like many other debt collectors, Account Services purchases aging debts from creditors—usually for a fraction of the outstanding debt—and attempts to collect them from the original consumer.
Often, they'll purchase thousands of debts at once. They earn their revenue when they manage to collect an old debt via their debt collection procedures. This article will break down everything you need to know about Account Services and how to resolve debt with them.
Let's jump right in.
You can negotiate debt settlement at any stage of the collections process. SoloSettle makes it easy.
Settle with SoloSettleAccount Services USA is a legitimate debt collection agency based in San Antonio, Texas. They have been in business since 1965 and are known by alternate names such as Healthcare Financial Services, Account Services Inc., ASI, and Account Services Collections Inc. They have an A accreditation on the Better Business Bureau platform for having only 14 complaints on their platform. Their contact information is as follows:
Account Services purchases a wide variety of consumer debts, including overdue healthcare bills, credit and consumer loans, retail debt, utilities, telecommunications, and apartments. On their website, they have divided these services into three categories:
If Account Services has purchased an old overdue bill that you may owe from these businesses, you're likely to continue to hear from them via phone and letter until the matter is resolved. Make sure that any collection activities are handled respectfully and don't violate the Fair Debt Collection Privacy Act (FDCPA).
The FDCPA was signed into law in 1977. Its intention is to protect consumers from abusive and harassing practices by debt collectors. The FDCPA established a slew of regulations on the industry and created a list of rights for consumers. Actions that are prohibited by debt collectors under the FDCPA include:
This is just an example of a few of the prohibited actions. If Account Services are contacting you for an old debt, inform them of your rights. They are likely to respect the law and use the proper approach.
Like with most businesses, consumers have differing views about their interactions with employees, services, or products. In debt collection, the consumer needs to understand that the debt collector’s aim is not to make their lives difficult but they only want to get their clients’ money back so that they can stay in business. Account Services USA doesn't have many reviews online, but you can check the few available on Better Business Bureau.
If your concern is that you do not owe the debt or that the amount is inaccurate, you can address it by sending a debt validation letter.
If you've received communication from Account Services about a debt, you should carefully review the information they sent to see if you can learn more about what the original debt was for. When attempting to collect a debt, most debt collection services will list the original creditor, the amount you owe, and possibly other information, such as an account number.
Account Services should reach out within 5 days of initially contacting you to verify the debt with the information listed above. If Account Services fails to do so, or if you suspect that the information they've given is incorrect, send a debt validation letter within 30 days of initial contact.
The Debt Validation Letter requires debt collectors to validate a debt before they can continue collection efforts. In order to validate a debt, the collector must provide the following 5 points:
Many collectors have a hard time gathering all this information, and they would rather drop the case altogether than spend the time and money to validate a debt.
If you've received notice of a lawsuit to collect a debt from Account Services, you don't want to ignore it. If you do and the action goes to court, a default judgment will likely be entered against you.
A default judgment stays on your credit report for up to seven years and gives additional rights to Account Services to enable them to collect the money due. They may be able to garnish your wages or freeze your bank account.
The first step in addressing the lawsuit is to draft and file a written Answer in the court. Here are 3 steps to follow when responding to a debt lawsuit against Account Services:
Now, let's break each step down a little further.
When you are sued for debt, the collector or creditor should send you some court documents called the Summons and Complaint (or Summons and Petition, in some states). The Summons notifies you of the lawsuit, while the Complaint lists each allegation against you.
The first section of your Answer should respond to each claim listed in the Complaint document. You can respond to each claim by stating:
Keep in mind that most attorneys recommend to deny as many allegations as possible, or at least deny due to lack of knowledge. Denying requires Account Services to do more work to prove their case. In many cases, debt collection agencies purchase thousands of accounts at once. They may not have the supporting documents needed to support your debt. If they don't, the lawsuit will be dropped.
You can draft an Answer with SoloSuit in less than 15 minutes.
After you've responded to each claim in the Complaint, you should include a section where you assert your affirmative defenses. An affirmative defense is any legal reason that Account Services does not have a case against you.
Let's consider an example.
Example: Suzie is sued for an old credit card debt in California, but the debt is so old that she barely remembers anything about it. She decides to do some research and discovers that the debt is from more than 15 years ago. In California, the statute of limitations on credit card debt is only 4 years. This means that the creditor only has 4 years from the last activity on the account to sue. Suzie included this information as an affirmative defense in her answer document, and she ended up winning her case.
SoloSuit can help you make the right affirmative defense in the right way.
After you've drafted your Answer document, you should file it in the court and send a copy to the plaintiff (in other words, the attorney representing Account Services). Keep in mind that you have 14-35 days to file your Answer in court, depending on which state you live in. If you miss the deadline to respond, you risk losing the case by default. Make sure to file your Answer as soon as possible to avoid default judgment.
SoloSuit can help you file an Answer in all 50 states.
Check out this video to learn more about these three steps to responding to a debt Summons and Complaint:
If Account Services is suing you for an overdue debt, SoloSuit can help. Our free web app provides you with the paperwork you need to file an Answer to a debt collection lawsuit in your local courts. Simply by answering a few questions, you can download a PDF that is personalized for you—all for free!
Debt settlement is a viable option if you are struggling financially. This approach allows you to pay Account Services an amount that is less than what you originally owe. Let’s discuss the step-by-step process of debt settlement.
Make an offer to settle your debt.
To learn more about these steps and how to negotiate with Account Services, watch the following video:
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