How to beat USCB America

Dena Standley | October 19, 2022

When you beat USCB American in court^^

Summary: Is USCB America suing you for a debt? SoloSuit can help you take a stand and win in court.

It is a high-stakes game where everything is well engineered. Americans fall into debt traps designed to make the banks rich at the expense of the average American. Around 70 million consumers have received a debt collection notice or been contacted about it.

Debt can happen to anyone. Most of the time, consumers get into debt unknowingly and for reasons beyond their control—lay-offs, insufficient medical insurance, or having relatives with expensive care.

As the phone calls begin, they are merely embarrassing, and as they persist in calling, the debt collectors become outright frightening and threatening. USCB America may call you because you owe an unpaid debt. Meaning an account is open on your credit report for collections.

SoloSuit can help you learn more about USCB America and how to defeat them. But first…

Who is USCB America?

Founded in 1915, USCB America has its headquarters in Los Angeles. With over 100 years of experience, it is one of the nation's oldest and longest-running collections agencies. Although they call themselves a "receivables management company," this is just a fancy way of saying they operate as a collection agency.

USCB America specifically works with healthcare organizations to collect unpaid accounts. The organization claims to represent the largest healthcare systems, hospitals, physician groups, and academic institutions in the United States. Over 250 hospitals in 25 states are included, and the company claims to have handled 19 million cases solely in 2019. As promised above, here is what you can do when USBC America contacts you.

What are the complaints against USCB America?

On a scale ranging from A+ to F, USCB America has an A rating from the Better Business Bureau. Over the past three years, USCB America has had 154 complaints against them with the BBB. They responded to all complaints based on a quick scan, and nearly half of them stand resolved to the consumer's satisfaction. Many of the complaints involve billing and collection issues.

USCB America has been a defendant in at least three civil lawsuits filed so far by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) since April 2015. Below is their information contact

Address:
355 S. Grand Ave., Ste. 3200
Los Angeles, CA 90071

Telephone: (877) 846-9531

Website: http://www.uscbinc.com

Communicate with USCB America in writing

It is your legal right to insist that the USCB America collection agency not contact you by phone but ‌ in writing. When your account with them reaches collection status, written communication will reduce misunderstandings arising from phone conversations.

You have rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and USCB America must honor your request. In particular, if USCB America violates the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) when trying to collect a medical debt, you may use the violation to beat them and possibly avoid paying the debt.

Debt collectors often make false promises over the telephone. You can hold USCB America accountable for the promises they make by insisting communications be done via certified U.S. mail. Holding them to their word will prevent them from harassing you.

USCB will try to argue with you on the phone. Tell them they have violated the FDCPA and hang up. Most people are not aware of their rights under the FDCPA; mentioning that you know your rights will probably catch them by surprise. If USCB America has not complied with your request, do not communicate with them.

Validate the debt

You probably will not need to validate the debt if you're paying on an active account with USCB America. But, if they approach you about a collection account, the law requires them to provide you with complete documentation regarding the debt. You can request a debt validation by sending a Debt Validation Letter to USCB America. They must respond with a debt validation notice that includes all relevant debt information, such as:

Original creditor's name
When the account went into collection
Debt amount
Clear information about your obligations

You can legally dispute the debt if USCB America cannot provide a debt validation notice or if it comes back incomplete. If the collection agency does not have complete evidence of your debt, they should stop the collection effort. SoloSuit can help you draft a Debt Validation Letter in minutes. To learn more about how to send a Debt Validation Letter, watch this video:

You can also open a dispute with the three credit bureaus if they fail to remove a collection account from your credit report. Once the credit bureaus receive your claim, they must investigate it within 30 days. If USCB America cannot verify the debt, the credit bureaus will remove it from your credit report.

Pay-for-delete agreements

USCB America may accept a pay-for-delete agreement if the debt belongs to you. It can prevent wage garnishment and other legal actions. Our team frequently gets the question, "Will USCB America sue me for payment?" Unfortunately, the answer is likely yes.

Offering to pay a portion of your debt may convince USCB not to report your account to credit bureaus. It is a win-win situation; you get the negative entry removed from your report, and they get some of the debt paid.

Offer to pay USCB America 50% of the balance and then negotiate from there. After you come up with an agreement, ask them to send it to you in writing. Make the first payment if the terms of the agreement are in line with what you proposed. After 30 days, check your credit score to see if they have removed their entry. Contact USCB America if it is still there.

Respond to a debt lawsuit against USCB America

If USCB America has taken the debt to court and filed a lawsuit against you, the first step to beating them is to file a written Answer. Most people in this position don't know how to respond, so they just ignore the lawsuit. When you fail to respond to a debt lawsuit, you will lose by default. USCB America can request a default judgment to be entered against you which gives them the legal right to collect the debt by garnishing your wages, seizing your property, and freezing your bank account.

Here are 3 simple steps to help you respond to your debt lawsuit vs USCB America:

Respond to each allegation listed in the Complaint
Assert your affirmative defenses
File the Answer with the court and send a copy to USCB America

Now let us break each of these steps down further. If you don't like reading, you can watch this video instead:

Step 1: Respond to each allegation listed in the Complaint

If you've been sued for debt by USCB America, you should have received the court documents that notify you of the lawsuit and the specific claims against you. These documents are called the Summons and Complaint.

Step one in drafting your Answer to the lawsuit is to respond to each allegation (or claim) that is listed in the Complaint. These claims are usually listed in numbered paragraphs, and each of your responses should be presented in a numbered list that corresponds with the Complaint. You should respond by either:

Admitting—like saying, “This is true.”
Denying—like saying, “Prove it.”
Denying due to lack of knowledge—like saying, “I don't know.”

Most attorneys recommend that you deny as many allegations as possible. This requires USCB America to do more work in order to prove their case.

Step 2: Assert your affirmative defenses

After you've responded to each claim against you, you should include a section for your affirmative defenses. An affirmative defense is any reason that USCB America doesn't have a case against you. Here are some common affirmative defenses you might bring up:

The statute of limitations has expired. A statute of limitations is a law that sets a deadline on an action.
The account with the debt is not your account
The contract was already canceled. Therefore you don't owe the creditor anything.
The debt has been paid or excused.
The debt has been partially paid.
You were a co-signer but were not informed of your rights as a co-signer.

Step 3: File the Answer with the court and send a copy to USCB America

Once you've drafted your Answer with your responses and affirmative defenses, you need to file the Answer document into the case. You have 14-35 days to file your Answer before the deadline is up. The deadline is different in each state, so make sure to pay attention to your court Summons for that information.

You must print a copy of the Answer and send it to USCB America (of the attorney representing them). If you don't file your Answer within the deadline and serve USCB America a copy, a default judgment could be entered against you.

You can mail your Answer to the court's mailing address, drop it off in person, or some courts even require that you file it electronically.

SoloSuit can help you file an Answer in all 50 states.

Negotiate a settlement with USCB America

You can reach out to USCB America at any stage of the lawsuit to discuss a settlement offer. However, it's best to wait until after you've filed your Answer to the lawsuit. You should also make sure to get the settlement agreement in writing for proof. Here's why.

Many debt collection agencies agree to a settlement then request a default judgment in court when you don't file your Answer. Yes, it's pretty shady business, but it's not uncommon for this to happen.

Begin the settlement negotiation process by sending a Debt Lawsuit Settlement Letter to USCB America. This can provide an arrangement to settle a debt outside court. Even if you want to win the lawsuit and not pay anything, you could close the case by paying less than the original amount. Learn some tips and tricks for negotiating a settlement from SoloSuit's founder, George Simons, in this video:

What is SoloSuit?

SoloSuit makes it easy to respond to a debt collection lawsuit.

How it works: SoloSuit is a step-by-step web-app that asks you all the necessary questions to complete your answer. Upon completion, you can either print the completed forms and mail in the hard copies to the courts or you can pay SoloSuit to file it for you and to have an attorney review the document.

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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