You owe me money!

Richard

Richard

Final Approach
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Ack...city life
Typical scenario:

Some company says you owe on some long ago account. You have zero recollection of any such account. They refuse to provide any details of this supposed debt. They will not provide a statement or bill of goods, etc. Often they won't even provide any contact information except a POB. Meanwhile they continue to ding your credit rating. As far as you can tell this is a shady collection agency involved in extortion and fraud.


What is a good way to fight back and win?
 
Read up on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA); see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Debt_Collection_Practices_Act

Make all contacts IN WRITING, request all future contact be in writing, and demand that they provide proper documentation of the debt.

If no adequate response, you may try referring the matter to your state's AG office.

Note well that many shady collectors will purchase very stale accounts (which may or may not ever have been valid in the first place), and try to get you to agree to some sort of payout arrangement. Often, by so doing, the hapless consumer ends up reviving a debt which was not legally collectible in the first place because of lapsed statutes of limitations, and indeed, can even end up admitting to owing a debt which never existed in the first place!

So, be careful what you do and/or agree to.
 
Get a copy of your credit reports. You can also write a response in your credit records. Detail the steps you have taken to clear this up (like trying to determine where the bill came from).
You might also contact your local Consumer Affairs as well as the Consumer Affairs for the state the bill collector is in. Another option is to contact your local TV stations Consumer Advocate. Odd how quickly things get resolved when a TV Station investigates.
It is possible you were the victim of identity theft, that the bill really isn't yours, that some person transposed numbers when entering the account. Since you have no details of the actual bill, it's hard to write a response for it.
 
As Spike said, the FDCPA is the way to go. There's a process called Debt Validation. It's a bit drawn out, but it works. Send a DV letter to them via Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested. That way you've got a record that they received it. When you DV they are required to provide proof of the debt (this doesn't mean a statement on their own letterhead, they need to provide evidence of the original debt, and a lot of these junk debt buyers don't). Further they have to notify the credit bureaus that you dispute the trade line. If they don't respond within 30 days of your DV with appropriate records, then you can either submit a second DV, or simply a letter stating that failing to validate the debt means they are in violation of the FDCPA and that you demand they remove the offending trade lines from your credit report immediately. If they refuse or otherwise fail to do what you've asked, you can simultaneously file a case in small claims court for the violation of the FDCPA as well as send letters to all three credit bureaus explaining the situation and requesting an investigation and that the offending trade lines be removed.

All mail should be sent CMRRR and do not sign any letter you send out (some scummy debt collectors have been known to copy your signature to show you agreed to pay them). Also, in case the account is outside of the statute of limitations for your state, do not agree to any type of token payment or even acknowledge that the debt is yours, as either of these actions could cause the account to become current with regard to collection.

I am not a lawyer, but I've had to deal with this crap. I've got one account that's dinging my credit report that the only reason it's still there is that it drops off next year and it's not really worth my time to fight it right now. I told them to cease all contact, and there's a note on my credit report that I dispute it. I have a feeling my brother used my personal information to open the account, but since the company won't send me any proper documentation, I can't prove it.

Do a search on debt validation and FDCPA and you'll find plenty of things to get you moving in the right direction. Good luck!
 
Go into debt big time. Seriously, if you're in buku debt and paying your bills you are a good customer, and everyone will want to lend you money. Works for me.
 
Spike & company above have pretty much nailed it. I'd check the Clark Howard website too for sample letters. He's all over this kind of stuff.
 
You may also dispute it with the "big three" credit reporting agencies. They are required by law to contact the collector for validation of the debt, and the collector is required to respond in 30 days. If the collector doesn't prove it, the entry is removed from your credit report. However, this approach is limited because if they're already engaged in fraudulent conduct, they'll probably lie to the credit reporting agency as well. But it's worth a shot - it only takes a letter and a stamp (or maybe you can even do it electronically now).
 
SCCutler said:
Read up on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA); see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Debt_Collection_Practices_Act

Make all contacts IN WRITING, request all future contact be in writing, and demand that they provide proper documentation of the debt.

If no adequate response, you may try referring the matter to your state's AG office.

Note well that many shady collectors will purchase very stale accounts (which may or may not ever have been valid in the first place), and try to get you to agree to some sort of payout arrangement. Often, by so doing, the hapless consumer ends up reviving a debt which was not legally collectible in the first place because of lapsed statutes of limitations, and indeed, can even end up admitting to owing a debt which never existed in the first place!

So, be careful what you do and/or agree to.
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Spike is basically on target. In addition check your states laws. Most states have a law that is similar to the FDCPA. Also send a letter requesting "verification" of the debt. my guess is that is the last you will hear from them. If the collector does not verify the debt within 30 days or if they other wise violate the FDCPA or a parallel state law they collector can very well end up owing you money. Best of luck. BTW I also suggest that you consult an attorney in your state for help. if there is an FDCPA violation they may take the case without payment as their fees can be awarded in a settlment with the debt collector
 
AdamZ said:
Spike is basically on target. In addition check your states laws. Most states have a law that is similar to the FDCPA. Also send a letter requesting "verification" of the debt. my guess is that is the last you will hear from them. If the collector does not verify the debt within 30 days or if they other wise violate the FDCPA or a parallel state law they collector can very well end up owing you money. Best of luck. BTW I also suggest that you consult an attorney in your state for help. if there is an FDCPA violation they may take the case without payment as their fees can be awarded in a settlment with the debt collector
Click to expand...
IIRC, CAs are only required to respond to verification/validation letters within a certain amount of time after they first notified you of the debt. It's a relatively short period, like 30 or 90 days. After that, they don't need to respond.

Also, sending a letter to the CRAs asking them to investigate won't get you far if the CA actually responds to the CRAs. The CRAs don't ask for much from the CAs - just a letter stating that they believe that the debt is valid.

Our credit reporting system is really broken. The credit reporting agencies are using a severly flawed system based on SSN. A majority of people have inaccurate information on their report. But the CRA has shifted the burden of fixing these errors to you. It's a brilliant business model. Sell a flawed product, then require the customer to fix it at their own expense. Genius. Or evil, in this case. I want to be able to sue anyone who posts inaccurate information to my report for defamation of character. Seeing as though inaccurate information can cost me lots of money, I also want to be able to get damages. If I buy a house and I end up paying $50k more in interest over the life of the loan, I should be able to recover that.
 
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AdamZ said:
Spike is basically on target. In addition check your states laws. Most states have a law that is similar to the FDCPA. Also send a letter requesting "verification" of the debt. my guess is that is the last you will hear from them. If the collector does not verify the debt within 30 days or if they other wise violate the FDCPA or a parallel state law they collector can very well end up owing you money. Best of luck. BTW I also suggest that you consult an attorney in your state for help. if there is an FDCPA violation they may take the case without payment as their fees can be awarded in a settlment with the debt collector
Click to expand...

What everyone else on the thread has said. I got to deal with one of these a few years ago (crap, almost 6 years ago...) and it was a nightmare. But, doing it in writing and following FDCPA plus my local laws (MA, very consumer friendly) got them off my case, my credit report cleaned up (from the erroneous entries), and a nice apology letter from their attorney, which I have somewhere at home.

6 months to do it... I now pay $100/year for a credit report monitoring service and keep records of EVERYTHING I do credit related. We're actually debating going all digital/OCR at home so we can have better control of our records.

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
CT Arrow said:
Interesting site! I'll bookmark this one...
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You're welcome! Clark is an institution down here in Atlanta. Started out as the local consumer helper guy on WSB radio and TV. The radio show is syndicated and I believe he's recently started a gig on CNN...
 
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