So this is my first post here, but i have been reading this site the past year and have successfully cleared 6 of 7 negative thing off my report, that were mistakes. Except one. It is a non valid debt, as the amount was paid last November, however a change in office staff of the place i owed the money resulted in my charge being sent to a debt collector. When i found out, i disputed with all three CA's sending my payment as documentation, but they all came back as debt verified. So i disputed with the Debt collector, and they responded that it was valid and referred me to the original source. I sent a dispute letter to them, with all documentation, and they never picked up the certified letter. I sent this twice. I have all the USPS tracking info and the returned letters. What can i do now?
So, let me see if I am clear... You paid the OC, they had a staff change, someone there sent the account to a CA by mistake. You found out, disputed with all three CRA's (you don't want to send them the proof of payment - that actually could VERIFY the debt, even though the account was paid before going to collections), and the account was verified. You sent a letter to the CA, they just sent a letter saying "YEP, YOU OWE IT!" (Which we typically refer to as a "Chaudhry Letter"), telling you to take any dispute to the OC. You sent the OC a letter, twice, and both the letters were returned to sender. Were they refused or undeliverable?
Yes on all accounts, this was something i paid for, it was never a debt. I never got notice of the collection either, just found it on my CR. But the letters were never picked up. The mailman made 3 attempts to deliver and no one signed, or there was no one in the office, then they sat at the post office for 15 days awaiting pick up and were returned to me.
I would send the following letter to the Collection Agency. Did the CA verify the tradelines with the CRA before they received the letter demanding verification, or after?
Jam, I honestly have no idea, how when or where they "verified" this. I found it on my report in March, it was reported in March as well, I sent certified letter to CRA, and within the 30 days i received a response from all that the debt was verified, Experians letter was long and included their "process" but didnt tell me any specifics. The letter stated "if you question the results of our dispute process then you may want to contact the furnisher of this information directly..." So i sent the dispute letter to the CA, and they responded within the 30 days with a letter including the company name, the managers name, and the account number in their file. They also included a typed up "account due" information supposedly provided by the OC, though it was very faded and had no letterhead or anything, and stated that if I have any questions to contact OC directly. So i sent the same dispute letter to OC, and now they have refused to pick it up twice. I will send the info you just shared, thanks. I was also going to file a complaint here: consumerfinance.gov
Ok, so, you demanded the verification through the CRAs first. That's the key part. Verifying the account, before you contact them isn't a violation. As soon as I know they've received the next letter, I would try to dispute something on the tradelines and see whether or not the CRAs allow you to re-dispute (they probably won't). That's why the "1-2 Punch" is sending the CA the validation request, and then sending the CRAs the verification request, because then the CA can't respond to the CRAs legally, without validating the account first.
Thank you for all your help. Turns out I did not even need to send the letter you suggested above. I filed a complaint with consumer finance\ial protection bureau and posted a copy of the returned certified letter, within 3 days the CA replied and said they were unable to verify the account. I got a letter from them stating that they could not verify and they have removed it from my report! YAY! my score jumped up 80 points!
