Midlan Credit Management's response to my dispute .. . what's next?

Do not send them anything. It is up to them to provide sufficient information to prove the account belongs to you.

You may want to monitor your credit report to be sure they are listing it as disputed.

 

They cannot attempt to collect until they validate. So, yes sit back, do nothing, and wait to see if they do the right thing.

 

rocket:

Only if the dispute was timely; after the 30 days, they could collect, but it'ld be fun if they continued collecting after their reps already stated that there is no possible way for them to obtain any records.

 

That is true. I was assuming she made her dispute within the 30 day validation period.

 

Maggie:

It doesn't matter, except for FDCPA purposes, whether your request for validation was timely or not. The reason that it doesn't matter is because Midland Credit Management and their parent, Encore, has some incorporation in the State of Texas. I can't recall which entity that is off-hand (one of their shell corps is out of Aero Drive in San Diego) but, at least one affliliate, subdivision, so on and so forth is.

How that applies to you is that they must validate the account or delete in pursuant to the Texas Financial Code insofar as they are a "resident/citizen" of that jurisdiction. In other words, Texas laws are applicable to them just as any other person living in the Lone Star state. This is not too say that they will comply, in fact, you may have to litigate this matter for tradeline deletion to be had.

Just food for thought . . .

 

Just wanted to mention that this is what I have been writing about: They did not validate & still filed a law suit and then immediately a motion for judgement ~ which they won. My saying to the court: "but they never validated!" meant nothing. So be careful ~
sure, "legally" they can't continue trying to collect without validating, but if they do so anyway, you just might find yourself s_ _ _ out of luck like I did.

 

And exactly how did they prove up the debt, an Affidivit? I'm assuming this to be the case insofar as I know they can't produce paper to properly attach to their Complaints.

Did you not attack the Affidavit on evidentiary grounds?

 

Looks like they may have been playing with the dates in order to stay within the SOL? I'd be curious if the 'date opened' pre-dates the CAs purchase of the alleged debt. Or if 'date opened' refers to the date YOU allegedly opened the revolving account, then its pretty odd you'd do that four years after 'last activity'.

Looks like false reporting regarding date of last payment! Definitely something fishy going on.....

 

Send them a letter that simply states it is not your responsibility to prove you own the debt, it is theirs. Refuse to send any identifying documents, and give them 15 days, instead of 30 to comply with the first DV letter you sent.

 

What do you recommend doing if they still don't comply?

 

I recommend doing just what I said.

If you still have nothing after 15 extra days, send them a third letter giving them 5 days.

Then if nothing, sue. Don't sue just to sue, be prepared to fight to the death.

 

Ok. But I'm still a bit confused. First you said:

Therefore I tend to think you are advising that in the event they (the collection agency?) does not comply with the first DV (debt validation) letter
then sue them. Right?

If so, what would be the grounds upon which you would sue?

 

If validation request was timely, then continued collection without validation, violating FDCPA.

If they verified to CRA dispute after receiving validation request, same.

If they verified inaccurate information (any account that is not yours) disputed to CRA, FCRA violation. Go show damages (get turned down for credit) first.

Failing to validate within 30 days of receiving validation request may be violation of Texas consumer protection laws, as suggested by apexcrsrv.

 

Something must be wrong with my search function. It reveals that apexcrsrv metioned Texas and it reveals that you did but it fails to find any mention of the word "Texas" in any of maggiemay's posts. What Apex said was and I quote

Now then, obviously Apex is correct when he said that they are a resident of Texas and Texas laws are applicable to them just as any other person living in the Lone Star state. However, if maggiemay does not live in Texas she cannot bring suit against them in her state using Texas statutes, court rules or for violations of them. She can only do that if she too lives in the state of Texas.
If she lives in some other state she is going to have to bring suit in her state using her state statutes or using federal law in a federal court.

Be all of that as it may, my question was addressed solely to Erica who said, and again I quote:

And what I asked Erica was:

My next question to Erica was:

I'm somewhat concerned that there is a possibility that since my search function failed to turn up the word "Texas" in any of Maggiemay's posts it may also have failed to turn up any answer by Erica to my last question to her. Or is it simply eyeball failure or what?

 

I believe what apexcrsrv was referring to was the CA's compliance requirements based on where they were located. Even if they are collecting on a consumer outside Texas, they might still need to comply with Texas law if they had operations in Texas, and in addition those operations would have to comply with Texas licensing and bonding requirements.

I don't see a Texas address under Midland Credit on the BBB site. apexcrsrv implies Midland is part of Encore, which has operations in Texas.