Last month, I received a letter in the mail from Merrick Bank offering to negotiate a debt that they say I owe. I did a little research and found a sample letter to write to this company disputing the debt. I asked for valid proof of the debt and let them know that under the FCRA, they have to provide proof of the debt or stop reporting it. I did have an account with Merrick Bank over 6 years ago, but according to my records I paid it in full. This is the first communication I have had with them since I show the debt paid. Now all of a sudden they are saying I owe them $1,016! I can't understand why 6 years have gone by and now they are saying I owe them this substantial amount of money! All that to say, they wrote back with, and I quote, "We are not a debt collector. We are the original creditor and we do not have to provide you with any form of verification. If you would like verification, you must pay $2 per copied page for verification." Okay, now I am utterly confused. Has our system gone off the deep end? Why should I pay to receive verification of something I don't owe??!! And the credit bureaus are definitely reporting this erroneous debt. I have disputed it with them and gotten nowhere. Please give me some help - what should I do next? File a small claims suit? I don't know, this is ridiculous. Our credit reporting system is really screwed up and obviously our legislators couldn't care less.
If you have records that show the account was paid in full, call them to: a) see if you are talking about the same account b) tell them you have a record of it being paid off c) ask them for their fax number so you can send them a copy of this information d) tell them that you would like to resolve this matter. No need to get nasty...yet.
Add one more.... e.) Once the account is reconciled and bank agrees that it is paid in full, have them send a letter stating that there is a zero balance and no money is owed.
They don't have an FDCPA obligation to validate the account... But if they're on your credit report, they had better have the physical records to backup their claims. Johnson v. MBNA states that they must be able to conclusively verify a dispute, not just from a cursory review of their computer systems; but from the physical documentation. So, the question for Merrick Bank, would they rather eat $2.00 per page of documentation, or more than $100,000.00?
I agree with the approach above. First find out what they are talking about. Then follow up in writing, and get any correction they agree to in writing. Regarding your comment: "I can't understand why 6 years have gone by and now they are saying I owe them this substantial amount of money!" If you are a real person who carefully manages your accounts and payments, today you may actually have more reliable records than many creditors, who have gone thru reorganizations, mergers, had employees of varying competency, employee turnover, moves, etc. Same applies to CAs by the time they get accounts, multiplied when you add the possibility of fraud. I have been doing my personal bills for over 3 decades, with many thousands of checks sent, for everything from routine utility bills, medical bills, CC payments, all the usual stuff. Over that time period: 1) I have made maybe 3 or 4 mistakes, all caught by creditors on the next statements, such as maybe a payment missed, or a check filled out wrong. 2) I have made several checking account balance errors, with little consequence as the amounts were small and caught quickly, since I balance my checkbook against the bank several times a month. 3) I have never seen a payment mailed but not received, although I have seen a few letters excessively delayed. In my experience, the U.S. Postal Service is far more reliable than the number of times companies have blamed them for problems. In comparison, I have seen across all creditors: 1) Check processing errors (wrong amount run thru, differing from what was on the check when I got it back) maybe 3 or 4 times. 2) Miscrediting of payments 6 or 7 times, particularly common with medical billing for doctor's groups. 3) Accounts with no amount actually due erroneously sent to collection maybe twice. 4) Insurance mixups (wrong insurance billed, even single digit error in insurance policy number, with no follow up to check why no payment) 3 or 4 times 5) One 10 month delay in reimbursing an overpayment, despite repeated calls (supposedly, one after another, the 2 employees responsible had quit). 6) Erroneous changes to my billing address (and probably a lot of other customers) and late bills once. Company waived all late fees and apologized. 7) Systematically delayed statements arriving 5 days before payment due for several months. After sending complaint, company claimed they could find no problem on their end, but the delays ended. 8) Statements never received maybe 2 times, caught before they were late. 9) Errors in agreed interest rate 2 or 3 times. Companies agreed to correct. 10) Change of checking account number without notice that messed up direct deposit, once. Bank agreed to waive resulting fees. 11) "Refund checks" sent erroneously to me, either due to their errors in my accounts, or due to mixing me up with someone else (returned marked "Void", with a copy in my files), twice. 12) Erroneous negative credit information (agreed to be in error) that reappeared twice. All of the above errors were ultimately corrected, but sometimes required agressive persuasion. In short, I have concluded that on average, across all the various businesses or agencies I deal with, my error rate is easily an order of magnitude better than theirs, even with all their computers, staff, and professionals managing it. The best are the ones who realize that correcting errors is part of their job, while the worst are the ones who think they couldn't have made any error. You are right to trust your own documents, particularly when an alleged bill only surfaces years after it would normally have been sent to you. Its age alone makes it more likely that it is due to some screw-up or loss of record integrity.
Then, consider the source... http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2001/feb/feb09a_01.html http://www.badcreditcards.org/Merrick.htm http://www.ripoffreport.com/results...&searchtype=0&submit2=Search!&q5=Merrick+Bank All of those are from the first page of Google Search results... Need I say any more...
One of the common complaints... Even though the consumer tells them to cancel the account; they don't... then they bill the annual fees, and other related fees, then add the late & over the limit fees for good measure...
