I have Verizon listed on all three reports, the address listed is for some collection agency in Columbus, OH. I have been working on other issues so I held off doing anything with it. About two months ago, I receive an initial contact letter from an attorney in NY (my state), it appears legit and contains all the necessary disclosures. I send DV letter to Attorney. No response so about a month later I send second DV letter to attorney. Last week, I received 8 duplicate monthly bills for the account directly from Verizon. Today I receive another bill from Verizon. It lists the past due charges and New Charges of $74.51. The second page itemizes the new charges, 16 seperate 'Duplicate Bill Charges' at $4.15 each. Am I supposed to pay for valadation of a debt? Is a CA (the attorney is actiong as a CA) permitted to order copies of statements for both the debtor and themselves and charge them all to the debtor? (I only received 8 statements but am being billed for 16, I am thinking the CA may have received the other 8 but will have to call verizon to find out) (Of course I will tape the call). I was thinking that the CA should have been billed and could recover the costs if they sued and won in court? restating the question, Can a debtor be required to pay for debt valadation documentationby the original creditor when the debtor requests valadation from a Collection Agency?
Forgot to mention I did not specifically request monthly statements in my DV letter, just that I wanted to know who the original creditor was and how the account balance was calculated.
I believe it is legal to charge for copies, etc. during a request. It sounds ridiculuous, but they can do it. If you are going to pay the bill, I would dispute the "copies" charge, I'm sure they will drop it.
I was under the impression that when DV'd, a CA has to get the info from the OC, then the CA is supposed to mail it to you. Unless it is an internal collections dept.?
The information must originate from the OC, but if the CA does have all of the information regarding an account, then they can send it to you directly.
Just thought I'd toss this out... You might want to be careful with anything dealing with Verizon. I'm having issues with a company called Afni right now who is going after TONS of people on supposed Verizon accounts that a lot of people claim are false. Either they never had service with them, the account is still in good standing, or they account was closed and paid years ago, etc. It's unclear how much of this stems back to bad information on Verizon's part. So I just thought I'd toss that out there too. How long ago was this account? Are you sure that it's really you at the correct address and phone number? Just wondering.
I am not going to admit that its mine, but I don't plan on fighting this all that hard. I am going to pay it, just trying to get my ducks in a row so to speak.
If it truly is not yours, or there is some doubt, I would fight like h... with them. Either way it is to your advantage to go through the full process on this one.
Debt validation is a cost of them doing business. #1) It is not the OC's responsibility to send validation. #2) THE CA is to pay any fees associated with fulfilling debt validation. Violating #2 is a violation of the FDCPA.
Can you give me a pointer on #2? I read FDCPA and the commentary for several hours and I couldn't find anything I could use to assert that claim. The closest I could come was §808 either 'The collection of any ammount not authorized by the agreement'.
That is correct. A CA has to pay for the documents provided during validation. Just like the CA has to pay for postage on all letters that go to the debtor, they can not add the cost on the debt. Typically speaking docs range from $5-15/page, and the CA must pay for that before the docs are provided to them.
If YOU had requested back statements directly from the OC, they might be able to charge, but YOU DV'd a debt collector, who is covered by FDCPA. They were required to obtain validation from the OC, and send it to you, at no charge. Technically, it wasn't even proper for Verizon to send it directly to you at the debt collector's request, whether you were charged or not, since under FDCPA the CA must be the party sending it to you. I believe there is an FTC letter from the 1990's explaining exactly this. Verizon appears to be treating this as a currently open account, past due but possibly not charged off yet. Maybe it is still owned by Verizon, and only assigned to the CA? Still wouldn't affect the CA's obligation to provide validation. How old is it?
No, To the best of my knowledge the original charges are accurate. But It has been somewhat difficult for me to determine what is accurate now. This was a telephone bill, part of the balance remained with Verizon and part of it went to collections. Everything went unpaid when I fell on some really hard times. I am just trying to figure out what I really owe so I can pay it and be done. And now I receive a $74 bill for duplicate statements directly from Verizon.
I feel your frustration. I think it's hard for some CAs to believe that there are people in your situation who really do want to just pay what they owe. But you should only have to pay what you really do owe. I went through and paid off a bunch of small accounts that were still cluttering up my credit report last year before buying our house. I didn't realize how close some of them were to falling off my report but in the end it did feel good to settle up with people that I honestly did owe money to. And it was funny how surprised and really nice people were when I was calling up out of the blue saying "I owe you money, I'd like to pay that please!" when most of these agencies had given up contacting me. Don't give up your battle, you can make it through. )
I presume the Verizon account is already closed. File a complaint with your state AG, against both Verizon and the CA.
