Back in January 11th of 2008 Midland Credit Management( out of San Diego) sent me a settlement letter for and old debt I owed to FCNB Spiegel CC. On January 23,2008 I sent them a debt validation letter certified mail of course and got back the signature card about 5 days later. I never heard back from them until yesterday Oct 4th., 9 months after I DV'd them. They sent me a letter saying the following: Per your request enclosed are the documents for the above referenced-account. Midland Management is requesting an immediate payment of balance in full. Upon receipt of payment and clearance of the bank we will report a "paid" status on your Credit Report. Please call us so we can discuss this matter further. along with a copy of a bill ( if you can even call it that) with the charge off amount. All it had was the amount owned- no copy of ownership of account or nothing else. That is all they sent me. This to me does not seem like proper Validation even after all the months it took them to mail it to me I checked my Credit Report it has there from Spiegel 30 days late has of Oct 2005, 60 days late Nov 2005 and finally that it was charged off as of Mar.2006 for 2,500.00. Should I send them a 2nd DV letter asking for Proper Validation? Seeing that this account is getting close to SOL do you think they will try and Sue me now. I live in California and i know it's 4 yrs over here.
"Proper validation" is not very consumer-friendly. I can't think of the name of the case, but the requirements are very basic. If it's a copy of the bill, and the amount is close to what they're asking, that's sufficient. Other sites swear up and down that you need full account history, line-item accounting, signed contracts, etc -- none of that is required for validation. If it goes to court, the requirements are different. At $2500 you'll probably be in small claims court. Exactly what the judge would want as proof is up in the air. If you were 30 days past due in Oct 2005 and you haven't made any more payments, then your SOL expires in Oct 2009. So they've got enough time to wiggle. Here are my suggestions, and anyone else please feel free to critique: 1) Call their bluff. Send back a very simple, vague letter via CMRR: "In reference to your your communication of 10/04/2008, be advised that the documentation you provided does not support your demand for payment on the above-referenced account. This letter constitutes my second good-faith request for validation of this alleged debt. Sincerely, (your name)" Don't spell out what you feel is wrong with the validation; make them work for it. 2) Make a settlement offer. "Thank you for your communication of 10/04/2008. Without admitting liability, validity, or ownership of any debt, I would like to make a good-faith effort to resolve this matter amiably. I am proposing a settlement of $1200 to be made in three payments of ### by xx/xx/xx, ### by xx/xx/xx, and ### by xx/xx/xx. If you accept my offer, please contact me immediately." 3) Ignore it. Maybe they're bluffing. If you do this, start reading up on how to defend yourself in court (not to sound ominous). And good luck!
What you received is likely proper validation. Especially in small claims, the judge will usually ask something like if you had an account with Spiegel and owed money. If you say yes, he'll find for the plaintiff and issue the judgment.
This is what I'm really not looking forward to if I find myself in small claims. I do have a few defenses (I'm not going to unveil them here, you never know who's reading!). But as I understand it, in small claims court, the judge brings the law & the litigants bring the facts. Defenses like laches or motions for discovery don't work.
