They purchase charged off accounts to the tune of 10,000 - 15,000 accounts at a time. The original creditor when they sell the accounts, provides absolutely no proof of the debt ot gulf schmucks. They have an agreement with gulf state that should an account be disputed, they will then provide the documentation needed to validate the account. They claimed when I sent my 1st validation in August, that they requested proof from the original creditor at that time, and several more times since then. The original creditor has provided nothing. If you have a collection account with gulf state that is more than 2 years old, chances are they cannot validate it. Send your validation letter, then send your estoppel. When they fail to respond, call the compliance dept. (legal dept). Advise them you have requested validation several times and they haven't sent anything, plus, they have reported the acct. to the cra's in violation of the FDCPA. That is what I did yesterday. The guy in the compliance dept. closed their books on my acct. and sent a UDF to the cra's to delete. He is sending me a copy of the UDF with a letter confirming the status. I guess my point is, that if you have requested validation of gulf state, and probably other major ca's, and they have failed to respond after 60 days, then they don't have proof, and you can force them to delete the listing without having to sue them.
Thank you very much for this information. I am in the first 30 day waiting stage and I just start to giggle thinking that this will be a guaranteed deletion because it opened with them in 1999. Yepeee!!!
I agree with you LKH. The thing is they were fined by the FTC a couple of years ago for major and blantant violations of the FCRA. What astonishes me about this company is they don't respond to your requests for validation at all. I have to admit, all the collection agencies I sent validation letters to didn't respond but moved their tradelines from my credit report. Gulf State won't respond until you push the issue. They did the same thing to me. Purchased an account and sold it in the same month. I was left with 2 tradelines reporting the same thing. I went after the second collection agency first. Sent validation, they didn't respond. I complained to my AG. It just so happens that my AG has an office in the same city as the second collection agency. When I filed my complaint, a week later I received a letter from the second collection agency stating, "Since we cannot validate the debt we are removing the account from Mr S******* credit reports. It took a phone call from the AG's office to accomplish this. Then I went after Gulf State. Filed a complaint with the AG office, the guy was something else! He had me laughing the whole conversation. He was so brash and rude. Not to me but about Gulf State. I got the impression that he dealt with them before. At the end of the conversation, he told me, "They should take it the hell off your credit report" I thought it was so funny. He said I will call you back. He called back and told me he received a fax from them and the tradeline was removed from my reports. The Office of the Attorney General can be a formitable ally. It doesn't matter if the debt is legit or not. If they don't validate the debt within the 30 days. It doesn't matter, it must be removed from the credit bureau. Complain!!!! The PA Attorney Genreal's office has resolved both of my complaints to my satisfaction. Sooner or later, Gulf State is going to find themselves in more trouble than they can handle. They have been serverly reprimanded before.
When they were in trouble before, they had to pay a several hundred thousand dollar fine if I remember correctly. When I spoke to the atty. in their compliace office on Thursday, I told him my saga. Validation, certified mail, no response, 2nd letter, certified, no response, 3rd same. Then 3 months after the 3rd I got that letter from them asking for drivers licencse, s.s.card and 5 signatures. I told him I am required to provide that and you are asking for this info in violation of the FDCPA. He then said it was because I alleged fraud. I never did any such thing and told him so. That's when he said, "yes, I see we received your letters, and we requested proof from the original creditor back in August and several times since, but they haven't sent it." He then said, "well, I'm closing out this account and faxing the UDF to the cra's and with your permission, I will send a copy to you with a letter stating as such" I then reminded him that I wanted the UDF faxed that day. He did, I assume. I called him yesterday to make sure he did and he gave some sort of confirmation #'s.
Anyone dealt w/ the Attorney General's office in California? If so, were they helpful in resolving issue?
I'm with you Hermit. Maybe we'll be neighbors I don't have any accounts with Gulf State, but none of my validation letters have been answered! And every account was re-reported the month I requested validation. All of them were "verified" when disputed with the cra. Is this what is happening with you also? LKH, thanks for sharing this info with us!
I'd like to know this as well.. I am also in CA. Perhaps I can bring up my issue with them regarding TU and the CA's I am dealing with..
Gosh, this is good stuff about gulf state. I have the same saga. They've reported two accts with same info. I've disputed with the bureau's, trw finally deleted, equifax did, but now reappeared. I received a letter from another agency that i think purchased the account from gulf state. They promised to review the dispute and get back with me. The firs letter was in sept 2001 second nov 2001... I figured they'd sold the account. Now i have the information you guys posted here i have a new game plan, and will use the AG.
I have had several "verified with the CRA's but on some I haven't tried yet. I want to send a second round of letteres before I do. More paper trail
