I am new here and find this to be great! But I need some thoughts on The Credit Store. It all started with Providian Bank. I know I requested credit insurance when I got the card. I had a major accident and the I tried to activate the insurance. They said it wasn't there. I request a copy of the application and they said no can do. I requested the account closed. They did not close the account. They kept adding $50 or more per month to the account in fees. When I finally got the account closed, they said I owed over $600, and that more than $200 were late fees, etc. Mind you I am still disabled at this point. I refuse to pay until they provide me with paper work and/or remove the excess fees. Now, over 4 years later, The Credit Store sends me an invitation to get thier credit card to rebuild credit. I see a notation that says this is an atempt to collect a debt. I call them and they tell me they purchased my debt from Providian, that I owe them the money, and that the opening balance on the credit card would be equal to my debt (what a scam!). When I said no they threatened to place a negative mark on my report (which they did, as did providian). The way I see it they are not collecting on behalf of providian, so how can they rightfully place a collection mark on my report and they cannot legally place me into collections since I never had an account with them. Is this a fair assessment? I also think it is unethical (perhaps illegal) for them to try to re-instate the SOL by co-ercing consumers to open a credit account with them to collect another account. Thanks for your feedback.
Immediately send out a validation letter. Requesting a copy of the original contract. And NEVER EVER EVER call a collection agency!!
OK....since I am new, I believe I can get a sample validation letter from here? I will do a search and thank you. Any other help is greatly appreciated. Should I do a validation letter on ALL bad credit accounts now? Everything is past the initial 30 days. From what I read that does not seem to make a difference. And should the first validation letter to each creditor be certified or standard mail then certified on the second? Again...thanks
Validaiton letters are sent to collection agencies, not the original creditor(s). Be sure to send all your letters CRRR. By sending anything through regular untraceable mail, you're only shortening your paper trail of proof against them. Yes, validation letters are located in the sample letter section, or if you have time, you could do a search on the board for one.
Thank you for the great info. So if Validation letters only goto CA's, what would i sent to the company the dept is owed to if they are reporting the bad credit directly?
Validation letters go to collection agencies, aka CA's. Dispute letters go to the credit reporting agencies, aka CRA's. Don't get those two confused As far as the original creditor goes, you could dispute the account first through the CRA's, however this could wake the "sleeping dogs" and could start-up what was once dormant collection activity. Or, if the account is paid (i.e. a paid charge-off, or if it's past the SOL in your state) then you could attempt to negotiate with the creditor. I believe Psychdoc created a good letter called "nutcase letter" which I believe is meant for paid collection/charge-off accounts, but I can't be sure. If someone could verify this for me, or correct me, it would be appreciated.
I just recently kicked their a$$es. I actually accepted their offer and made a few payments before I requested validation. After i sent validation letter, I called them 2, 3, 4 times a day asking for status. They responded by telling me they didn't have the original docs and had to order them from Providian. I waited about a week or two and faxed an intent to sue letter because they did not notate their entry as "in dispute by consumer". They got real angry and told me I didn't know to read my reports and to send them legal documentation stating that they HAD to notate the account as being in dispute. WRONG MOVE. Wrong thing to say to a Creditnetter! I faxed them the FCRA and highlighted section 611 (I think that was the section). Within 3 days, it had gone to their legal department and I got a letter stating they couldn't validate and that I owed them nothing. They sent a UDF to the CRAs and it went buh-bye.
I also had success with the Credit Store. They were the simplest CA I delt with as far as validation. They couldn't validate, said so, and went away.
