I am disputing an old debt of my husbands from Presidents Health Club. They sent me a statement as a validation with a current statement date. What is that all about? This is definitely an old acct - past the SOL for TX. What is my next step? Any advice.
AA are the snakes of the industry. A statement does not constitute satisfactory validation, but they have other, more serious issues that bar them from even pursuing you or attempting to collect. Be polite, but firm. Send EVERYTHING CRRR. 1. Use some outstanding sample Cease & Desist for SOL letters found on this forum. In the letter, let them know they are beyond SOL & therefore in violation of FDCPA by filing suit on, and reporting to credit reporting agencies debts that were barred by the statute of limitations. Keep all records. If after you send the above letter & they continue to contact, report, et al - you've got violations at $1,000 per violation. Here's EXACTLY what you need to read. This is from a very knowledgeable poster. Why time-barred means C&D
Was the "statement" AA's statement, or the health club's statement? Did it include an accounting starting with the last amount billed and actually paid, so that correct application of payments could be determined, as well as the claimed original date of delinquency? Did your husband cancel the membership, and they failed to close the account?
The statement is from AA LLC with a statement date of October 2004, prior account number, prior creditor. The 'last transaction date' field has no data and the personal info is our current home address, an old phone number and the last 4 digits of his ss#. The letter they included with the statement reads: ' thank you for further validation of your presidents health . . acct. Enclosed please find an acct stmt prepared w/the use of info provided by the prior creditor. please contact me so that we can work toward resolving matter . . . '. My husband doesn't even recall signing a membership with them, but he must have had to if they are trying to collect years later. We have been married 7 yrs and he never had a membership with them. It was way before then So it is definetely past the SOL for TX. I was expecting a signed agreement to be receieved from them and dates of payments etc. but that is not what I received. The stmt. can't hold water for the validation.
The phrase "acct stmt prepared w/the use of info provided by the prior creditor" in response to your request for validation implies that they contacted the original creditor to get validation information, and obtained and sent you this information as validation. It also implies that the name, old phone number, SSN, and current address were obtained from the original creditor. Yet the wording is carefully "ambiguous". Interestingly, if any of it were obtained from other sources, they could then claim that they never said it was all obtained from the original creditor. They are implying that because they send you part of your SSN and an old phone number, yet no contract or other actual indication of when or where the debt was incurred, that might be refutable by other records you might have, you must be the debtor. They have even sidestepped providing the final original creditor's billing date that would likely show any debt is way past SOL, information that the original creditor would clearly have, and would probably have passed along to them. They, or a prior CA, might have used no more than a last name sent by the original creditor, filling in the rest of your information from other available sources. In response to a request for validation, where the identity of the debtor and legitimacy of the debt are at issue, where is the line between a CA making its best case that a debt is payable, by leaving out any real information that might indicate otherwise, and use of deception in collection of a debt? Is this showing on your credit reports, and if so what original date of delinquency have they reported to the CRAs?
Is your husband in the habit of signing up for memberships that he then has no memory of? Has he been unfindable for the 7 years you have known him, but is now suddenly findable?
Central Texas BBB lists a Bally's Presidents Health Club in San Antonio. Although it is skimpy, see their BBB report. Also see ripoffreport.com, search on "health club" to see common practices in this "industry".
