Attorneys?? Consultants??

Your first key action to preserve your rights is to dispute the debt, in writing, sent CRRR within 30 days of your receipt of their letter, demanding validation of the debt. You want this to be timely, whether you plan on using an attorney or not, and if finding an attorney and having him dispute for you were to delay your dispute, you might be wise to first get your dispute sent now, so that they may not assume the debt is valid.

Your dispute can be a simple as "I dispute this debt and request that you send me validation from the original creditor."

The amount they are collecting on could be wrong for a number of reasons:

Not your account, they have misidentified you as the debtor.
Fraudulent account, you never opened this account, and someone fraudulently opened it in your name.
Erroneous amount. Your payments were not properly credited. You settled in full for some lesser amount and they are collecting on the balance contrary to your agreement. They have added fees not allowed by the contract. Etc.
The amount is past SOL, and may or may not have been due, but it would be illegal for them to attempt to collect in court.

You might also ask for all information you need to determine whether the debt is actually yours, and that the amount is correct, including correct accounting for any amounts paid, any allowed fees, etc.

This usually includes the name and address of the original creditor, the date of last payment and the date and amount of the original delinquency, statements to support the current amount due, etc. If fees have been added, the original contract authorizing those fees would be appropriate. If you doubt the debt is even yours, you might want statements or copy of original application that would show the billing address of the debtor, which you could use to refute that you are the debtor, or support that the account is fraudulent.

If the account is not yours, and was opened fraudulently, you will have to file a police report to preserve your rights and have the CRAs remove the fraudulent account TL.

I would not trust a consultant to do this, and as with all professionals, the key is to pick a competent one.

I am not an attorney, nor do I perform any such services for others.

 

Also consider what you are trying to achieve by negotiating or litigating, and what the end-game is, should you not otherwise reach agreement.

Your position is strongest if it's not your debt, or if the debt is past SOL, and past the CRA reporting period, and their actions are blatantly illegal. In that case, you want them on notice that the debt and its reporting is disputed, and you want to document all illegal actions, and all damages, to use in legal action. You also want to push toward a resolution since the passage of time increases damage to you, and court awards seldom add up to your real economic costs. Don't leave out regulatory and BBB complaints to add additional documentation that they were aware of but continued illegal actions.

If some amount of the debt may be valid and collectible thru the courts if they sue, you will have to weigh your leverage based on their FDCPA violations against their economic incentives to sue, if they might be able to prove the debt is valid.

If they have added extra fees, or are collecting on some account that they have no way or intention to validate, they are counting on it costing you too much even to defend yourself, and the fact that most consumers don't even know their rights, and most suits to collect end in default judgements.

If the OC is still in the picture, and the CA is acting on an account assigned by the OC, does the OC's amount due agree with the CA's?

 

Call me at 8772238921, legal services for less than $1.00/day