Hello, great site. Wish I had found it sooner! But I bet you get that a lot. Anyway, sorry to be such a newbie, but I poked around the site until 1:00AM and still have questions . . . and time is a bit of an issue. Please take pity and answer if you can. Gist of it: Cap1 account, balance a bit over $2K, assigned to (rather than purchased by, I believe) a CA. First letter from the CA came in Feb. Like a knucklehead and not realizing I had substantial rights during the first 30-days, I just ignored the letter. Now it's time to deal with the mess. 1) Should I still demand validation of the debt? My understanding is that the only difference between demanding validation in the first 30 and demanding it after the first 30 is that the CA can still take steps to collect at this point. But my understanding is also that this demand could trigger more aggressive collection techniques (ie legal action) earlier rather than later. Is there more upside or downside to demanding validation on a $2K debt at this point? 2) If I attempt to settle, what is a realistic figure to shoot for? 3) Although I was non-responsive (never answering their letters or picking up the phone when they called) the CA DID in fact have my current contact info (phone and mailing address). Yet they contacted my parents asking for another number and telling my mother that I had "seven days to get in contact with us." Is this a violation of the FDCA? As I understand it, the only reason to contact a 3rd party is to obtain contact information . . . which the CA already had. If this behavior is in fact a violation, what is the best means of making use of it? 4) How likely is a CA to initiate legal action to recover $2K? Thank you for all the information that has been posted on this site. I greatly look forward to using some of the techniques I'm *barely* starting to understand and repair our credit hisotries. My wife and I have been students for the better part of 10 years so our history is a real mess. As we're going to have a significant boost in income over the next year or so, I'd love to get our credit reports clean enough to qualify for a decent home loan. I'm sure this site will be extremely useful in that quest. Again, thanks and PLEASE post some help if you can. I found a ton of info last night on how to deal with CA inside the 30 day period, but nothing on how to do it outside of that period.
