I've seen it mentioned that you should verify with your state revenue department or seretary of state to see if a CA is licensed and/or bonded in your state of residence. Is this before or after requesting validation? Also, what happens if the CA is not licensed or bonded? Do they automatically have to delete any entries and punt back to the original creditor? I'm helping a friend handle an old account. He called the tax department and they said the CA doesn't have a license for our state.
If a CA is not licensed or bonded in your state and/or their state (if they are an out-of-state CA [certain states do not require the CA to be licensed I believe]) and they are required to be licensed or bonded, they won't automatically delete the collection account from your report(s), however if you make them aware of the fact that you know they're unlicensed and that they are required to be licensed and bonded, and if they don't take the tradeline off, you're going after them, then they will most likely take the account off your report. Of course you could always add some FDCPA and FCRA violations in your estoppel letter as well, because if they can't even keep their licensing straight, I doubt they'll have sufficient proof of true validation for your friend.
I've got the same situation. See my post "Did I go Overboard" and I'll let you know what happens in my situation. Let us know what you find out. T-MAN
Asset acceptance is trying to get away with this. I have filed formal complaints with the state of FL. I threaten them in the Estoppel and the validation letters (2x). They won't take it off and they verify every time. I've filed a complaint with the BBB and still no luck. I've contacted the State of MI and because they buy the debts then collect them they don't have to be licensed as a collection agency. Don't think it's an automatic deletion. Find out the laws of your state and their state because every state is different.
I did this with Money Control in CA. I sent the Estoppel letter and they deleted it from my credit report. They are still trying to collect and I sent a payment for deletion letter (even though they've already deleted....just in case they try to make it creep back up). They just send another letter yesterday and DOES NOT show their NC license number. They know they are in violation.
Thanks for the info. We'll check more into this...my friend is really anxious to get this removed as they are buying a house soon and they want both their reports as clean as possible.
