i sent the following letter to a collection agency: Collection Bureau May 16, 2003 RE: Account To Whom It May Concern:: I request that you CEASE and DESIST in your efforts to collect on the above referenced account (see letter attached). It is my personal policy not to deal with collection agencies and I will only deal with the original creditors of this account. You are hereby instructed to cease collection efforts immediately or face legal sanctions under applicable federal and state law. GIVE THIS LETTER THE IMMEDIATE ATTENTION IT DESERVES. Cordially, On June 27th, they sent me a letter stating: Recently an inquiry was made about your past due accounts in this office. every time you apply for credit we will be required to report again and again that you have not paid this just debt....... Doesn't this violate the fdcpa? these are hospital bills that were placed from 01-02. As far as i know they were assigned to this collector and not sold. what should i do next? i would rather deal with the hospital but i'm not sure...... thanks
Yes, it is a violation from the FDCPA: (c) CEASING COMMUNICATION. If a consumer notifies a debt collector in writing that the consumer refuses to pay a debt or that the consumer wishes the debt collector to cease further communication with the consumer, the debt collector shall not communicate further with the consumer with respect to such debt, except -- (1) to advise the consumer that the debt collector's further efforts are being terminated; (2) to notify the consumer that the debt collector or creditor may invoke specified remedies which are ordinarily invoked by such debt collector or creditor; or (3) where applicable, to notify the consumer that the debt collector or creditor intends to invoke a specified remedy. --------------------------- A cease and desist technically is to stop them from COMMUNICATING with you - not COLLECTING. They are allowed to contact you one more time. It may be iffy if they violated the FDCPA. They have 3 things that they can do, and what I am reading may fall under number two or 3 above. ie a specified remedy - which would be to continue to report the unpaid and undisputed debt. Why didn't you request validation?
i thought i sent validation with no response. this is several hospital bills included in this one letter. should i work something out with the collector (they are reporting each one on my bureau) payment wise, or should i go back to the hospital? either way, i want to get these off my bureau!
if i deal with the collector, what are the chances that i can get them to agree to a "paid as agreed", if i start making payments to them?
You should take it one step further and demand complete deletion upon payment. Once it is on your credit report you will be dinged regardless of whether or not you paid it. Do a CN search on paid collections, etc. for more info.
Re: Re: cease and desist My understanding is that they cannot pursue collection activities until they have validated the debt. Are you sure you sent validation? Did you send via CRRR? If you plan is to pay these bills anyway, you might want to start the validation/dispute process again (assuming you didn't do it before or did not maintain a paper trail via CRRR, etc.). What you are ultimately hoping for is some sort of violation (e.g., verifying without validating) to use as leverage for complete deletion. I would recommend spending some time searching this site -- there are some very good discussions regarding your exact questions, as well as a number of good letters posted (beyond what is in the sample letter section). Good luck.
Re: Re: cease and desist 1*i thought i sent validation with no response. 2*what are the chances that i can get them to agree to a "paid as agreed", if i start making payments to them? Duke =========== 1*So you got the response you wanted -what's wrong with that? 2*How can you have a paid as agreed with a CA? If it had been paid as agreed it wouldn't be with a CA! If a Ca is listed on your report you're screwed: Makes no difference how i's listed or what's noted it's still the same screwing. THE END ** *** ** LB 59 """""""""```~~~```'"""""""""
Re: Re: cease and desist ). 1*It is my personal policy not to deal with collection agencies and I will only deal with the original creditors of this account 2*Doesn't this violate the fdcpa? duke ===================== 1*How do you do this where the CA is the owner of the debt. You just may have set yourself up to be sued by the CA? 2*It would be another one if you had sent the Val. letter. THE END ** *** ** LB 59 """""""""```~~~```'"""""""""
