I wrote a letter to American Express, disputing that I ever signed a contract with them for credit. I asked them (much like in LizardKing's Validation letter) for proof of any contractual obligation to pay them, bearing my signature. They replied with the following letter: "We regret to inform you that we cannot provide a copy of your original American Express Card apllication to you. Our applications are retained for a period of 25 months in accordance with federal regulations. Since your application is older than that, no copy is available." That is the entire body of the letter. Doesn't that pretty much say that they have no proof that I am bound by any contract to pay them anything? They have me listed for an unpaid charge-off of around $1,000. Any ideas as to my next step? Should I threaten legal action? Thanks, Kelly
Kelly, If the account is yours and this isn't ID theft, they have plenty of proof that will stand up in court. Account records of payments along with billing info to your home address. In a lawsuit, they'll subponea your bank records and canceled checks and in court, you'll be asked if this isn't your debt, why did you write allof these checks to AMEX. Now, whether they go to that much trouble over $1000 is doubtful unless you sue them first. And, I'll tell you, I've seen a few instances where a company sued someone and it cost more money to sue than was recovered. The reason it happened is, the person just p##### 'em off. I wouldn't ring in the new year by suing AMEX over a $1000 account unless it absolutely isn't yours. Chnaces are, they'll leave you alone and turn it over to a collection agency where you may have better luck.
I have have been paying checks to the gas phone and the elect. Co.s for years.Does this mean that if one of them takes me to court for a $1000.00 that I owe them the $1000.00"?
Does anyone actually think this will go to court over $1,000? I doubt they would want to. Also, regarding keepmine's statement that they could prove the account was mine by showing cancelled checks - It seems I could easily say that I am so used to just paying my bills without examining them, that I sent AMEX a few monthly payment checks until I discovered that the account wasn't mine. Any thoughts on that? I'm already sending letters to the CRAs like LizardKing suggested. We'll see what happens. Kelly
I don't think they will sue for 1K either. However I don't think you could say you mailed out monthly payments with statements for months and didn't realize this wasn't your account?????? Don't think they will buy that one at all.
kELLY,the real question is do you owe the 1K or not? If the account is yours,they have you dead bang.
Kelly, What I'm trying to tell you is you should be ok if you leave them alone. But, if you file a lawsuit against them, expect them to defend and countersue. As I recall from all of Lizzardkings postings, he sued or threatened to sue ca's and the the cra's but, he left the orginal creditor alone.
The degree to which you want this deleted should determine your next action. For $1000, I would play a different angle and try to get them to accept payment in return for deletion or even better yet, make up a "sob" story and see if they will simply remove the bad info and reopen the account in return for payment. On the other hand, if you are applying for a mortgage in the very near future, just pay the $1000 to have it marked paid. Lastly, you could ignore it and just let time delete. Just my 2 cents, JP
Thanks to everyone for their comments. I'll try a few angles mentioned here and keep working with Lexington.- They've got 3 similar items deleted already, but I know Amex is tough. Kelly
