I was lucky enough to stumble upon a hearing in court the other day in which the Texas AG had filed a suit against a local collections company (over 250 complaints of bad and illegal practices). In the hearing, the collection agency's attorney has said that this particular agency is closed. I have a couple of accounts with them. I was wondering where to go with this information to remove the negative items from my CR. I have never spoken to this agency, so I have no complaint. These accounts have not been sold, either. Thanks!
If they are out of business, and you disputed thru the CRA, there would presumably not be anyone to reply and verify. The CRA should remove in 30 days. If the CRA says it was "verified", either the CRA is lying, and failed to even forward the dispute, or the CA is acting like they are still in business, something the Texas AG would be interested in knowing about, to add your complaint to the 250 they have. If the CRA says "verified", either way you have a complaint to the Texas AG. If they are out of business, the accounts might be sold as part of the assets. They might even be playing corporate shell games, passing the assets to a related corporation. In the mean time, get the accounts off your reports, and if a new purchaser should put them back, you can dispute and request verification.
Thanks for such a speedy reply! I have a question about the validation letter. What if I can't find any letters from them? I've moved and they're in a box somewhere (if they haven't gotten thrown away.) I have all their info on my CR.
Your credit reports should provide the information you need to either dispute thru the CRA, or dispute/request validation to their last known address. Contact the CRA if the CA's address on your CR is not clear. Have you sent them a dispute/validation request letter? If not, do so, CRRR. If they are not in business, or they fail to accept it, the letter will come back, and you can keep it to show that your did in fact dispute it and request validation, should they "reorganize" and try to collect from you again. Also, dispute thru each CRA reporting, to get it removed from your CRs.
