Collections account was bought back buy original lender

Discussion in 'Credit Talk' started by Innocentc0, Aug 15, 2017.

  1. Innocentc0

    Innocentc0 New Member

    Help! I need to know if this is legal and what are my options. In 2015 my vehicle was repossessed by Santander USA then sent to collections soon after. The account was shown as a charge off account on all 3 credit reports. The collection agency and I agreed to a monthly payment plan and by doing so they never reflected the collections account on my credit report. Santander has somehow grabbed the account back from collections and is now showing it as an open account on my Transunion report only. Since 2015 I've done really well at bringing up my credit score and I have not had a late payment since. Now that it's back it has brought down my Transunion score dramatically. Is there anyway to fight this?
     
  2. jam237

    jam237 Well-Known Member

    Yes, it is legal.

    The question is whether or not they are accurately reflecting the payments made to the CA.

    If they are, then unfortunately, this is one of the examples of how the game is played.

    If there are errors, what I would do, is send a demand of validation to them, under the FDCPA, once you have rights under the FDCPA, the transfer or sale of the account does not take them away.

    Once they receive the letter, I would dispute the debt with the CRAs (there is a chance it could still report to the other two).

    Hopefully, the OC never responds to the validation request, and the CRAs, but if they respond to the CRAs, then I would send a letter to their compliance officer, with the copies of the letters, and explaining to them that they broke the FDCPA, and unless they want to go to Federal Court, they had better come to an amicable solution.
     
  3. jshimmer

    jshimmer Well-Known Member

    A charge off doesn't change a thing relative to your liability to repay a debt. A charge off is simply a financial tool used by the lender to address their financial statements (e.g., P&L, income statement, etc.). In short, you still owe the debt provided that nothing else has occurred (e.g., statute of limitations has expired).

    I don't see anywhere in your post that says you actually confirmed that the collection agency did, in fact, BUY the debt. Did they? How do you know? Just because the lender charged off a debt doesn't mean they sold it. Odds are good that they were simply attempting to collect it, but turned it back over to the lender after a period of time.

    If you agreed to any payment plan and made payments, you've essentially renegotiated the original contract and that is considered a restart of the statute of limitations on the new contract.

    Did the collection agency have the authority to enter into a payment plan if they, in fact, did not own the debt and were just collecting for the lender? Someone has to at least give you credit (no pun intended) for those payments, regardless.
     

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