I had a CC charged off in May of '03. I'm now being contacted by a collection agency. They originally contacted me via letter in November '06. I DV them and received a letter today. I will state what the letter says, but first the pertinent info: CA: Resurgence Financial, LLC CO amount: ~$4,500 Current bal: ~5,400 Last payment made: December '02 SOL in my state (ILL): 5 years The letter (dated January 17) reads: Dear XX XXXXXXXXXX: I have had an opportunity to review your letter dated Nov. XX, 2006 regarding the debt owed to Resurgence Financial, LLC, as assignee of "CC company". In response to such, our records indicate that your account (as referenced above) was charged off by the OC on or about May XX, 2003. The debt was subsequently purchased by Resurgence Financial on June 20, 2005. I requested info. from my client confirming the validity of this debt. I am enclosing confirming documentation for your review, including: 1) Account statement dated August 16, 2002 through May 16, 2003 At the time of charge-off, your account carried a balance of XXXX.XX. Your account now carries a balance of XXXX.XX after interest. I must hear from you within 14 days of this letter in order to avoid legal action. Payment plans and settlement options are available if you contact us promptly. I strongly urge you to contact our office to work out a mutually agreeable arrangement. This is an attempt to collect a debt. Any info received will be used for that purpose. Very truly yours, Resurgence Financial End of letter They did enclose a statement containing transactions from 8/02 through the charge off date. Any advice on how to fight back? I'll hang up and listen to the more experienced members. PLEASE help...I've worked to hard to get my credit in good shape and this would kill me. Thanks so much.
Is the account tradeline marked as being in dispute on your credit reports? Have you disputed the tradeline through the CRA's? How does their tradeline report? The reason I ask is that it seems your best chance to rid yourself of this or build an offset should in fact they sue is via a FCRA cause rather than a FDCPA cause. They may or may not have covered their bases in this respect going on the information you gave.
I actually think that the debt is only listed on on of my CR's (TU). I have not disputed it. A couple more questions. The letter is dated January 17 and demands that I respond within 14 days, yet I only received it yesterday (January 26)!! Further, in order for the validation to be complete, doesn't it have to have ALL transactions from when the account was opened? They only provided about 7 or 8 months...and they are asking for twice as much as the transactions listed. Thanks for the response, I appreciate it.
*bump* Any other advice? This debt is actually not being reported on any of my CR's as of the last time I pulled them (July '06). Very strange.
Then they provided you with false and misleading information, didn't they? Maybe you should consider a federal case against them for that.
Misleading info. with regards to the "validation" or the date of the letter. Again, the letter is dated January 17th yet it was postmarked on the 23rd and I didn't receive it until the 26th and they are only allowing me 14 days (the 31st) to respond before they pursue legal action. Further, as I stated in my original post, they only sent me a few months worth of transactions...all from when the account started to become delinquent. Half of the charges on their are finance charges/late fees. This is a mess. Should I sit back or contact them?
A common mistake made on these boards is the thinking that there is some magical methods to "get out of the debt". These boards are about your credit reports, and legally handling collections of debt. The sad truth is that you owe the money. If you truly are committed to reapiring your credit, then you must adopt the mindset of someone who maintains good credit, and that is by having the mindset of paying what you owe. The situation here is that the collection agency is making a last ditch effort to enforce legal action before the Statute Of Limitations runs out on this debt. It is a common practice in the CA business to buy old debt for pennies on the dollar, with the hope of one last shot at getting something. I would stall them by requesting full validation of the debt, based on the fact that YOU do not consider their letter FULL VALIDATION. There is also a question of the legality of their "interest". They MUST provide evidence of how the rate is determined, and how the current amount was calculated. Your best option may be to negotiate a settlement with no reporting on your credit reports. My guess is that you could probably settle for 1/3 to 1/2 of the amount owed. They bought this debt very cheaply I'm sure, and they will take nearly anything to get thier money back. In the end, you must decide what your current credit status is worth to you. On the downside, the CA has eleven months left on SOL to go after you for the debt (based on IL SOL). This is not good. If you can maintain good credit by paying this debt off, this may be the best option, just negoatiate for the best amount you can. Good Luck
This is all quite true. Paying what you owe is truly the only way to build good credit. But that has to be done before the debt goes sour from not paying to be of any value to your credit standing. To build excellent history there has to be a long record of making timely payments and having no derogatory remarks. Paying what you owe after the fact of having failed to do so does nothing for your credit scores at all. Tradelines that say you "settled" or "settled for less" are going to hurt your credit even more because what they actually say is that although you did pay you had to be forced to do so by a debt collector. That does not look good on any credit report. Even if you did sue for providing false and misleading information and won that would not erase your debt. There are only two ways to erase your debt. Either by paying it in full or by your creditor forgiving the debt, wiping your slate clean with them. Even bankruptcy does not erase the debt. Bankruptcy only makes the debt uncollectable. Paying what you owe is both a moral and a legal obligation. Bankruptcy only removes the legal obligation but not the moral obligation to pay. Filing lawsuits against the creditor or his collector does not remove either the legal or moral obligation to pay what you owe. The only thing that is gained by filing and winning a lawsuit against the debt collector or creditor is that you might come up with enough money to pay or reach a settlement agreement that they go away and leave you alone, wiping it off your credit reports. Two wrongs don't make a right. Even if you win you still need to pay what you owe. So don't think that filing and winning a lawsuit erases your moral obligation to pay.
I understand that and I agree with you. However, the truth of the matter is, over half of the debt is interest/finance charges and late fees. Further, paying it now would actually hurt my credit since it would reflect as recent activity. Since I've been out of college (2.5 years) I've had zero late payments on anything. I think my credit score is actually in pretty decent shape, but even paying on this would be a severe blow. Thanks for the advice, I will attempt to obtain full validation.
The point here is that this COULD hurt your credit, if it continues to a reporting stage (by the Collection Agency). To maintain the 2.5 years of excellent credit you've built, you must deal with this to maintain it. You stated the case about compiled interest, this is one of your negotiating items. You need to develop a strategy of "what you want, and what you're willing to give up". In the long run, your credit history will be the more valuable. Again, I think your best approach is to negotiate for the lowest settlement, and NO REPORTING. You have 10-11 months of SOL where the CA can take legal action, but the reporting will have nearly 3.5 years remaining on your credit report. Again try the full validation request, and see what they deliver. Use this as a negotiating tool, if needed. I'm not trying to beat up on you, but until the debt goes away, the issue itself (on your credit reports) won't fully go away either.
You are not beating up at all - I'm just trying to consider all of my options. Believe me, the only reason my credit was hurt in the first place was due to being in the national guard and the military supposedly overpaid me and withheld my pay while the situation was being investigated....all the while telling me that I was going to receive backpay. They did end up reimburing me about a year later but since I was a student my income was minimal and the damage had been done. Since I have graduated my credit has been very important to me, I make sure to make every payment on time and have opened a few accounts and gotten back on track. Sorry to get off on a rant there , I will try to obtain full validation and go from there.
I feel for you. The Naval Reserve ruined me financially too after I went on active duty. Didn't pay me for a year and a half, not because they didn't think they owed me but because they couldn't figure out how to get the paperwork done, or who was responsible for it. Our Senator finally got me paid (though it was so screwed up it took even him 4 months to get to the bottom of it), but a year and a half of living on my savings and then credit cards, which of course ended up with default rates of 29.99% -- I was ruined. I'm still paying off those debts.
