My ex took my son to the ER and never paid the bill. They only had her address, but she never paid. From my insurance, the hospital sent it to a CA in my name w/ my SSN. I paid the CA... the CA said if they were paid, they wouldn't bother to validate if I disputed with the CRA. I paid, waited, and disputed w/ all three CRAs. For some reason, they responded to EX w/ "yes he paid, now there's a balance of $0". I contacted the CA saying "What the f---?" They said sorry, try again, I don't know why the clerk bothered..... I try to validate again, but Experian's web site says "nope, we already validated once, no second chances." Where do I go from here? Send them a letter in writing along with a copy of TU saying they have deleted the acct and how could they find anything different, and ask for the full documentation? Talking this through, I think I answered my own question, but can anyone chime in with a "you're on the right track" or any other suggestions? Thanks in advance.
Experian won't allow you to 'try again'. At least not without you doing a lot of work to make it happen. This is why you want any CA to put it into writing, when they make any promises, because they lie. Now, all is not lost, you just have to work harder to get through the PREVIOUSLY INVESTIGATED obsticle. First, you can't even think about breaking through the PI roadblock online. This is the major reason why all disputes should be done in writing, CMRRR. Since the CA has been paid, they are probably not looking to LOSE $1,000.00 OR MORE, because someone decided to verify the account in their offices, and you decide to sue them for it; so this could be a good chance to use "Dixie's CYA". Basically, overlap two things, give the CA a way out by saying 'we don't have any proof that EX contacted us', and demand that EX provide procedures for how they did the investigation, then use the DF's denial that EX contacted them for the investigation to demand a new investigation. (Which if the CA is SMART, they'll not want to verify again, since they don't want to get back into the cross-hairs of a suit between you and the CRA's.)
CRA's don't have to provide documentation, CA's have to validate. CRA's have to verify, which only requires that the DF (Data Furnisher) knows how to click the 'Y' key on the keyboard. Yes, that may seem overly simplistic, but that is pretty much what it boils down to. Sending CRA #1 documentation from CRA #2, doesn't do anything either, because each CRA has their own policies as to what constitutes verification for various disputes. Just because CRA #2, didn't think that the DF's answer was satisfactory, doesn't mean that CRA #1 wouldn't have.
Is there a way to send a letter to the CA, that requires them to update with the CRA within the 30 days? That is, try to bypass EX's "not checking it twice" BS. Or if I send them a validation letter and they don't respond to me in 30 days, I can send that to the CRA saying, they didn't respond, so you have to remove it. The CA did lie to me, or perhaps made an honest mistake (this TL did come off of TU when they didn't respond to them), but I think if I threaten them with legal action they will stand up and say "Hey, you had a debt and we were within our rights to put it on your CR." Granted this system is screwed, because the CA never bothered to try and find me, they just were assigned or bought the debt, and then put it on my CR without ever lifting a finger to contact me and collect the debt. The same is true of the OC in not trying to find me.... Any other ideas?
