â??HOW TO BEAT BACK THE OPPRESSORâ? The "Rules" of Protecting your rights under the FDCPA and the U.S. Declaration of Independence's Belief of the right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness RULE #1 The 1st rule for protecting your rights under the FDCPA through Validation is to proceed only if your rights have actually been Violated. Most cases you will find that they indeed have.(Translation: Don't Push It and can the CA prove it) RULE #2 Attain complete and verifiable documentation of any and all FDCPA Violations committed by a Debt Collector. Be patient, send 1st Request for Validation Letter... (30 days later)... Send 2nd Request Request for Validation Letter w/ Violation Documentation.... (15 Days Later)..... Send Settlement Letter ("Delete and pay me $1000), and(or) Intent to Sue Letter, and (or) Estoppel........ (72 Hours Later)..... Prepare, and Send Formal, Pro Se, complaint w/ last offer to extend deadline of Settlement/Intent to Sue Letter. RULE #3 1) If the debt is yours and the SOL has not expired(depending on $ of Debt),throw in the towel. Nice Try 2) If the debt is not yours or the SOL has expired then Attack...atttack...attack. RULE #4 1) Obtain Debt Collectors information including e-mail addresses of Executives, Phone Numbers, and Web Sites. 2) Make sure the Debt Collector knows who you are and that you mean business (Translation: Start doing to them, the same Shit they've probably been doing to you). E-Mail them, call them, access their web site and ask questions. Important: Maintain Professionalism and support any and all claims with Documented Evidence. When they attempt to ignore you keep going. RULE #5 If all else above fails and the Debt Collector continues to ignore your requests and continues to Violate your rights under the FDCPA. SUE THEIR ASS!!!!!!!!! RULE #6 OF COURSE, THIS IS JUST MY OPINION, I COULD BE WRONG. â??The T-Manâ? NOTE: Please feel Free to Agree, Disagree, Critique, or Ridicule this Work---The Author
T-Man, What is your opinion on a CA that inquires on a debt that is well beyond the SOL? Is this a violation?
In your rule #1 you say to proceed only if your rights have been violated. If you are just starting the process at that point, how do you know if your rights have been violated? #2 you say obtain complete and verifiable info regarding violations. Then you say to send out validation. Again, if you haven't even started the process, how do you know if there are violations? #3 if the debt is yours and the sol has not passed, throw in the towel. If this is the case, why you bother with steps 1 and 2? Because at this point, all you have done is irritate them and possibly awaken a sleeping dog. It doesn't matter if the sol has expired or not. If they cannot prove it is your debt, you have options.
LKH, You make some very good points. Of Course everyone's situation is different so personal discretion does come into play. In reply to you questions. 1) In RULE #1 I am referring to your rights being violated by a) A CA reporting an account on your credit file in which you have not received any notification and given opportunity to dispute within 30 days b) You are being "harassed" (Late night calls, Calls at Work, Contacting 3rd Party, etc) by a CA as stated in the FDCPA. As well as any other Violations as Defined by the FDCPA. 2) In Addition to obtaining documentation of the Violations in Your first question, in RULE #2 I am saying to obtain documentation by utilizing the validation procedures as RULE #2 goes on to explain. 3) If you have sent an intent to sue letter and there is the possibilty that the CA can sue you to collect the debt, I would not recommend proceding to RULE #4. Rather than removing the account from your credit file so that you will "go away", the CA may file lawsuit, or increase debt amount as reported to your credit file, to make you go away. If the SOL has expired the CA has nothing to gain and something to lose if you file suit. Of course, as I said, the actions taken by an individual are ultimately left to personal discretion. If you are 100% sure that the debt cannot be proven as yours in court, and it is in fact yours, then you may want to procede with litigation. T-Man
As far as your #b goes, I completely agree. As far as #a goes, and I think this may need more investigation, but the FTC told me that a collection agency may legally report your acct. to the cra's without notification to you. Should that be correct, there is no violation. Now, personally, I think if they report it, they should be required to notify you. Maybe the person I spoke with didn't know what they were talking about,( and that is always a big possibility). I will call the FTC again on Monday and push this question a little further.
Well according to the Cass letter, the CA has to stop collection activity after they receive a request for validation. The opinion letter states that reporting is collection activity. This is not news to the regulars around here, but I think this is the MOST powerful weapon against a CA when we decide to file a small claim against them. No esoterics here about the 30 day rule or what constitutes correct validation. You ask for validation and they continue to report after the 30 days..busted. Clear as freaking crystal violation. And the FCRA comes into play also if they still want to report. Did they list the debt in dispute? I venture to say 80%-90% of the CAs don't list the debt in dispute. Violation #2. I would have to agree with the poster about fooling with a CA within the SOL period. They could easily cross-claim you. You could be rocked back on your heels, defending yourself, instead of on offense. I have gotten smoked in small claims court, even when I thought I had all my ducks in a row. I had this pis*ing contest with a CA that bought a debt from Direct Merchants Bank. Luckily they blinked. They even provided me my requested validation(signed application, business license in my state, statements, etc.). I was fortunate my intent to sue scared them off or I could be hung with a $1500 judgment instead of a deletion. Well fortunately for me all my stuff is beyond 5 years, so here comes the SKUNK MAN.
The problem I have is ca who add ridiculous amounts of interest to a collection. One ca did this to me. I know the account was mine but I proceeded as if it wasn't. Like LizardKing says once you admit it's yours then don't have much room. This ca added so much "interest" that I don't even remember the original charge off amount. I think it was $1500 but they were trying to collect almost $5k. I maintained that it wasn't my account and I will still continue to. It is within the sol but I don't care. They need to show how they got to such a ridulous amt., provide the signed original app. and account statements showing the charges on the account and the sales receipts. I will accept nothing less, it they do even in fact "validate". I say read the FDCPA and the FCRA. Post and ask questions. Then procede based on your individual situation. You have to be careful based on the original amount of chargeoff, it it's over $5K then I wouldn't ruffle the feathers.
In my post above, I am referring to when a ca initially obtains the acct and reports it, but hasn't notified you yet. According to the FTC, this is ok.
What happens if you have been sued by a CA & they received you Val.after you find out you've been sued? Is it legal to ignore your request and continue taking steps in pursuing with the suit?
I disagree, According to the FDCPA once a obtains an account they are required to notify you within 5 days. Once you have received the notification you then have 30 days in which to dispute it. EXAMPLE: You have a CA tradeline in your credit report, and you have never received any notification from the CA. The CA has violated Section §809. Validation of debts [15 USC 1692g] Paragraph (a) which states: (a) Within five days after the initial communication with a consumer in connection with the collection of any debt, a debt collector shall, unless the following information is contained in the initial communication or the consumer has paid the debt, send the consumer a written notice containing -- (1) the amount of the debt; (2) the name of the creditor to whom the debt is owed; (3) a statement that unless the consumer, within thirty days after receipt of the notice, disputes the validity of the debt, or any portion thereof, the debt will be assumed to be valid by the debt collector; T-Man
Within 5 days of the initial communication with the debtor. Reporting it to a cra is not communication with a debtor. As I stated previously, I am calling the FTC on Monday. I will ask this question again.
lbrown59, In this situation the CA is in violation of the FDCPA, but the CA still has the right to sue in order to collect the debt. If the SOL has expired the CA can still sue, but the suit would most likely be dismissed if you were to use the Expired SOL as a defense. If the CA knows that the SOL has expired, it would make no sense for them to invest time & money in a lawsuit. If the SOL is not up the CA has every right to sue in order to collect the debt. T-Man
I have to disagree with ya on this one, KHM. Section 803(2) of the FDCPA, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1692a(2), defines the term "communication" as "the conveying of information regarding a debt directly or indirectly to any person through any medium." L
Whyspers, I'm liking that!! thanks for including the definition I was just going to look it up and there was your post. I hadn't thought of it, there's a lot of people that only find out about a debt after review of their reports. It may not be direct but it certainly is indirect, nodding! Sassy
Again, these are not my thoughts, but rather what I was told by the FTC when I called them. They told me in very clear terms that a ca can report an acct to the cra's and not notifying me is not a violation. I argued with them for 15 minutes. She put me on hold, came back and repeated the same thing again.
I called the FTC about this too and was told the same thing, that it's not a violation to report before you notify the debtor. However someone at my state AG office told me that it was a violation. This is one of those gray areas
Whyspers, This is one of my favorite sections of the FDCPA. When I send a FAX to a CA I include this section in the comment section of my Fax Cover sheet........Size 36, in BOLD, it gets their attention. Also, I would like to thank you, your site and insight have helped me immensely. T-Man
Per the FDCPA it is as clear as a bell, to me, that reporting to a credit bureau without validating is a Violation. Read Below as posted earlier. FDCPA Section § 809. Validation of debts [15 USC 1692g] Paragraph (a) which states: (a) Within five days after the initial communication with a consumer in connection with the collection of any debt, a debt collector shall, unless the following information is contained in the initial communication or the consumer has paid the debt, send the consumer a written notice containing -- (1) the amount of the debt; (2) the name of the creditor to whom the debt is owed; (3) a statement that unless the consumer, within thirty days after receipt of the notice, disputes the validity of the debt, or any portion thereof, the debt will be assumed to be valid by the debt collector; Section 803(2) of the FDCPA, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1692a(2), defines the term "communication" as "the conveying of information regarding a debt directly or indirectly to any person through any medium." You must receive a written notice. T-Man
