My husband called Equifax today because he received an updated cred. report that now has an acct. listed that is over 7 years old. This acct. was deleted but was just purchased by a new collection agency and they put it back on. When he called today the woman he spoke with said that now that this new collection agency bought the debt it will be reported another seven years. He said "well that's not what the FCRA says" and she said "well, I don't know what to tell you but that's the way it is". He said "are you saying that the FCRA is incorrect" and she said "it happens all the time" ---whatever that is supposed to mean. I can't believe they would so blatantly not honor the law. I guess our next step is to write yet another letter to Equifax. If they don't do anything what can we do next?
This is a typical game that collection agencies play. This is a blatant violation of the FCRA. When the rep said "it happens all of the time", she was absolutely correct. The only reason it happens all of the time is that the CRAs allow it to happen all of the time because they want the money from the collection agency reporting it. If the debt is more than 7 years old, it's probably legally uncollectable. You should check that statue of limitation in your state to see if that's the case. My suggestion would be to write a letter to the CRA citing the pertinent sections of the FCRA and pointing out that it's the same debt that recently expired off of the report. Cite the date of last activity from the previous debt as the date of last activity. No doubt is was posted by the collection agency with the date they purchased it. The basis of the dispute with the CRA is the date of last activity and that the date currently contained in your credit file is incorrect. You should also write a letter to the collection agency demanding that they stop reporting the debt to the CRAs as they full-well know it's over 7 years old. Point out they they are knowingly and willinging violating the law by inaccurately reporting the last activity date. If the debt is legally uncollectable due to the SOL, point this out as well and state that you have absolutely no intention of paying anything on it. In fact, if you do pay them anything at all, it will renew the SOL. You don't want to do that. In addition, state that you wish to receive no further communication from this regarding this debt, so you won't get harrassing phone calls and annoying letters. Any threats of taking legal action against you (if the debt is beyond the SOL) is an empty threat and such empty threats are illegal under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. One last note. Don't expect any kind of help or meaningful assistance from the reps that answer the toll-free numbers at the CRAs. These peoples' sole function is to discourage people from creating extra work for (and thus draining the profits from) the CRA by having to deal with disputes. Deal with them only via certified letter.
Guess what Lisa you have become another of the hundreds of thousands of victims a year who have had some scumball collection agency illegaly and frudulently report an outdated account as current. Basically this is called re-aging an account. These crooked collection agencies typically pay pennies on the dollar for an account, usually one of thousands they purchase, whereupon they fruadulenty re-age the account and hope either by way of lying or bluffing or threats they will manage to collect from a certain percentage of the victims, thereby making a nice fat profit. The hardship their victims will face in the form of declined loans, fewer options, much higher interest, declined jobs, embarassment, humiliation are all meanlingless to these heartless bastards. "He said "well that's not what the FCRA says" and she said "well, I don't know what to tell you but that's the way it is". He said "are you saying that the FCRA is incorrect" and she said "it happens all the time" --whatever that is supposed to mean." Let me tell you EXACTLY what it means. Simply, the CRA's will report ANYTHING that ANY subscriber of their's forwards to them, regardless of its accuracy, veracity and even regardless if they know the subscriber in question has been sued and prosecuted on any number of occassions for fraud and have an untold amount of convictions, fines and judgements against them. "I can't believe they would so blatantly not honor the law." BELIEVE IT AS LONG AS THEY SOMEBODY PAYS THEM THE $$$ !!!!! As far as the FCRA is concerned none of the credit reporting agencies and certainly NONE of the collection agencies pays one whit of notice to it. The way I see it you have 3 options in front of you (of course doing nothing is not an option). 1. The paper chase Others will respond as to which agencies you must complain to, what wording to use, what timeframe you must wait etc. etc. End result: Removal will 'most likely' occur anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months. Cost: Mostly postage in the form of certified letters, Unknown as per having bad credit. HUGE in the form of frustration. 2. Engage the services of a Credit Repair Service such as Carreon or Lexington. End Result: Negative will almost certainly be removed probably no later than 2 months. Cost: Probably no more than $100. You can get the specifics from their websites or through e-mail. 3. Sue the collection agency with an option to sue Equifax. End Result: 100% Guaranteed removal, no lawyer in the land can lose the case against the collection agency. Try to convince the judge to levy a HUGE FINE against the collection agency (judges are very partial to doing this as they, as everybody else, has a low opinion of collection agencies); perhaps this may cause a government agency or attorney general to go after this collection agency (these are about the only villans they go after) at the very least it may give pause to the collection agency before repeating this fraud but far more likely they will consider your judgement against them "chump change" and go on doing illegal business as usual. As far as suing Equifax goes, extremely difficult and hideously expensive, and no matter how many times you defeat them they will stonewall and drag it out all the way to the Supreme Court. It may be better to just threaten Equifax that you 'have plans' to sue them for willful negligance and being a party and co-conspirater to a fradulent act after you have defeated the collection agency if they do not henceforth remove the negative entry. Cost: Depends on the lawyer/lawfirm though as the victor you should have your legal expenses covered by the losing party as well as receive a windfall. My personal opinion, go with #2 its the most time and cost effective option with the least hassle.
Thanks guys. By the way Steven, I think I will go with option 2. I am so tired of talking to these collection agencies and I am almost more tired of talking to the brilliant representatives at Equifax. Experian has already deleted the acct. and we are still waiting to hear back from Transunion. My husband and I have had to call Equifax for a few things and have written them a couple of certified letters. The responses we get in the letters are almost as bad as the responses we get on the phone. It doesn't even seem like they really investigate. It appears they just look at the date of last activity that THEY have on record and assume it is correct. I can see why people just give up. This particular acct. was my husband's Discover acct. from college. The charge-off was for 1200 and this collection agency is saying he now owes 2140. I know that even once we get this resolved they will put collection inquiries on the account. What is the point in even having the FCRA if you have to take people to court to even get them to abide by it? Anyway, thanks for the help. I've gotten so much good advice from this board.
Lisa--I recently (3-4 months ago) had a situation with a collection agency that had purchased an old debt of mine. Mine was only 4 years old so it was still collectable--but they violated so many other laws because they thought I was stupid! I'd just like to offer you a few tips, some of which are echoing the previous advice given but this is coming from someone who as already been through it: 1. Any letters that you send to the collection agency, be sure to keep copies for yourself and send them via certified mail!! And keep the return card that you get showing who signed for it and when until everything is resolved! 2. Asking them to stop contacting you by phone has to be done in writing--again by certified letter. Don't make any threats as to further action in the letter--simply ask them to stop. 3. If they are so stupid as to contact you after you know they've received the letter (as in my case), write down everything--time they called, who you spoke to and the date. Do this each time you contact them. 4. Contact your State Attorney Generals office if they continue to be in violation and file a complaint with them. 5. My state has a seperate body which regulates the banking and collection agencies and a complaint was also filed with them. The FCC also gives very good advice which helped me tremendously. For instance--in some states such as mine, collection agencies must be licensed in the state in order to conduct business. The collection agency was from another state and after checking, they were not licensed and were also in violation of that. My situation was a little different--I was not trying to get out of paying this debt--it was a very unusual situation that came about because the original creditor went under and the ball was dropped on all of the accounts. Even after trying to locate them myself for 1 year afterwards in order to make payments, I couldn't and just gave up and figured they would eventually contact me. I had the same address and phone number so there was no reason that they couldn't. Once the collection agency who bought the debt contacted me, they wouldn't even consider arrangements and were really pressuring me for the money which I didn't have in a lump sum. I was willing and able to make monthly payments which would have had it paid off in less than a year! At first they were really nice and tried to work with me because I was trying to come up with the money but after a couple of weeks couldn't. Then they got nasty and that 's when they started violating the law. To make a longer story short, I won. I did get an attorney who only charged me $100 which was far less than she deserved. She was impressed with what I had already done which made her job easier-- but anyway I received a summons to appear in court (they were suing me). She wrote them a letter citing all of their violations and in the mean time they had received a letter for the State Attorney General and the Banking regulation department. They were willing to settle if I would agree to drop my complaint and pending suit against them for violating the laws. I agreed, walked away with everything also with the understanding that they remove it from my credit report! Sorry, this was so long and I hope you got through it all. It was a very frustrating time but it felt great after I won! Just one other thing, I was surprised at how difficult it was for me to find a good consumer law attorney who would take the case as most here only dealt with class action suits or cases that dealt with a lot more money! If you have any questions for me, post them here or email me (I think you can do that by clicking up by my name). Good luck!
I have called Equifax 4 times requesting a copy of my credit report. Their system does not allow you to reach a live voice. I have called the 800-685-1111 and 800-997-2493 numbers. If you have a number, other than these, please provide it to me. thanks
T Anderson The number I have is 1-800-882-0648. Do you have your report with a confirmation number? I needed that when I called. Good luck!
T. Anderson- I just read your post again. If you just want to order a report you can do it on their website (experian.com).
I tried the 1-800-882-0648 they say their office is open from 9 am to 5 pm is their office in MST,CST PST
I'll give you their consumer relations # Tell them when they answer that you suspect fraud, and will file suit if they dont help you, this is a direct line with no voicemail 800-846-5279, fax 770-375-2744
so, basically, you feel that because it is seven years old that you no longer owe the company any money?? Did you ever consider PAYING the money in that seven years? You can't believe they would so blatenlty not honor the law? What about your disregard for YOUR agreement that you would pay the company?
Lisa, please contact me if the collection agency that did this is NCO or NCO GREAT TRUST. mba9999@aol.com 6-15-2000
Lisa, catch up with me if the creditor named on your credit report is NCO or NCO GREAT TRUST. 6-16-2000 lisa wrote: ------------------------------- My husband called Equifax today because he received an updated cred. report that now has an acct. listed that is over 7 years old. This acct. was deleted but was just purchased by a new collection agency and they put it back on. When he called today the woman he spoke with said that now that this new collection agency bought the debt it will be reported another seven years. He said "well that's not what the FCRA says" and she said "well, I don't know what to tell you but that's the way it is". He said "are you saying that the FCRA is incorrect" and she said "it happens all the time" ---whatever that is supposed to mean. I can't believe they would so blatantly not honor the law. I guess our next step is to write yet another letter to Equifax. If they don't do anything what can we do next?
The hardship their victims will face in the form of declined loans, fewer options, much higher interest, declined jobs, embarassment, humiliation are all meanlingless to these heartless bastards. Steven Z =============== ANOTHER REASON TO OUTLAW SCORING. THE END ** *** ** LB 59 """"```--~~~~~~~~~--```'""''' http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=4499#post4499 THE END ** *** ** LB 59 """"```--~~~~~~~~~--```'""'''
