Someone with the same name as me opened up an account with a creditor. He defaulted, and the creditor sent the $60 that was still owing to a collection agency. The collection agency contacted the individual and collected the $60. This was not me and had nothing to do with me. Now, after more than two years, the Collection agency has placed on my credit reports a notation that I had a paid collection two 1/2 years ago. This is the first I ever heard about it. I called the CA and got the resident moron. He said it must be me because it is my name (I have a common name). He would not tell me whether or not the address or social security number matched. I sent a letter to each credit reporting agency saying it was not me and that they should contact the creditor (not the CA) to confirm this. TU dropped the notation from my report. EX and EQ contacted the resident moron at the CA and reported back to me "verified". I contacted the creditor directly. They have no customer records dating that far back so do not know if it was me or someone else. Do I now use the Lizardking validation letter with the CA? If I do, I assume they will either do a bogus validation or they will ignore me. Or do I contact the CRA's directly? If so, what do I send them? I don't think I can send them a validation letter, can I? If I can, how can I get them to send it to the creditor, not the CA? Any help would be appreciated.
After thinking about this, I have another question. Can I send something to the original creditor like a validation letter? They have no records so would have to ignore it or answer it truthfully - they have no records. Would this do me any good? The CA, not the creditor, put the bad mark on my credit reports.
That's a bunch of crap. They can not refuse to verify whether it is you or not. I had a similar situation with Beneficial (some loan organization). Apparantly someone with the same name living in the same town defaulted on some massive loan with them. I called them and we straightened it right out. SSN, DOB, none of that crap mattered. The only scary thing was that Beneficial somehow had gotten my address, phone number, cell phone number, employer, employer address and phone number, my parents address, etc.
Another thought...did you talk to a supervisor/manager at the CA? I had to go through about 5 people at Beneficial before I got high enough to fix the problem.
I only spoke with an agent. I was so mad because he refused to listen to reason. Each time I gave him correct info, he either said "it must be you, we have your name" or he gave me some crap about paying my bills on time so I would avoid these problems. The bottom line is that the phone did not work on these morons. The creditor gave me the info on the phone that they do not have any client records from that period of time. But, I asked them in writing to verify this and they have not responded (it has been a month). So, I need to move to the next step. I'm just not sure what I need to do to accomplish my goal of getting it removed. Thanks for any help.
Basically, I would send a letter Certified/Return Receipt requested saying that this is not you (list last 2 numbers of your social, year of birth - basically any kind of identifying data just incomplete). This is what I had to do. Tell them you want it removed immediately (use some of the validation letters you can find on this site). Tell them you want a MANAGER not an agent to respond within 30 days or you might have to take further action. There's also a thread on this page somewhere about Credit card fraud. You may want to contact the fraud divisions of the CRA's regarding this matter as well. As I well know, your name really doesn't mean anything. There are a bunch of people with my same name. None of them have the same social which is the important thing. That agent is a DOLT!!!!! If anyone has a problem with my suggestion, please respond.
..send a validation letter, demand a copy of the original contract with your signature specifically. Since you never signed upf or the card, they won't be able to provide this - nor would they even if you had.. but anyhow, once you receive incomplete validation, send a follow up letter validation letter # 2.. and at the same time, dispoute w/ the CRA's as well..
Kbelle and Ender: Are you saying that this letter should go to the collection agency or the creditor? Ender: If I dispute with the CRA at the same time, won't I run into the same problem as before- their verifying the info with the CA? Last time I went to the CRA's, I specifically told them to go to the creditor, not the CA. They went to the CA. Thanks for your help
Gumbo, I think because the CA is the one reporting, you should send the validation to them. Do you have a letter from the creditor saying they have no record? If so, send that to the CA also.
Gumbo - the reason why it is okay to send another letter to the CRA is because it may be a different clerk that day that might get the letter.. and they might feel more "lenient" that day.. who really knows what goes on when they receive the letter. Dispute as NOT MINE this time.. or NOT ACCURATE or whatever.. just do the dispute. In the case where the CRA actually DOES try and verify it by contacting the creditor/CA, then it creates more confusion if you sent a validation letter to the creditor/CA as well.. because on their end, they are wondering if the debt is valid because you are questioning it.. there are also laws that say that while it is in the dispute process by the consumer, the CA/creditor must cease collection efforts.. so this may create chaos and make chances of verification by the CRA harder, which may cause a deletion since they need to delete in 30 days if they cannot verify it.. As for the validation letters.. send that, wait 30 days, then send validation letter #2.. this creates the paper trail necessary to go head to head against the CRA .. you can then send the CRA a letter saying you've disputed multiple times with the CRA and if they refuse to delete the inaccurate entries, you have hard proof that those negatives should not be on yhour report. Whether a paid charge off vs chargeoff is as bad or not.. that's a whole nother question though.. Not sure if this is the thread where someone asked about that..but if it's a collection ,it's a collection.. it'll look bad regardless if it's a PAID CHARGEOFF or a CHARGEOFF NOT PAID... because when compueters check your credit, they check for the words CHARGE OFF.. and if that's there, then they may deny you based on the word searches.. good luck w/ everything..
oh - u will need to revise the validation letter for the creditor, because it falls under different laws for collection.. minor adjustments. You should do searches on this msg board for validation letters and you should find more than enough info..
Is Gumbo a common name? Depends. Chicken Gumbo is pretty common. Others aren't so common. What kinda Gumbo are you anyway LOL
I think you need to get much tougher with them than anything that has been suggested so far. You can use a validation letter, but it would have to be worded much differently than anything I've seen around here. The whole point is that you have suffered heavy recoverable damages from their actions. Lots of mental anguish, that kind of thing and maybe actual damages as well. This can be backed up with actual case cites where people have received huge damage awards for exactly the same situation, some running in the range of $100,000 and more. Once you show an attorney what kind of damages you can rightfully expect to get out of those birds and you give him the case cites so he don't have to do too much research to get the job done, getting a good lawyer should be easy. So you need to go in with guns blazing, almost simply because you can. No validation letter is going to do that for you that I've ever seen. Your letter should just be a flat out statement that you will give them say 10 days to prove it's your debt or that you ever owed the money in the first place or you are going to refer the matter to your attorney for legal action. Your letter should also state that they must provide you with viable proof that they have taken the report off of all your credit bureau files. Then I'd mail it to them and start hunting for an attorney to take your case because it don't matter if they take it off or not. You can still sue for damages. You can even hope they keep on with their stubborn streak because then you have proof that they have no intention of even trying to correct their errors and the act is therefore willful and malicious. No validation letter is going to get that done for you. If you are going to try to reason with them or trick them into doing something wrong then a validation letter is the way to go. You don't have to fiddle with any silly validation letters. They already done you wrong.
Thanks for your help. The creditor has not sent me anything in writing saying they have no records. They have promised to do so but have not. I requested that in writing and a couple times on the phone. I'll get the letters out immediately. See what happens. Like I said before, the first time, TU deleted it. Maybe the others will also.
Send them a form with the info. you want them to say in it. and a postage paid Env.self addressed. Send them a note with this asking them to complete the form ,place it in the ENV.and drop it in the mail. What have you got to loose?
