Hi, A collection agency is claiming I owe them 6,000. The original creditor is AMEX. I have old credit reports which shows that I owe AMEX 1,904. I have debt verified the collection agency and they have responded with a simple typed out letter claiming I owe 6,000. I'm trying to clean my credit and pay back what I can, but I don't want to pay what I don't owe. What can I do to fight this? Thanks.
An alleged debt that has grown from the first figure to the second seems pretty old. Is it within your state's SOL? Is it within the reporting SOL for the credit reports? If it's within your state's SOL, you can expect that if you sue them, they will counterclaim for the alleged underlying debt. Even if you sue at federal court, they often don't accept jurisdiction for the underlying alleged debt, although they certainly can, there's nothing preventing a separate suit at state court. This essentially creates a situation where debt collectors can almost do anything they want as long as they are within your state's SOL for that alleged debt. By "anything", Dumb Bob means the sorts of things that are unlikely to create what the court would consider real damages. If you've done all you can disputing the alleged debt, Dumb Bob doesn't know of any other solution but to sue, something you don't want to do without careful thought.
So what you're saying is if it's within the SOL, they can basically lie and do whatever they want and I can't do anything about it except sue? Wow....so much for trying to become responsible and clean up my credit. That really sucks.
