Today I received a summons via restricted mail CMRRR from an attorney who is representing Atlantic Credit & Finance. I guess they purchased my old Providian MC debt. The last time I paid on it was around March 2003 I think, so it is still within the 3 year SOL here in Arkansas. The balance they are seeking is $3165, plus $400 in costs..I am going to see a lawyer in the morning about possibly getting this settled out of court. He thinks they might take the settlement since I am not working, and everything that I have including house, car, and bank accounts is in joint ownership with DH, whose name is not on this old Providian debt. I have a couple of questions though, the first dunning letter the lawyer sent me last Sept. it was a bit confusing because it stated "Please forward payment in full to clear your account, to arrange for payments contact my office to authorize a payment schedule". Then at the bottom of the letter was the required mini-miranda stating that I have 30 days to dispute the debt. So was this an instance of overshadowing? Is it a FDCPA or FTC violation? Also I replied to him within the 30 time period disputing the debt in its entirety, but never got anything back showing my signature or anything else, until today, when I opened the summons letter, included in the summons was the attempt at validation, which was a copy of my original credit card application bearing my signature and about 4 months of statements from Providian which showed the balance going up do to late fees and 28.9 default interest. Those statements never showed anything concerning the first day of account activity or any other charges that were made to cause the balance to be so high before it was charged off. So what am I looking at here? Should I let it go to court or be praying for a last minute settlement? Thanks for your replies.
First of all, they never sent you proper validation, I think. If I remember correctly, they are supposed to send you more than the application and 4 account statements. They have to PROVE that YOU charged something to that account. So, the way I read that is: -They have to go to the store you bought it at and get the credit slip with your signature on it. -Then they have to prove that it was YOU that signed it. If your signature on the application and the credit slip are a "reasonable" match, then I think you're screwed. You should read the FDPCA and the FCRA and learn what validation is. It will talk about what the CA can and can't do when trying to collect a debt the consumer disputes within the 30 day window. PS: I could be wrong.
