Obviously my earlier post made no sense, so let me start over at the beginning. I have a chargeoff on my reports for $112. It was for some stupid catalog purchase. I was never contacted by a collection agency. About 5 months ago, I wrote a letter to the OC asking for a deletion for payment in full. I received no response. I then sent another copy of the letter a month following that---still no response. I disputed the account with Experian one month ago. Last week I received a letter from the OC that said they had received my dispute from Experian and that I must send them a signed letter before they can investigate the account. I posted on this board and everyone was in agreeance not to respond to them, if they can't verify it then it will be deleted. Well yesterday I pulled my Experian report and it shows no longer in dispute...unchanged. I am wondering how they verified the account when I never even responded to the OC. What is the best thing to do now? Should I send a validation letter? If so, who do I send it to? Any help would be appreciated.
When a consumer initiates an investigation through the CRA, the CRA contacts the creditor and asks whether or not the account is being reported correctly, or not. The creditor, in the meantime, does not have to wait for you to comply with their request (the request is stupid, I know) of sending them your signature. You weren't asking for validation, simply verification through the CRA. Since the creditor did not hear back from you regarding their request, they went ahead and verified the tradeline to the CRA. You're probably thinking of when a consumer sends a validation letter to a CA, then disputes with CRA, which then locks the CA down to 30 days to produce validation to you first, and if they can't, they then would need to delete. You said you've never been contacted by a CA, and it is showing as a c/o under OC. So, it seems like the OC still owns the account, and never assigned it to a CA. Your next step would be to send a modified validation request letter to the OC. You cannot make reference to the FDCPA, because they are not bound by it. What they are bound by is the FCRA. One of their obligations under the FCRA is to place the account 'in dispute'. If you have access to monitor your report, do it. Make sure to check if they mark the account in dispute, or not. You want proof that they didn't. This time around, you have proof you requested that the creditor validate the account to you, (BTW, do not sign your val. ltr to them), and most likely they will not be able to. Once you have them on violating the FCRA, send your next letter (at this point you may also want to re-dispute with CRA), requiring them to delete, advising them of violations of the FCRA, and if they do not comply you will be forced to take legal action against them.
