Hi: I just received a phone call from a CA (collection agency?) that I owe $1300. I don't remember this debt at all. She said it was from Providian Bank from 5 years ago. Basically they played "good cop, bad cop" with me. The first lady was really nice trying to explain the debt. I still had no clue but silly me figured it was legit and was trying to make payment arrangements. When I told her I could settle for $XX amount, she put her supervisor on the phone who them reamed me! "We can't make payment arrangements!!" "Do you think we are a bank?" "It's not my fault you don't pay your bills!!" "Is this your address....?, because this is where you'll be getting served!!" I couldn't get a word in edgewise! She then claimed I was raising my voice and she is "terminating the conversation" and proceeded to hang up on me. Here I sit with my mouth hanging open! Not 5 minutes later the original girl called back to "apologize" for her supervisor's behavior. Then proceeded to talk to me about payment of this debt (which I still have no idea what it was - possibly a credit card I opened and completely forgot about after I moved?) Also, the woman said the nasty supervisor was annoyed because we refinanced and never paid that debt. Passing judgement on a stranger? That burns my butt. Anyway...what do you guys recommend I do? Send a validation letter? I've been reading your site all morning and trying to figure out my next step before I get sued I told the lady I would disucss the options with my husband and call her back and I still haven't. This conversation was yesterday. Thank you so much for your help. Rez
If you don't know what the debt is, it may be someone else's debt. Unless you request validation, including the name of the original creditor, the original account number, and sufficient statement information to confirm that payments you have made have been properly credited, and fees added are legitimate, you have no way of knowing whether it is your debt, or if it is, whether the amount they are trying to collect is legitimate and actually owed. You also want records that show what original account you are actually paying or settling in case another CA attempts to collect a second time after you pay. You might even owe a debt on some card of yours, pay this debt thinking you are paying the other, but still have some other CA come after you for the other. If that happened, what are your odds of getting a refund? Nil.
