I have been searching the site for a days and can't seem to put in the right words in search to find my answer. Sorry if its redundant. I an wondering if you really only have 30 days to dispute a debt when you recieve the first letter from a collection agency. I had a revolving credit line with Beneficial some years ago that we were went to collection. It was a substantial amount, almost $9000. About a yr and a half ago it was sold to a collection agency and we made pmts to them for $150.00 a month. Then all of a sudden they said they no longer had the debt and it had been sold to someone else. I should add that the amount they had it up to was over 10 grand. We paid religiously for about a yr. Now all of a sudden 2 months ago I received a letter from a new collection agency, altho it has the name of an atty as the name of the agency. They were requesting payment in the amount of 11grand! Unfortunately, I did not respond to dispute the debt in that 30 day time frame. Can I still send a letter requesting validation of debt or am I too late? I did not respond to the first letter due to family and health issues. Now I regret it.
Yes, and no... The law says that... After the 30 days from receipt has passed, the following occurs. (a) The Debt Collector can ASSUME that the debt is valid. (b) They may not have to CEASE COLLECTION EFFORTS until they obtain the validation requested. They can not however use their ASSUMPTION of the VALIDITY of the debt to be used against you.
