I received a letter from Active Credit Services, Inc. that states the following: "This letter is an attempt to resolve a past due balance placed with our office for collection. We are reviewing your account and are prepared to offer you a discount to encourage you to pay this debt. If you would like to take advantage of this opportunity, please contact our office at the toll free number provided below and reference this letter to our representative. Thanl you in advance for your cooperation in resolving this matter." Below this tex is a box with the ref #; date: 10.04.00 (which I am assuming is the date of last activity); creditor (Palisades Collection LLC w/ original creditor: Heiligmeyer) Amount: 1431.25; Interest: 0.00; Total due: 1431.25 "Total amount now due to settle this account in full: 1073.44" This letter was printed on Active Credit Services Inc. letterhead, which confuses me because it says Palisades is the creditor. I am not sure what I should do. I had an account with Heligmeyers way back in 98 or 99 and paid on it. However, they went out of business and my attempts to find out where to send further payments were met with dead-ends. I moved a few times after that and forgot about it. I pulled my CR in December of 07 and this isn't on there anymore; it has fallen off. I am trying really hard to clean up my credit so that I can obtain a mortgage, but am afraid these past mistakes are coming back to bite me in the butt. Any advice on how to handle this particular account? Thanks in advance!
Request validation from Palisades. Dispute the tradeline through the credit reporting agencies. Done properly, you'll remove them from at least Equifax and Trans Union. It has to be re-aged and the "account type" will be wrong as will be the "pay status." Don't pay it. It won't help you and probably will lower your scores insofar as they'll re-age the date of last activity/status. Time barred anyway.
This example is exactly what the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act is all about. You need to request "Debt Validation", and evidence that this debt is indeed your responsibility, and that the alleged amount is correct. It is highly likely that if the business "went out" under a BK move, that the assets of their accounts receivables was sold off (for pennies on the dollar). Request Debt Validation, and if this is on your credit reports, or shows up on them, dispute it immediately.
If I remember correctly, the Statute of Limitations is 5 yrs in FL. If the debt originated in FL and you haven't paid in 5 yrs. they shouldn't be attempting to collect from you.
Also remember that simply paying of a collection account willl NOT remove it from your credit report. I would only take them up on their offer if they agree, in writing, as a condition for payment of the collection that they agree to contact the CRA and DELETE it from your credit report. Otherwise, it may actually hurt you, as the date they update your balance to $0 may retrigger its staus date, and thus keep it on your report for seven years from the updated report date, as opposed to the original date! Not good! Request a Payment to Delete!
I wouldn't pay them anything at this point. Depending on the state, this is quite possibly out of statute. I did not know that FL had a statute of repose. I thought they could still attempt to collect and, if sued, you used the affirmative SOL defense.
Just to chime in once more and reiterate what I said originally, don't pay it. FYI, Palisades doesn't perform PFD's but, they can be deleted with the right methodology.
Thank you for your help so far... I sent a letter requesting validation and haven't heard anything back yet. On my credit report, it no longer shows up as negative and says "pays on time". However, it also says that the account was sold or transferred. Do I dispute that part?
Pays on time . . . WTF? These guys never stop shocking me. You may want to leave it alone actually if it doesn't have any other derogatory notations in the history or the account type.
They finally responded They took 7 months to respond to my request for validation, but today, I received a copy of my credit application with HM, a copy of my license, my payment receipts and an old copy of my credit report. Also, when I requested validation, I requested that all correspondence be made to my permanent address, which is my mother's house. But, the letter I received today was delivered to a house that I am renting. I was a little confused as to how they even got this address and why they didn't mail it to my permanent address as I requested. Anyway, what should my next step be? It is well past the SOL. Should I respond to them? I at least want to request that all mail be sent to my mother's address because I am not going to be renting this house much longer and I don't want to risk them summonsing me and me not getting it.
Tell them to piss off. Send the letter to Joan Bergman in N.J.. It is a time barred debt and the length of time they took to respond is too long under the current state of the law. If they verified the account tradeline (presuming you disputed it through the credit reporting agencies), I'd sue them. I wouldn't consider paying this whatsoever. Helig Meyers MasterTrust was bad enough but, then they sold all their paper. It's just a good policy not to pay debt purchasers insofar as they've only paid cents on the dollar.
