Yikes... those yummy %^#%&$#@* from Arrow are giving me a pain in my butt. Here's the story: I had an old charge-off from 1998 that I disputed 3 years ago that vanished from alll three reports. It is still not on there. I recently received a letter from some bogus law firm in Naperville, Il on behalf of Arrow saying they ware demanding payment, etc...so I pull my 3 reports and on only Equifax is there a Collection account for Arrow, not the original creditor and not on TU or EXP. Under original creditor it says "Unknown" and under account number it says "Unknown". I have read the Arrow threads and haven't seen one quite like mine. Obviously I need to validate, but what else? My TU score is 725, EXP 780 and Eq is 604, obviously from this collection account, because the rest of my lines are good. Is this legal to do? The original debt is not on my reports, and this collection account appeared sometime after July, because I closed on a house then and the mortgage broker showed me my full mortgage credit report and the collection account and original debt were not on either. Advice??? Thank you and Happy Holidays!!
You say "obviously", but with no OC, and no original account number, how can you be sure? They could be collecting on an account you have already paid or settled, or on someone else's account. Without validating, you wouldn't know what you were paying, even if you owe it, and what's to stop another CA from trying to collect on the same debt after you pay them? What is the date of original delinquency (they should also have reported this to the CRA within 90 days of posting the TL), and what is the applicable state SOL? Is the "law firm" implying they intend to sue, is the debt past the SOL, and does the CA know it?
