Wow, I am overwhelmed by all of the information on this board. Therefore, instead of being able to figure out what step to take next, I am instead sitting here with my head spinning!! I checked my credit report and found a tradeline on Experian for RJM Acquisitions from August of 2002 for an unpaid account of a whopping $66. After a little research, I of course found out that was a Fingerhut account. I am in the minority in that I DID order something from Fingerhut, a set of dishes while in college, and I also have a sneaking suspicion that I may have neglected to pay for them. I know I moved like 10 times since getting said dishes and quite simply forgot about paying for them...until I saw this on my report. I had NEVER received any collection notice from either Fingerhut OR RJM. Since so many people have had invalid tradelines from RJM on their CR, I thought I'd give a dispute a shot and sent a dispute letter to Experian. Well, lo and behold within days I was the recipient of an invoice from RJM, stating that my last payment on the items from Fingerhut was a payment of 77 CENTS in June of 1998. Huh?? Why on earth would I have sent a payment of 77 cents?? Also they offered to list my account as "paid in full with a zero balance" on my CR if I sent a payment of $53 and some odd cents. Now, I know I do not want to do that. I want it removed completely from the CR for the simple facts that I had never in my life received any sort of correspondence from either company, had no way of knowing I owed RJM who is the ones reporting it, and the debt is obviously an old one, although re-aging by RJM makes me wonder what to do... What is my next step? I would very, very happily pay the entire $66 or even $266 to have it completely removed, it is practically the only black mark I have other than one account 60 days past due once, several years ago. (darn college days!) Anyone who has succesfully dealt with RJM and had a tradeline removed....or not....I'd love to hear from you! What kind of letter do I need to write? I have just a couple weeks left to dispute or "accept the terms" of the invoice.
I'm surprised RJM sent a letter...I also had an old Fingerhut account that RJM had listed on TU and EXP. I disputed with TU and RJM removed it from BOTH cra's. Never received a letter from them. Since RJM has contacted you, I think your next logical step would be to sent a validation letter to them. You could also do a search for RJM - there are a few threads on the board outlining how people have dealt with them... NRL
#1) it is so illogical that you would have mailed a less than a buck payment to fingerhut, you almost would have paid three times as much as that as postage. Look over the invoice carefully. Can you actually make out what they're claiming was purchased, or is it listed as some obscure code. Does it show your CORRECT SSN on the letter, or invoice? That print out is actually the only documentation that exists on either RJMs or fingerhuts computer systems. Do you know whether your states SOL is expired, unless your states SOL is 6+ years old, it has? If it has expired, look for WhyChat's time-barred C&D letter, find your states code reference for the SOL statute, and fill in the blank; add in that you have no idea of what this is regarding, and you can not make heads or tails out of the illegible invoice which they provided, dispite their handy-dandy print-out how to read your fingerhut invoice printout. Consider yourself lucky, my sister only found out about an alleged RJM account, after they sold her name to C1 for one of those "Your pre-approved for an illegal re-aging of a time-barred, and post-reporting SOL dead account." And the printout they sent her had the wrong SSN on it. I had my sister use the Postage Pre-Paid Envelope to send them a short but sweet letter, especially because the letter they sent with the invoice claimed that they were reporting to all three CRAs, despite it being post-obsolete.
1*they offered to list my account as "paid in full with a zero balance" on my CR if I sent a payment of $53 and some odd cents. 2* I thought I'd give a dispute a shot and sent a dispute letter to Experian. 3*I have just a couple weeks left to dispute or "accept the terms" of the invoice. auntx12 ************************========**************************************** 1*What they offered to do was stab you in the back for $53.00. Wow what a fantastic offer! 2* You should have sent rjm the validation letter instead. 3*How long did they give you to decide? May be a $1000 violation here. Did the invoice contain the MM? Another $1000 violation if not. Is the account past sol?
look for WhyChat's time-barred C&D letter, find your states code reference for the SOL statute, and fill in the blank; jam237 ========================== He can do that by going here--- Go ahead CLICK IT ! NEW MEMBERS READ THIS. http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=410243#post410243 ************************************************************
Okay- what has happened since I last posted- Reqested validation from RJM, and received a letter stating the account was opened in my name at a previous address, and the last payment was posted on June 26, 1998. There was also a copy of a "statement" from Fingerhut. RJM claims that the statement is the only information it has regarding my account. There is an account number, my name, a product description of what I ordered, and a sale date of 8/97. There is NO social security number or detailed listing of payments recieved. If that is ALL the information the RJM has, how did they know about the 0.77 payment in June of 1998?? This can not possibly be a complete validation. Regardless, the statute of limitations for my state, Kansas, appears to be 3 years for this kind of account. That time is long gone. Is the only thing I need to do now...send the C&D Letter? Then the Deletion due to SOL letter? I am so excited if that is the case!!
Did you actually order something from the OC back in 1997? There have been a number of FH "accounts" floating around from that period, and this might not be yours. Did you (or would anyone) actually make a $0.77 payment in 1998? Sounds improbable, and a too convenient claim to extend the reporting period another year, since otherwise it might be past 7 years, and they would have little leverage to get payment.
Yes, I actually did buy something but thought I had paid it off. I moved in June of 1998 and thought I had taken care of it...I don't know if they never got my check or if I didn't mail it or what. The balance is $66.00 and I can't imagine just not paying that- you know what I mean? But I never heard from them again. All of my other mail was forwarded to me, so if they had sent me something it too should have been forwarded. I just don't get it. The thing is, it is the ONLY thing wrong or negative on my credit report and it needs to go if there is a way!! I'd gladly pay it to get it off, but I know that isn't going to get it off of there.
When I told them that the account wasn't mine, it was almost immediately deleted, just to make sure it didn't return though, i disputed it on the CRA's as soon as I received the "we're closing this accout, and deleting this account from your credit files" letter.
But it IS mine. I haven't told them that though...all I know is it's been 7 years since I purchased it and 6 years and 2 months since my last payment on it was received. The SOL in Kansas for sold goods is FOUR years (the SOL for open accounts is THREE in KS, that is what I had seen before). Can't I do something about the SOL?
You may have paid them. You can't just trust their records. Are they actually claiming to have received a "payment" of $0.77? Would you actually send such a payment, or would they actually bill for such a minimum payment amount? They could have miscredited your payment. As of what date is the "statement"? Federated bought Fingerhut in 1999. I'm not sure who owns it now.
I got a letter today stating that a certain person residing at our address owed $100.32 to RJM for an old account at Fingerhut. The name was similar to mine, but not my name. I have NEVER purchased a thing from fingerhut in our 20+ marriage and have NEVER had one of their credit cards or accounts. When we order, we usually use one of our credit cards. All our debts are up to date. My question is, if this IS a valid debt, why did it make it's way to a collection agency and they send the first ever piece of correspondence regarding such alleged debt! I smell a rat and how does one know that this isn't an attempt at swindling innocent folks out of money by using "collection agency" as a strongarm!?? I suspect there is another individual out there this belongs to because there is another individual whose name is also similar and her stuff keeps cropping up on my credit report. Our names are similar, but not the same. Our birthdays are 10+ years apart!! Anyway, I called RJM and recorded my conversation with them. In Texas as long as one of the participants on the phone call are aware that it's being recorded and so long as it's used for "reference purposes" only, it's legal. I told them that they sent a notification to my address and there is no one here by that name. They said they'd take the address off their "list", so we'll see if it ends up on my report!!
Keep an eye on your credit reports to see if they put a collection account on anyway. Fingerhut appears to have opened accounts for a lot of people with little or poor credit, resulting in a lot of bad accounts sold off. From some reports, it also appears that Fingerhut kept poor customer records, in some cases failing to credit accounts properly, or failing to handle products returned or never received. Maybe that is why they had financial problems. RJM appears to have bought a bunch of these bad accounts, probably for pennies on the dollar, and there are many reports on the net where consumers claim they have attempted to collect from the wrong parties. It appears they consider it not worth it to them to adequately skip-trace on accounts that may only be a few hundred dollars, and have dunned or placed collection accounts on the credit reports of people with only similar names, even with different addresses, apparently counting on their lack of liability under FCRA until the customer disputes. See if these sound familiar: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff109467.htm http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff109274.htm Some people have reported that they were stuck paying them for debts that were never theirs when someone else's debt showed up on their reports as they were trying to close on a mortgage. You can also find in the above reports cases where the consumer paid a debt that was not even theirs, thinking they were protecting their credit, and found the same debt back in collection a few years later.
