I ran my credit report on Jan 30 in anticipation of getting a house loan to move by March 30. I signed up for the monthly Equifax Credit/Score Watch since it was the same price. Friday, I received an email saying my score dropped significantly because of a filing by NCO. I called Equifax and they told me it is for a B of A checking account. I have never received anything from NCO about this, it just appeared on my credit report. There are two issues: (1) The date of the filing on Equifax of this supposed unpaid account is 12/2/2006. It didnt show up until Friday. Do I lose my right to contest this item with NCO or the CAs? (2) They have still never contacted me about this item. Do I contact them? (3) I have had a problem with NCO in the past, two days before a closing. It was erroneous and removed, but not before I walked out of closing with an interest rate 2.5% higher than what it was supposed to be. This was 4 years ago, and believe me, I wish I had known I could have sued a whole bunch of people. I want this item deleted from my CR. I dont owe this debt, but for $175 bucks I will just pay it to make it go away. I dont have the energy (or time) to go through this or any crap with the shameless BofA. Should I call NCO and offer Payment for Deletion? Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions about how to best approach this? I dont want to make mistakes in the process and lose any rights I may have. Thanks.
No, do not offer a pay for deletion insofar as NCO will not comply with such a request. Said request is unnecessary in any event. Inasmuch as NCO has not communicated with you regarding the debt, their tradeline constitutes the initial communication. Therefore, send them correspondence U.S. Mail Certified Article wherein you notice them that their tradeline is the initial communication and as such, they have five days from their receipt of your correspondence to mail you the amount of the debt, to whom it is owed, etc., etc. Moreover, include in the aforesaid communication that you dispute the validity of the debt and request validation and that all further collection activity must cease until it is received. Mention that further collection activity includes verification of any associated account tradeline. More importantly, state as well that any such verification will prompt you to forward the matter to counsel because the account is not owed by you. Courtesy Copy your state AG and the FTC. Dispute the tradeline with the credit reporting agencies. The tradeline will disappear in a week or so.
Thanks for responding. I just want to try to be clear for myself about what my rights are, etc. I have been reading for hours, but it is not all clear about the different acts (that seem rather toothless and put all the onus on the consumer) that presume the consumer is guilty until proven innocent. In any case, the tradeline is dated Dec 2 or 6 (12/2/06) (I dont have my CR in front of me). For some reason, it didnt show up until this past Friday (2/16/07). So I want to be clear that I should be dealing with NCO and not Bank of America (BofA), since the CR states the debt is from BofA. I changed banks b/c I simply could not deal with those people. Fleet was good but BofA? Well, that's another topic for a different board. However, the contact information is only for NCO. There is no contact information for BofA. Do I lose any right to confront BofA if they have made some mistake and simply "verify a debt" that is not real? I have had this happen many years ago, with AT&T. Apparently, all AT&T had to do was send in the bill that was not correct in the first place. That was the whole point. Finally, I filed with the NY State PSC, and after months of dealing with AT&T is was finally removed. And it wasnt removed while I was disputing it. I want to be sure I dont lose any rights to go after BofA, mostly because they made several mistakes on my account during the 14 months I dealt with them (that's why I bank with Commerce now). Also because I read in one of the Acts (FCRA?) that a financial institution has to follow certain rules. Does this only apply to credit cards? I hope this makes sense and that someone can confirm or make other suggestions about how to proceed and steps to take to ensure my rights. For example, do I file something and/or cc the State Banking Dept? Thanks again for any help.
This just happened to me also for an AT&T account I never had. I never received anything form NCO and sent the a DV. Two weeks later I received a letter from them stating the TL had been removed and my account closed.
esimo-- let us know how it goes for you. I also have a BoA/NCO collection on my reports, and I'm getting ready to dispute/request validation.
