I have a question. There is a collection for Pacbell on my CR from two out of the three CRAs that is showing UNPAID. I know for a fact that It has been PAID because I had to pay it in order to get my phone turned on 3 years ago. I sent a dispute letter to the CRAs as "Not Mine". I am hoping that it comes back verified. If it does, I'm going to send a validation letter to Pacbell, which should come back showing PAID. If this happens, do I have a lawsuit against the CRAs for not actually verifying? Also, the disputes were sent a few weeks ago. Should I send the validation to Pacbell now, or wait to see what comes of my disputes?
You would have a lawsuit against someone, but you wouldn't know who yet. If you really want to sue for money, then you could do it. Otherwise, you might be able to get a deletion out of this without going to court--I had this same thing happen to me six months ago. CA promised they weren't verifying--3 times in a row even. Anyway... It could be that the CA is verifying the debt UNPAID even when they know it's paid. It could be that the CRA just isn't doing what they're supposed to. Need to find out who it is breaking the law before you file against anyone. So, if it comes back verified UNPAID you'll need to send a procedure request letter (available in the sample letters section) to the CRA's to find out exactly who they contacted, when, etc. If you want to make a lawsuit out of it, you've got some nice ammunition when it comes back. Well, either way you've got some nice ammunition. Send a letter to the CA, along with copies of your procedural request results, and tell them if they don't send back a signed letter stating they never recieved a request for verification from the CRA, you're suing them for violating the FCRA by providing information they knew to be false to a CRA. If they send you a signed letter, you can then send that to the CRA as evidence for deletion. Or sue the CRA. Up to you. In my case, the CA called me and offered full deletion if I promised not to sue. I took it, and told them to send me that in writing--damn thing vanished from my report before I got their letter. -- cnswift PS- There may be a better way to go about all of this, this is just how I did it--and it worked for me.
