In January, I sent a letter to NCO Financial regarding my Capital One account that was sent to them in collection. After trying verification through the credit bureaus twice, it came back verified each time and in return, they sicced the dreaded NCO on me. This account kept me from getting a mortgage, so I PFB'd Cap One in order to work out a settlement. But when I looked up my document folder, I found that I sent this letter to NCO in January. Is it too late to use the estoppel on them? The account is not being shown in collection on any of my reports; it is showing as Capital One. What should I do?
You can go one of two ways on this. One: you can validate with NCO. They will not be able to report it on your credit report while the validation process is happening because that would be considered "collection activity" and they would be in violation. As for Capital One they are already in violation because they assigned the account to a collection agency without providing validation after you requested it. They are others on this board who have far more experience than I but I would think you might have a lawsuit on Cap 1. You can use this for leverage to get a deletion. Also is the cap1 account being reported as "in dispute" on your credit report? If not, you have another violation on them.
If I'm understanding you correctly, you've simply disputed the tradeline with the CRAs. It's not time for estoppel. First, you might want to try a formal validation sequence with the CA directly. To tease this out with a quick mental map: Track 1: Send disputes to CRAs, per the FCRA. Follow up with "procedural requests" (where you ask, basically, how they managed to verify something that's obviously incorrect as well as who provided the information). Follow up that with small claims suits, lol. Track 2: Send requests for validation to CAs directly, per the FDCPA. Follow up in 30 days with validation #2 and a formal legal pleading (or go to estoppel directly). Follow that up in another 30 days with estoppel and intent to sue. Follow that up with sending evidence of lack of validation to CRAs. Follow that up with small claims suits against CA or CRAs or both. Hope this ridiculously simplified schematic helps organize your thoughts about this. If I'm preaching to the choir and you know all this, forgive me -- maybe it will be useful then to somebody else. Doc
I've done it again with the longwindedness. Robin came in there and said it better than I did but with 50% fewer words. When will I ever learn, lol? Doc
By validation, do you mean that they have not sent verification with some form of signature or just the usual credit bureau b.s. Also, I sent this request to NCO, not Capital One. I didn't use the certified mail/retun receipt option. I also sent a letter at the same time concerning an account that my wife has through Cap One as well. After a couple of online disputes, this account came up verified by the CRB's and then NCO started collection activities. Advice?
