Hey there fellas, I need your guidance taking on my CA's. First off, however, I'd like to shed some light on my situation: I had three cards, all of which I've gone bad on and had subsequently turned-over to CA's. I was an idiot who didn't prioritize when things got tough for me and that combined with the lack of fiscal responsibility I acquired from my parents caused me to screw myself. At the time I acquired the cards, I started worked on building a house and the income arrangement was so that my payment would take place at the end of the project once the place refinanced for more than it was worth when started so the only source of income I had was form work on the weekends to make money for living costs, my cards, etc. Things got to the point where I was in over my head and just couldn't make payments on the cards. My debt grew to about $1500 when I gave up on them and now with interest, I owe just about $2500. Needless to say, I was an idiot for getting myself into the situation I was in. I take full responsibility and I plan to rectify it. With that being said, I'm ready to get things taken care of and I'd like to get on a path to successful credit repair and a healthy credit future. My unpaid debts are as follows: -Bank of America credit card turned over to Asset Acceptance, LLC. The current balance is $1420.02 and they're offering to settle it for $899.00 -Credit One Bank credit card turned over to Northland Group INC. which is dealing with it for LVNV Funding LLC. The current balance on that one is $613.79 and they're offering a settlement of $245.52 -Capitol One Bank credit card turned over to MCM. I owe $813.59 on that one and they offered to settle it for $488.15 I was literally entering in my information to pay the settlement amounts on one of their websites but something distracted me and I ended up stumbling upon this site. After a couple of hours of reading I was slightly informed and realized that there are ways to deal with them. My first ideas on going on about it are to send out PFD's using the provided templates and wait to hear back from them. After reading I saw that I should only contact them through writing and demand that it be the only way they respond to me. Are there and other things for me to consider when taking the first step, if this is even the first step? Any of your advice or help will be greatly appreciated! I'll pay the deed forward somehow and report it to you guys if everything works out! THANK YOU!!! UPDATE: I looked at my CR and saw the accounts were charged-off with each of the companies. Obviously they are with CA's so I have a total of 6 negatives on my CR. My score is 548.
Welcome to Creditnet! The first step would be to send debt validation letters to each of the CAs in order to protect your rights under the FDCPA. You also want to make sure that each of the CAs really does have the right to collect your debt before you pay them a dime. Have you done that yet? If not, I would draft your DV letters, send them CMRRR, and then see what happens before deciding which step to take next. When did you receive the settlement offers from each of these CAs?
Thanks for taking the time to reply Josh! It's greatly appreciated! I just filled out a template for the DV and I'll send the three of them CMRRR tomorrow(6/11). I started to receive the settlement offers a couple of years ago but chose to (stupidly) ignore them. Here is the sample DV I used: June 13, 2001 Your Name 123 Your Street Address Your City, ST 01234 ABC Collections 123 NotOnYourLife Ave Chicago, IL Date Re: Acct # XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX To Whom It May Concern: This letter is being sent to you in response to a notice sent to me on September 30, 2002). Be advised that this is not a refusal to pay, but a notice sent pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 USC 1692g Sec. 809 (b) that your claim is disputed and validation is requested. This is NOT a request for “verification” or proof of my mailing address, but a request for VALIDATION made pursuant to the above named Title and Section. I respectfully request that your offices provide me with competent evidence that I have any legal obligation to pay you. Please provide me with the following: What the money you say I owe is for; Explain and show me how you calculated what you say I owe; Provide me with copies of any papers that show I agreed to pay what you say I owe; Provide a verification or copy of any judgment if applicable; Identify the original creditor; Prove the Statute of Limitations has not expired on this account Show me that you are licensed to collect in my state Provide me with your license numbers and Registered Agent At this time I will also inform you that if your offices have reported invalidated information to any of the 3 major Credit Bureau’s (Equifax, Experian or TransUnion) this action might constitute fraud under both Federal and State Laws. Due to this fact, if any negative mark is found on any of my credit reports by your company or the company that you represent I will not hesitate in bringing legal action against you for the following: Violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act Violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act Defamation of Character If your offices are able to provide the proper documentation as requested in the following Declaration, I will require at least 30 days to investigate this information and during such time all collection activity must cease and desist. Also during this validation period, if any action is taken which could be considered detrimental to any of my credit reports, I will consult with my legal counsel for suit. This includes any listing any information to a credit reporting repository that could be inaccurate or invalidated or verifying an account as accurate when in fact there is no provided proof that it is. If your offices fail to respond to this validation request within 30 days from the date of your receipt, all references to this account must be deleted and completely removed from my credit file and a copy of such deletion request shall be sent to me immediately. I would also like to request, in writing, that no telephone contact be made by your offices to my home or to my place of employment. If your offices attempt telephone communication with me, including but not limited to computer generated calls and calls or correspondence sent to or with any third parties, it will be considered harassment and I will have no choice but to file suit. All future communications with me MUST be done in writing and sent to the address noted in this letter by USPS. It would be advisable that you assure that your records are in order before I am forced to take legal action. This is an attempt to correct your records, any information obtained shall be used for that purpose. Best Regards, Your Signature Your Name
The most interesting one is Credit One (OWNED BY SHERMAN) turning your account over to Northland, who assigns the account back to LVNV Funding (Sherman). It's really hard to base an attack plan without most of the trade line information. The best option is to look at the three trade lines, and how they are reporting on all three CRAs, to weed out any variations that there are. Dispute those variations on all three CRAs (because you don't know which of the three is right, and which of the three are wrong).
Please look at the many discussions here on some of the 'interrogatories' in that form letter. My personal preference is not to send a form letter that I don't understand every single word of. Sometimes the easiest is better, although my standard letter of my own comes in at one page, it's been developed meticulously by me over the past three years. "Hey, I just got your letter, and I don't know WTF you are talking about?"
UGH! I tried to post photos of my CR from each of the big three and I can't yet because I don't have an adaquate number of posts.
I also looked up the interrogatories letters and saw that I can use the one I had as toilet paper! I re-wrote it and it goes as follows: To Whom It May Concern: This letter is being sent to you in response to a notice I received on May 23, 2012. I am not refusing to pay, however, I like to notify you that your claim is disputed and validation for it is requested. I’m not requesting “verification” or proof of my mailing address; I respectfully request that your offices provide me with competent evidence that I have any legal obligation to pay you. I would also like to request, in writing, that no telephone contact be made by your offices to my home or to my place of employment. All future communications with me MUST be done in writing and sent to the address noted in this letter by USPS. Best Regards, Me
Jam, thanks for your input. Here are images of the CR's. Sorry I posted them like this. I tried to copy and paste the report itself but it would only capture partial information hence the reason I had to resort to this. Here is tradeline info from Equifax: Bank of America: http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/michalczukcamil/477247e6.jpg Turned over to Asset Acceptance: http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/michalczukcamil/3078464a.jpg Capital One: http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/michalczukcamil/cd7495cd.jpg Turned over to MCM: http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/michalczukcamil/ac58acd3.jpg Credit One: http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/michalczukcamil/e39bde15.jpg Turned over to LVNV(taken care of by Northland Group, INC): http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/michalczukcamil/c5cdad04.jpg Experian: Bank of America: http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/michalczukcamil/d8f2fb43.jpg Turned over to Asset Acceptance: http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/michalczukcamil/48266cf8.jpg Capital One: http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/michalczukcamil/a981938c.jpg Turned over to MCM: http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/michalczukcamil/cce238f9.jpg Credit One: http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/michalczukcamil/e88b8b9a.jpg Turned over to LVNV(Northland Group INC.): http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/michalczukcamil/5709f2be.jpg SIDENOTE: Experian also showed my Bank of America account in the good-standing section. I found that quite weird. Transunion: Bank of America: http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/michalczukcamil/a8030a04.jpg Turned over to Asset Acceptance: http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/michalczukcamil/e6d8f780.jpg Capital One: http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/michalczukcamil/5400f5a7.jpg Turned over to MCM: http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/michalczukcamil/8499d984.jpg Credit One: http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/michalczukcamil/d6db6d44.jpg Turned over to LVNV(under Northland Group, INC.): http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/michalczukcamil/b169927a.jpg
Update guys: As you know I've already sent out the cmrrr DV letters and all three agencies have gotten them. The only response I've gotten was from MCM. I can't recall if they responded with proper validation but the did state that the were upgrading the status of my account to "disputed". That's all I have for now and I'm waiting to heard back from the others!!!!
Update: 7/5 So far guys, I've heard back from MCM and LVNV funding which has placed my account with Resurgent Capital Services. They have included a verification of debt. MCM has sent me a notice claiming that they are upgrading the status of my account to "disputed" with the big three. I don't know if it contains proper validation because all they state is the original creditor, which is Capitol One Bank, the original account number, the MCM account number, and my current balance. As for LVNV, they've included documents stating that the account is now with Resurgent. They also included that LVNV ows the account, the account number, the original creditor(Credit One Bank) and that it was acquired from FNBM llc. The account balance was there as well. What do you guys suggest I do at this point? I'm still waiting to hear from Northland Group Inc. but I'd like to tackle the other two in the interim. Thanks so much for your help so far.
If you feel satisfied with their responses to your DV letters, then the next step would be to try and negotiate PFDs so you can get these debts taken care of once and for all.
