Hi everyone..... After negotiating two $35 collections with a CA to no avail, I steped up my attack with a validation letter last week. Before I get killed on the morality issue, I honestly didn't know about the two medical bills - they were sent to a wrong address. Privista has just informed me that this CA pulled a HARD inquiry on the 14th! Maybe I am overreacting, but could this mean they are on the verge of deleting it? Has anyone had experience in this matter? They already know that they reported it, why would they pull my file unless they were gonna make a change? Any ideas? Tom
Well, I would not count on the fact they plan on deleting just because you disputed with them. I'd guess they pulled it just to see if it was still there or if you had gotten it knocked off somehow and if they found out that you did get it knocked off they would have put it back on in a hurry. That makes more logical sense to me, although I don't really have any more idea then you do as to why. Your validation letter all by itself isn't likely to get anything done. There is a whole list of things that you may have to do after the validation letter is sent in order to force them to eat the debt and wipe it off your credit history. Validation letters themselves are just about worthless if you don't do the followups.
I know how you feel. let me know if I was right when you get the answer if you ever do. I doubt you will get the answer from them, so if I don't hear more on this I'll figure I was right. If they up and delete, then I will know I was wrong. I may not always be right, but I'm never wrong. (LOL)
Bill.... The more I think about it, the more I think you're right. They pulled the inquiry on the 14th (9 days ago). If they were gonna delete, they probably would have done so by now. Should I send a follow-up letter since they have not yet responded to the initial validation letter? If so, what do I say? Tom
yeah, tell them they have failed to validate the debt, get it off your credit report, and their inquiry also. Document it so you can take it to the CRA. Document that too, LOL. breeze
Now you are asking me for my trade secrets. That's what I do, get rid of the debt first, make them eat it or get up off of your case, whichever and then go after the credit bureau for deletion. The way I go at it, if the collector owns the debt, I make him eat it. If he don't own it, then I make him either pay for it anyway or make him turn it back to wherever he got it. But get rid of the collector and you don't have any more problems. After all, if the CRA can't get a validation then they don't have any choice but to delete. Eventually, somebody is going to eat that debt in it's entirety. I don't care who that ends up being, just so they say in writing that I don't owe it anymore. Deletions are easy then.
Thanks breeze.... Ya know what? Upon closer review of the two entries, the "assigned date" is 5/2000. However, the "balance date" and "status date" are both 6/2001. Is this legal? Can this be done? Wouldn't the balance date be the same as the assignment date? The balance never changed. Tom
A collection agency that I have been battling for a year now recently inserted another hard inquiry (coded REA). I C&D the collection agency some months ago, since it appeared that the original creditor never credited payment. I then took it up with the creditor, who has yet to respond. I am currently disputing this every which way but up..this is for a utility bill, so I am involving some regulatory agency as well. I will let you know when I have results, but it really is frustrating to have these people keep pulling hard inquiries. BTW, this shows up as a hard inquiry on my actual Equifax, but is nowhere on privista, which is partnered with Equifax.
I"m fighting with a pair of utility bills now from;the gas company. ONe is for the wife's beauty shop and the other is for the house. The gas company announced that it was going to be making the bills for the summer time much higher in order to make up for what they claimed they lost during the winter when the Corporation Commission wouldn't let them raise the winter rates anymore. So I figured "to hell will that" and just didn't pay the bills and they shut them off. So I figured I'd just wait tll the fall and pay them when the weather gets cold again. I've done that before years back. There never was a problem with me doing that. This time, they sent both to a collection agency instead of waiting. So now I'll see if I can make the collection agency eat the bill since it's nothing more than an office of theirs as far as I know. Figured I'd just have some fun with them. Way it will probably work out is that I'll beat the collection agency into submission, make them pay the bill for us and then come fall I'll still have to pay the bill in order to get the gas turned back on. If that's so, I'll have some more fun with them. I'll just go get the gas turned back on a little early this time so it don't get too cold on me before the fight is over if it does happen. This should be fun either way.
Just an update.... The validation letter appears to be working. I called the CA today regarding my inquiry. He tried to spout off about not needing my permission. I quickly said, thanks to this board, that I knew but I wanted to know the "permissable purpose" for the HARD inquiry, why not an "AR"? He claimed to not know the difference. - I quickly gave him a lesson and then he knew I was serious. He said they were investigating my request and tried to tell me I should have done this 2 years ago when I got the original letter from them. I told him I still had the right to dispute and he backed off. After explaining that I have a copy of the original $35 bill with the wrong address, he really started to backpedal. I told him I would simply send it as proff and get the entries removed WITHOUT paying them a dime! Suddenly, he was a pretty cool dude. He said for me to fax a copy of a bill from 1999 that has my correct address on it and they could probably "make an exception" and delete. I made it sound like I didn't have any from then but told him I'd try. I immediately called my student loan folks and they are faxing me a copy of a statement from that timeframe. It really is quite fun to put CAs on the run! Thanks to this board, it looks like I'll win this round! Tom
Good for you Tom! Next time you talk to them, tell them that "re-aging the debt" is illegal and that there is a big fine for it, and if you want to make an issue out of it you can, so they better just delete everything. breeze
Thanks breeze.... It's because of you and many others here that I gained the courage to start fighting this war. Tom
Next time you need to get out the really big guns like this guy did. http://www.creditwrench.com/newcrdrepair.jpg (LOL)
