December 13, 2001 Dear Ms. Xxxxx Re Account xxxxxxxxxxx I am in receipt of your letter dated November 28, 2001. I appreciate the opportunity to address your concern. Unfortunately, I have been unsuccessfully in my attempt to reach you by phone; therefore, I am responding by mail. In response to your request for competent evidence, which states you have a contractual obligation to pay BANKFIRST, I have enclosed a copy of the Cardmember Agreement (with NO signature), which was provided when your account was opened. Our primary process for establishing accounts is through telephone interaction. Telephonic application does not provide signatures, however as stated in the Cardmember Agreement, use of the card constitutes agreement to the terms and condition of the account. After a thorough review of your account, our records show your account charged off on October 31st, 2000 with a balance of 618. BANKFIRST reported the charged off status of your account to all 3 credit-reporting agencies. Please be assured we take our responsibility of reporting accurate account information very seriously. In regards to your request that BANKFIRST adjust your credit bureau file, please be advised that to report your account as current and under the established credit line would be falsifying bank records. Per the Fair Credit Reporting Act, as a credit grantor, BANKFIRST has a legal obligation to correctly report the status our accounts to the credit reporting agencies. I f you are disputing how your account information is reporting, please provide me with the details of your dispute so I may investigate further. If you no longer have copies of your statements detailing the charges and payments made, we will provide you with copies. Please notify our office if you need them. Our records indicate the monthly statements have been sent to the above listed address. The Fair Credit Billing Act outlines the consumerâ??s rights and our responsibility as a creditor when a billing error occurs. To preserve their billing rights, consumers must adhere to the following procedures when filing a billing dispute. Ã? A written dispute must be received within 60 days of after receipt of the first statement reflecting the billing error. The dispute must be sent the billing dispute address listed on the back of the monthly statement. Our billing error address is PO Box 5012 Sioux Falls, SD 57117. Ã? The dispute must include the consumerâ??s name, account number, description of the error, the amount, the date, and the reason why you believe there is an error. We currently have no record of a pending dispute on the above referenced account. Unless the details regarding a billing dispute are provided, we must consider the balance of the account accurate. We trust this information has sufficiently responded to your letter. I you have additional questions. Please contact me at xxxxxxxxx Sincerely Xxxxxxxx Executive Inquiry Unit
It is my understanding that you can not validate with the original creditor. Validation only applies to debt collectors, not the original creditor or internal collections. as per the FDCPA. The stuff about having a legal obligation to report is bull. The bank can choose not to report at all. Also remind her banks (probably hers to) re-age accounts all the time through CCCS programs. If she is so concerned about legality try the following: Write her and say that reporting the chargeoff date as the date of last activity is not legal. The bank was obligated within 90 days to report the month/year that immediately preceeded the chargeoff. Please remove the inaccurate listing. But before you do that, I need further info, did you pay this chargeoff or not? If not, you may be able to negotiate deletion for payment.
Okay I double-checked to be sure, but if this is the original creditor reporting your account to the CRAs you only have the FCRA to protect you. It does not require validatiion but verification (a much less stringent standard). That being said. (1) Section 623(a)(5) of the FCRA places an affirmative duty on creditors to report accurate information with respect to chargeoffs. If the last date of activity in the report is the 10/31/00 date the bank has failed its duty. It was supposed to report the correct date of delinquency within 90 days of it appearing on your credit report. (use this as a last resort) (2) You already informed the woman that the listing is inaccurate. She continued to report is as verified. FCRA requires that she has to indicate the information is disputed on your CR. In other words, she can not continue to report the debt as verified when it is under investigation. (try this right away....it may work) (3) She is merely restating bank records, not giving you anything proving the account is actually yours. You could have been the victim of fraud. Inform her that this is not a dispute under FCBA but a dispute under the FCRA and that she needs to "verify" that the account is your accordingly If you want to own up to the debt as being yours, you can always try partial payment for deletion. Hope this helps...Others feel free to chime in...I am a newbie (2 months but with success) to this.
I would let the biatch turn it over to collections. Tell her if she can't prove it, you won't pay it. t rust me, it'll go right into collection and then you have to get them to validate it and maybe even file a lawsuit.
I used this..................... ********************************* Re: Account #534xxxxxxxxxx To Whom It May Concern: This letter is being sent to you in response to a notice sent to me on November 28, 2001. This is not a refusal to pay, but a notice that your claim is disputed. This is a request for validation made pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Please complete the attached form and follow its instructions and your claim will be processed as soon as the information is received. Please be advised that I am not requesting â??verificationâ? that you have my mailing address, I am requesting a â??validationâ?, that is, competent evidence that I have some contractual obligation to pay you. You should also be aware that reporting such invalidated information to major credit bureaus might constitute fraud under Federal and State Law. You may wish to consult with a competent legal advisor before your next communication with me. Please also be aware that if any negative mark is found on any of my credit reports from your company, or any company that you represent, this will result in my filing an immediate lawsuit against you and your client for: · Violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act · Violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act · Defamation of Character · Negligent Enablement of Identity Fraud Pending the outcome of my investigation of any evidence that you submit, you are instructed to take no action that could be detrimental to any of my credit reports. Under the FDCPA, once a consumer attempts validation of an alleged debt, all collection activity must cease and desist. This includes listing any account with a credit-reporting repository that is inaccurate and invalidated. If you do not respond to this validation request within 30 days from the date of this request, all references to this account must be completely removed from my credit file. I suggest that you and (insert origanl creditor) get your records in order before I have to target you for legal action. Best Regards Your Name CC: Attorney Esquire CREDITOR/DEBT COLLECTOR DISCLOSURE STATEMENT Name and Address of Creditor:____________________________________________________ Name of Debtor: _______________________________________________________________ Account #: ___________________________________________________________________ Address of Debtor: _____________________________________________________________ Amount of debt purported to be owed: ______________________________________________ Date alleged debt became payable: ________________________________________________ Was this debt assigned to debt collector or purchased? ________________________________ Amount paid if debt was purchased: ________________________________________________ Commission for debt collector if collection efforts are successful: _________________________ · Please attach a copy of the agreement with your client that grants Credit Collections, Inc. the authority to collect this alleged debt. · Please attach a copy of any signed agreement debtor has made with debt collector, or other verifiable proof that debtor has a contractual obligation to pay debt collector. · Please attach a copy of any agreement that bears the signature of debtor, wherein he/she agreed to pay creditor. · Please attach copies of all statements while this account was open. Have any insurance claims been made by any creditor regarding this account? YES NO Have any judgments been obtained by any creditor regarding this account? YES NO Please provide the name and address of the bonding agent for Bank of America in case legal action becomes necessary: __________________________________________________ ______________________________ Authorized Signature For Creditor ______________________________ Date Please return this completed form and attach all requested information, assignment or other transfer agreements, which would establish your right to collect this alleged debt within 30 days from the date of this letter. Your claim cannot be considered if any portion of this form is not completed and returned with copies of all requested documents. This is a request for validation made pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. If you do not respond as required by law, your claim will not be considered and you may be liable for damages for continued collection efforts. Please allow 30 days for processing after I receive this information back.
Okay, technically this letter is intended to be used with collection agencies, not the original creditor, although sometimes it works with the original creditor, if they aren't aware of the laws. This company is aware of the laws. If they have transaction records, then they have acceptable proof as far as a court is concerned. You can insist that the account is not yours, but I don't think they're going to fall for it. I think if you have the money to pay it off, negotiating payment for deletion is probably your best bet. There is a letter for that floating around. This debt is really too recent for a lot of this to work easily. You are going to have a fight on your hands, and you could get yourself sued for the debt unless you are very careful, IMO. Watch out who you listen to, and don't go flying off in all directions thinking you can swat them down with a few letters and an attitude. Unless you want to employ the bill bauer/due process method, you've got to go slow and easy with a debt this recent.
Yep. Everything Breeze said I agree with. I also think your best bet would be to try and negotiate a payment for deletion. I have had to do the same thing. You are in a pretty good negotiating position. You have what they want - moola. So, the chances are you can get a decent settlement for deletion. Good luck.
Re: Validation Respon Please Read H What breeze and LKH said. Pay special attention to the part about being careful who you listen to. Since you're dealing with the original creditor and the debt is so new, I'd forget about "not-mining" my way out of paying back the borrowed money. Settling is the way to go if, as breeze said, you can do it slowly and without precipitating a lawsuit/judgment/etc. Doc
Re: Validation Respon Please Read H Also., if you make any agreements with them, make sure you get it in writing, in case they try to weasel out of it later.
somebody posted one a while back. Maybe they will pipe up and post a link for you. I searched - I can't remember who it was. But it was good!!
OK, I am all for settling but my issue with NOT recommending this is: The tone of the letter. The lies this rep expects our new member to fall for: "falsifying" This is going to be the same type of people who will: Refuse deletion and manipulate her into paying it. Dishonor their own agreement. I think these people are already unreasonable because of how they talked to her. This is why I don't recommend trying to deal with this woman and settling. I got a really bad feeling by the tone of this letter.
I thought the letter was very businesslike. The rep is right. They don't always respond like we want them to. What lies? Everything she said is true. They are not supposed to report inaccurate information. We have to deal with reality as it is, not as we wish it would be.
. Yeah I thought about letting it go to collections, but hell if it was charged off over a year ago, why is it not in collections now?
Maybe there is a tend developing, where more and more creditors will decide to collect their own debts? Tuit
Saying falsifying and other things only perpetuates the myth that we have to bow down to creditors and do things their way. It is a lie that the credit bureaus have the creditors push onto us.
Yeah, but I think personally that it is the Creditors responsibility to provided SIGNED documents. I could have been a victim of Fraud.
