Hi guys, Here's my situation. MY wife has an old citibank visa charge-off from 1996. We were contacted about 1 1/2 months ago by challenger/ collections and they wanted a payment towards a $2700 bal. or they were going ahead with legal steps (yeah right). This was before I knew about SOL. So my wife western unioned a small payment. So now this debt is back in statute. I guess thats not such a big deal because I want her to take care of this bad debt anyway. But here's my dilema, can we still ask for a validation of this debt? Or have we validated it by sending them one payment. I know this company just aquired the debt because their name is not yet on her credit report. Also this is the 3rd company to own it since citibank charged her off. I think my chances of them not having proof of the debt would be good if I still have the right to request it. Anyway, any advice would be great! you guys are the best. Thanks
It would be worthwhile to attempt the "validation" route. Also it would be prudent to ask for proof of this indebtness before sending any other payment and if they can't produce................ It could be argued that the payment you sent was fraudulently obtained if they can't produce copies of the original charge card application with her signature etc. and I would demand payment back if they can't produce it - but then I'm a real bastard. Venceremos, Maximus
Here's the deal. By sending in payment you've now agreed to several things. You've created a novation, a new agreement, that the collection company can collect (has a right to collect) this debt. You've agreed to the assignment by sending payment so you've just waived one of your affirmative defenses and yes, you just restarted the sol clock. BUT, if I were you, I'd try the validation route anyway. If they can't validate the debt you can say they were coercing and lying about the debt to you. I'd also request original documents from the original creditor. If the original creditor doesn't have the info you could say the collection company misrepresented the info over the phone and you could proactively sue both the original creditor and the collection company If they sue you and this ever goes to court that way, I believe you may have given up a lot of rights by simply making that one payment... but I agree that it's worth a try to validate anyway. Is western Union something that leaves a big paper trail? or did you just send in a money order? If there's no big paper trail you might be able to deny the payment once they've cashed it (I doubt they'd have copies of the payment) but just be prepared that you may now have to deal with the collection agency. The other route now, is you could also just negotiate a smaller lump sum settlement with the requirement of full removal of all CRA info (esp if you've been disputing the account). It leaves them with a reason why they're deleting the account... it's in dispute. But if you try a validation and they can't provide proof, be a sob and sue them first. They'll back down and clear your credit in the process. You just have to learn to be the aggressor.
