If you haven't taken action yet and assuming there's no judgment, request a Validation of the debt and (you use a letter and a creditor disclosure statement). Basically, you make them prove it or lose it. 99/100 they can't and unless you have made an agreement with the collection company, you didn't agree to do business with them anyway (a little known fact.. you actually don't owe a collection company even if they did buy the debt). This is an amazing tactic I just learned and I got rid of entries/ accounts with balances because if they can't validate the debt, it disappears. Not just the credit entry, the entire debt goes away. If the original creditor ever tries to get a judgment and the collection company/or original creditor didn't validate the debt you have a VERY strong defense that there is no debt at all. Look at www.dueprocess.org for the letter also, this website saved me lots of money! and the basic info is free and it works!!!http://www.primenet.com/~kielsky/credit/credit.html and for extra help the Yahoo group credit-repair answered lots too! Hope this helps! copied and pasted
Discussing collection agencies and novations and validations. the idea that, even though your credit card agreements states that your account can be assigned, it doesn't state to whom... so then the idea continues that you have NO obligation to deal with a collection agency, you have derived no benefit, you have no agreement specifically with the collection agency unless you've done a novation... a new agreement, by agreeing it's your debt (with them) normally in writing though they'll assert you did it verbally, or by creating a novation by making a payment to the collection agency... so then... the idea is that you request a validation from the collection agency instead of our old tactics of dealing with them...
By the way, there's also another idea here and that's that, when a creditor sells your account then it's "accord and satisfaction"... or in other words, your debt is satisfied or paid by the collection agency... so then how can the collection agency put "itself in harms way" and expect to collect on the full debt. It really is brilliant and even if there are technical issues with the defenses, you have defenses. Most people get to court with a collection agency and have no defense at all. this way you can say you've requested validation, they've proved nothing, and you have call logs and letters to back you up. normally collectors will go for low hanging fruit and pass on you anyway because you're going to be a pain... or they take you to court and you have a defense and likely counterclaims of FDCPA and FCRA violations and you walk away with money... Being so aggressive with companies, I must say, I enjoy it so much and... I have borrowed Lizardking's attitude
I have a question about this part? If it's paid by the collection agency how or why does the original creditor continue to list it with a balance as past due 120+ days late 30 times or whatever. I have 4 CC's being listed this way, by the original creditor and the CA. Or am I just hoping against hope here?
I hope this answers your question. some creditors appear to be "hiring out" charge offs and deliquent accounts . Kind of like we do not get paid if you do not get paid .you know like some lawyers do. If they can not handle the case, or in this case ,get the person to pay or can not validate as the customer request they give it back to the creditor. read my original post for lizardking's what to do next.
