Robert
Irvine,#2Consumer Comment
Thu, May 08, 2008
Here is the Simple yet time consuming process you need to do. The first thing is to send in a Dispute to the Credit Reporting Agencies. State that this is not your account. They have 30 days to respond, most likey it will come back as verified and remain. But now you can do the next step. Send the collection agency a Debt Validation Request. In the letter state that they must provide the following 1. That they have a right to collect the debt. 2. That the debt is in fact yours, such as a signed agreement or statements 3. That the amount of the debt is correct. While not directly part of the validation process you should also include in this letter that they are to not contact you or anyone else in reference to this account by phone. Until they respond with proof they can take no further action against you. If they have not responded after 30 days you can send in another letter to the Credit Reporting Agencies stating that you sent them a debt validation letter and they did not respond. At that time the CRA is required to remove the listing. One important thing(and the main thing you did wrong) is that you should NEVER talk to these people by phone. The letters you send should always be by Certified Mail with a Return Receipt. This way you have a paper trail that can be followed up. You can search for information on the FCRA(Fair Credit Reporting Act) and FDCPA(Fair Debt Collection Practices Act) for more information.