CREDITWRENCH
Creditwrench teaches the secrets of the debt collection industry and how to defeat their abusive practices without lawyers. We know how to win!
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
How the creditwrench method works.

Returning Reported Item
Question: I have a charged off credit card debt that finally became too old to report in August of 2007 and stopped showing up on my credit report. Today I received a letter from a collections agency saying they now own the debt, requesting to verify the debt and threatening to report to my credit if it's not paid immediately. Can they really report it again to the credit bureaus now? Isn't it too old or does it start over from the date they bought it? Thanks!
Answer: They can buy the old debt and they can report it to the credit bureaus but if they do then they have illegally re-aged the listing. You could sue them in federal court for that.

So you received a letter from them and now the next step is not worrying about what they might report to the credit bureau but rather seeing to it that you get a validation/dispute letter off to them within the 30 day time limit allowed before they do have the right to assume the debt is valid and proceed with collection activity.

You also need to worry about whether or not that initial contact letter carried the full Miranda notice either on the face of it or on the reverse side of it.

They can continue collection activity until such a time as they have received your validation/dispute letter.

Since there is no requirement that they even reply to your letter what are you going to do if you don't get a response from them? Are you just going to sit there and wait forever or what?

My students learn that although there is no requirement that they ever reply nobody wants to wait forever to get such matters resolved so they wait 30 days and then send out what is known as an estoppel letter.

Estoppel letters have no force or effect and no legal basis either but the do look frightening and serve as a reminder that you are wanting them to respond to your validation letter.

If they don't respond to that within 15 days we send out 2 more letters. One goes to the oiginal creditor and outlines all of the violations that the debt collector they hired has committed and a carbon copy goes to the debt collector. The intent here is to hopefully cause the creditor to become unhappy with the debt collector and either call or send him a sharply worded message saying that if the debt collector don't comply with law he won't get any more business from the creditor.

If my students don't get any response from the debt collector after that within 15 more days the student sends out an intent to sue letter and a copy of the properly prepared federal case which he will file if there is still no response from the debt collector. To add emphasis to the intent to sue the letter is also accompanied by a waiver of service of summons for the debt collector to fill out and return if he wants to save the cost of being served with the summons.

If that don't wake the fool up the student moves forward with his federal lawsuit against the debt collector by actually filing in federal court.

In your case you could also include an FCRA violation complaint if they have illegally re-aged the debt. That will make the cheese much more binding for them.

Of course, once served with a summons to federal court the debt collector must answer timely or the student can file a motion for default judgnent. Debt collectors who are sued in federal courts for violations of various kinds often ignorantly respond with a statement of some kind saying that the plaintiff student owes them money or that they have a judgment against the student and the court promptly tells them that such pleadings are irrelevant and not allowed because the only issue before the court is whether or not they broke the law and the court does not want to hear any such irrelevant arguments.

Taking them to federal court is the way to win against debt collectors. Do it to them before they do it to you.

Now then, what web site or message forum is going to take you by the hand and teach you how to do all of that and much, much more?

Bill Bauer
405-684-9297
405-227-9423

RECOMMENDED READING:
How judgments work
18 questions to ask debt collectors every time they call.
How to defeat debt collectors
Objections is a Q & A game that will teach you what to object to in court.

LISTEN TO THESE CREDITWRENCH STUDENTS CHAT ON OUR FRIDAY NIGHT CONFERENCE CALLS.

Creditwrench Student Mike Mirras tells about how creditwrench works on our Friday night conference call.
Andrea talks about her day in court

Statute of Limitations for all states
Statute of limitations for all states

How to set up your hard drive for creditwrench files. Makes them easy to find.
A diagram of how to set up your hard drive
The Creditwrench conference calls will start this coming Friday evening at 7 P.M. Central time. It is free and open to the public. There is no cost or obligation other than what it may cost you for the phone call itself. You can join in and ask questions or just listen or whatever you want to do.

Dial-in Number: (712) 432-1601
Access code: 508548#

You might also want to visit our message forum at http://consumers.creditwrench.com to get answers to questions you need answered before next Friday night.

If you live within driving distance of Oklahoma City you can also come to our monthly meeting of the Oklahoma City Chapter of Jurisdictionary meetings. They are held on the 2nd Thursday of each month at Coit's Root Beer Stand which is located on the corner of SW 24th & Western Ave in Oklahoma City. The meetings start promptly at 7:00 P.M. and last for 2 hours. Attendees usually arrive about half an hour early so they can enjoy a good meal at Coit's Root Beer Stand. The meetings are free and open to the public and we can discuss your problems as well if you like.

We are going to start holding mock trials so that you can learn some court room procedures.



Written at 10:56 PM by Creditwrench.