I have had a old collection from PALISADE for my AT&T cell phone bill... It has been on my credit report for almost more than 2-3yrs. A few months ago I came across a credit repair board and found it very helpfull and with took some of the idea from there and got rid of some old collections from my report! I finally send PALISADE a DV letter... A week later the collection had gone off my report and my scores jumped!! I was really happy to see that and thought they could not validate the debt and so just took it off my report! A few days a ago I went to check my mail box and there was a big envolope from them, which bascially had copies of all my bills with ATT!!! WHAT DO I DO NOW! this basically means they have validated my request and now I am afraid that they might put the collection back in my report if I dont act fast.. I want to know what my next options are, should I just call them and try to settle with them for a lesser amount, or are there any other tools that I can use to my advantage!
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You should immediately pull out your credit report and check whether the listing is there. If you find the debt listed in your credit report, you can again send a debt validation letter by certified mail and get it removed from your report. As per the FDCP Act, if the creditor cannot validate the debt within 30 days of receipt of the DV letter, you are not liable to him for the debt. Now as you say that 3 years has already passed, it means that your SOL might have expired and if the SOL expires, you should not pay even a single amount because if you pay, the SOL may rewind and the Palisade can sue you to the court and bring judgment against you to recover the debt.
Sending you bills does not mean that they have validated your debt. Validating the debt means that Palisade must first prove that the debt has been sold by AT&T to them. They need to mention the amount of outstanding debt and they need to send you documents which they have got from the original creditor. Can you tell me after how many days they have send you the bills from the date you have asked for validation.
Thanks for your response anthony!! They send the the bill within the required 30 days that I stated on the letter! And guess what as I am typing this they updated my credit file again and put the collection back on!!! Can you please suggest me what step I can take now, I am willing to settle with them as the debt is mine but I do not remember the amount being more than $2000!!!
Thanks for your response Mary!! They had removed it from my report (within 30 days)as soon as they received my letter, but now they put it back again on the report. So wht do i do now, Should I just let the collection sit on my report (which I dont want to as my score has gone down)!!
The bill is probaly a lot higher due to interest and other charges. You need to do as Justin says and send them a DV letter by CERTIFIED mail. That way if they do not validate with in the 30 days then they can not continue to try and collect from you. What state are you from so we can check the SOL in your state?
Thanks fireyone! As I said I alrady sent DV by certified mail last month, and they verified by send the bill, and now they put the collectionn back again in my credit report! When I used ATT i was in chicago, IL but i recently moved to Minneapolis, MN
Once a debt goes into collection it will raise to a tremendous amount. You may have only owed $300. If you owe money, and in your heart you know it. You should pay it.
If you want to handle it yourself, then do your best to settle it minus all of the fees. You need to create a budget and statement showing what you really owed to begin with. That should knock the bill in half.
Once you agree to a price; make sure they have it removed from your report. Most companies will avoid it, but all they need to do is type it in their contract.
We provide this for all of our clients on all of the debt they owe. We get it settled as low as 30 cents on the dollar and get it removed from their report.
www.amgconsultinggroup.com
That is a pretty awesome rate. Thirty cents ont he dollar. What are your charges to accomplish this and why coluldn't a person do it on their own?
A person can do everything on his own. A person can change their own oil. A person can wash their own car. I prefer to do everything on my own, but their are moments in life when you just don't have time and you want to just get it done right and well.
I have a 5 month program that totals $499.00. We only require a $99 deposit to start. We act as your advocate to get your debt cleared and credit improved. We don't sit back and expect things to fall off from dispute letters. After we verify the debt, we negotiate to get it reduced and paid off and removed from your report.
"www.AMGconsultinggroup.com"
If you have any advice to give to the forum members it would be greatly appreciated. I think that most of the senior members here have got their debt pretty much under control and are here to pass those lessons learned onto the new people that come on to the site with the burdens that come along with debt.
So since you apparently work in this field, your expertise here will be more than welcomed. Glad to have you aboard and look forward to see your posts advising people in bad credit situations on how to handle it and get through with out costs. Again, welcome aboard.
Excellent post Gn.
Just would like to see some of these guys come on and actually help some one out instead of soliciting business for themselves or some other company.
Hi Jinal
You should not allow any unauthorized negative listing in your credit report as it would reduce your credit score. They might have put in a new debt in your credit report. If it is so, then you should send a DV letter again by certified mail and if they validate it, you should come to a repayment agreement to pay it back. But if they have put in the same debt again which they have not yet validated, you should send them another letter telling them that they are in violation of the FDCP Act and you will file a lawsuit if they fail to remove the negative listing from your credit report.
Yes, I agree with you Mary. After you send the second letter the creditor, you should wait for at least 15 to 20 days for their response. Mostly, you will see that the Collection Agencies after receiving your second letter will agree to remove the listing from the report if they cannot validate the debt, by sending you letter that they agree to remove the listing. Now you should send a dispute letter along with the copy of the letter you got from the CA to the credit bureaus and the credit bureaus will remove the listing from your report.
Isn't it a shame that you have to do this twice to get any results?
Hi Mary,
Thanks for your reply. I already send a dv letter once and they validated that by send me the bill from ATT. Now they put the same collection back again on my report. Can I send them a dispute letter once again even though they validated my last dispute...
Validation does not mean that they will only send you the outstanding bill. In addition to sending you the bill the CA must also send you the proof that they have been given the right to collect the debt or the debt has been sold off to him by the original creditor. You should send a dispute letter by certified mail asking them for the proof that they actually owes you debt.
Some of them will use a copy of the outstanding bill because when they bought the debt they didn't get the proper proof top validate it to go along with it.
debt
Ok..I think I read the thread a FEW times, now. i think ANTHONY said the bill, ITSELF, is not a form of Validation. That the CA's have to prove that part of it. FIREYONE.....if the Validation is NOT a bogus one, where would it say this..I mean, on the bill, attached to another piece of papaer,etc? Hope I'm asking this clearly.
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BTW...ANTHONY, I have seen your responses, to many OTHER issues, in the forum. I want to tell ya your advice is very informative and 'priceless' for us trying to help ourselves!!
I am not sure there cause I have never actually had to have a debt validated..mine just fell off and that was it. From what I have learned I am thinking that the debt collector has to have a copy of the contract you made with the original creditor and something saying that they now own the debt and right to collect it. Hopefull y someone will stop in and let us both know what proper validation would be...I know it isn't a copy of the bill...anyone could do that..pull one from the trash and say you own it and want someone to pay bucco bucks for it.