A few months ago I decided to check my credit report through a free trial program for an identity protection service offered by Chase. I discovered a collection account for $44 on my report that I had no idea about. I called the agency (CFW Credit Bureau Collection Agency) and asked about it, and they informed me that the debt was reported by a company that I had cable and internet service with from 2004 to 2005. I have no memory of missing any bills and I have never been contacted even once about this debt.
I asked them what address they had, and they had an address that I last lived at from 2003-2004, before I ever had service with this company. Not knowing what to do, I asked them to send me a letter (to my updated address) with some sort of documentation for what I owed. I never received any letter from the agency (this was 3 months ago).
The Chase id protection program offers a service where they will dispute on my behalf, so I had them dispute the charge, seeing as I had no proof of the debt. I just got back the results, and it shows that the debt was verified.
This has been incredibly frustrating as it is the only blemish on an otherwise good credit report. The money is not important and I would pay twice as much to get it off my report. I read a few threads here that say I can negotiate with the agency maybe? This is my first time dealing with all of this, so please let me know where I may have made any mistakes and what I should do to get it removed.
Thanks a lot.
You should first send your own DV letters to the company. Then see what documentation they provide. Chances are they will send lousey (if any) validation with the first letter. My advice would be after sending them a couple of DV letters poking holes in their validation,send them a PFD offer.
I too think you should first send a DV letter to the CA and wait for their response. If they validate your debt, send them a PFD agreement letter and pay them if they agree with your your pay for deletion agreement.
I sent off my first DV letter this weekend. I will reply to this thread when I have any updates.
Thanks for the advice!
Thanks butane, I hope you will let us know any updates that come from their side. If the CA validates your debt, then only try to come to a pay for deletion agreement. If they cannot validate your debt, you will not be liable to pay for it and you can dispute the listing with the credit reporting agencies.
I received a response today with the following brief response (the bad grammar is copied verbatim):
FINAL VERIFICATION OF DEBT
Please find this letter as our final time to verify your below accounts. We are in compliant see attached form.
Client Name: Shentel, NTC-Accts
Account Number: xxxxxx
Account Balance: $43.81
Initial Communication: 03/15/06
CBR Number; xxxxxx
*This is an attempt to collect a debt. Any information obtained will be used for that purpose.
They also included a printout of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 USC 1692g.
The letter is so poorly worded, I'm not sure exactly what to make of it. It certainly does not contain the validation that I asked for in my original letter.
What do you guys think? Should I send another DV letter and reiterate my earlier request for validation? At what point should I try for PFD?
I would send a dv letter with a PFD clause. If you look at my previous posts you will find one. Basically, point out to them why that is not proper validation but, tell them in the intrest of moving on, blah, blah, blah you will settle with a PFD contract.
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NfHSQl Very good article.Really thank you! Great.