Hello al! Here is my situation.
I currently have a Capital One card assigned to NCO. The total balance is $3856.94. It is about 150 days out all together for non-payment.
I have verified with Capital One that NCO did not buy the debt and that all collections must go through NCO.
Before I found any of these wonderful resources on your site and DCC, I entered into settlement negotiations with NCO.
I did not confirm or deny the debt at any point. They offered me a settlement of $2800.00. I advised them to send me the settlement letter and if I agreed with it, I would let them know. I received the letter this morning and have until tomorrow at 9 pm to pay.
Since then, I have found out about debt validation and that some of my rights have been violated under the FDCPA. They also did not put in my settlement letter that they would remove this debt from my record.
What are my options at this point? Can I still send a debt validation letter? What do you recommend?
I would say that you can send debt validation, you did not sign anything with them right? You have a right to validation before you pay any debt.
I swear that capital one and this company are in the same family, they use them a lot for collections.
Wanted to add to make sure that you send all correspondence, ie: debt validation certified mail, return reciept requested, that way they can not act like they did not get it.
Okay, sounds good. I just wanted to be sure I wasn't way off asking for that at this point. This is what my letter says:
I am in receipt of your settlement offer of $2800.00 dated 10/28/2009. As per the FDCPA, I have the right to request a validation of this debt. I request that you prove that I am indeed the party who is by contract obligated to pay off this debt as my social security number has been compromised. This letter does not imply that I refuse to pay this debt.
I assume you are aware of the fact that reporting any invalidated information to major credit bureaus may constitute defamation of character, as a negative listing on my credit report is not beneficial to me as a consumer. In addition, you must also be aware that until you validate this debt, you can neither continue collection activities nor report this information on my credit report. I'm sure your legal staff will agree that non-compliance with this request is likely to put your company in serious legal trouble with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other state/federal agencies.
I would also like to advise you that on several occasions representatives of your company violated the Commerce and Trade – 15 USC Section 1692e while trying to collect from me. I am sure you are well aware of the history of violations your company has under this section with other consumers. To prevent any further violations of my rights as a consumer, please do provide me with the following:
1. Agreement with your client that authorizes you to collect on this alleged debt.
2. Agreement that bears signature of the alleged debtor wherein he promises to pay the creditor.
3. Complete payment and purchase history on this account so as to prove that the debt amount you wish to collect is correct.
Thank you for your timely response to this letter. I will expect a response within 30 days of the postmark of this letter. If you do not comply with this request, I will file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and the California State Attorney General’s Office. Civil and criminal claims will be pursued.
With regards,
You stated in your original post that they are actually collecting it for capital one right? Are they giving the money directly to capital one?
I would go a head and send the letter, can't hurt, they are trying to make you pay it anyway right. Goodluck and keep us updated on your progress with this. Who knows it may help someone in the future.
Agreed And...
Send the dispute letter, agreed agreed agreed. If you do happen to settle the debt be prepared to receive a 1099 form the following year to file the saved difference as earned income. The IRS will tax you for the settled difference and you will be paying some of it back to them direct, something most settlement offers do not disclose. NCO is AMEX’s internal collections. They are all in the same family and its called the mafia! Not even old school gangsters had such extortion rates and we’ve all fallen victim. To further, pay the debt off or not it will remain on your credit as a charged off debt for seven years.
consider yourself part owner and ask them to send your income statement. they think that we are all stupid. i refuse to let somebody tell me i owe them just because that's the consensus. these people are desperate and everybody's in it for themselves. i've read a lot of negative stuff about NCO.
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