Collection Agency Question

[higherink]

I received a call last week followed by a letter from a collection agency for a major cell phone carrier that says I am in collection for $250.00 from 2004 - how long do they have to come after a bill - I have never heard of this collection agency before (in regards to contacting me) I have had several company and personal cell phones over the last 5 years - and it will take some digging to find paperwork on an account that old.  To my knowledge I do not owe any cell phone carrier money - is this unusual that they would wait 3 years to contact me?

[SmartCookie]

Never speak with a CA on the phone.  Anything and everything in writing ONLY.

If you haven't, pull all 3 CBRs and see what is reporting on this, both OC and CA.  Know your state's collecting SOL... is this within it?  If so and you acknowledge the debt and want to pay it, see if the OC owns it and PFD letter with them to delete all info regarding the account, including CA info, from your CBRs.

If the OC is not reporting anything and you don't acknowledge the debt that is within collecting SOL, get a DV letter going to the CA within 30 days of your phone contact with them.  Follow that with a dispute on any CBRs that have the CA tradeline on them as soon as they sign the CMRR.

But start by pulling all 3 reports if you have not.

[Anonymous]

They are required to send you a letter (with the appropriate disclaimers about collecting a debt) within 5 days of contacting you. 

DV them - they must produce the paperwork not you!  Which reminds me - my med ca didn't include any of their 'collection attempts' in the paperwork they sent.... getting better and better.....