First, I want to thank you all for being on these forums! This is so amazing! I'm 23 years old and filed for bankruptcy (pro se) a week ago due to astronomical medical bills (I have a kidney disorder). I thought my credit would be ruined forever before reading all of your posts! So let's get to it!
As I mentioned, I filed for bankruptcy a week ago. This means that I am currently protected by an Automatic Stay. In early August, I recieved a letter from Portfolio Recovery Associates to inform me that they had purchased a charged-off debt that I had incurred from Capital One. When my credit card went past due, I only owed $400. This has magically turned into $1,376. It is also important to note that my DOFD on the account was June 2006. Therefore, this debt was already past the SOL (In IL, it's 5 years) when PRA purchased it from Capital One. By sending me that letter in August, they were already attempting to collect on a "Zombie" debt. I had a lot going on, so I did not respond to the letter and I never heard anything again from PRA. Until two days ago...
I pulled my CR from all 3 bureaus while preparing my bankruptcy paperwork. The Capital One TL was on the report with a status of "Charged Off/Sold". Nothing from PRA on any of the 3 reports. That was October 14th. I filed for bankruptcy on October 21st, and the automatic stay went into effect. I made no contact with any of my creditors or the bureaus. (Not until Monday, anyway, when I mailed a dispute letter for Capital One and a Charged off Santander Auto Loan. A girl's gotta try, right?) So last night, I was reading on the forums and I came across a post that said that I could get a free experian report by signing up for Quizzle. So I go ahead and do that, and low and behold, PRA had posted a tradeline on my credit report! I had also pulled a fresh experian report on Tuesday, so I know for a fact that this post was entered on Wednesday, October 26. 5 days after the automatic stay went into effect.
Now since I have had no contact with PRA and they have not attempted to contact me regarding this debt, aside from their first correspondance. This leads me to believe that they must have only still caught onto my existence, and thus this zombie debt I "owe" them, AFTER recieving the official notice of bankruptcy that was mailed by the court last week. From what I understand, the automatic stay prohibits any further attempts to collect on a debt, including furnishing damaging information to my credit report. But wait, there's more. Not only did PRA illegally post to my credit report, they also posted SEVERAL falacies including : Listing the debt as an installment account, listing the account with a "1 month term", as well as furnishing payment history, and claiming my "account" with them was opened in July 2011. From what I can see, they have committed several violations under the FCRA as well as violated the automatic stay.
*Willfull Violation of the Automatic Stay: I've read you can seek damages up to $10,000
*FCRA Violation #1 - Furnishing inaccurate information to a CRA - Listing the debt as an 'installment account'. $1,000
*FCRA Violation #2 - Illegal Re-aging (claiming the 'account' was opened 7/2011" - $1,000
*FCRA Violation #3 - Furnishing False Payment History - $1,000
*FCRA Violation #4 - Attempting to collect on a debt past the SOL. - $1,000
Does false reporting all go under 1 umbrella for a single $1,000 or does each string of false information furnished count separately? I'm curious as to the best way to go about this? I would like to send them a letter demanding that the OC TL and the PRA Tradline be removed, and possibly an ITS. I am extremely interested in pursuing the ITS letter path because I read about another member on this forum dealing with PRA and ended up getting both TLs removed as well as $10,000 in order to settle out of court for all of their violations. What do you all think is the best way to pursue this? Also, please feel free to correct anything I have wrong here, I may be misunderstanding some things as I am new to credit repair.
Thanks in advance!
