Afni violated the FDCPA law.

[RobertEG]

If they have conveyed to you that they were treating your DV as a direct dispute, then one way to address that issue is to hold them to it.

They are required, under the implementing rules at 16 CFR 660.4, to formally conclude any direct dispute within the same period as provided CRAs under that dispute process.   Thirty days.

There are only two ways they can conclude a direct dispute.

First is to either verify, correct, or delete the disputed information.

Second is to hold the dispute as lacking supporting documentation, which requires them to dismiss the dispute as "frivolous or irrelevant" within the prescribed investigation period, and convey that finding to the consumer.

They simply cannot request more information and keep the "dispute" alive.  They cant, as the saying goes, have their cake and eat it too.

The other way, of course, is to notify them that it was not a direct dispute, and thus they remain under a cease collection bar.

[Shogun]

I guess a big question is what is the status of the debt, and what is your status?   How much is the debt?  How old is it, what's it's DOFD?  What's the SOL of your particular state?  Can you afford to pay it?  Can you do a PFD?  

Lots of questions there, but the more information you are armed with, the better your chances.

[Anonymous]

what did u do & how did u do it, I already filed complaints against afni with bbb,ftc & emailed attorney general, also filed complaints agains all 3 cra's with bbb,ftc & cfpb. already got afni knocked off a 3 reports so that's a victory. I emailed a lawler who i got off another forum, they are in chicago & he asked that i send any & all info i have for him to review. I don't know if its even worth trying or should i just let it go & just take my victory deletes! 

[Anonymous]

debt is for $194 so not very much, It just hit 5 yrs last month & SOL on it in IL is 5 yrs, afni even said on a statement due to the age of debt they will not sue me for it. I offered them a pfd started very low @ $29, they declined off & offered to do 126  with listing as settled or paid less than full amount but that they don't offer delete for payment, I counter offered $77 for pfd & that i could pay in 14 days, they rejected that offer & said there orginal offer stood with no delete so i turned it down as i told them just paying does me no good if I can't get a delete & it wold look worse on my credit. so then I did some research & discovered that they verified debt with cra's before validation with me so I sent them another email stating there error & i would be filing complaints against them & cra's for doing so. well did't take very long from filing complaints they were knocked off cra's & transunion even sent me an official letter stating so plus follow up letter from laday @ bbb. maybe I should still try to settle tho so they won't pop back up on reports after fighting 2 months to get them off? 

[Anonymous]

well I guess ill just wait to see what the outcome is of my bbb,ftc & cfpb complaints do & maybe get attorney general office involved?