DV & PFD Questions - Buying a home soon, please help.

[Anonymous]

I just received a recent copy of my credit report and credit scores and I have 4 negative items.  Below is all the information I can provide on each.

1. MIDLAND Funding - CA

2. Stellar Rec - CA

3. Cap1 - CO Account, Transferred or Sold.

4. HCCredit/Cit - CO

My questions and points of concern:

- I assume that for MIDLAND Funding and Stellar Rec I would do a DV and since I live in Texas they would have 30 days to respond.  Is that correct?

- Also, I have looked at credit reports I have dating back to 2009 and neither of the account numbers listed for either MIDLAND or Stellar show up on any. In addition, I haven't opened a new line of credit since 2008 so I am not sure where these collection accounts came from.

- Can I assume a DV is the best route to go for both of these?

- For Cap1, because it says transferred or sold I'm not sure if I should wake the beast and contact Cap1 regarding the account being transferred or if I should do a PFD letter.

- Is there a decent success rate in Cap1 agreeing to a PFD?

- For HCCredit I am going to do a PFD, is putting a time frame once receipt of funds has occurred to have the item deleted okay or is that pushing it?

Thank you in advance for any help, suggestions or advice anyone out there can provide.

[annielorie]

Yes in Texas.  How soon are you seeking a home? What are you FICO scores? CA's have 7 years plus 180 days to seek collection from date of first delinquency.  It could be anything! What are the amounts? Do you have any open credit accounts in good standing?What is your total CR profile look like?

[RobertEG]

First, their is no requirement that a debt collector must provide debt verification under the FDCPA within any period, regardless of the state of residency of the consumer.

It is federal law that applies uniformly to all states.  Simply being a resident of TX does not modify the FDCPA by requiring a response to a DV within 30 days.

Texas does have its own debt collection practices statute that requires response within 30 days.  To invoke that requirement, the consumer must send a separate request to the debt collector, citing the TX state statute.  The debt collector must then respond within 30 days, but the TX statute does not require their response to provide verification.  They can choose to state that they are not yet providing verification.  If they choose that path, they must then delete their reporting until such time as they choose to provide the verification.  They may then simply reinsert it.

You need a separate request under the TX statute to invoke its provisions.

As for the interplay of a PFD and a DV, it depends upon your circumstances and goals.  If the OC has sold the debt, you can never make any payment to them, including a PFD, as they no longer own the debt.  Any PFD would have to be made to the debt collector, and would be limited only to their reporting, not that of the OC.

If you send a timely DV, it imposes a cease collection bar on the debt collector until such time as they have provided the requested verification.  Thus, sending a DV will foreclose PFD negotiations with them until they have provided verification.

If you want to get verification before proceeding, then send a DV.  If you want to begin negotiations, then dont.

[annielorie]

They can choose to state that they are not yet providing verification.  If they choose that path, they must then delete their reporting until such time as they choose to provide the verification.  They may then simply reinsert it.If that is the case in the Texas statute why not in the entire country??

You need a separate request under the TX statute to invoke its provisions. What is the request that is needed?? The actual terminology.

As for the interplay of a PFD and a DV, it depends upon your circumstances and goals.  If the OC has sold the debt, you can never make any payment to them, including a PFD, as they no longer own the debt.  Any PFD would have to be made to the debt collector, and would be limited only to their reporting, not that of the OC. While this is mostly true often an OC will pull it back from a cCA and the collection agency complies because they want the OC's future business. Most people dont even know its possible.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the responses.  It has been several years since I posted on this forum but it's all starting to become less confusing and I found my old binder with my debt repair log and old DV letters. Yay!

New Home here I come! 

[Anonymous]

UPDATE:

1. So it turns out that the Stellar Recovery CA on my Credit Report is trying to collect on a fee that was waived.  I missed a doctor's appointment and they charged me a $25 fee.  I called and spoke to their billing department and the billing lady, I have her name (we went to middle school together), waived the fee.  Even though the fee was waived by the doctor's office Stellar is trying to collect.  Any advice on how to tackle this?

2. MIDLAND is reporting on my CR and so is Cap1 for the same thing.  Now it's been a longtime since I was on this forum and knew all this info but I'm pretty sure they both can't report on my CR for the same thing.  This makes me think that I should write MIDLAND to remove the tradeline they have on my CR and stop reporting and write Cap1 for a PFD.

Please let me know what you all think.

Thanks!

[Shogun]

1) Try to have them pull that back from the CA or get it in writing that the fee was waived and then send it to the CA.

2) Yes they can both be on your CR.  If you look at it, CAP1 probably has it as a CO with $0 balance and the CA has the balance on theirs.  This is perfectly legit.

[annielorie]

Cal the doctors office and have them pull it back from the CA. If the debt was forgiven then the CA has no amount to collect

[Shogun]

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@annielorie wrote:

Cal the doctors office and have them pull it back from the CA. If the debt was forgiven then the CA has no amount to collect

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+1   Good advice.