Debt Recalled?

[Anonymous]

So I have been going back and forth wtih this CA Penn Credit. They were collecting on an old Dominion Power account from 2012. I paid Dominion directly back in January since I had to get service reconnected for my new place. When I disputed through the CRA's Penn Credit updated the status to paid, not good enough I wanted the collection deleted. After numerous NO's from them in reponse to GW letters, I contacted them to get a itemized listing of the statement from Dominion, since they were reporting DOFD as Jan 2015, which isn't possible.  They are claiming this couldn't be done since the account was paid and closed. WTH?!? So I contacted Dominion, who said they had recalled this debt from the CA back in Jan! It is my understanding when I debt is recalled the CA no longer has authority to report. What are my other options here?

[RobertEG]

First, the creditor does not "recall the debt."

They always owned the debt.  It is only collection authority which is assigned to the debt collector, not the debt.

A debt collector can report their collection once they have legitimate collection authority.

There is no basis for requiring the debt collector to delete their collection if they were legitimately assigned collection authority UNLESS that authority was terminated PRIOR to payment of the debt.    That deletion requirment is not specified under the FCRA or FDCPA.  It is an administrative requirment of the CRA reporting manual, intended to prevent plural, simultaneous collections from being present on the same debt.

If the OC was paid without any prior termination of the assigned collection authority, the debt collector is under no requirment to delete their reporting.

Your avenue is to request their good-will deletion.  Continued confrontation is not likely to foster good-will.

[Anonymous]

And how would I find out when the "collection authority was recalled", according to the OC that was done is January. Whether or not it was before or after the account was paid, i'm not sure. Your previous post did not address the issue of the incorrect reporting of the DOFD. If they won't be receptive to my GW attempts, then I at least want the reporting done correctly. 

[RobertEG]

I would request that the creditor give you a letter stating that they rescinded the collection authority prior to payment of the debt.

That would serve as documenatation to support a request to the CRA to remove the collection per their reporting policy.

As for the DOFD, do you have any documentation of when you first became delinquent on the account, or do you have a statement from the OC as to the DOFD?

The debt collector was required, per FCRA 623(a)(5), to have contacted the OC and attempted to obtain the DOFD from them.

The debt collector can only report the date their received collection authority as their best guess of the DOFD if they were unable to get a DOFD from the OC.

Either your own records or a statement of the DOFD from the OC would support an assertion of a DOFD prior to when they received collection authority.

I would ask the OC if they ever provided the DOFD to the debt collector.

[OMW2_HighAcheiver]

ashcake is 0405 your birthday?

[Anonymous]

Nope, when I graduated high school 😁

[OMW2_HighAcheiver]

That's my birthday 😉