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I sent Merchant Credit Adjusters a DV letter a couple weeks back. After they sent back validation of the debt I sent them a PFD letter last week. I offered them 40% of the original $436 debt. In neither of my letters to them did I ever use the word dispute but I also didnt state that the letter is not a dispute of the debt either as I thought both letters were pretty straight forward. Im requesting validation. Im offering to pay this amount for deletion. I checked my reports today and Transunion has a comment for it that the account information is being disputed by the consumer. Is that normal after sending a PFD?? I have yet to receive a response to the PFD but in the mean time, is there anything I can do to get the comment off my report??? It might not be hurting anything but I just dont like it on there. Can I call TU and ask them to delete the conment as Ive never disputed the debt??
The forum is filled with similar actions by some debt collectors who incorrectly report a dispute to a CRA after receiving a DV or a PFD.
That leads to the obvious conclusion that they are intentionally misreporting in order to harass.
I would send a formal complaint to the CFPB, who if they recevie enough such complaints, may choose to issue sanctions against debt collectors who appear to routinely abuse the system.
As an aside, congress chose, most unfortunately, to use the word "dispute" in FDCPA 809(b) when referencing a consumer request for debt validation.
The term "dispute" is widely used in the credit reporting arena to refer only to disputes under the FCRA, and not requests for debt validation.
Reporting of a dispute to a CRA is clearly limited in their credit reporting manual to disputes under either the FCRA or FCBA, not requests for debt validation under the FDCPA. They are apples and oranges.
The matter is complicated by the fact that a debt collector can only report a pending dispute if it is with regard to a direct dispute.
The CRAs take care of pending dispute flags for disputes filed thru them, but not being a party to a direct dispute, have no way of assessing whether the consumer actually filed a direct dispute.
One could, if a pending dispute flag remains for over thirty days, get the CRA involved without their having to assess whether or not the consumer actually filed a direct dispute. Since FCRA 623(a)(8) requires any direct dispute to be consluded within 30 days of its filing, then by statute, a pending dispute flag would necessarily have to be removed after the dispute period has concluded.