city of san diego collection

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

i understand that this is 100% my fault.

back in 2013, i parked my car on the street without renewing the registration. so parking patrol

from city of san diego did leave tickets on my windshield after day and day (little over 20 tickets) and eventually

they towed the car. I actually paid little over $200 impound the car at the towing company.

after 6 months, city of san diego had put 10 collection accounts on my credit report.

ticket itself was $38 but now total is $980 ($98 per ticket). ($38 -> $98 (late fee+processing fee))

i am trying to resolve this issue however city of san diego will not do PFD. is there anyone

with similar experience who successfully PFDd collection account from city?

do i have a chance to reduce the number of tickets?

[RobertEG]

Is each debt collector itemizing a distincly separate debt, or are they for the same debt?

You can only have one debt collector reporting a collection on the same debt.

If the multiple collections are based on the same debt, I would send a dispute requesting deletion based on apparent lack of active colllection authority.

[Anonymous]

thank you for letting me know.

it was same violation.

do i need to send the dispute letter to city of san diego or CRA?

[lavencedora]

Hi -- It sounds like the different tickets are likely to be considered individual and seperate, although they were all given for expired registration. But, you can call the City just to clarify why these are listed as multiple collections (don't expect you cn argue them out of it, but at least get an explanation for your own sake). I've had similar circumstances here in City of San Diego -- two very minor tickets that spiraled into VERY expensive collections, on top of fees for recovering my license (suspended after unpaid fix it ticket for headlight on car!). I also had a collection reported by City itself for a final water bill I had been unaware of.

The bad news: I have found City & CA they use could care less about the unfairness of the cost or whether you can pay & I found very little relief in terms of fees. The policy of the CA & City is no PFD. However, the good news is that after I paid over $1000 in excessive fees, I was able to get the Collection Agency *eventually* to remove the reporting with Good Will letters. The Collection Agency is the one which was reporting on my two tickets.

The City itself (reporting on the paid water collection), refused to remove thier reporting initially. I tried to make the case that I had been homeless with my kids and unemployed, was unaware of the final water bill, and did pay as soon as I was aware & able to pay. That did not work. When I read the policy of the City, it specifically says that they will only remove if you didn't receive the mail (and specify the circumstances). After reading that, I wrote back to the City and indicated that BECAUSE I was homeless and in a homeless shelter, I was not receiving the mail that was coming to my P.O. Box on the other side of town.  I provided backup documentation of the dates I was in shelter. They removed the report of the collection immediately once I fit within their policy.  

So, the lesson for me is that if you can pull together your fees and pay this stuff off, the Collection Agency reporting those multiple accounts will likely be responsive to Good Wills, as long as you are patient and persistent. If it is the City itself reporting, most likely you'll need to meet the "policy" and they might not respond to Good Wills. My guess is since it's traffic related, you'll be dealing with the Collection Agency & you can probably Good Will these things off over time. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the response.

city itself is reporting collections. i just emailed city of sandiego

collections department to ask why there are multiple collections

on same debt.

we will see.

appreciate your responses.