new collection - no dunning - recourse?

[beanie7132]

Question:

In my quest to clean up my credit, a creditor has just placed a new collection on my EQ report. It is for 415.00 for a hospital bill. So my question is this... I have not received any notice from this creditor, how long do they have for initial communication? And if that time period passes, what/if any recourse do I have?

The account shows it was assigned to them back in 2009 - it took them 3 years to report, crazy. It is also showing I made a payment in September 2012 - which I know is not true, especially considering I had no idea this debt even existed until about 30 minutes ago. Grrrrr.....

What are my options, and what are your suggestions? This new collection dropped my pitiful EQ score 11 points.

[DaBears]

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@beanie7132 wrote:

Question:

In my quest to clean up my credit, a creditor has just placed a new collection on my EQ report. It is for 415.00 for a hospital bill. So my question is this... I have not received any notice from this creditor, how long do they have for initial communication? And if that time period passes, what/if any recourse do I have?

The account shows it was assigned to them back in 2009 - it took them 3 years to report, crazy. It is also showing I made a payment in September 2012 - which I know is not true, especially considering I had no idea this debt even existed until about 30 minutes ago. Grrrrr.....

What are my options, and what are your suggestions? This new collection dropped my pitiful EQ score 11 points.

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The first initial communication was when they placed the the collection on your credit report. I would send a DV letter to them asap to put a bar on them for collection  activity. Phantom payments are a sleezy tatic used by ca's to reset the SOL.

[beanie7132]

So a CA can just dump collection accounts onto our reports and not have any prior communication before doing so? I am confused and just trying to get a handle on how it is supossed to work. We, as the debtor, do not get any chance to claim "not mine, already paid, etc" prior to the damage being done? So uneducated am I in credit!

DV is going out Friday - should I ask them to show me where I made a payment to them in 2012? Or should I just do my plain jane DV "I noticed you placed a collection on my credit report. Please send me validation of this debt you claim I owe" ? I was under the impression that the burden of proof on payments is on the consumer - meaning I would have to some how some way prove I never did make a payment.

[DaBears]

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@beanie7132 wrote:

So a CA can just dump collection accounts onto our reports and not have any prior communication before doing so? I am confused and just trying to get a handle on how it is supossed to work. We, as the debtor, do not get any chance to claim "not mine, already paid, etc" prior to the damage being done? So uneducated am I in credit!

DV is going out Friday - should I ask them to show me where I made a payment to them in 2012? Or should I just do my plain jane DV "I noticed you placed a collection on my credit report. Please send me validation of this debt you claim I owe" ? I was under the impression that the burden of proof on payments is on the consumer - meaning I would have to some how some way prove I never did make a payment.

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Some will send a dunning notice, some don't. That would be the sweet spot for a DV, short and sweet. Keep in mind just because they listed it on your credit reports doesn't mean they own or have collection authority.