topic Re: Did I just get screwed? in General Credit Topics

Did I just get screwed?

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:07:15 GMT

I received an alert today that my score dropped in excess of 50 points. There was a newly reported collection on my account, hooray! Turns out this was a 3 year old account that was stupidly under my name (room mate was only a co-signer) which my room mate was responsible for. It was a utility account. Now here are a few reasons I think this is unacceptable:

1. They NEVER contacted me. Neither my utility company nor my debt collection agency. Had they contacted me I would have gladly picked up the balance to avoid a red mark on my report. Turns out my land lord never left a forwarding address and they somehow had a phone number for my account that didn't belong to either myself or my room mate.

2. The landlord was supposed to pay the balance from our security deposit. I guess he didn't do this.

The collection agency is "NCO Fin" or NCO Financial. Could someone please tell me what my options are?

What I've done:

1. Contacted TransUnion, NCO Financial, my room mate, and the utility company.

2. Determined that the account was not paid, and that my room mate was only a co-signer (no red mark on his credit report)

3. Submitted a dispute, on the grounds that we paid the amount (it WAS taken from our deposit)

4. Learned that the 2 ways of removing this from my report are to either win a dispute or get the collections agency to delete my account

Now I don't think I'll win the dispute. As BS as I think that is, it's in my name, the account wasn't paid, and that lands on me - not my roommate or my former landlord. Did TU give me accurate information that if I can get NCO Financial to delete my account the collection will be removed from my report? If yes, what's the best way to get NCO Financial to delete my account?

I'd really appreciate some help with this. Over a year of effort down the drain... Really discouraging.

Re: Did I just get screwed?

RobertEG — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:18:27 GMT

They are not requried to contact you prior to reporting the collection. What is required is that after reporting to the CRA, they must then send you a formal collection (dunning) notice within 5 days thereafter. However, even if they were late in sending dunning notice (or have not even sent one), that is a violation of the debt collection practices provisions of the FDCPA, and is not grounds for requiring deletion of their reporting from your CR.

For unpaid debt, the normal procedure is to send the debt collector what is called a pay-for-delete (PFD) offer, offering to pay the debt in exchange for their prior, written agrrement to delete their reporting once payment is received.

You can send the debt collector a debt validatiion (DV) letter if you want verification of the debt. That invokes an automatic cease collection bar on the debt collector until they provide the requested verification, provided you send it within 30 days of their dunnning notice.However, since DV requests place a cease collection bar on the debt collector until such time as verification is provided, it may forstall response to any PFD offer.

Re: Did I just get screwed?

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:02:58 GMT

Mahdii - RobertEG is the resident expert on the details of credit reporting around here, so you can take his response to the bank. As to examples of debt validation and pay for delete and most importantly any success stories and points of contact for NCO you may want to search / read on the rebuilding your credit forum. It's been a while since I have browsed over there but if I remember correctly NCO was one of the collectors who people had luck with in a pay for delete of reporting.

Edited to correct typo

Re: Did I just get screwed?

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:45:54 GMT

You are both fantastic! Thank you for this information, it was exactly what I was looking for. I will try to research effective ways to offer a PFD.

If possible, would either of you have any example letters for a DV and/or PFD?

Re: Did I just get screwed?

MarineVietVet — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:15:26 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
You are both fantastic! Thank you for this information, it was exactly what I was looking for. I will try to research effective ways to offer a PFD.

If possible, would either of you have any example letters for a DV and/or PFD?

Welcome to the forums!

I'd suggest reading the following:

Common Abbreviations

Credit Scoring 101 - great for knowing what is in your credit score and to see how your score is impacted.

What Steps Do I Take - great for learning the repair process.

and Example letters - PFDs, GWs, DVs, etc.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

Re: Did I just get screwed?

IOBA — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:22:34 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I received an alert today that my score dropped in excess of 50 points. There was a newly reported collection on my account, hooray! Turns out this was a 3 year old account that was stupidly under my name (room mate was only a co-signer) which my room mate was responsible for. It was a utility account. Now here are a few reasons I think this is unacceptable:

1. They NEVER contacted me. Neither my utility company nor my debt collection agency. Had they contacted me I would have gladly picked up the balance to avoid a red mark on my report. Turns out my land lord never left a forwarding address and they somehow had a phone number for my account that didn't belong to either myself or my room mate.

2. The landlord was supposed to pay the balance from our security deposit. I guess he didn't do this.

The collection agency is "NCO Fin" or NCO Financial. Could someone please tell me what my options are?

What I've done:

1. Contacted TransUnion, NCO Financial, my room mate, and the utility company.
2. Determined that the account was not paid, and that my room mate was only a co-signer (no red mark on his credit report)
3. Submitted a dispute, on the grounds that we paid the amount (it WAS taken from our deposit)
4. Learned that the 2 ways of removing this from my report are to either win a dispute or get the collections agency to delete my account

Now I don't think I'll win the dispute. As BS as I think that is, it's in my name, the account wasn't paid, and that lands on me - not my roommate or my former landlord. Did TU give me accurate information that if I can get NCO Financial to delete my account the collection will be removed from my report? If yes, what's the best way to get NCO Financial to delete my account?

I'd really appreciate some help with this. Over a year of effort down the drain... Really discouraging.

Maybe I missed the response here, but if it was taken from the deposit, where'd the money go?? Has your landlord given you proof that he paid the bill?

Re: Did I just get screwed?

AndySoCal — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:53:08 GMT

Regarding Item 3 are you saying this amount was deducted from the security deposit? If so does the landlord have a record when this was paid? If show this ot the utility company and get them to recall the account from NCO .

Re: Did I just get screwed?

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:53:29 GMT

Unfortunately that landlord is long gone. Huge apartment complex, bad bookkeeping, so in the end I assume the blame falls on me because the account is under my name.

Maybe I should mention the ammount is 250~ - not exactly enough for me to seek legal advice on.

Re: Did I just get screwed?

quest208 — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 05:47:24 GMT

have you contacted NCO already in the past?

i read what you wrote, but trying to make sense of what you've done or what was paid etc

Re: Did I just get screwed?

Anonymous — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 07:16:26 GMT

The day I received my alert I contacted NCO. I wasn't sure what to ask, so I asked everything that was on my mind at the time. Ultimately I left the conversation knowing who to contact at the utility company to find out why they sent me to collections, and that's all they could help me with.

I am in the process of ending a DV letter in anticipation of a PFD offer. Thank you everyone for your help.

Re: Did I just get screwed?

bdp02 — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:19:34 GMT

A different approach that has worked on several occassions for me:

- Contact the utility company

- Escalate to supervisor

- Explain the situation, including: Bad contact info on account, Landlord withheld deposit, etc...

- Explain you would prefer to work directly with the utility in good faith, rather than with a debt collection agency

In my experience, the original creditor is frequently willing to instruct the collection agency to cease and decist (including instructing the agency to clear any collection notices from CRA's).

End result is, you get your good name back and utility gets a bigger cut of the settlement from you than they would from the collection agency.

This of course, doesn't work if you're truly looking to fight both the collections notice and the monetary obligation.

Re: Did I just get screwed?

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:39:44 GMT

Thanks bdp - that's certainly worth a shot. I send out my DV letter tomorrow, glad I read this first. It couldn't hurt to try.