topic Re: responding to 30 day letter from collection agency in Rebuilding Your Credit

responding to 30 day letter from collection agency

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:46:17 GMT

I bumped into this forum and it seems to have a wealth of useful information. Thanks to all contributors. Here is my issue. I had a credit card that was charged off. A collection agency contacted me by letter and by numerous phone calls that i never responded to, They sent another letter offering me a settlement. I did not respond to that either. Their letter was dated May 24 08. Now i have received another letter from NARS (National Asset Recovery services dated July 10 2008 giving me 30 days to dispute the validity of the debt. Will my not responding hurt me in the long run. They do say that if dispute this debt within 30 they will obtain verification of the debt. I do intend to take care of this issue that is pay up or settle in the near future when funds come available but now im in the red. Any suggestions as towhat to say in my response ? I feel dumb asking this but I have to start somewhere.

Thanks for your help

ixoxo

Re: responding to 30 day letter from collection agency

llecs — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:25:05 GMT

ixoxo wrote:
I bumped into this forum and it seems to have a wealth of useful information. Thanks to all contributors. Here is my issue. I had a credit card that was charged off. A collection agency contacted me by letter and by numerous phone calls that i never responded to, They sent another letter offering me a settlement. I did not respond to that either. Their letter was dated May 24 08. Now i have received another letter from NARS (National Asset Recovery services dated July 10 2008 giving me 30 days to dispute the validity of the debt. Will my not responding hurt me in the long run. They do say that if dispute this debt within 30 they will obtain verification of the debt. I do intend to take care of this issue that is pay up or settle in the near future when funds come available but now im in the red. Any suggestions as towhat to say in my response ? I feel dumb asking this but I have to start somewhere.

Thanks for your help

ixoxo

Send a Debt Validation (DV) letter. If you need one, try searching around. There are plenty of examples. The FDCPA give you the right to dispute the validity directly with the CA and the CA's mention of the 30 days is a requirement placed on them by this law. Until they send you the name of the OC, address, and the balance due, they cannot engage in collection activity like phone calls and letters. Once they verify, and you agree with the balance due, then you can offer a PFD.

If you don't send a DV, and they are not reporting on your CRs, then likely they will soon. You'd want to avoid this.

Re: responding to 30 day letter from collection agency

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:38:12 GMT

Thanks for your response. Sorry i did not clarify. The CA letter does states the creditor, creditor account # and the amount. Do I still send the DV? I am taking it upon myself to fully educate myself as I resolve my past credit issues.

Re: responding to 30 day letter from collection agency

llecs — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:45:57 GMT

ixoxo wrote:
Thanks for your response. Sorry i did not clarify. The CA letter does states the creditor, creditor account # and the amount. Do I still send the DV? I am taking it upon myself to fully educate myself as I resolve my past credit issues.

Yes. You want to create a papertrail. Even if you know you own the debt, a DV is a must before a PFD. Remember, they don't have to accept any payment offer.

Re: responding to 30 day letter from collection agency

llecs — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:46:19 GMT

Just keep an eye on your SOL.

Re: responding to 30 day letter from collection agency

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:58:23 GMT

Just a little FYI. I also got a letter from NARS at the end of last year. It was about a SL that I had defaulted on. It was a private SL, so the normal SL statutes didn't apply to me. Anyway, I didn't respond because the debt was for $11,000. I knew that there was no way they would let me pay like $200 a month, so I let it go.

Now that I am starting to repair my credit, I wanted to get this taken care of. I knew that I didn't have the money to PIF, so aside from everyone saying not to contact the CA by phone, I did. NARS told me that they no longer owned the debt. I then called Wells Fargo who informed me that the debt was about to be sold. I asked if I could make payment arrangements. They were very helpful towards me and needless to say, the debt will not be resold.

My advice to you is, no matter who the OC is, call and try to set up payment arrangements. Most companies are willing to work with you because they want their money. I thought for sure that I would be issued a judgment by NARS since the amount owed was so much, but I wasn't. Hope this helps.

Message Edited by JewelryGirl on 08-01-2008 03:58 PM

Re: responding to 30 day letter from collection agency

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:58:08 GMT

Are you suggesting that I DV the CA and at the same time contact the OC to make payment arrangements ?

Re: responding to 30 day letter from collection agency

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:19:26 GMT

I'm sorry. I should have clarified that more. What I am suggesting is to contact the OC to see if they would be willing to set up payment arrangements and have the account pulled out of collections.