topic Call from Collection Agent in Rebuilding Your Credit

Call from Collection Agent

srn — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:50:57 GMT

I have revieved a call this morning from a collection agent. They say that i have a medical collection (lab) of $142 for my son from 2009 (I do not remember any thing about this). I asked the CA to send me a mail, she said that they have already send me. And when i asked the address to which they send, she gave me my old address where i lived in 2009-2010. She said that they will not send any mails to me and i need to pay the amount over the phone right away. And i said that i need the mail, she hung up on me.

I worked hard on my credit repair starting at 570 when i joined this forum and now i am at 700. This call from CA made me very depressed.

Re: Call from Collection Agent

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:52:11 GMT

This sounds like it might have been part of a scam. Do you remember the name of the collection agency? Have you checked your reports?

Re: Call from Collection Agent

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:53:24 GMT

Send them a DV letter. They don't have to respond but they may.

You can also contact the lab this is supposedly from and find out if you do in fact owe it. If they still own it ask them if you can pay them and recall the debt from the CA.

Re: Call from Collection Agent

RobertEG — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:00:14 GMT

They have a statutory requirement to send you a formal collection (dunning) notice within 5 days of any intitial communication with you. FDCPA 809(a).

You have the right to receive dunning notice and exercise your debt validation rights prior to considering any payment of an alleged debt.

They called, and thus triggered that requirement. You advised them of your current address, and thus that their supposedly prior dunning notice was unlikely to be received.

They should have agreed to send an update to your current address. A no-brainer business practice if they were conducting legit collection.

You dont have to wait for receipt of dunning notice to request debt validation. I would send them an immediate DV, which will impose a cease collection bar on them until such time as they provide the requested debt validation. That cease collection bar extends to their reporting of a collection to the CRAs.

I would venture that you will never hear from them, and thus keep them under a perpetual bar.

Re: Call from Collection Agent

srn — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:51:35 GMT

I have called the Lab (MuirLab). They checked their system with the patient Name i provided. They say that they do not see anything and gave me the CA's phone number to contact. (866-771-5596).

I called the CA (California Service Bureau), the call was transferred to the person i talked to this morning and the call went to her voice mail. I tried several times and i was only able to reach her VM.