An experiment I'd like to share with the group.

[Anonymous]

#3

Subject: Northland Group           

This one I’m not too sure about what to do. I got a letter from these people saying that I owed Fingerhut over $3500 but that they were willing to settle for $1611.33. I immediately sent a validation letter within the 30 days and they sent me back copies of some of the orders that I placed back in 1998 and their associated payment invoices. They totaled a maximum $1930.58. They did not include any information that supported the $3580.73 they were originally asking for, and the invoices also show that this debt is past Oregon’s statute of limitations as well as the credit reporting time period. What happens exactly when a debt is past SOL? From what I’ve read, the next step is to send them a cease and desist letter, do you agree? If at some point I am able to pay this bill, I can then deal directly with the original creditor, right? My primary concerns are these:

I do not want this creditor to add this account to my credit reports. By law they shouldn’t be able to, but that may not stop them.
They have not provided sufficient documentation to support what they are asking for.
I do not feel comfortable negotiating a settlement with them, because according to my reading they will just sell the rest of the debt to another collection agency and reset the SOL.

[Anonymous]

I am dealing with Northland as well and have SOL questions as well. Please post what the atty thinks would be a good course of action...thanks for all of this!

[Anonymous]

You bet I will!!

[Anonymous]

Interesting update. Got a call from the atty's office referring me to a local credit attorney. Apparently one of my accounts creates a conflict of interest for them so I have to deal with a different office! It's still free and all that, but I thought it was interesting. I will be calling them later today to address some questions they had, and will post everything here.

[future]

my ears are open

[Anonymous]

Subject: Northland Group

This one I’m not too sure about what to do. I got a letter from these people saying that I owed Fingerhut over $3500 but that they were willing to settle for $1611.33. I immediately sent a validation letter within the 30 days and they sent me back copies of some of the orders that I placed back in 1998 and their associated payment invoices. They totaled a maximum $1930.58. They did not include any information that supported the $3580.73 they were originally asking for, and the invoices also show that this debt is past Oregon’s statute of limitations as well as the credit reporting time period. What happens exactly when a debt is past SOL? From what I’ve read, the next step is to send them a cease and desist letter, do you agree? If at some point I am able to pay this bill, I can then deal directly with the original creditor, right? My primary concerns are these:

I do not want this creditor to add this account to my credit reports. By law they shouldn’t be able to, but that may not stop them.
They have not provided sufficient documentation to support what they are asking for.
I do not feel comfortable negotiating a settlement with them, because according to my reading they will just sell the rest of the debt to another collection agency and reset the SOL.

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I wouldn't worry about this one. I have a ca trying to collect for a dept from 13 years ago. I read that a ca can continue to collect as long as they want but they can't sue are put anything on your reports. When they send me letters I just throw them away

[Anonymous]

I tend to agree, but does the fact that I dv'd them before I knew it was past SOL and CRTP change anything? I suppose not because a DV states that I dispute the debt, but I'm just wondering if I should go ahead and C&D since they actually bothered to respond. I'm still waiting for the PPL guys to find me an atty so hopefully I'll get to talk to someone soon and get some advice that I can share.

[Junejer]

hippychic, past SOL & CRTP? That needs to go now. This should be an easy dispute with the CRAs as "past CRTP".

[Anonymous]

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orhippychic wrote:

I tend to agree, but does the fact that I dv'd them before I knew it was past SOL and CRTP change anything? I suppose not because a DV states that I dispute the debt, but I'm just wondering if I should go ahead and C&D since they actually bothered to respond. I'm still waiting for the PPL guys to find me an atty so hopefully I'll get to talk to someone soon and get some advice that I can share.

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Yep, in that case you can send them a special version of C&D, also known as FOAD.

[Anonymous]

Byrd,

Thankfully, they have not tried to report it. I just want to make sure that since I DV'd it and basically let them know that I'm still alive that they won't try to pull a fast one. I suppose if they did, they'd ultimately just owe me money, but I'm on a roll with my scores so I don't want to deal with it.

Cheddar,

Agreed. I had to remind myself when writing to the attorney that FOAD was not a "legal" term.