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Weird situation

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Weird situation

More than 7 years ago, there was a person trying to buy a car, and the car dealer needed this person to get car insurance in order to be able to buy this car. The car dealer called the insurance company, the person set the whole thing up over the phone and then the car dealer tried to swipe the bank card to charge for the insurance, and the card didn't go through. He tried again and the card didn't go through. Person was told to come next day with the money or try to see why bank card is not going through. By next day, person trying to buy a car changed their mind about buying this particular car from this dealership and never went back. Aprox. a month later, this person receives their bank statement with double charge on the account for this car insurance that "didn't go through". Calls insurance company saying that they didn't buy the car and didn't think the charge went through and they say they will credit back the money. Also person goes to the bank trying to resolve this double charge issue (this charge that person thought never happened made the person think they have money in the bank they really didn't, especially after the double charge) - because they went over the balance with each small transaction (donut, glue purchase etc.), and on each 2 dollar charge this person made they got 45 dollars overdraft charge. Bank was not willing to try to help this person at all, after month of trying, the person gives up and forgets about the bank and soon later moves to a different state. Hoping the credit from the car insurance company will come soon and that will cover the whatever is showing still as balance on the bank account.
...........Year is 2006 and all suddenly there is a collection showing on this person's credit report, showing this bank, showing when the account was sold to the collections agency and the amount owed. This was not showing in previous years. It takes this person a whole year to try to figure out what, why and how......with the summary of the whole process as this:
Car insurance company never credited back the amount charged. Bank never received the remaining of the balance owed, sold the account to the collections agency. Due to the persons move, he was never notified by anyone about anything until he in 2006 tried to dispute this collections item on his credit report, in which case the collections agency did find the right address and sent a letter, person called and tried to explain the situation but they didn't care at all. Dispute didn't work, somehow it is verified and still showing on the credit report, even though it is more than 7 yrs from the time the charge happened. The real gem is the car company who after months and months of spending time on the phone with them, did finally find this account from long time ago (in the mean time, they assigned the account number/policy number to a different person so it was a real trouble trying to pull the actual account back) and said that they must have credited the amount back.....however when trying to get any more information about this, how much the credit was, when it happened, where it went, this person was sent out the letter stating that account is more than 5 years old and they dont have the way to check on an account so old unless they were subpoenaed and contacted by this person's lawyer. ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
 
What are this person's options? I am trying to help this person but I am drawing blank since nobody else seems to care that this person is not at fault. Anyways, thanks for any help, it is very appreciated.
Message 1 of 2
1 REPLY 1
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Weird situation

I am not a lawyer, but I would:
 
Call the credit card company and dispute the charge, in writing if possible, try to get something that will prove you tried to do something about it in the way of some acknowledgment from the card company.
 
Next, call the local District Attorney's office, as there may be some fraudulent actions (civil conspiracy, etc) here. Ask them what to do. They are the experts if you think you have been defrauded. Do not call the auto dealer and threaten them with action, as that can be tantamount to extortion. Just DO IT.
 
This is probably not so "weird".
 
Good Luck
Message 2 of 2
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