NEW COLLECTION REPORTING.. HELP

[hardworker77]

I have 2 new medical collections just reported on my CR, and of course score dropped 50 points. Yeah thats what I said. I never recieved any letters stating that the accounts would be turned over to collections.  What do I do?? Both accounts are listed for $1288.00. I cant PIF at this time. Please help....

[RobertEG]

First thing is to determine the legitimacy of the debt, and thus the credit reporting. If innacurate, you can dispute under the FCRA.

An OC never has to provide notice of collection referral.

One a debt collector posts to your CR, they have certain obligations.

The first of which is to, within 5 days of posting to your credit report, to send you a written collection ("dunning") notice, under FDCPA 809)(a), advising you of your right to request the name and address of the creditor for whom they are collecting the debt, the amount of the debt, and your rights to request validation of the assserted debt within 30-days of their collection notice.

Did they send you a collection (dunning) notice?

[hardworker77]

No they didnt RobertEG... No notice or anything. They just placed it on my CR.

[RobertEG]

Well,on the positve front, they appear to be in clear violation of servive of collection notice after initial communication with a consumer under the provisions of FDCPA 809(a). 

The FTC is charged with adminstrative enforcement of both the FCRA and the FDCPA.  The FTC has consistenlty held that a posting to a consumer credit report by a debt collector  is an "initial communication" that triggers the debt collector obligation to then provide you with formal collection ("dunning") notice within 5 days thereafter. Telling you who they are, who the OC is, the amount of the alleged debt, and the procedures for requesting validation of that debt.  The basic requirements of FDCPA 809(a).

The bad news is that the FTC does not act on individual consumer complaints for violation of FDCA 809(a).   They dont consider them significant enough to warrant action against the debt collector.  So, you have a violation of the law that the fed gvt wont enforce.  You  can. of course. always bring on your own personal litigation, but that is a lot of time and $$'s.

Meanwhile,you could be left with a major CA derog in your credit report, and insufficient information from the debt collector to initiate either a dispute or a DV request.

IF you have the mailing address for the debt collector, you can DV them for debt validation,  If you additionally dispute the accuracy of the debt, you can also file a direct dispute with them under FCRA 623(a)(8), challenging the accuracy of their actual reporting to the CRA