Santander/Main Street

[meshon711]

My husband had his car repossessed back in 2009 and we are just now starting to rebuild our credit. When I told him how much Santander is reporting as what he owes he quickly said it was wrong. They are reporting that he owes exactly what he owed when the car was repossessed. He never received anything in the mail saying when/if the car was going to be sold. Now they have sold the debt to Main Street Aquisitions. I have written up a debt validation for the CA but should I send one to the OC as well? He is not sure if the car was sold or not but how does he go about finding out if the car was sold or not? Please help in this situation that's one of the biggest dings on his credit report. He doesn't want to pay 14,000 on a car that he no longer owns. Thank you in advance! 

[RobertEG]

They are required under state laws to provide an accounting of the debt upon its sale. They are then required, under FCRA 623(a)(2), to promptly report an update to his credit file, reflecting the net debt provided they still own it.

If they have sold the debt to a debt collector, they were required to update his credit file at time of sale by promptly reporting a $0 balance owed to them.

The status of the debt then becomes the responsibility of the new owner, both as to notification of net debt after sale, and any update to his credit report if they have reported their collection.

DVs only apply to debt collectors, not original creditors.  Send the debt collector a DV.

However, the DV will only impose a cease collection bar either if the debt collector never sent dunning notice, or if the DV is sent within 30 days of their dunning notice.

When was dunning notice provided?

[meshon711]

No it was not. He hasn't received anything by mail or my phone since his car was repossessed. He didn't even know they had sold it to a CA until I pulled his credit report and showed him. Does he have another way of finding out what happened to the car? He can get the VIN number if needed from the motor vehicle place in our town. 

[RobertEG]

If they never provided dunning notice, then any DV request would be timely. 

A DV will invoke an automatic cease collection bar on them until such time as they provide verification of the debt, including the name of the current creditor and current amount of the debt.  Specifically request an itemized statement of the debt in the DV request.

While a DV wont compel debt verification within any set period of time, the cease collection bar that it imposes serves as an incentive for the debt collector to proivde verification, as they cannot conduct any further collection activiities until they have done so.  A DV is not retroactive, so does not compel any deletion of reporting that has already been made.  They do, however, have a violation of the requirement to have sent dunning notice within 5 days after reporting to the CRA.

That will at least help to provide a current statement of the debt.

[guiness56]

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@meshon711 wrote:

My husband had his car repossessed back in 2009 and we are just now starting to rebuild our credit. When I told him how much Santander is reporting as what he owes he quickly said it was wrong. They are reporting that he owes exactly what he owed when the car was repossessed. He never received anything in the mail saying when/if the car was going to be sold. Now they have sold the debt to Main Street Aquisitions. I have written up a debt validation for the CA but should I send one to the OC as well? He is not sure if the car was sold or not but how does he go about finding out if the car was sold or not? Please help in this situation that's one of the biggest dings on his credit report. He doesn't want to pay 14,000 on a car that he no longer owns. Thank you in advance! 

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They did the same thing to me.  It took me filing a complaint with the BBB and state AG for them to correct my CR and send me the required information.

[meshon711]

Who did you file a complaint against? The OC or CA?