I received a phone call from Creditors Financial group on 9/11 from someone identifying herself as Ms. Leitner and it was important that I return her call at 877-298-2251. I was away for the weekend and listened to the message late Monday night. I called first thing Tuesday morning to see who called and she stated that she was from CFG and was trying to collect on a Orchard bank card. I told her that I have never had a card from Orchard so she said they were also known as HSBC. I explained that I hadn't heard of the company and needed to check my credit report first.
She said that was fine and let me know that she was collecting for LVNV Funding and to call her back later in the day. I checked my report and LVNV was listed as a collector for the HSBC CC. It was current last in 6/08 when I lost my job and needed to use my money for rent etc.
Ms. Leitner called on Wednesday during the day on my home phone and asked that I contact her as agreed for payment arrangements and to discuss the debt. I received a letter from them in the mail on Wednesday stating that they were collecting for LVNV and that I had 30 days to dispute the debt, so I didn't call her. She again called on Friday, stating that because I failed to setup payment arrangements as agreed (What agreement??) she was going to pass this along and wished me good luck with the debt. I still have 23 days to ask for validation, right? Should I have contacted her and asked for validation or did I do the right thing and not answer? I do have the messages left on my answering machine downloaded to my blackberry in case the answering machine gets erased.
Anyone have any info for this company? I do want to pay my cc but am currently paying off another at 450.00 a month and don't have the funds available to pay another at this time.
thanks

It's best to send the validation request by mail so you have documentation. (Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested.) Send it right away. Be aware, though, that if they wanted to they could still sue you at any time.

__________________
FRAUD: RECOGNIZE IT. REPORT IT. STOP IT.
Rip-off companies - FTC.
Phone harassment by Debt Collectors - FCC.
Banking issues, like ACH problems - OCC.

Not sure how they can sue me if I don't even know if they really own the debt or not. Don't I have the right to validate the debt first?
If they do sue, can I use the fact that they didn't give me a chance to validate first as a partial defense?

of course,send the valdation letter certified mail return receipt.LVNV is one of the worst bottomfeeders out there.

__________________
giving hope to the hopeless,help to the helpless,and hap to the hapless.

According to the Federal Trade Commission:

__________________
FRAUD: RECOGNIZE IT. REPORT IT. STOP IT.
Rip-off companies - FTC.
Phone harassment by Debt Collectors - FCC.
Banking issues, like ACH problems - OCC.

I sent the validation letter right after I received the great information and still have not heard back from CFG. Should I send another validation letter after the 30 days or just wait until they send the information?

I received a response to my validation request from Resurgent Capital Services today even though I sent the original one to Creditors Financial Group.
Previous creditor: HSBC/Orchard Bank
Curent Creditor: LVNV Funding LLC
Account # xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Balance 1317.96

Dear Mr. Cali
This account has been placed with Resurgent Capital Services L.P.
Enclosed please find an original Validation of debt that verifies the debt.
If you have any further questions, please contact our Customer Service Representatives at 888-665-0374
On the Validation part of the letter, it reads:

Validation of Debt
October 1, 2009
Mr. Cali

As of the date of this comminication, you owe 1317.96 on account #xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx which is now owned by LVNV Funding LLC. Should you desire to pay off the account in full, you should contact us at 1-888-665-0374 to determine the payoff balance as interest, credits, fees, and/or other premissible charges can continue to cause your account balance to vary from day to day.

Is this really all they need to say for the debt to be validated? Should I contact them and setup a payment arrangement or request more proof?
Any help would be appreciated.

resurgent is part of LVNV.they validated nothing.re-send the DV letter to resurgent.as usual certified mail return receipt.

__________________
giving hope to the hopeless,help to the helpless,and hap to the hapless.

I received a letter from Resurgent Capital Services today at my new address which I haven't given out to anyone, not even my employer as my G/F doesn't want the letters going there. (Not sure how they got the new address) anyway, the letter states that "
they have been unable to contact me to discuss the account and if they are unable to contact me within 21 days from the date of this letter, active collection efforts will resume on your account. Please feel free to contact us so that we may update your contact information and assist you in resolving this account.
Now it seems to me that if they have my mailing address, isn't that establishing contact? Should I send them a DV letter also with my address and request them to only contct by mail?
Thanks

re-send the DV letter.send it certified mail return receipt.it might be time to got to NACA.NET there you will find a consumer attorney that will work on a contingency.time to think about suing this group of bottomfeeder collectors.

__________________
giving hope to the hopeless,help to the helpless,and hap to the hapless.

Will do, and I will keep everyone updated. Thank you for all the excellent advice.

I received a letter from Resurgent Captial services yesterday after I had sent them a DV letter. They stated that they would not contact me as per my request (my request was for USPS contact only) and it was now turned over to LVNV Funding. They included the same verification as before:

Validation of Debt
October 26, 2009
Mr. Cali

As of the date of this comminication, you owe 1332.96 on account #xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx which is now owned by LVNV Funding LLC. Should you desire to pay off the account in full, you should contact us at 1-888-665-0374 to determine the payoff balance as interest, credits, fees, and/or other premissible charges can continue to cause your account balance to vary from day to day.

So do I now send a Dv letter to LVNV and see what happens? I know I owe someone the money from the credit card but want to make sure that the right place gets paid so this will be over with. As they really haven't threatened me or called constantly, would a lawyer still take this case and work off of a contingency?

LVNV,and resurgent are sister companies.yes send LVNV the same DV letter certified mail return receipt.

__________________
giving hope to the hopeless,help to the helpless,and hap to the hapless.

should I involve a lawyer at this point or wait for the reply back from LVNV? I don't have much disposeable income so not sure if I could even afford one unless they worked off a contingency basis. I would like to Start paying someone so my credit starts getting better.

wait until LVNV replies.they must validate before anything else.

__________________
giving hope to the hopeless,help to the helpless,and hap to the hapless.

This is validation of nothing. I have a handful of those papers laying in the file cabinet in the office here. They'd send me one of those crap letters, I'd hit them with a demand for validation, then LVNV would pull it back and send it somewhere else. Lather, rinse, repeat.

If they can't produce something from the original creditor that shows how the numbers originated, along with a contract with your signature, then they've got nothing. They will likely pull it from Resurgent, and send it on to another of their shell companies. The trick here, as Paul noted, was to DV both Resurgent and LVNV. That should (a) keep Resurgent from being a pain, and (b) keep LVNV from passing it to another shell company.

So you'll know, LVNV, Sherman, Resurgent, MRS Associates, and about a dozen others are all tied together in a big spider-web arrangement. Each of the larger shell companies listed has control of, or arrangements with, other, smaller companies. They've used this scheme to evade the FDCPA for years. Stick to your guns. If they were going to validate, they would've done it by now.

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Wulfisms: my blog

The four 'no's of dealing with collectors:
No validation? No payment. No way! No kidding!!

Tellin' you all the zomby troof
Here I'm is, the zomby woof
[Frank Zappa, 1988 - R.I.P.]