Capital One

I have an outstanding debt with capital one. Today I received a notice for what appeared to be an attorney's letterhead, however the body of the letter clearly stated that no attorney had reviewed this and the letter included the mini miranda also stating they were a collection agency? Is this an fdcpa violation? Deceptive collection practices?
Also can anyone tell me what the largest settlement amount is they've seen Captial One accept?

no violations here. it's common practice for cap one to assign charged off accounts to an attorney's office for collections. if an attorney's primary business is collections then they are considered a collections attorney and as such are required to give the mini miranda in their communications. they say that no attorney has reviewed your case in order to lessen their liability - i.e not to give you the impression that an attorney has actually reviewed your file. again, from what you've said, no violations.

So I've requested verification and validation of the debt to include: Verification of the debt and their ability to collect from me, my payment history with a dtailed explanation of all fee's added on, a copy of my original contract.
Is this the right step to take? The verification / validation period is not up.
What happens if I do / don't receive this information?

MOD NOTE: read my post below. Since you have probably not made a payment to this agency there is NO payment history to send you. If you want one from cap one, get it yourself. Plus they do not have to provide you with proof of their ability to collect the debt.

Have you read the FDCPA? Do you know the difference between validation and verification?

Hopefully you are you have written your own letter and not copied one of the error filled letter off this site or ones floating around the internet.

cap one usually assigns accounts to attorneys as opposed to selling the account off. what this means is that they will have access to all the same records cap one has access to after a simple request to cap one. while not everything you requested is required to be considered validation, if this is a cap one assigned account you can bet on it being validated. what you do after that is up to you, pay in full, settlement, etc...

Okay I'm confused. I have a charged off Capital One account. This account has now been referred to an attorneys office for collectionk, although the notice I just received indicates no attorney has reviewed this account yet. What are my first steps? Do I request verification or the debt or validation of the debt? What is the difference and where can I find a good sample document?

Two points....IM Jason to change your screen name...it is a TOS violation.
Secondly, do not start new threads ...when you are dealing with the same subject.

Do you owe the debt? Are you disputing any portion of it? DVing an attorneys office can open a can of whoop ass....many will respond with the proof you need plus a summons hauling you into court. Cap One more than likely still owns the debt...you can easily verify with Cap One by phone that they have placed the account with the law office.

You have small balances so dont expect much of a settlement...there is not much room to work. And quite frankly a law office is going to make a heck of a lot more off you suing you than settling the balance with you. A $500 account will net them at most $150....legal fees they will sue you for will be probably around $300-$400. So my suggestion is to call cap one, verify the placement and then call the attorney and see what they will settle for....and get it paid off quickly.

Capital One always sells their charged off accounts to attorneys. I had a Cap One card and it was sold to a legitimate law firm/collection agency. I even attempted to contact Capital One directly to see if they would be able to take my payments but they would not since the debt had already been sold. Even if, and I dare say, especially when, there are are attorneys at the collection agency/law firm, they still need to follow proper collection practices. The firm to which my account was sold, Farrell and Seldin, were doing very shady things (I have another post about it) and are now being investigated by the AG's office.

In short, there is a 99.9% probability that this is a legit collection letter and you would do well to work with them and get this paid. Most likely, the Capital One account already shows as being charged off on your credit reports, which is bad enough. The last thing that you want is a judgment on your credit.

You are DEAD WRONG. Capitol One as a general rule does not sell their paper unless they cannot collect...they assign them to attorneys as in third party placements. Lean the difference.

Did you mean "learn" the difference? So, I'll re-phrase-Capital One makes a rule of selling customers' charged off accounts to law firm collection agencies WHEN THEY CAN'T COLLECT.

You are always quick to jump down people's throats and it's really unnecessary. People come to these forums for advice because they're in a bad situation, not to get berated which you constantly do. If you can't give people advice witout being snide then maybe you should stay off of the computer.

MOD NOTE.. excuse me but I spend most of my day correcting people who think they know what they are talking about. Bad advise on these forums can financially ruin someone. And I do not berate...I refuse to sugar coat.

And don't go to your "people need to give correct information" drivel because I did not give the OP any advice that was not correct, I advised him to make arrangements to pay the bill which clearly he should do if this has already been sent to a collection agency.

MOD NOTE...YOU STILL POSTED INCORRECT INFORMATION

Personal attack removed...another attack and you will be banned.

You still dont get it...Capitol One routinely places their accounts with attorneys to sue on their behalf. That is standard procedure for them. That's what you need to learn.