Run a credit check every six months?
Date: Thu, 01/10/2008 - 20:23
Okay, here's my situation. . .
I graduated High School and left my old hometown in 1996. Sometime in 1997 and 1998 somebody in that town opened up three credit cards in my name using a local PO box. I think it might have been a relative that had access to my information somehow.
Now, they ran up substantial charges, totalling around $10,000 across the three cards before vanishing. However, when I was in college I didn't have a job and didn't do much of anything that registered on my credit report.
So, I didn't know my credit had been trashed, and the credit card companies and collection agencies didn't have any real way to contact me.
Years later, flash forward to fall of 2006. I get a pre-approved credit card offer in the mail. I never thought much of it, but I'd never gotten them in the past. I hadn't worked when I was in college or grad school and was now out in the real world trying to get my first real job.
I get my "first" credit card (in the sense that it's actually mine) and my first job and start about my life. Then last summer collection agencies start dropping on me out of nowhere demanding thousands of dollars for the various cards. Thanks to a little bit of research I discover the SOL on all these debts has long passed, so I'm safe from litigation. I send the agencies DV letters and that's the last I hear from any of them.
Until a month or so ago, when I get a call from portfolio recovery associates (which managed one of the old debts, and I'd sent a DV to they'd never responded to). Apparently they had bought another of the three debts and were trying to collect.
They started out like "I'm trying to see what we can do about this and how you can fulfill your obligations". Well, I knew the SOL was expired on that debt, a debt that I certainly never ran out.
I told her to send me the proper paperwork so I had their request in writing, but that to the best of my knowledge I had already requested a previous agency to validate the debt and they had failed because it appears to be well beyond the SOL.
I get a load of attitude from the collector about how that "only means we can't sue you, we can take other collection actions, like calling you." I politely note that requesting validation means that you must cease collection until it is validated, and I still have the right to request cessation of communications.
She gets really huffy at this and notes that "well we can still file a hard credit check against your credit report every six months from now on until you pay it in full, but I'll just note it in your file that you've already sent those letters since you're obviously just going to do that." With that I tell her that as soon as I receive an actual collection letter I will respond with a DV letter and hang up.
They never sent a letter or any paperwork, and have never called back. Did I just get the benefit of a DV on an obviously unvalidatable debt from a call? Can they really file hard credit checks against me forever until I pay them in full for all the accounts they have in my name? (I'd never heard of that one, I was wondering if that was a bluff).
I graduated High School and left my old hometown in 1996. Sometime in 1997 and 1998 somebody in that town opened up three credit cards in my name using a local PO box. I think it might have been a relative that had access to my information somehow.
Now, they ran up substantial charges, totalling around $10,000 across the three cards before vanishing. However, when I was in college I didn't have a job and didn't do much of anything that registered on my credit report.
So, I didn't know my credit had been trashed, and the credit card companies and collection agencies didn't have any real way to contact me.
Years later, flash forward to fall of 2006. I get a pre-approved credit card offer in the mail. I never thought much of it, but I'd never gotten them in the past. I hadn't worked when I was in college or grad school and was now out in the real world trying to get my first real job.
I get my "first" credit card (in the sense that it's actually mine) and my first job and start about my life. Then last summer collection agencies start dropping on me out of nowhere demanding thousands of dollars for the various cards. Thanks to a little bit of research I discover the SOL on all these debts has long passed, so I'm safe from litigation. I send the agencies DV letters and that's the last I hear from any of them.
Until a month or so ago, when I get a call from portfolio recovery associates (which managed one of the old debts, and I'd sent a DV to they'd never responded to). Apparently they had bought another of the three debts and were trying to collect.
They started out like "I'm trying to see what we can do about this and how you can fulfill your obligations". Well, I knew the SOL was expired on that debt, a debt that I certainly never ran out.
I told her to send me the proper paperwork so I had their request in writing, but that to the best of my knowledge I had already requested a previous agency to validate the debt and they had failed because it appears to be well beyond the SOL.
I get a load of attitude from the collector about how that "only means we can't sue you, we can take other collection actions, like calling you." I politely note that requesting validation means that you must cease collection until it is validated, and I still have the right to request cessation of communications.
She gets really huffy at this and notes that "well we can still file a hard credit check against your credit report every six months from now on until you pay it in full, but I'll just note it in your file that you've already sent those letters since you're obviously just going to do that." With that I tell her that as soon as I receive an actual collection letter I will respond with a DV letter and hang up.
They never sent a letter or any paperwork, and have never called back. Did I just get the benefit of a DV on an obviously unvalidatable debt from a call? Can they really file hard credit checks against me forever until I pay them in full for all the accounts they have in my name? (I'd never heard of that one, I was wondering if that was a bluff).
Portfolio is one of the biggest junk debt buyers in the country.
Portfolio is one of the biggest junk debt buyers in the country. Send the DV letter referencing that account, include a cease and desist portion. Inform them that making hard inquiries every 6 months is a violation of the FCRA and you will not hesitate to file a suit against them.
Go to www.ftc.gov and click on the id theft link.Follow the dire
Go to www.ftc.gov and click on the id theft link.Follow the directions to the letter along with filing a id theft police report.You are not obligated for paying fraudulent debt and these steps when followed will protect you.It will also remove any bad info from credit reports regarding these accounts.
