Cleaning up my debt mess...
Date: Wed, 02/13/2008 - 16:58
Here is a little background information on my current situation. A little over 2 years ago I had to leave the US due to family reasons and was unable to return due to my permanent residency having expired and unable to no longer be renewed.
As a result, all my debts in the US have gone unpaid. Can't live in two countries at once, especially when not even know if I'd ever be able to return to the US.
Now I am back with old debts and a credit report to clean up. Everything has been charged off and sold to collection agencies.
One of said agencies just recently contacted me via mail a couple of days ago, so my question now is two-fold.
Overall, what is my best strategy to get my mess I left behind cleaned up? And secondly, what is the best method to deal with the collection letter I received? Request validation?
One more bit of information that I think might be useful, I currently do *not* have US Residency, I am just here on a business Visa. I am in the process of filing for my new permanent residency, however that will take at least a year. I don't know if / how this affects my dealings with debt collectors and if it's something that could potentially help me out.
Any suggestions, information, etc. is highly appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Stephan
Stephan, Welcome to the site and the fourm. There are many membe
Stephan, Welcome to the site and the fourm. There are many members here with the knowledge and experience to help you with your question. Someone should be along soon.
Hi Stephan, and welcome! OK, the first thing you should alway
Hi Stephan, and welcome!
OK, the first thing you should always do when contacted by a debt collector is to send a certified letter requesting validation. unfortunately, there are way too many collection agencies out there that do not follow the law. So, you send them validation requests. ALWAYS send it by certified mail, return receipt, so you will have proof that they received it.
Once they get your DV letter, by US federal law, they are not allowed to continue trying to collect money from you for that debt until they respond and provide the validation you requested. Even if you know the debt is really yours, you still should validate to make sure that the amount they are claiming you owe is proper and doesnt contain illegal charges.
Once you get validation back, they can then begin to call you and send letters again. Well, here's another thing that so many CA's do--they do not send you proper validation. The law requires them to prove three things to you with validation:
1--prove that the debt is really yours
2--prove that they have the legal right to collect the debt
3--prove that the amount they are trying to collect does not contain any illegally-added charges, rates, or fees
If they send you only part of this info, then they did not validate the debt, and therefore it would be illegal for them to start trying to collect on the debt at that time.
I hope this gives you a good place to start, and please--if you have questions, feel free to ask away! We'll be here to answer whatever we can for you.
Jon
Permanent residency has no bearing on collectability.
Permanent residency has no bearing on collectability.
