How do I handle CA re aging CRs

I may have posted a longer version of this question (newbe)I got an error message but got an email with my password.....so I don't know where it went.

LVNV has a bad habit of violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act, I bet they listed it as open and as a factoring company account (those are also violations) Dispute it with the 3 major credit reporting bureaus and see if they verify it. You should also send a debt validation letter to LVNV (you can find a good template via my signature link) if LVNV verifies it then you could file a civil suit for up to $1,000 per violation, if they have it listed as open, factoring company account, or a loan of some type then that could net you up to $12,000 in statutory damages, not to mention punitive damages.

You may also wish to file complaints with the Federal Trade Commission, and your state Attorney General's office.

Thank you JCEMT.
I have a copy of my 2004 reports and pulled new reports this month. It's about all I have for reference, except for a check book register with the last payment made on 6/17/02. On Experian they list the account as an installment collection, opened 03/07.
On Equifax it is reported as - Open -
Date opened - N/A
Date of last activity - N/A
Date Major Delinquency First Reported - 05/07
Activity Description - N/A
Charge off Amount - $0
Type Loan - Factoring Company Account
Date of first Delinquency - 03/03
No payment data available.
I have disputed with Experian and Equifax.
Have yet to receive a report from Trans union.
2004 Reports show it as Citibank or Universal Card
Opened 11/01 Closed 09/03 Status charge off.
I thought I would just ride them out but all This plus the fact that they call pretty often, now using different numbers just pisses me off. I'm disabled so I have time to put into this but not the knowledge. Do you think a lawyer is in order?

hiya scout--

First, the SOL in your state on written contract debts is 5 years. So it is still within the SOL, at least for now. It should expire in 03/08, if the original date of delinquency you listed is correct.

Second, LVNV is not licensed as a business entity with the Nebraska Secretary of State's office, which means they cannot legally collect a debt in NE--against your state's law.

First thing's first--yes, it is illegal to re-age the debt like they did. But there's a lot more here. Federal law(the fdcpa) requires that within 5 days of initial communication in reference to a debt, the CA must provide you with a notice of disclosure that explains your rights to dispute the debt, etc etc etc. I am guessing they did not do this, since the first you seem to have heard was when you saw your credit report. Thats an FDCPA violation there.

Next, the re-aging of the debt is an FDCPA violation as well as a Fair Credit Reporting Act(FCRA) violation. In order to make that violation actionable, you need to contact that credit bureay and dispute that entry on your file--when LVNV verifies it as accurate, you've got them by the nuts, so to speak.

Now, as JCEMT said, they listed it as a "factoring company account", thats a big no-no.

Here's what I would do--first I would dispute the debt with every credit bureau they reported it to. at the same time, I would send LVNV a letter, by certified mail return receipt requested, telling them that you request validation of the debt in question. You need to actually send the DV letter first, wait until you get the green receipt card back showing that they got it, and then you need to file the disputes with the credit bureaus. Here's why--according to FDCPA, reporting on your bureaus counts as communication. It also counts as collection efforts. So, once they get your DV request, they are required by FDCPA to immediately stop all collection activity, including updating the reports on your credit files.

Then, when they are notified by the CB that you disputed the entry on your bureaus, they will most likely verify it to the CB as accurate--which means you just caught them taking new collection effort against you after they received your DV letter.....whats more, you can prove it with the dates.

Then, once you have all of this, I would slap them with one hell of a lawsuit. I am not certain about the $ amount that JCEMT mentioned--the 12,000--but check into that with the FCRA to make sure. JC gives great info on here, so if he says it I am inclined to believe it, but I am also the kind of guy that wants to do the research just to make sure I didnt miss anything.

Then, once you did all of that, report them to your state's AG office for failure to comply with NE state laws and trying to collect within NE without a license.

I believe I read on the NE site that SOL is 4 years.
I've already disputed with experian and equifax though.
Using JCEMT's validation letter, I will send one to LVNV for being the reporting company on my CB's. Maybe to Bay Area Credit Service LLC as they have sent me an "offer" letter.
How do I go about finding a good inexpensive lawyer? My SSD doesn't allow for many extras.

1. Listed as open, should be collection
2. Date opened is N/A, this cannot be left incomplete
3. Date of last activity, this also cannot be listed as incomplete
4. (questionable) Date major delinquency first reported, this depends on your actual date of first major delinquency.
5. Charge off amount: must be the amount of the debt, they have it listed as $0.00, if this is accurate then you don't owe them anything :p
6. Type of loan: It is NOT a factoring company account, it is a collection account.
7. Date of first delinquency is 3/03, this contradicts the item I listed in (4)



So far on Equifax you may have what appears to be 6 FCRA violations, that's just for one credit reporting bureau (which means possible $6,000) assuming they messed up their reports for Experian and Transunion then you may be looking at upwards of $18,000 in statutory damages, that's not mentioning punitive damages as their willfulness to damage your credit score can cost you more when it comes to certain services such as vehicle insurance, cell phone, and other utilities.

Have the validation letters ready waiting for mailman.
Do you think I should include an SOL letter? Or just let that ride till I get all the reports and CB dispute answers back?

Let it ride for now, also keep in mind that they can't continue to report to the credit bureaus while it's being disputed.

Oh! Another thing that is bugging me is I am sending the validation letters to PO Boxes. That is what is on the CB and the "offer" letter from Bay Area Credit Service. Is this a problem for certified mail?

Can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate all your time and patients.

Just a moment and I'll contact USPS and check with them.

No problem mailing to a PO box, they will leave the notice in the PO box and they would have to sign for it to receive it.

Cool.

The certified letters have been picked up by LVNV and Bay Area Credit Services. So now it's 30 days till they reply or let this go, right.
I had also disputed thier report with Equifax and Experian CR earlier. Experian has it flagged quite boldly. Equifax, I can't tell if they are doing anything. They shuttled me off to CSC and on their site it says they can not confirm if my dispute has been recieved or not! What's up with that? I'm thinking that I will wait till I hear from LVNV and Bay Area Credit Services about the validation letters, then dispute Equifax again. Still haven't gotten my report from Trans Union.

Whoo hoo! Good news today! Checked Experian report online and they have removed lvnv funding llc from my report completely! I expected it to show the original account with the right dates to be put back on as it still had 2 years to go. But it's completely gone.
Should be hearing from Equifax in the next week.

The Nebraska State Bar Association has sent me a form to find a pro bono attornety to go after LVNV! Wow. I know that these people are volenters and still have to see if they can find one that will take this type of case. But bless thier hearts for what they do.
This hasn't been that hard to arrange with all your help. I hope more people go after these jerks till someone takes notice.
I did see an artical in the New York Times about bad bill collecters and their tacktics several days ago.
Thanks again....

wow, great news scout!! yeah, JCEMT is pretty well on his game here...really good looking out, JC!

Be sure to let us know how it goes. Also, this may not be the end of the mess for you. Sometimes, these companies will play games. For example, one person posted on here not too many months ago that some other collection agency received a validation request, then pulled their entry off of his credit report, THEN filed a lawsuit against him. I consider that to be deception, since their response to his DV request was to halt their reporting to the bureau. Just keep on your toes, and hopefully an attorney will pick up the case for you and tee off on LVNV's wallets....

I don't know what I do but I loose more posts on this board. Anyway thanks skydivr. If they come after me, so be it. I'm on SSD with Medicare and Medicaid, so I have NOTHING to loose. If I should get any money from LVNV it would probably go to Medicaid or Medicare. But that's OK as it would be nice to see them get something back for what I've cost them.
I just want to put LVNV a little more in the spot light with their crappy tactics.

Experian just sent me an email notice to see results of my dispute on-line. I went there and copied the new report. Will this be sufficient or should I tell them to send me a copy in the mail? Oh and yes it shows LVNV is deleted! But they didn't tell me why. Do I need to know this for legal reasons or just let it go?

You might or might not need to know for legal reasons. In your place, I'd want to know for personal reasons, though.

My guess is that LVNV didn't respond to their investigation or couldn't validate the entry. It's gone that's good enough for me. I think you have to write and ask them for it, who knows when I'd get an answer back. But the more I think about it, Shouldn't Experian be held accountable for deleting the original entry and replacing it with LVNV's entry with completely different dates? Now I don't know what to do.. Send a certified letter asking for complete discloser of the investigation and why they did what they did?

Ahh, another point is that they didn't put the original entry back, it's off the report too. It had 2 years to go yet. What do you guys think?

:shock: What? They reinserted a deleted entry?

ok scout, as far as reporting goes, the credit bureau itself is not accountable for what a creditor decides to report. That is, unless you bring it to their attention that the data on their report is a clear violation of the FCRA for reasons other than accuracy. A CB has nothing to do with the accuracy of the specific data on the report--they are simply notified of what to put on there by the CA. The CA is the party that is liable for the accuracy of what they report to your credit files. The bureau itself merely reports what data they are given to report.

My guess is that they sent the dispute to the CA and the CA simply did not respond in time, so they had to take it off. That may well not be the end of this battle, though--the CA can always report it again and it will go right back on. So, you need to keep watching the reports.

Experian cannot be held liable for the different dates because they do not have the information themselves, or the resources, to validate the debt or any of the data contained in the entry. For all they know, this CA had improperly reported it the first time and was fixing their report. The FCRA doesnt hold the CB liable in that case.

No JCEMT. I had a charge off entry on my CB's with Citi Universal until I saw on my 2008 reports that it had been removed and LVNV put in it's place. same account number, new dates.
Now Experian has removed the LVNV entry completely and the original isn't reported either, it had 2 years to go.

Thanks for making that clear to me skydivr. I will be keeping watch.

I now have all the CB reports. The 2 that had LVNV on them have answered the disputes by removing them. Transunion is reporting the account in it's original form. In 2007 (found report while going through papers for lawyer) Transunion had reported both the original account and the LVNV Funding version.
LVNV hasn't answered my dispute letter yet.
The Ne. Bar Association has my paper work. So I guess I just sit and wait. Is there anything you guys think I should be doing?

Update..... All reports are corrected now. LVNV and Bay Area Credit Service haven't answered my Validation requests in the 30 days stipulated.
So is there a chance they will just sell this account to some one else? Is it worth the money to buy that credit report watch service?

Just got a letter from the Nebraska Attorney General saying they sent a copy of my complaint to LVNV Funding with a request for a written response within 14 days.
Says it's a mediation process. Under the law they can't force LVNV to participate, but they have seen that most disputes can be resolved as a result of the mediation process. If they are unable to reach a resolution I have the option of filing an action in court, at which time I would have to hire a private attorney.
So, just what does this mean?

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