Midland Credit Management- Drafting a DV letter

Really all you have to say, is

"I hereby dispute the validity of this debt. Unless you can prove to me with a signed contract that this debt is mine, I will consider the matter closed.

Govern yourself accordingly. "

You do not need to explain the laws to them...they should no it. If they do not, they deserve to pay you $1000

The letter that you composed is good enough to put an end to the harassment by MCM. Send the letter and do keep us updated on how this turns out for you.

Upon contacting the site admin I had my post restored. Any reason why you deleted my post Soaplady?

it was probably deleted because, like many of your posts, it is wrong. You newer guys are always welcome here, but something HAS GOT to GIVE. You have been told dozens of times from various people here, including myself, that you are posting bad information......and yet you continue to post it. For example, as you stated above, a DV letter will "put an end" to MCM's harassment. Have you ever dealt with MCM?? If you had, you would know that they are famous for ignoring DV letters. Hell, I went round and round with them personally for two years because they first claimed that I didnt dispute a debt.....THEN they claimed that I did dispute it but not until after the 30 day validation period was expired....and FINALLY I got it on tape with one of their managers, where he read right off the computer screen the date that they got the account, and the date they received my DV request. Those two dates were not even three weeks apart.

You have no idea what you are talking about with most of what you post here. And it is getting really old. I get it, you do not know as much as others here do--and thats fine! But when someone who obviously knows more than you do points out your errors, STOP IGNORING THEM, and for pete's sake, STOP reposting the same false info over and over again! We moderators volunteer our time and efforts to run this place--it is not a paid position. So when a mod points something out to you, if you do not care enough to heed their advice, I dont know what to tell you. We HAVE to address errors in posting here--if we do not, someone's going to follow your bad advice and get a less than favorable result. I have seen people get SUED by following bad advice...this isnt something to take lightly.

Thank you Skydiver..couldnt have said it any better.
StevenDoyle....you and blankspace follow each other around this forum, continually posting utter useless information. It gets very frustrating to get up in the morning to see what garbage you two have posted and to correct your errors. You dont seem to realize you could financially hurt people that take your advise. People could get sued, have their wages garnished or even loose their homes. I take this forum seriously...I post from experience and from researching on the web for information I do not have on the top on my head.

Thank you all for your replies. I will be sending in a truncated version tomorrow. I guess I'm wondering what happens if they provide a signed contract-- I know a contract existed, it's just that there was no debt associated with it. Oh well I've been sitting on this for a week and I just need to get the dispute on record.

So I'm going to go to the post office and ask for "certified mail with a signature confirmation", keep a copy of the letter for myself, and mail it to the address they want me to mail the payment to. Then I save the confirmation when it arrives. Is that all?

For now that's all. Except, normally correspondence goes to a different address than payments. I'd double check the correct address before sending.

Hi Skydiver, could you elaborate a little more on your experiences with MCM...I have also dealt with them (still having problems) and I know that once they get their hooks into you, they are not going to let go all too easily. They are like pit bulls when it comes to debt, or hungry sharks that smell blood in the water. They keep circling I guess until they lose interest and find someone else to terrorize. How did you finally get them off your back?

Hello again. Thank you all for your help thus far, I am returning here because MCM has not responded to my request for validation and-- well-- I'm thinking about taking them to small claims court.

Here's what happened. I sent in the DV letter and it was signed for on April 16th, 2012. No reply and no more phone calls. Then on 4-26 we got a credit report update from one bureau. The debt had not previously been reported on our credit so I called MCM through the number and extension given to me by the initial collection letter and told them (voicemail) that the debt had been disputed and that without validation they were not allowed to report it. I asked them to remove the listing with the credit report and provide validation. They called back once but it was during my birthday dinner so I told them I would return their call. When I did a few days later, it went to voicemail again so I repeated the message. On May 3rd we got a notice that the debt had been reported to another credit rating bureau, and I'm still waiting for a call or validation of the debt.

The debt, which I do not believe is genuine, is only 140 dollars, but I believe they have made 2000 dollars worth of violations so far (1000 X 2 agencies). I believe they have willfully ignored the validation request letter because the debt is not real. With your blessing, I was thinking about filing in small claims court against them next week. I have all the paperwork (copy of the dispute letter, certified mail receipt, I can print out phone records and credit rating reports) but is this the sort of thing that I will need a lawyer for? And if so, what is the best way to go about hiring one for very little money? Also, i live in Cincinnati but the collection agency is in California, will that complicate things?

Thank you for your time.

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I'm not sure I agree, Soap.

If they reported to the bureau AFTER they signed for a DV letter, then that would constitute "continued collection efforts." That's a no-no and would be an FDCPA violation.

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