Collection Agency not playing by the rules...?

Eric, the dealings with midland credit management are not easy ones. In most cases, their files are disputed like it happens in your case. You have the legal rights to see accurate reporting in your credit file. Talk to a lawyer dealing in fdcpa violations.

Midland is accountable for showing the latest standing of your account. As you have proof of your payments sent to AT&T, Midland should have that information updated in their file. Try to get in touch with AT&T since they have sent your file to Midland.

Though you are still willing to pay the debt if it has a balance owed, check the SOL in your state before sending the payment. The statutes on this account might have expired. Read the experiences of others who have dealt with this collection agency.

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/forums/about8235.html

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/forums/midlandcredit.html

thanks. I'm curious as to how to go about finding such a lawyer. Also, the balance owed is more than we paid but only because AT&T did not cancel the account as we requested, so the balance is one month more and I'm really not willing to pay even a measly $35 bucks because they screwed up and didn't cancel the account when we requested.

Regardless, I contacted AT&T originally but they just kept passing the buck to SBC and the "Old AT&T".

How do I make sure that this stuff is in my file and what happens if Midland doesn't conclude its investigation within 30 days as required by law?

thanks!

"What I don't understand is that the Credit Bureau doesn't look at the evidence I present directly to them but relies on the collection agency (who has a vested interest in getting paid) to show that I didn't pay my bill. Well this doesn't make sense..."

Yes it doesn't make any sense, b/c your right! You presented evidence to Trans Union and they scoffed! Next, you need to send a letter to TU (Trans Union), and tell them that they are engaging in willful non-compliance of the FCRA, by knowingly reporting inaccurate information on your credit report. You can and should sue TU for this. Send a letter to a higher up there (CMRRR, as always), and see if they respond. If not, head down to your local fed court and pick up your pro-se packet!

Is there a phone # to call them. I recently found out from my credit report that they were on it?

800 282 2644

You can find an atty at www.naca.net
Hope this helps ya,
Ang

hiya eric--

A few thoughts here....

First, a lawyer is a good idea, but maybe not just yet. You can save yourself a bit of money by trying a couple things first. The first thing I would do is gather up all the cancelled checks you have, make copies, and make copies of any letters you have sent to Midland regarding this matter so far. Take all those copies and include them in a new letter to Midland. In this new letter you need to inform them that you have disputed this account on (enter date of your previous letter here), and that they have refused to address this dispute. This is a violation in several ways. It violates the fdcpa, section 809, because once they receive notice of a dispute they are to immediately stop all collection effort until they provide you with a proper validation of the debt. They obviously did not validate this debt, yet they still continue to try to collect. Keep in mind that the FTC has stated that continued reporting on your credit files is collection effort, so even if they didnt call you or send you anything else in the mail they are still in violation there.

Next, they are in violation if they did not report to your credit files that this debt was in dispute. Once they receive your dispute letter they are required by law to note this on your credit report entries. Since most CA's never bother doing this, I am assuming that they didnt in your case.

Third, they are in violation of the FCRA by continuing to report inaccurate information in your credit reports. The FCRA holds creditors accountable for the accuracy of what they report about you. And, FCRA violations usually carry bigger penalties for the creditor. FDCPA violations are worth up to $1000 plus any actual damages. More on that in a minute.

In this new letter, you want to recap this--you want to show them the basic timeline, and mention any of their collection efforts you can prove in court that took place after they got your last letter. Inform them that due to their continued unwillingness to handle this obvious error properly, you have no choice now but to file suit against them for their repeated violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Tell them that they have 30 days from date of receipt of this letter to address this issue, and to stop trying to collect money that you have already proven you already paid. If, at the end of that 30 days, they have not changed their entry on any and all of your three major credit bureau files to accurately reflect the payments you have made, that you will move forward with the suit against them.

Just a detail for you--there is no deadline set by law as to how long they have to investigate a dispute. The law gives you 30 days from date of notice to dispute with them, but they do not have any set time frame in the law in which they must respond. Because of this, it is up to you to protect your rights in the manner I just laid out. Since you only sent the previous letter last month, you may wish to at least let a full month go by first, before you send this one out. That way, they will not have any excuse like "we didnt have time to address it".

OK, on to the violations, just for your information.

1--continued collection effort after notice of dispute, FDCPA violation
2--knowingly continuing to report inaccurate info to credit bureau--FCRA violation

There are probably others, but for now this will suffice.

Additionally, it is important to know if Midland owns this debt now, or if AT&T still does. This is important because, if you just want this to go away and be done with it instead of suing, and if AT&T still owns it, then you can push them to resolve this too. I dont care what they say about "the old AT&T", this is one company again, so they are ultimately responsible. And, if they still own this debt, they can call Midland off the case entirely. Me personally, I would prefer to sue midland for their willful violations of federal law, but you have this choice.

One more thing, you tried to get TU to update their file by pointing out an obvious inaccuracy. TU refused. You may also consider sending them a letter, always by certified mail of course, informing them of their violation of the FCRA. When they have proof that inaccurate information is on your file and they choose to leave it there, they are responsible for that report. you showed them that the report was false, they chose to ignore your information.

On a side note here, the reason why TU didnt listen to you is because they use a different process to check on entries. CA's are required to VALIDATE a debt with the consumer. This means they show you positive proof that the debt is real, that it is really yours, and that they prove the amount they claim you owe them. But credit agencies like TU use VERIFICATION when you dispute your report with them. Verification is nothing more than verifying the name and address, basically. It says nothing about the content of the entry, it is designed to simply make sure that the entry is on the right person's report.

Sorry this is so long, but I hope it helps. Feel free to let us know if you have any other questions and we will do our best to answer them for you!

Let us know how this turns out.

Talk about re-aging an old post. Eric posted in June 06 Skydivr so I doubt he sees your well written post. Lynn brought it back from the forum post graveyard.

aw, shoot....thanks for letting me know! I didnt even notice that, since there were several posts made recently before mine....