What happens if you send a scavenger debt collector money?

He just re-aged the debt to stay on his credit report for however long your state allows. I'm not sure if it reset the statue of limitations or not.

Yeah. I'm not sure since they're not a collections agency if they can report to the credit bureaus. I guess that's my main concern.

I think anyone can report a credit or a debt to the CBR agencies as long as the have the information necessary.

He just reset the statute of limitations.

The statute of limitations has been revived on the account. However the reporting period per the Fair Credit Reporting Act states that the limit on reporting to consumer reporting agencies is 7 years plus 180 days from the date of first delinquency. Once the original creditor has to remove their trade line all associated collection trade lines must be removed as well.

Cochy115, do you still have the letter that they sent your boyfriend? If you could type it up (redacting parts with identifying or personal information) I wouldn't mind reading it. It sounds like they may have committed a fdcpa violation in that letter.

Good catch JCEMT! When I read that the word "sue" was in the letter, that was my thought too. Especially if this was before he had sent them any money and the debt was still outside of the SOL.

And FYI, let me make sure I'm understanding this correctly. Anyone, this inculdes me, can report negative information on someone to a credit bureau? I would presume the information needed, that you referred to, would be name, SSN, and address of the alleged debtor?

Wow!

You'll have to excuse my amazement, but that's messed up. Anyone with an axe to grind against someone could screw around with their CBR just to be nasty? Of course, that could be useful if you sue a CA for fdcpa violations and they refuse to pay up. Slap that on their CBR.

Kidding. I'm sure it's harder to post something like that on a company's CBR than an individuals.

Ron, I think you'd have to be a subscriber to the services of tyhe CRB in question in order to report data. At least, I'd hope so.

There are actually two violations on that letter. The first is threatening legal action when they could not (because before the boyfriend made a payment it was passed the SOL and therefore a time barred debt) now if I'm correct it was probably using a lawsuit to pressure him into making a payment ASAP, which would be overshadowing his right to dispute.

You have to check with your state laws. We sent money to a scavenger debt collector too. But in our state, sending money does not admit to debt owed, only if you promise to pay IN WRITING (which we did not). So we sent a debt validation letter along with a cease and desist (even after we sent them payments). They sent us back a letter saying they do not have the proper documentation and that the case was closed (in a nutshell).

Yes, they re-aged the debt on our credit report but now since they have no documentation, if they don't take it off that can be a violation against them (info we got from a lawyer).

Please don't despair if you sent them money. All is not lost. Continue to research your state laws and go for it. Look at it this way, worse case scenario: they sue you. Well then they actually have to do a little work then, don't they, rather than you just sending in convenient payments!!~ Good luck.