Response to DV letter seems pretty weak
portfolio recovery associates bought a debt from Providian and tried to collect. I sent them a DV, and they replied by asking me to fill out an "affidavit of identity theft". (Huh?) Thinking it was a mistake, I ignored it. A year passed. They then sent me a letter saying that since I hadn't sent in the form, they were going to resume collecting. I sent another DV. They then gave the file to their attorney, who contacted me in the usual manner. I sent him a DV.
He responded by sending me a letter, on his own letterhead, with no other documents or anything. It said this:
"This debt originated as a Providian Bank Visa [account number]. The account was opened on [date]. the credit card was charged off on [date] at a balance of [x dollars]. The last payment received from you was on [date]. Providian sold this debt on [date]. Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC, on whose behalf we are authorized to collect this debt, is now the owner of this debt.
Providian Bank's mailing address is P.O. Box 660509, Dallas, TX 75266-0509.
The validation required by law is contained in this letter. The other data you requested is not required to be furnished by us in a validation response."
No one has ever given me any actual documentation pertaining to this debt.
Anyone have any suggestions? This "response" seems awfully thin to me... basically all he did in response to my DV was to say, "It's valid because I say it's valid," which doesn't fly with me. I'm thinking about disputing, since the dispute process requires the verification that I'm looking for.
portfolio
I sent in a request to portfolio for dv a couple months ago and I got this back: Orignal Creditors name...hsbc Original Creditors address... 225 Randolph ST Chicago IL Account Holders name..Mine date opend acct..8/1/2007 Account Holders last 4 ssn...**** current outstanding bal...650.00 along with them saying that they had been assigned, sold or transferred the account on 12/23/2008 and that they had an electronic transfer of the business records of this account. I sent them a second DV saying they had not responded with proper DV and that since they had an electronic transfer of my file they should have no problem proving this debt. All the information they sent to the first DV was on Portfolio letterhead. I recieved their response today for the second DV. It states: However, since you have submitted a dispute that is substantially the same as a dispute previously submitted by you and we have already responded to this dispute, then as per ther Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 USCS 1681s-2(a)(8)(f)(ii), we are notifying you that such a dispute is frivolous or irrelevant. If we continue to receive subsequent correspondence from you regarding a dispute that has already been resolved, we will consider your inquiry answered. No further replies will be forthcoming unless you provide the information we need to assist you. Our office considers this matter closed.
So should I consider the debt validated or is that just verification and I'm suppose to offer to pay them now?