Collection Agency refused to delete the entry

Hi!
Welcome to the forums!
If At&T mobile was aware of your new address, then they should have sent the bills to your current a address. Under FDCPA laws, the collection agency can't harass you when collecting debts. So, you can very well inform that to the debt collector. You can contact the AT&T mobile and request them to withdraw the account from CA. Inform them that you want to settle the debt with them. If they agree, negotiate a pay for delete agreement with them. Otherwise you can request them to update your account status as "Paid in Full". However, if AT&T is still not interested, then I guess you have to settle the debt with the collection agency. As they are not agreeing to delete the listing from your credit report even after paying the full amount, then ask them to update the account status as "Paid in Full".
If you are not able to settle the debt with the collection agency on your own, then get help from a professional debt settlement company. They can negotiate with the debt collectors in a better way. They may also help to lower your debt amount.

The answer to your question is the collection agency is under no obligation to remove the tradeline if they are reporting correctly and accurately. Once paid their only obligation is to report a zero balance.

As for contacting a professional debt settlement company, well that is a waste of a phone call. Settlement companys wont take on a single debt for such a small amount and their fee would negate any savings.

How is the collection agency harassing you? Just by calling you? That is not harassment...

The CA finally responded to me by sending a copy of the outstanding balance from my AT&T bill. This amount was different than the total due reported by the CA on my credit report. Is there a sample letter that I can send to them letting them know that they had ignored my written request to verify the debt and continue to call to collect. Please advise. Thank you

This is not proper validation of debt. You can send the following sample letter to the collection agency:

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/letters/sample7.html

Did the debt collector send you a formal collection (dunning) notice within 5-days of their reporting of the collection to the CRA? If not, then they are in violation of FDCPA809(a). If your DV letter was timely, i.e. it was sent either with no prior dunning notice, or within 30-days of their dunning notice, then any contact with you thereafter would be a violation of FDCPA 809(b) until such time as proper validation was provided.
Regarding the debt, if the OC has sold the debt to a debt collector, they cannot accept any payment. Aside from the FDCPA vioaltions, which really dont apply to the credit reporting, if the debt collector owns the debt, you must deal only with them.
Payment of the debt carries with it no requirement for any CR deletion of prior, accurate reporting.
The FDCPA violations are addressed by complaint to the FTC (they wont act on it), or by civil action on your part.

I received a letter from the collection agency after sending a follow up letter per your advice. All I got was a one page letter letting me know that "this letter serves as your requested verification of your outstanding debt with US Asset Management Inc". I think they bought my debt from this company. The letter showed the original creditor, which was AT&T Mobility and the account balance of the debt. It also stated that the above information has been verified as correct by US Asset Management Inc. What is my next step? They obviously did not send the information per my request from my first letter to them. Please help. Sincerely, L.

In a proper validation letter, the collection agency is supposed to provide you with the following things. These are:
1. Written evidence that the account is currently with them (collection agency.
2. Copy of your payment history on the account ( total debt amount, fees added to the debt amount, penalties, interests, etc. will be there).
3. Copy of the original agreement made between you and your creditor.

If all the aforementioned documents have been enclosed with the validation letter, then you can start negotiating a settlement with them. Make a written settlement agreement with the collection agency and repay the debt within the scheduled date. The debt amount has possibly increased due to the accrued interest rates, fees.

Sorry nelly, but the collection agency is not required to send either 1 or 2 to validate.

No collection agency is going to spend time negotiating in writing., Everything is one over the phone

The validation only included the original amount that was owed to AT&T. The original debt amount was reported to the credit agencies as well as the total debt amount. I have not received any documentation how the total debt amount was calculated and added.

What they sent is not proper validation and would be dismissed in court as hearsay. You need to respond to their "validation" and tell them that what they provided does not prove that you owe the amount they're trying to collect. Ask them again to send proper validation of the debt.

Sorry to say Soaplady, but validation of debt should be in writing. The debt collector may validate the debt over the phone but he needs to validate the debt in writing as well. Please check: "ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf" (Section 809, Validation of debt)

Sorry Soaplady, I can't agree with you. The debt has to be validated in writing by the collection agency. You can go through the following link for reference:
"http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf"

You can get all the information related to debt validation from the above page.

huh?? Read what I wrote. I was not discussing validation but negotiation.

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Well, well, well... one more instance of my post getting deleted. There have been several other instances where my posts had been deleted for no reason and I had contacted the admin/moderators in order to know who did so. I came to know the name of that moderator doing so a long time back but as she is a senior member, I never thought of disclosing her name. I contacted one of the moderators and came to know that she again deleted my post from this thread. So, I felt that’s it’s high time that I disclose her name – it’s SOAPLADY – one of the senior members and moderators of the forum. I don’t know whether such an act of hers raises her prestige in this forum in any way.

To other moderators/members:

This is what I wrote in this thread in reply to Soaplady’s post#9

Sorry to say Soaplady but the collection agency is required to validate the debt in writing. They may validate the debt over the phone but it is important for them to send it in writing as well. Please check: “ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf” – Can any one of you let me know what was wrong in it? Or was it any kind of spam?

There have been instances where I had been wrong and she and other members had rectified me. That is perfectly fine with me. But I don’t get to understand the reason why she keeps on deleting posts when there is no reason for doing so. This is also a TOS violation.

Do either of you two read????

I never said that a CA doesnt have to validate in writing. I simply wrote the that neither these two items are part of validation
[QUOTE]Sorry nelly, but the collection agency is not required to send either 1 or 2 to validate.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]1. Written evidence that the account is currently with them collection agency.
2. Copy of your payment history on the account ( total debt amount, fees added to the debt amount, penalties, interests, etc. will be there).[/QUOTE]

Validation of a debt....it is posted at http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/settlement/thread113136.html
? 809. Validation of debts
(a) Within five days after the initial communication with a consumer in connection with the collection of any debt, a debt collector shall, unless the following information is contained in the initial communication or the consumer has paid the debt, send the consumer a written notice containing—
(1) the amount of the debt;
(2) the name of the creditor to whom the debt is owed;
(3) a statement that unless the consumer, within thirty days after receipt of the notice, disputes the validity of the debt, or any portion thereof, the debt will be assumed to be valid by the debt collector;
(4) a statement that if the consumer notifies the debt collector in writing within the thirty-day period that the debt, or any portion thereof, is disputed, the debt collector will obtain verification of the debt or a copy of a judgment against the consumer and a copy of such verification or judgment will be mailed to the consumer by the debt collector; and
(5) a statement that, upon the consumer’s written request within the thirty-day period, the debt collector will provide the consumer with the name and address of the original creditor, if different from the current creditor.
(b) If the consumer notifies the debt collector in writing within the thirty-day period described in subsection (a) that the debt, or any portion thereof, is disputed, or that the consumer requests the name and address of the original creditor, the debt collector shall cease collection of the debt, or any disputed portion thereof, until the debt collector obtains verification of the debt or any copy of a judgment, or the name and address of the original creditor, and a copy of such verification or judgment, or name and address of the original creditor, is mailed to the consumer by the debt collector. Collection activities and communications that do not otherwise violate this title may continue during the 30-day period referred to in subsection (a) unless the consumer has notified the debt collector in writing that the debt, or any portion of the debt, is disputed or that the consumer requests the name and address of the original creditor.

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Providing an address is hardly proof...at least the way you wrote it out.
It you must quote a site, this is taken from the above link...
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Hi Soaplady...I was going through the thread as I had a similar query. I could not understand your post. It is so confusing. Can you please explain your post in details?

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