reply to post by lostviking
Legally, they can't.
They do so without repercussion usually, but you can also sue the collection agencies for this, and it's $1000 to you for every violation that they
don't remove, but you have to follow process. You can also sue the credit reporting agencies if they don't comply as well.
If there is a collection agency that lists on your credit, and you ask them to verify the debt, they have 30 days to do so. If they don't, you are
allowed by law to follow up with a request that they remove all negative items from your credit. They have 30 days to do this as well. If they do not,
you have to remind them one more time, legally, and they have 15 more days. If they do not comply at this point, you can sue them in court and get
$1000 for each item on each credit report. Once you have all of your letters and return receipts, you send them to the credit reporting agencies and
they MUST remove the items, otherwise, you can take them to court and will likely win.
If you have to go this route, you MUST send certified letters with return receipts by mail so you can prove that they received the letters in court.
That is your primary defense. They do not have the right to report on your credit without proving that they are legally able to collect on the
original debt. You'll spend some time and money writing the letters and keeping track of things but will ultimately win.
Because they don't follow the law, I have been able to remove over $7K in disputed debts and loans from my credit. If you are a business and aren't
going to follow the law, I certainly am not going to pay you. These places are required to do things by the book, and when they don't, what channels
are you allowed to dispute them? What can you do when they jack your interest rate for no reason? NOTHING... you stop paying, because you dispute the
terms of their services, and you wait until a year or two passes to get it removed from your credit reports.
Once you have gotten rid of the collection agency account, which happens because of lack of proof on their part, you get the original debt removed for
the same reason. After 1-2 years, most companies destroy their records.
We should have more rights, and since they use the system to screw us, there are smarter people who have learned to fight back. For now, this is your
best weapon against the credit machine.
~Namaste
edit on 14-1-2011 by SonOfTheLawOfOne because: (no reason given)