first collection agency letter

[sleeplessinohio]

Hi all,

We're approaching 120 past due on our credit cards.

This week we received a letter from Encore Receivable Management, Inc. for our Dick's Sporting Goods credit card.

For several reasons, we still need to wait as long as possible before filing BK.

There is paragraph at the end of this letter that says unless we dispute the validity of this debt within 30 days, this office will assume the debt is valid.

I guess my question is just what to do next? Anything? Nothing? Can we ignore this letter as we are the phone calls? Is there a letter I should send?

Any insight will be greatly appreciated.


sleepless in ohio

[WorkingItOut]

That's the standard legal language included on all collection letters. You can ignore it or you can send a Debt Validation Letter asking them to prove that the debt is yours. But if you are going to file BK in the near future, I wouldn't bother. If you are planning on waiting a long time, then it might get them off your back for a little while. The thing is, if they can't validate the debt, they'll just pass the debt to another collection agency who will send you another letter just like this one, and you'll have to DV them too. It's really up to you if you want to bother with it.

[GoingDown]

From my experience, if you send them a letter disputing the validity, you will never hear from that particular collection agency again. You will have about a month of silence from that particular account until they send it to another collection agency, and then you can do it all over again.

This seems to work fairly well until it gets to the junk debt buyer stage, and then they will send a short letter "validating" the debt. Some of them will send that last month or several months of statements from the account. Some will even send the original application with your signature on it. But most of them will just send a very short letter saying when they bought the debt, who they bought it from, the amount of debt purchased (not how much they paid for it), and the amount of interest charged so far. Unfortunately, that counts as validation.

I suggest sending the DV letter along with a short paragraph demanding that they cease and desist from any further communication with you. Some people will say that speeds up the litigation process, but it my experience it has not done that. It just stops them from calling you.

[treehugger1]

BigBoy, we must be about in the same process and length of time related to our financial issues. Your comment about charge offs is interesting. However, I always do both the DV and C&D. In particular, there are several national credit card companies that continue to only assign debt to CAs and have not sold them. None of the CA's the original creditor hired have answered any of my DV's. I'm thinking these legal firms send a letter back to the original creditor asking for permission to proceed with suit or simply give the account back to the OC.

[treehugger1]

I'm on the same page as you, BigBoy! I do include a validation request and C&D telephone calls in the same letter. I still get written dunning letters from those folks who bothered to provide some validation of debt, but other than that I receive no further info, other than see the debt show up under a new CA or "law Offices of..." LOL Either way, the process starts over and I have to start over. I think this is what debtors pay attoneys to do until the validation comes in and they realize a lawsuit is imminent. Attorneys know the same laws that we do. Why pay them for a stall when you know you owe the debt. You can do this yourself!