Fighting Collections - They Are All Fraudulent!

I'm going to warn you right from the start that this is going to be a fairly long post. But I believe it will be an easy read and you will learn some very important information. Some of it may seem unbelievable but I assure you that it is true. Look, I've been doing this for over 31 years now. I can prove what I'm saying and I have proven it in court for quite a few of my lawsuit clients.  So grab your munchies and something to drink and let's start class!

It amazes me that people pay collection companies when they really don't owe the debt. Maybe they feel they have a moral obligation or they are stressed out and think paying them is the only way to make them go away. Maybe they've been convinced that they owe it and no one has taught them the truth about collections. Maybe it's a combination of the above, or all of the above, or some other reason that makes sense to them. Almost no reason makes sense to me.

Talking about collections with me makes me just go off, spewing out one fact after another and sometimes I get so riled up I get potty mouth. Yep, I do blow it occasionally when it comes to collections. Their fraudulent behavior and bullying, harassment, lies and stubbornness sometimes sets me off.  I'm going to teach you about collections today and I promise I will try my hardest to keep my words clean so as to not offend anyone or put bad language in front of youngsters that may read this.

Let's start from the beginning and we'll assume the original account is a credit card account, (but this scenario applies to most types of collection accounts including medical, utilities, insurance, cable/telecommunication accounts as well).

When you are approved for a credit card account, you are given plastic and a credit limit. When you spend using that card, the bank/card issuer convinces you that they lent you money/credit limit for you to spend. But that's not the truth. Banks are not allowed to lend money from their assets nor their depositors' assets.  It's also completely illegal to lend credit.  So now that you know that banks can't lend money or credit, what are they lending you?  The answer is NOTHING! 

What actually happens is that credit card agreement with your signature becomes a negotiable instrument. Your signature gives it energy and value. Title 12 instructs banks to treat negotiable instruments as cash. In accounting, a bank treats it as "cash equivalent" and that means that YOU FUNDED THE ACCOUNT!  The instrument has your signature on it. You own it. But they NEVER disclose that to you. You are actually making a loan to the bank but they trick you and convince you that they lent you something, totally ignoring that you were the one lending something.

Let's skip over to contract law for a moment. In order for a contract to be valid, there are 4 main elements, in addition to being bilateral - meaning 2 signatures, 1 from each party. The 4 essential elements are Offer, Acceptance (you have these two in your contracts), FULL DISCLOSURE, and EQUAL RISK. Your credit card account contract is missing the last 2 essential elements for a valid contract.

To have full disclosure, they would need to inform and advise and disclose to you that YOU are the one who is funding the account. They would have to disclose to you that the account is going to be insured in case of asset loss for the bank's favor and that you will be paying the insurance premium for that asset loss insurance (known as "credit default swap"), and get your written consent to the amount of the premium. They would need to disclose that they will most likely only service the account and transfer "ownership" to a special purpose vehicle such as an asset backed trust. They would need to disclose that this is securitization and that by separating the payment stream from the note, the contract is void. 

To have equal risk, both parties must have something to lose. What do the banks have to lose? They don't lend anything. They are insured against loss, they sell it and transfer it, they get tax credits. WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO LOSE? The only thing I can think of is insane amounts of illegal profits that they really aren't entitled to. But really that doesn't fit either because they insure everything! They can't lose!  Anyhow, I hope I've explained why the banks don't really have a valid contract.

Now, moving on to the creation of collection accounts and the fraudulent nature of them. 

You have your credit card account and you're using it and paying it regularly and consistently and then something happens that causes you to be late. You get hit with fees. You catch it up and use and pay and use and pay but you get to a point where you just can't keep up with the payments and you default on your agreement. The account gets further and further behind. So you try to work something out with them but still you can't keep up.

Let's say you asked me to try to talk to them about the account. So I call them up and say that I want to discuss account number  1234XXXX, and see what can be done to save the account and get back on track.  They ask me if I am Mary Doe and I tell them, no, I'm Shannon, Mary's friend, or sister, or whatever. They will then tell me that they cannot discuss the account with me or anyone except Mary unless she has given specific authorization or a Power of Attorney to speak with them on her behalf.  This is important to understand. They CANNOT share any information about Mary's account with me or ANY PERSON (corporations are also defined as a "person") without a request, agreement, authorization, or Power of Attorney specifically naming that person as authorized to communicate and receive her account information. THIS IS IMPORTANT!

Well Mary can't catch up the account and at 180 days, the bank needs to remove it from their books and they charge it off.  But wait! Remember that they insured that account in case of loss due to default or other credit/asset loss?  They never tell you this but at approximately 90 days, they are allowed to file an insurance claim for that asset loss. The insurance company then issues a check for the amount of loss they claim they will or have incurred. The account is now PAID OFF IN FULL.  Remember who paid the insurance premium?  That's right, it was you - whether you knew it or not you were charged the premium and you paid it. Or maybe I should say your negotiable instrument paid it. 

That insurance payoff happened at approximately 90 days of default. Remember I told you that the banks charge off the account at 180 days? That charged off amount is the balance they report to the credit bureaus, or an amount near the amount of the charged off amount. IT'S A HUGE LIE!  The account was paid off by insurance that YOU paid for. The balance is $0! They charged off NOTHING! Scam! Fraud! Lies! Schemers!  Your credit reports should ALWAYS show the charged off account has a $0 balance. Oh heck no! It shouldn't even be a charge off. You paid off that account in full at approximately 90 days of default. And that's not even taking into consideration that you funded the stinking account in the first place so you never really were in default and didn't even need insurance to pay it off. I swear! Now you know why I get so worked up. But oh, it doesn't end there.

When they do their charge off of the account, next they recoup some more money by filing a Profit and Loss on their taxes. This allows them to take a deduction or receive a credit for that asset loss.  Funny how they conveniently forget that they never lent a dime, never lost a dime, actually made money (from your payments and insurance payouts), and still benefit from the P&L. You'll see that P&L on your credit reports quite often under "Account Status." 

Now that they've squeezed out as much money for that account as possible for the time being, they use the credit reports to try to extort that fake balance out of you. Some people fall for it and you will see a Paid Charge Off on the credit reports. Many times people pay them because of the threat of being sued. Oh the greed of the banks!  

Banks don't always hold onto charged off accounts. Sometimes they crunch the numbers and figure that it's more beneficial to sell off the charged off accounts. This is where the 3rd party collection company enters the picture. They usually bundle up a lot of charged off accounts and sell them as debt portfolios.  Then "debt buyers" purchase them. I really hate the title of "Debt Buyers." They don't buy debt, they buy YOUR INFORMATION.

Now please recall the little scenario of me trying to talk to the bank on Mary's behalf. Do you remember why they wouldn't talk to me or anyone else about her account?  They, by law, cannot share any information with any person without Mary's consent. They can't share info or communicate or negotiate without her authorization or a Power of Attorney, or an agreement such as a company stepping in and paying off the account  for which she would have contracted to now pay them. An example of this would be similar or the same as a refinance.

When banks sell off their portfolios of charged off accounts to a 3rd party collection company or misnamed "debt buyer," they are selling the account information only, because remember, the account has not only been paid off by insurance, but also charged off and received tax credits. But, they NEVER contact the account holders and get their consent to share that information  with any other party. They do it behind your back! They do it without your consent and without your knowledge.

I declare that this is collusion between banks and collection companies to perpetrate identity theft on account holders.  Collection companies get these accounts, create new accounts that you know nothing about then send you a bill claiming you owe them. Wait!  Where's the contract? Contract law requires a valid bilateral agreement between you and another party. It requires offer and acceptance. When dealing with a collection company, there is No upfront offer and acceptance. There is no full disclosure - they ALL know that the true account balance is $0 and I've confirmed that with a broker for debt portfolios. They KNOW! Lastly, it's obvious that there is NO EQUAL  RISK! It is impossible to have a valid contract with these debt collectors. It is also highly likely that collection accounts are insured as well. I'd guess that I'm about 95% sure of it.

WHAT A HUGE SCAM ON CONSUMERS! GRRRR!  I know some of you are feeling what I feel when discussing this huge fraud on consumers. It's an outrage!  It's intentional and willful and corrupt.

I'm not advocating not paying your bills because it all starts off with a failure to disclose, no real lending, no truly valid contract, etc. I believe that in this society, you have to play the credit game in order to achieve the American dream of home ownership and purchasing cars, or personal loans, renting a place to live or renting a car, turning on utilities, getting insurance, getting a cell phone, or whatever. You need good credit to obtain additional credit or financing for major purchases. I'm just  wanting you to be aware and awake. I just want you to understand about collections and learn to fight back. I don't ever advise anyone to pay a collection account though. It's all a sham. 

Demand validation of these collectors. Demand they produce a valid contract. Demand they produce a signed authorization. They shouldn't be on your credit report for any reason but since they are, they certainly should not be there without an authorization to collect information and make communications about you and an alleged account. They can NEVER truly validate. There is no valid contract and there is no POA or signed authorization. They've never lent anything to you. They are not named on original contracts with original creditors so they don't even qualify to subrogate/substitute themselves on to a contract. They have no interest to protect. They haven't been aggrieved and are not entitled to seek redress. 

I hope you've learned a lot from this post. I hope it gets you fired up to fight back. I hope the information helps you to see success against these 3rd party collectors to get them off your credit reports and out of your lives! 

If you have collection accounts that you need off your credit reports and you don't want to take on the fight alone, contact me because I love my work. I love fighting to get these thugs off your reports and out of your lives. 

Using the Section 609 Credit Repair Process

This is a subject that I have wanted to write about for some time now.  Many of you have heard about this method to repair your credit. Probably some of you have done it.  I'm not a big fan. I heard a lot of reports about people who have used it.  There have been some that have experienced success with this method and most of those were people who used it way back when it first came out.  I have heard of many more people that have used it and not had near the results they were expecting or were assured that they would have.  I too have used the method a couple of times for my clients but had to go back to using the methods I have used successfully for over 3 decades.

My first problem with this method is that it is only disputing with the credit bureaus. When you are going after 3rd party collections, I believe you need to protect yourself with validation demands so that you have it in place in case the collector decides to sue you.  If you have demanded validation, they cannot sue unless they have validated - a task they cannot actually and lawfully succeed at because they do not have first-hand knowledge, they have no contract, and they do not have your permission to collect information and make communications about you and the alleged account.  They have to get that authorization from you, in writing.

This method, the Section 609 method is bureau disputing only.  It is based on a good concept that requires the credit reporting agencies to prove  the verification they claim. This is a task that they NEVER do. They don't have the ability to do because they don't conduct reasonable investigations, they don't collect the documents to support the information furnished, they don't get authentic verification because verification requires sworn testimony (affidavit) accompanied with that supporting documentation. All they have is hearsay, which the courts have deemed as incompetent and inadmissible.

So, here is how it works:

You write a letter to each bureau telling them to provide the documents used to verify or that validate the following accounts.  You  are demanding that the send you the verifiable proof (copy of the original contract between the furnisher and you) that the FCRA requires them to have in your file. The word "file" is very important because they try to convince you that a "file" is the same thing as a credit report, but it is not.

Next, most templates have a table that has the furnisher name (creditor/collector) then the account number, then the dispute says "unverified account" in the final box of the table. One of the requirements under both Section 609 and 611 requires that information that is incomplete, inaccurate, or unverifiable be corrected or deleted. So, just above the table you tell them provide the proof for each account within 30 days or delete it as required by law.

The bottom of the letter tells them to remove all promotional non-account related inquiries and to suppress your information from promotional services - in other words, opting out.  After that is the signature though some variations of this credit repair process has you get each letter notarized.

So that is the method.  There are letters 2, 3 and 4.  Each letter is basically the same, but the language in each consecutive letter gets stronger. The second letter tells them that it's the 2nd written request and they claim to have verified but didn't provide any documentation. You are demanding they provide you the documentation along with the name, title, contact information with the persons who they spoke to or communicated with in their "re-investigation" in order to prove to you that an actual reasonable investigation was done and they acquired the documentation proving the account was verified.

The letter reminds them again that they are required to delete unverified accounts and if they cannot provide that documentation, then it is not verified and must be removed according to Sections 609 and 611.  It also reminds them of their civil liability (meaning you have the right to sue them) under FCRA  617 for willful negligence.

Once again the 3 column table is there with creditor/collection company name, account number and unverified account. You of course remove any accounts that have been removed from the report from the first dispute.

Round 3, letter 3. Almost the exact same as round 2 letter but it says it's the 3rd written request and then above the table you demand that they send the documentation or delete immediately. Again you make sure that you don't dispute any of the accounts that were removed from the first and second disputes.

Round 4. This letter is again slightly different.  It has a header on it that says its a Notice of Pending Litigation Seeking Relief and Monetary Damages pursuant to FCRA Sections 616 and 617. It calls them out for not investigating, not providing documents, falsely claiming the accounts are verified but never sending the proof.  It tells them the 3 previous letters they received disputing the items will be used as exhibits and evidence if they proceed to litigation as will the credit reports showing they have been disputed and claimed to verify.  

This 4th letter is definitely notarized. Also, with each round of disputes you are expected to provide copies of your ID and SS card.  I'm not big on that at all but for this process, it's recommended.  You don't want to give the CRA's any loophole for not doing their job and following the law.

So, that is the process.  I however think that you need to send validation letters to collectors and proof of claim letters to original creditors. You need to demand that they provide you with the documents used to supposedly verify the information that the furnished to the credit bureaus. You let them know that a response letter that provides a summary of the account is NOT verification, is NOT validation, is hearsay and it will be rejected because you agree with the courts that hearsay is incompetent and inadmissible.

In my follow up letters to these collectors and creditors, I call them out for not sending certified copies of original documents, sending a slew of billing statements that are NOT proof of a full accounting, not sending proof of how the account was funded and where those funds came from, proof that the account is still within the statute of limitations, proof of license and bonding to collect in the consumer's state, proof of a Power of Attorney document or written authorization showing that consumer gave their consent to collect information and make communications about the alleged account, and proof that the 3rd party collector was specifically named on any original contract showing they are entitled to collect by having an interest to protect.

I like to write bureau letters that do include Section 609, but I use many other sections of the FCRA, federal acts, code of federal regulations, case law, state statutes, UCC, and other legal ammunition.  I don't like relying on just 1 main section of the FCRA.  I do the same thing with my direct to creditor/collector letters. Demanding proof of claim or validation is important to protect yourself and including laws and the above legal ammunition, proper wording is important to see a higher rate of success in your credit repair journey.

I hope you will find this information helpful.  If you are in need of credit repair assistance and don't feel like taking it on yourself, please contact me at futurefico@gmail.com. I may be able to assist you.

Judgments Don't Belong On Your Credit Reports

I am of the firm belief that most derogatory items that are on your credit reports don't belong on there.  You see, if you dispute an item, the credit reporting agencies are required to verify the item.  I wrote in a post quite a while back that verification is only hearsay unless it is accompanied by validation or proof of claim, which would be the documentation.  I'm not just pulling this stuff out of my ear. No, there is case law to back up what I'm saying.

Also, verification according to Black's Law Dictionary is Sworn Testimony.  This testimony can be in a deposition, on the witness stand, or an affidavit, sworn under penalty of perjury and under oath, and notarized. Who can testify?  Only someone with first hand knowledge. Only someone who has the documentation to support the testimony and the testimony that supports the documentation.  This is how it works. One without the other is hearsay and according to the courts, it's incompetent and inadmissible.

Now back to credit bureaus claiming something is verified. Have you disputed something and they said it was verified?  Did they provide any documentation?  Did they send you the sworn affidavit testifying to the accuracy?  Hmmm, I'm guessing for everyone that has disputed with the bureaus the answers are Yes, No, and No again!

Have you disputed a judgment and you know it's not accurate?  The amounts are not always accurate. The dates they report are not accurate, usually.  But bigger than those things, is the fact that they come back claiming "Verified" when there are only 3 entities that can verify according to Black's Law Dictionary and case law directly from quite a number of courts. You can verify it - and surprisingly many people actually unintentionally do that when they dispute a judgment. The plaintiff can verify it. And the court/judge has the capability to verify it but that is against the law for them to communicate with the bureaus regarding a specific consumer/case.  In fact, Equifax got slammed a little over a year ago in Chakejian v. Equifax and the court said they cannot claim the court or any government agency furnished information or verified information pertaining to a public record.

The bureaus don't get their information from the courts and plaintiff's don't furnish public record information nor do they verify it with the bureaus. What credit bureaus do is hire a 3rd party "vendor" to check the courts' public records and they furnish it and they claim to verify it. Wait a minute!  Do you see the words "3rd party?" Now remember what the courts and Black's Law Dictionary said about verification?  A 3rd party can't legally claim to verify anything because they lack 1st hand knowledge. They're not even qualified to be furnishing the information!

So, now you know why I'm saying that judgments don't belong on your credit reports.  If you have a default judgment, that is considered a "Void Judgment" because  the court lacked jurisdiction.  If you were sued by a 3rd party collector, they lacked and will always lack Personal Jurisdiction over you. No jurisdiction, no valid judgment! 

Of course, if you fought the lawsuit and didn't fight it properly, they will have a judgment against you because you didn't challenge jurisdiction properly and you didn't word things properly in your response and/or testimony in the case.  If you didn't challenge jurisdiction, you gave them jurisdiction and the courts generally are biased and favor the plaintiff.  You have to say the right things and word things properly and challenge properly and effectively in order to win.

It's the same thing when disputing with the bureaus.  You can fight the judgment and dispute and challenge the judgment with the bureaus, but they are liars, cheats, lawbreakers, and are biased in favor of the companies that pay them.  Judgments should come off easily because they cannot truly be verified. But if the language is not correct, its a 50/50 shot.

There are things you can do in preparation for disputing and I've talked about that on other posts.  These things will give you a little more leverage and help you get them removed.  But if you want someone with over 30 years of experience, who knows the exact verbiage that has given me a 100% success rate of removing the judgments from credit reports, contact me.  I can help you get them off.  I can help remove your judgments whether they are paid or not. Usually after doing some prep work, they come  off with the first dispute. Occasionally the bureaus push back a bit and we have another go at it but as of the date of writing this article, the success rate is 100%.

I want to help you remove these judgments from your credit reports. If you're running out of time to remove these or have been told pay a judgment showing on your credit reports in order to get a car or mortgage or a place to live, or a job, or a promotion, I know how to get them off your reports quicker than most companies, and quicker than disputing it on your own.  The verbiage I use is effective. It is proprietary. It works.

Call or email me today so I can help you get these off your reports and on with your life.  7 years is too long to suffer because the bureaus prefer to be thugs to consumers than to aid them with accurate, verified reports.  Fighting for 6 - 12 months or longer to get the bureaus to remove them when you need to close escrow in 45 days is too long. Let me help.  It's what I'm good at, what I'm passionate about, and I want you to be able to get the things you need that these judgments on your reports are preventing you from attaining.

My phone number is 951-801-2828 and my email address is futurefico@gmail.com. Contact me right away to allow me to help you start getting your life back.

If you have found this blog helpful to you, please consider donating as a sign of your appreciation for information I have freely given to you.  The "Donate" button is on the right side bar.  Thank you for your generosity.

Getting Collection Accounts Off Your Credit Reports

Getting rid of collections from your credit reports is one of the main goals of credit repair.  They are very damaging to both your perceived credit worthiness and your credit score. They used to be one of the easier tasks to complete even if you really didn't know too much about fixing your credit.  But that is not the case anymore.  Sometimes they are as stubborn to remove as charge offs and they take a lot more work than in years past.

Collections, based on who the 3rd party company is, who the original creditor is, what type of alleged debt it is,and other factors can drop your credit scores overnight to a score that will prevent you from qualifying for a home loan, car loan, credit cards, even from renting, and even other important needs or wants, such as employment, promotions, and a whole slew of other things that can affect your life. My partner and I have seen our clients' scores drop up to over 100 points with a new collection but typically in the range of 40 - 80 points. 

You have to attack collection accounts vigorously and consistently in order to remove them. You have to be careful the way you say things when you are disputing to avoid verifying the alleged debt for them. This is true when disputing with credit bureaus and also with the collection company.   You must choose your words wisely. You must NEVER admit you owe a collection company anything and never admit you owe the original creditor that is related to that collection account.

For the best chance at successfully getting rid of collections, you need to dispute with the credit bureaus and the collection companies. If you want to get them deleted from your reports you need to have bureau disputes that attack in multiple ways to avoid getting a "frivolous" response letter.  You will also need to demand validation directly from the collection company. You may need to do several "rounds" of letters to both of these entities before you see the results you're looking for.

Demanding validation is important for several reasons.  Once you demand validation, the FDCPA requires the collection company to cease all collection activity until they validate.  However, there is NO LAW, not even in the FDCPA that requires a collection company to validate.  What this means is  that if a collection company does not validate, they can no longer furnish or verify information on your credit reports.  They are required to delete the information.  They are no longer allowed to send you a bill.  That's obvious collection  activity.  They are not allowed to initiate a lawsuit against you either if they haven't validated.  The bad news is that many of these collection companies don't give a rat's whiskers (thought I was gonna say something else, huh?) about the law and they ignore it, violate it, and continue their illegal collection activity.

Validation can eliminate the alleged debt if the collection company obeys the law. This happens quite often when you write effective letters.   But even with effective letters, many companies give up their pursuit of you but try to recoup some money by selling the account to another collection company.  The more this happens, the easier it usually gets to remove each new claim for that old account. However, sometimes you slam them so hard and so effectively that you eliminate that alleged debt and never have to see anything related to it again.  That is the ultimate success you are looking for.

Successful disputing also requires you to consistently respond to their replies to your disputes. You can't drop the ball.  You MUST respond and you must respond on point. In other words, you have to attack what they say, what documentation they provide, what they don't provide, and properly rebut any claims they make that they have verified or validated the account.  A good arsenal of laws, case laws and other legal citations to back up your demands and your rebuttals helps to knock them down and kick them out of your life and off your credit reports.  I think this is probably where I see most people get hung up, stumped and start to give up.

Credit repair is not as easy as a lot of people think! Sometimes it feels like a full time job when you are doing it on your own. My partner and I have been doing this for over 50 years combined. We are the best of the best at what we do. We have other credit repair companies calling and asking for our assistance because they are frustrated with their clients' progress sometimes. And you know what? It's sometimes hard for us too so we know that you can get frustrated, worn down and feel like giving up.  Fortunately, we love fighting, love seeing great results for our clients, are passionate about what we do, and heck, its our job so we don't give up.  

You need to hang in there, keep fighting, keep responding, keep demanding proof, documentation, etc. Your credit depends on it. Your ability to rebuild your credit, improve your scores, qualify for credit, loans, get employed, etc. depend on it. 

If you get too worn out, burned out, frustrated or tired, please reach out to me. This is what I do.  If you don't even want to attempt it on your own for whatever reason be it lack of  time, fear, or you just want to let a professional assist you, please contact me. I will audit your reports and my partner will give you a consultation. We will answer your questions and give you a realistic projection of what you can expect our services to achieve for you. 

You can contact me by email at futurefico@gmail.com or go to our company website at InsightCreditGroup.com and sign up for a consultation.  I look forward to helping you achieve the credit you desire!

If you have found this blog helpful to you, please consider donating as a sign of your appreciation for information I have freely given to you.  The "Donate" button is on the right side bar.  Thank you for your generosity.

How To Write Bureau Dispute Letters - Part 1

You can have success with your credit repair by just disputing items with the credit bureaus.  Though that is what many credit repair companies use for their services, I personally believe to eliminate the alleged debts, you need to demand validation from both creditors and collectors in addition to disputing with credit bureaus.  When you are repairing your credit, even if you don't want to do validation letters, you absolutely must dispute with the credit bureaus.

I get quite a bit of emails from people who are not sure how to dispute with bureaus and need help with what to say, how many items can you dispute at a time, whether or not you should dispute each item individually, and a number of other questions relating to bureau disputes.  I'm going to try to answer most of them here and give you examples of how to dispute the different types of items. I'm breaking this up into 2 posts because it will be quite lengthy if I do it in just 1.

Let's start with the first part of disputing with credit bureaus.

I want to suggest to you when you start working on your credit, that you do a couple things prior to the actual account disputing. First, Opt Out from all 3 bureaus. What this means is that you do not want them selling your information for marketing purposes.  You can do it by phone or in writing or online.  

By Phone:

(888) 567-8688 - This will opt you out for 5 years.

Online:

http://www.optoutprescreen.com – you can opt out for 5 years or permanently. If you want to permanently opt out, you will need to mail in a form they provide on the site.

By mail:

You must contact each of the bureaus separately to opt out by mail.

Experian

Opt Out

PO Box 919

Allen, TX 75013

TransUnion

Name Removal Option

PO Box 505

Woodlyn, PA 19094

Equifax

Options

PO Box 740213

Atlanta, GA 30374

The next thing you should do is to look through each of your credit reports and note every name variation that is not correct, any addresses that are old and tied to something negative, and any phone numbers, employment or other personal information that is old, not correct or that you just don't need any collectors getting hold of.  Dispute each of these things with the credit bureaus.

A typical dispute for personal information is as follows:

"You are reporting names that are not me.  I have never used them, they are not aliases, they are flat out not me and don't belong on my credit report.  Remove these names please."  Then list the names that don't belong to you.

"You are reporting addresses on my credit report that I don't live at, don't belong to me, and I don't recognize. You obviously have someone else's address information on my credit report and because it's inaccurate you must remove them immediately."

Keep doing this with each personal information item that you want removed. Usually they remove them pretty quickly.  They might fight back on the addresses if they are tied to public record information, so you might need to go after them several times.  Experian is the worst for removing addresses, so just be aware of that.

At the same time you are disputing your personal information, if you have any public record information, you need to write to the court and/or county recorder and ask them if they furnish information to the credit bureaus or if they verify with them either.  You will want to tell them that you are only inquiring about what they do, and that you are not interested in the dispute process or being given some information from some court website about how long public records stay on your credit.  Just tell me does your court actually furnish or verify any information with credit reporting agencies,  You will need to include a self addressed stamped envelope with your inquiry so that they will send you the response as quickly as possible.  I actually have a letter and form that I am willing to share that is sent to the court clerk and county clerk that says what I just wrote above.  You'll need to email me for that.

So, we will get to the actual account disputing with credit bureaus on the next post,  If you have any public records that you will be attempting to remove, please email me for the court clerk and county recorder letters.  Also mention the FTC Staff Opinion Letter as that will be instrumental in removing public records as well and you'll need it when you start your disputing of those items.

My email address is up above on the right hand side, but here it is for those who can't see it on their phones.  futurefico@gmail.com

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How To Make Original Creditors Validate An Alleged Debt

Anyone who has studied the art of credit repair for any length of time knows that when you get attacked by a collection company, you fight back by hitting them with a demand for validation.  But that's for 3rd party collectors, not original creditors. In fact, if you send a letter to an original creditor demanding validation, sometimes you'll get a response from them proclaiming they don't have to validate but as a courtesy, they investigated and they are accurately furnishing information.  They do this to make you give up and go away.

However, there is a way to get them to "validate" without calling it validation and they are required to produce it for you.  Remember a while back, for those of you who have read through my blog posts at least a bit, I explained and defined validation and verification. Validation is the PROOF, the documentation that goes hand in hand with verification.  

So, to be able to have the right to demand the proof that they are accurately reporting, first you must dispute the alleged debt or the account with the credit reporting agencies (CRA's).  This is also compliant with FCRA section 623.  Once you have disputed with the CRA's, they have 30 days to investigate and send you the results of their investigation.  They will send you the results of their investigation and usually at least a partially updated credit report showing that the items disputed have been updated, remains, deleted or verified.

If the results are anything other than deleted, (including "updated" but the problem is still there) this is your open door to make them validate the alleged debt.  Now you can write a letter directly to the creditor saying something similar to the following:

Dear whoever,

I have some concerns about this account and the way you are furnishing the information to the credit bureaus. I don't think the information is accurate. (I'm going to give several different things here that might be an issue you'd bring up).  You say this is charged off but then you claim a balance is still owed to you when we both know that charging off an account puts a $0 balance in your books. The lates you are reporting are not correct.  The history you are reporting is so wack there's no way that it is accurate.  There are all sorts of blank fields on my credit report where you should have reported information. That means the information you have furnished is inaccurate and incomplete and the FCRA says you are required to correct the information or delete it.

When I saw how you were reporting information to the credit bureaus I disputed the accuracy.  Now I have the results of their investigation and it shows that you claim to have verified this account. Since you claim to have verified this account (or updated it for the mere act of putting an "in dispute" comment), I now have the right to have you prove you are furnishing accurate information to my credit reports.

Here is what I am now demanding from you:

Please provide copies of the actual documentation you used to "verify" this account with the credit bureaus.  Here is a list of items I need from you.

Then you start listing items like you would with validation demands from collectors except you don't need proof of assignment or bill of sale from the collection agency. Demand the usual stuff like a certified copy of the original contract, full accounting from origination to present, copies of cancelled checks proving late dates, etc.  Here's some fun stuff to ask them to send you: proof they lent you actual money and where did they get that money from since its against the law to lend money from their assets or their depositors' assets, and its definitely against the law to lend credit. 

Oh, oh, how about insurance?  Now you all know that investors always insure against loss of their assets. Creditors are really just investors.  They are allowed to file a claim against asset loss at 90 days of the customer defaulting on their alleged debt. Yes, that insurance claim results in them receiving a check to cover the balance of the alleged debt they claim is owed. That means that the debt has been paid in full. Let's not forget about tax credits, Oh yes, they file a "profit and loss" claim with the IRS because supposedly they lost money when you defaulted.

How convenient of them to quickly forget that they got paid by insurance on that alleged debt which they never really lent any money or credit for. You funded your own line of credit. I know its hard for a lot of people to comprehend AND accept this because its just not something that they ever teach you. Its something that they don't want you to know.  They don't want you to realize that they are the fraudsters that never lend anything, are never really creditors but merely servicers, insurance fraudsters, tax fraudsters, and lying thieves.

Enough of my ramblings about the enemy. The point is that you can demand that they prove you owe that charged off amount. You can demand that they are accurately reporting late payments and that the history showing on your credit reports is correct. You can demand that they delete the information from the credit reports should they not be able to send you the documentation.  If they don't, well they are violating the FCRA.

I wish I could tell you that you can enforce their compliance, but then I'd be a liar. You can try to enforce it, and you can rat them out to the CFPB and the FTC, and the BBB and your Attorney General, and even sue them. But it all comes down to whether they back down and obey the law or just continue being stubborn, arrogant, and outside of the law. I suggest never giving up. Keep going at them, wear them down, keep calling them out, and yes report them to all of the above agencies.  The squeaky wheel does get the grease and whoever gives up first, loses.  Don't give up! Hang in there and win! 

If you are tired and feeling like giving up or you have collections and charge offs on your credit report and would rather have some help instead of doing it yourself, I understand and would love to help you. Feel free to contact me at the email address listed above, just a little below my picture.

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Removing Default Judgments From Credit Reports & Public Records

Have you ever gone and applied for credit or pulled your credit to qualify to buy a car or house and the finance manager or loan officer tells you that you  have to take care of a judgment in order to qualify and you say, "What judgment?"  I hear it quite a bit. This usually happens because you got sued and never were properly served. I see this happening a lot to people who have been sued by 3rd party debt collectors.

If you've read much of my blog, you know that I absolutely loathe debt collectors. These companies are the scum of the earth.  They have no business meddling in your life. They play dirty, violate the law, and should never get a dime from any consumer.  What is really rotten is when they sue you.  They file a lot of lawsuits because they know that most consumers will not fight back and they get default judgments.  If they think you might be a fighter, or they just don't want to take the chance of that, many times they will improperly serve you a summons and complaint or not even serve you at all. If you don't know about the lawsuit, you won't fight it and they'll win by default.

Courts do NOT furnish these judgments, or any judgments for that matter, to your credit reports. They don't verify them with the credit bureaus either when you dispute them.  These are furnished to the bureaus by data diggers. They scour the public records to find new public records and I believe they are paid to furnish them to the credit bureaus.  These data diggers are considered "Vendors" by or to the credit bureaus and they are the ones who both furnish and verify the disputes with the credit bureaus.

This really pisses me off because they are not qualified to do either of these things and when you demand that the bureaus give you the contact information for the person who verified, they lie and give you the court's address and contact info and never expose the true furnisher of the information nor who claims to have verified the information.  I say that they are not qualified because in order to verify something, you have to have first hand knowledge and the full documentation to back it up. They have neither.

But let's talk about how you remove them. Before I explain the following process, let me state that paying off a judgment does not make it come off your credit report. When you are repairing your credit, you will dispute the judgment with the credit bureaus.  You need to give a specific error.  You can say things like, I have never had a valid judgment for $xxx.  Or, I didn't lose any lawsuit on 1/1/01 or whatever date they are reporting.  You need to spin it if it looks sort of accurate.  You can challenge the court location, dates, amounts, plaintiff, missing information, inaccurate information, even the age being obsolete if its too old to even be on a credit report. You must be VERY CAREFUL not to admit anything about the judgment.  Use "I don't recall..." if you have to but don't even hint at admitting to it.

At the same time you are disputing with the bureaus, send a letter off to the court requesting their method of furnishing information and verifying information with the credit bureaus.  Do not get specific. Do not include your social security number. Do not include any case numbers. Do not reference ANY specific case.  You are only inquiring about whether or not they furnish information and verify information with the credit bureaus.  Make sure you include a self addressed stamped envelope so that they can send you a response quickly.

You should have the response from the court back before you even get your bureau responses back. This is most of the time.  Sometimes courts fail to respond.  When this happens, I think that there's a clerk or court employee that is intentionally trying to make it difficult for you to remove your public record items because they believe you deserve it.  I'm just very suspicious of them like that. I like to see the good in people but I've seen so much that I just have a hard time giving them the benefit of the doubt.  Anyhow, hopefully they will answer your inquiry properly so that you will have some good ammunition for your next round of bureau disputes.

Hopefully your bureau disputes will come back showing that the judgment has been deleted.  But if it comes back as "Verified", you will need to do another round.  This time, your dispute will be, you told me to contact the court regarding the verification of this item. Please see the attached letter I received from the court when I did as you told me to do. They had nothing to do with this information and they certainly didn't verify it.  Please either give me the contact information of the liars who claimed to have verified this or delete it.  Make sure you have attached a copy of the letter from the court and you can also include an FTC staff opinion letter that I use and highlight, that states bureaus are allowing inaccurate public record information on credit reports.

This time, your bureau responses should come back showing the judgment deleted.  But, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Bureaus will occasionally claim they can't use the supporting documentation that you sent with your dispute and its still verified.  Even though the correct and lawful response would be that it has been deleted, unfortunately, bureaus are big lawbreakers too.

We are moving on now to the next section. Whether or not you removed your judgment from the credit report it will still be in the public records.  If you are buying or selling property, when they do a Title search, they will find this judgment and underwriting for your mortgage may require that you pay it off as will escrow for sellers to be able to close.  Credit repair does NOT remove the judgments from public records.  But, getting the judgment vacated with the court sure does!

Now, this is good for everyone who hasn't been able to get it off the credit reports.  I also want to reiterate that this is ONLY FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENTS!  Removing a judgment from a public record should cause your next dispute to the bureaus to finally delete it off your credit reports.

DISCLAIMER:  THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVISE!! THIS IS "HOW TO" INFORMATION BASED ON MY OPINIONS, MY EXPERIENCES, RESULTS FROM PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE AND MY KNOWLEDGE GAINED FROM RESEARCH AND PRACTICAL APPLICATION RESULTING IN CONSISTENT SUCCESSES ONLY. I AM NOT CLAIMING TO BE A BAR ATTORNEY. (I refuse to stoop to that level or be insulted to that degree).

You will need to get the judgment vacated at the court level. This means you will need to file a Motion to Vacate and Set Aside the judgment, and Motion to Stay the Execution of the judgment. You will also need an Answer to the lawsuit which will be entered as an attachment to your Motion to Vacate.

Court rules vary from state to state and county to county. Sometimes courts have rules specific to that court.  There are 2 arguments that can be raised to get a judgment vacated.  The first one is the one most often used and pretty much the only one that an attorney would use. It is a Motion to Vacate for Lack of or Improper Service.  What this means is that you weren't served at all or they didn't serve you properly.  They may have served the wrong address. But for whatever reason, you were not timely and properly notified that you were being sued.  There is also an argument to be made that you were in the hospital at that time or out of the state/country, and didn't get served properly.  They may have done what is called "Substituted Service" because they weren't able to serve you personally.

You will need to pull the full case file and buy a copy of everything in that file. You will want to see the Summons and Complaint (sometimes called a Warrant of Debt), the proof of service, any affidavits that were included, and anything else in that file.  You will be using these items and the information they contain, especially in their Complaint, which has "Causes of Action" to form your defense for both your motions and your Answer.

Remember I talked about court rules?  Well, its very common to see a deadline to file a Motion to Vacate within 6 months of discovering that you had a judgment.  So, when you find out about it and you want to use this defense, you will usually need to get your motion filed into the court and served upon that plaintiff within 6 months.

Now the 2nd argument that can be raised to be granted a Motion to Vacate, and again, this is ONLY for DEFAULT judgments, is the court's lack of Jurisdiction. A default judgment is considered a "Void" judgment and it can be challenged AT ANY TIME - There is NO Statute of Limitations to challenge a default judgment.  The court lacks jurisdiction because there are 4 requires items for every case.  A Plaintiff; A Defendant (Whoops, that was missing); Subject Matter; and A Competent Witness.  

When the court grants a default judgment, there was No Defendant. That means the court lacked Personal Jurisdiction.  If when you pull the file you find that the Plaintiff didn't include an affidavit from a "Competent Witness" (one who has first hand knowledge and is qualified to testify - not hearsay!), then the court also had no Subject Matter Jurisdiction.  Also, subject matter jurisdiction can be challenged at any time and the case cannot move forward until the PLAINTIFF establishes, proves it.

Here is the beauty of vacating default judgments, especially when using the argument of the court's lack of jurisdiction. As I stated, default judgments are Void judgments and can be challenged at any time with NO statute of limitations.  What this means is that if you look at the Date of Last Activity for the original account, and had there not been a judgment it would now be outside that Statute of Limitations for debt, once that judgment is vacated, that debt is now considered Time-Barred and they can't come back and sue you again!  While a judgment is active, they can pursue payment until the statute of limitations for judgments expires.

So keep in mind these Statutes of Limitations:

State statute of limitations on debt is based on the Date of Last Activity (when you last made a payment.

State statute of limitations for judgments - based off the date of judgment and runs for usually at least 10 years but it varies by state.

Statute of Limitations for vacating a Default Judgment - ABSOLUTELY NONE!

So the moral of the story here is, be excited for default judgments. If you get sued, even served properly, but are not prepared to fight and doubt you could win (you probably could if you knew how to fight it properly), don't be afraid to get that default judgment.  You have the ability to reopen the case when you are ready. vacate it, and if you can hold off the vultures trying to collect on that judgment until the debt statute of limitations has passed, you can totally get rid of it from the public records as well as your credit reports.  

Oh, PS.  It is much more wise to vacate a judgment than to file a bankruptcy to get out of paying off a judgment.  Filing a BK will add 10 more years of crap credit to your credit reports and they are a pain in the butt to remove. Save those BK filings for emergencies such as one of your strategies for avoiding foreclosure. By the way, if you are facing foreclosure and want to fight, you can contact me for a referral to a friend of mine who is massively successful, its what he does for a living, and just so you know that he knows what he's doing, he's been in his house now without making a payment for over 11 years. 

If you would like someone to help you remove your judgments from your credit reports, I can help you with that. Though it is illegal to guarantee results, my partner and I do use an escalated and proprietary process that generally removes them in approximately 30 days and we have a 100% success rate.  I would love to help you remove your judgments, your tax liens, your collections, etc. and help you raise your scores so you can have that fresh start you so deserve! You can find my contact information on the top right of this blog. Both my email and phone number are there for you to reach out to me.

If you have found this blog helpful to you, please consider donating as a sign of your appreciation for information I have freely given to you.  The "Donate" button is on the right side bar.  Thank you for your generosity.

How To Beat Debt Collectors At Their Game

Last month I focused a lot on 3rd party debt collectors going after foreclosed homeowners and the deficiency they feel they are entitled to. This month, I'm going to go more into detail on how to beat these collection companies no matter what type of collection account they are on the warpath for money over.

If you receive a notice in the mail from a debt collector telling you that you now owe them for some debt, maybe its a medical collection or a charged off credit card, or even the difference left over after a car repo, it should tell you clearly that you have 30 days to dispute the debt.  If the first contact you have with a debt collection company is that they call you on the phone, you can confirm your name if you want, but do not confirm your birth date, your social security number, your phone number, your address, or anything else.  Do not acknowledge that alleged debt.  Tell them you do not communicate with companies like theirs over the phone and if they have something to say to you, they can put it in writing and mail it to you.

Once you have received that letter, its time to start the fight. You want to immediately fire off a letter disputing the alleged debt and demanding validation.  I go so far as to not even call their account number an account number. Its a reference number.  I do this because there is no way I'm going to acknowledge that my client has an account with them.  This is their own made up account number to try and make you think their claim is legitimate. So, this is where you start to fight back.

Your validation letter should tell them that you are responding to their letter and you do dispute their claims. In fact, you will need them to validate and prove to you that you owe them that alleged debt.  You see, there may be some alleged debt, but do you owe it?  That's what they need to prove.  Don't fall for the lame Chaudhry minimum standard of "verification" of the alleged debt. You don't need verification and they can't provide that anyhow since they are a 3rd party.

You are demanding validation, which is the proof, the documentation that supports their claim.  You are entitled to receive from them a copy of the contract showing you agreed to do business with them. That means that the contract names them as the creditor that actually lent something to you of value, and your name agreeing to compensate them or pay them back for what they claim they lent you.  Then it has to have your signature on it.  A contract between you and the alleged original creditor is not a contract between you and the 3rd party collector and it isn't full validation.

You will also need to tell them to provide proof that they own the alleged debt or that they have been authorized to demand payment, which means its been assigned to them by the original creditor.  Sometimes they will send a bill of sale, and that doesn't happen too often, and occasionally though rare, they'll send you a copy of their assignment. But sending this, even with a copy of the original agreement, is not full validation.

You are also entitled to ask them to provide a full accounting.  This is not just 3 years(or however many they send) of billing statements but also means an accounting ledger. The accounting ledger should show every charge, every fee, interest added, credits, debits, payments, every single event that changed the amount on the alleged account. Billing statements that show what was charged that month is important too because you have the right to say, "Hey, I didn't buy that or authorize that." Leave that for the courtroom though.  We never want to admit anything to a 3rd party debt collector.

You will also want to tell them that since they furnished information to your credit reports, they are required to have your consent to do so in writing, so they need to provide a copy of that consent or authorization.  They won't be able to provide this but this only helps remove them from the credit report. It is not part of validation and will not mean they have to stop trying to collect if they can't produce it.

A couple other things to ask for is proof that the alleged debt is not outside the statute of limitations and if you're in a state that requires licensing and/or bonding, you need to have copies of those documents as well. You also have the right to ask for a full chain of assignment, which means every collector that has ever had it in their possession, and proof that their collection fees are agreed to in the original contract. Heck you can actually even tell them that you have a right to know how much they paid for the alleged debt because that is closer to the phony baloney amount they should be trying to collect.

After you dispute with them and demand validation, you want to write to each of the credit bureaus and dispute each of the collections with them. You will do this about a week or two after you send the letters to the collectors.  This is very important because once you demand validation from a debt collector, they are required to stop all collection activity. Verifying with credit bureaus is considered collection activity and if they do it before they send you validation, they've just broken the law.  They actually need to remove the information they have furnished while its in dispute.  

Many times you will see comments on your credit report saying that "consumer disputes" or similar language.  If those comments are on a 3rd party collection account, that is a violation of law and proof that they are breaking it. Since communicating via the credit report is considered collection activity, putting a "dispute" comment on there doesn't void the fact that they are still trying to collect when they are supposed to stop all collection activity.  Its just proof that they are ignorant of the law or they don't give a rip about the law.  We're going to jump back to bureau disputes in a bit.

Now, when debt collectors respond to your dispute and demand for validation, many times they will send you the name, amount and a few tidbits of information about the alleged original account and then tell you that they have verified.  They haven't, that's hearsay. If they send you any documentation, it might look like they've proved the alleged debt, but its not validation. Its not proof you owe them.

Your response is a very important part of beating them.  You don't want to attack their response until you get the results from your bureau disputes though.  This is because not all of the collectors will usually reply to your demand to validation but they will respond to the bureau dispute by claiming they verified it.  That's a big NO-NO.  You are also going to want to check those bureau disputes and see which collectors were stupid enough to comment that the alleged account is disputed.  You will be using these things against them and this is very effective to make them hit the road.

Now that you've received your bureau dispute results back and the debt collectors that have bothered to respond to your demand to validation are pretty much all back to you, its time to contact the collection companies again.  For those that told you they are closing the file and notifying the bureaus, you don't need to send anything to them.  Just make sure they actually deleted. If they didn't you will dispute that again with the bureaus.  For those that claimed they verified, you need to get real tough with them.

Your response to those who claimed they validated or verified in response to your demand for validation, you need to tell them something like this:  "I've received your letter claiming you have validated (or verified) the above reference number. But the problem is, you didn't provide the documentation that proves I owe you anything.  Where is the contract between your company and me? Where is the full accounting because I can't just take your word for it that I owe some company I've never contracted with, some made up number?  Where is your license and bond?  In fact, from what you sent, I can see that you are trying to collect for something that is outside the statute of limitations for my state (if that is the case).  

You also haven't proved you have any right to be on my credit report because I know for a fact I've never contracted with you nor consented to you being able to make any communication on my credit reports.  You're violating the FDCPA by continuing collection activity and you're violating the FCRA by furnishing information and verifying unvalidated information, disputed information, erroneous information, when no access to my credit reports has ever been granted to you.

So, get your crap off my credit reports until you can provide some proof that I actually owe YOU! You haven't done that yet and by law, you are to cease collection activity immediately.  I reject your hearsay as being validation or verification. I reject the bills you sent as being validation because they are not. I reject any of your claims of validation or verification because you haven't proved anything."

That's pretty much how a follow up letter is written.  Now, for those that verified with the bureaus but didn't bother to even respond to your demand for validation, you should send them a letter similar to what I just gave you but blast them for verifying without even responding to your demand for validation.  You can even tell them that you intend to sue them for their FCRA and FDCPA violations if they don't remove this reference number and information they furnished to the bureaus from your reports.

Now, your follow up letters to the bureaus will be to dispute each one as having demanded validation from each one and they have not validated and therefore are still Unverified so please delete ASAP.  By the next time you get your responses back from the bureaus, you should see some great results.   Sometimes though, they just don't have any respect for the law and they keep leaving their bs on your report. You may need to keep attacking them month after month to remove these stubborn ones.

I hope that those of you who are working to improve your credit will take this information and use it.  It does work.  Its a basic attack and it's based on laws written to protect you from scum like debt collectors.  Remember, you don't owe these punks so fight to keep your hard earned money in your own pockets, not theirs.  Its your right to spend your money as you want, not give it over to these extortionists who will continue to harass you in an attempt to steal it from you if you don't knock them down and out of your lives.

Now, for those of you that want help with removing collections, we are extending our Christmas special into the New Year!  We use advanced techniques and put laws, case law, statutes, Supreme Court rulings and more in the debt collectors' faces. We go well beyond the attack shown above to get you the fastest results possible, all while staying ethical, honest, and within the law. Our special is valid through January 31, 2015.

Our special will save you anywhere from $100 - $300 depending upon the number of collections on your report, as well as other derogatory items.  To qualify for the special, you need to have at least FOUR 3rd party collectors furnishing information on your report.  You will need copies of your credit reports for all 3 major bureaus so get them together and contact us so we can help you have a new, pretty credit report in this exciting New Year!  My email address and phone number are up on the top right hand side of this blog.  I look forward to hearing from you and helping you fight the debt collectors and win!

If you have found this blog helpful to you, please consider donating as a sign of your appreciation for information I have freely given to you.  The "Donate" button is on the right side bar.  Thank you for your generosity.