DON'T BLINDLY ACCEPT A CREDITOR OR COLLECTOR'S CLAIM OF VERIFICATION

 Have you been disputing with your creditors and collection agencies to correct their records and information they furnish to the credit reporting agencies only to receive a response that they have verified their records and the information will remain the same, with the bonus of a dispute comment being added?

Did they validate or prove their claim? In order to do that, they need to send the documentation to substantiate the correctness of the information they hold on you. Did they send that? Probably not. The most you usually get will be several months, possibly years of billing statements. Maybe part of a contract. Well, you won't get that from 3rd party collectors in most cases because they have no contract with you.  They may some portion of a contract from the alleged original creditor but not any with them.

So what do billing statements prove? Not a contract, nor a valid contract. They don't represent a full accounting. They don't represent anything you should be asking them to provide. Sometimes in my letters I specifically tell them NOT to send any billing statements because they don't prove anything I need to support their claim. They either don't read or don't give a rip because that's the most common thing I get other than a letter with a hearsay statement that their info is right.

So, they really don't prove their claim at all.  How about Verification. Do they actually verify their claim or just say they did because they are so used to lying? What they send you is "hearsay." I'll touch again on that in a moment but let's explore "Verification." 

I'm going to start with Black's Law Dictionary for a legal definition of Verification. Then I'll show you what the Federal Code defines Verification as being.

 Verification: Black's Law Dictionary "... averment that the party pleading is ready to establish the truth of what he has set forth." "The examination of a writing for the purpose of ascertaining its truth; or a certificate or affidavit that it is true."

The court said "Confirmation of the correctness, truth, or authenticity of a pleading, account, or other paper, by an affidavit, oath, or deposition." McDonald v. Rosengarten, 134 111. 126, 25 N. E. ; and Summerfield v. Phoenix Assur. Co. (C. C-) 65 Fed. 296; and Patterson v. Brooklyn, 6 App. Div. 127, 40 N.Y. Supp. 581.

It is swearing under oath that you can prove your claims.  When in court, who can testify as a witness?  The answer is, a person with FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE! 

Now let's see what the Federal Code says is needed for Verification:

28 USC 1746 – UNSWORN VERIFICATION

Wherever, under any law of the United States or under any rule, regulation, order, or requirement made pursuant to law, any matter is required or permitted to be supported, evidenced, established, or proved by the sworn declaration, verification, certificate, statement, oath, or affidavit, in writing of the person making the same (other than a deposition, or an oath of office, or an oath required to be taken before a specified official other than a notary public), such matter may, with like force and effect, be supported, evidenced, established, or proved by the unsworn declaration, certificate, verification, or statement, in writing of such person which is subscribed by him, as true under penalty of perjury, and dated, in substantially the following form:

(1)

If executed without the United States: “I declare (or certify, verify, or state) under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on (date).

(Signature)”.

(2)

If executed within the United States, its territories, possessions, or commonwealths: “I declare (or certify, verify, or state) under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on (date).

(Signature)”.

So, I would bet at least 99% of those reading this post that have ever received a response letter from a creditor, collector, or credit bureau claiming the information is verified has received a true verification. They don't dare state anything under Penalty of Perjury. That to me means they know they are lying to you and don't want that verification to be used against them in court.

Now back to hearsay. According to Black's Law Dictionary, verification is sworn testimony. Testimony must be based on one's first hand knowledge. Testimony must be supported by documentation. If you don't provide the documentation, then there's no supported testimony. If you have documentation but no sworn testimony, how do you know if the documents are accurate?  To avoid "hearsay," you need both the documentation AND the testimony.

Here's case law that clearly shows you that what you are receiving from these credit thugs is hearsay, unproven, not validated, and not verified:

“Testimony, whether live or in the form of an affidavit, to the effect that the witness has reviewed a loan file and that the loan file shows that the debtor is in default is hearsay and incompetent; rather, the records must be introduced after a proper foundation is provided.” New England Savings Bank v. Bedford Realty Corp., 238 Conn. 745, 680 A.2d 301, 308-09 (1996), later opinion, 246 Conn. 594, 717 A.2d 713 (1998); Cole Taylor Bank v. Corrigan, supra, 230 Ill.App.3d 122, 595 N.E.2d 177, 181 (2d Dist. 1992).

“It is the business records that constitute the evidence, not the testimony of the witness referring to them.” (In re A.B., 308 Ill.App. 3d 227, 719 N.E.2d 348 (2d Dist. 1999)

I like to tell these credit and collection companies that they forgot to provide the verification and forgot to provide the documentation they claim is accurate with their response, and therefore they haven't proven diddly squat. 

What you can take from this post is that they don't prove their claims, They don't validate, they don't verify. They lie, they slander you on your credit reports and you need to reject their claim until they provide the documented proof you are entitled to receive along with the sworn or unsworn verification, signed and dated under Penalty of Perjury. That's what the law says they need to do. That's what the courts have upheld that they need to do. You need to be stubborn on this. Keep all your records and be diligent. Hold your ground and refuse to accept their lies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have you been sued by a debt collector recently? We can help. You need to act fast.

Do you need help with credit repair? We can help. We have 2 programs. Full credit repair assistance and DIY credit repair assistance.  

Visit our Credit Repair and Lawsuit Services page if you're interested in getting the help you may need.

Click Here for Services page

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

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 A Validation Letter

I get a LOT of emails asking how to write a validation letter so I'm going to try to explain it again here.  Validation letters are NOT sent to Original Creditors.  Validation letters are NOT sent to Credit Bureaus.   They are ONLY sent to 3rd Party Collectors.

When you get a letter from a collection company, the first time you receive one from that company, they should be very clear that you have a right to dispute their claim within 30 days.  This does not mean that they won't be putting it on your credit report or that they haven't already put it on your credit report.  But it does mean that they will have to immediately stop collection activity when they receive your dispute or what we call a Validation letter.

Sometimes you never get that first letter or maybe you did and you ignored it, but you have a copy of your  credit report and you see a collection account on there.  You will want to dispute this with a Validation letter as well.  Even though you may not have disputed within the first 30 days of being notified that this collection company is hot on your trail, or you never knew about it until you saw your credit report, once they get the Validation letter from you, they must stop all collection activity.

A Validation letter is demanding proof that you owe them something.  You have the right to challenge their claim and make them stop collection activity pursuant to the FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act).  Collection activity can be phone calls where they are pressuring you to pay something, another "bill" saying to pay, and even verifying the alleged debt or updating the alleged debt on your credit report.  They must stop ALL collection activity until they prove the alleged debt is yours.  The only things they are allowed to do at this time are to 1. Prove the alleged debt is yours; 2. Mark the alleged account as "In Dispute" on your credit report; or 3. Send you a letter stating they are closing the file and removing it from your credit report - or similar language to that effect.

A Validation letter should always be sent Certified Mail and preferably with a Return Receipt.  These are some of the things that you will want to keep for your "paper trail" if you end up in court against these suckers.  So, always keep a copy of each letter sent and the certified receipt showing they got your letter. Also, keep every letter they send you. You will be able to find violations they commit and also whether or not they responded and if they sent all the information you demanded in your Validation letter.

Validation letters can be short and to the point, or long and full of laws, or anywhere in between.  The best Validation letters are the ones you write yourself. The worst to use are the ones you find all over the internet or in some book where you said everything they did, word for word.  You want to make the letter your own. Put it in your own words. If you're pissed off and feel like letting them know, well then make sure your letter gets that across to them. I believe its absolutely fine to not be nice in a letter to any collection company. They are ruthless, rude, law breaking  scum, so why would you have to be nice to them?  Write from your heart while you make sure you demand they try to prove their claims.  If that's not you, if you just would  rather be nice or plain matter of fact, that's perfectly okay too.

The letter to them will start off with a Dear Sirs, or To whom it may concern, or some sort of generic salutation. Then you tell them you either received their letter claiming you owe them something or you have a copy of your credit report and saw that they are furnishing information on it that they think you owe them something.  Then you tell them you don't believe you owe them anything and you are disputing their claim and you demand that they stop all collection activity pursuant to the FDCPA.  You don't have to put that its pursuant to anything if you don't want, but whether or not you say that, it is pursuant to the FDCPA and they know it.

Make sure you reference the alleged account number that they assigned to the alleged debt. Now you can tell them what you want them to provide to you.  You definitely want a copy of the alleged contract that shows you agreed to do business with them.  You want a copy of the contract between you and the alleged original creditor. You want a full accounting - meaning, how did they determine how much they claim you owe them.  They usually have added extra charges for interest and collection fees so they need to explain exactly how they got to the amount they are telling you to pay them.

They also need to provide proof that they have a right to collect the alleged debt.  This means they will need to show the contract between them and the original creditor, or whoever they got the alleged account from, and the full chain of assignment. This means, if they are not the first collector claiming you owe this alleged debt, they need to show every single collection company that had it from the original creditor, through every 3rd party scum bag, to them.  Now if you are in a state that requires collection companies to be licensed and/or bonded, they need to provide copies of those items as well.

Another important item that they should be able to provide to you, is the date of the last payment and proof that the alleged account is not outside the Statute of Limitations. If the alleged original account is Time-barred, this is a fantastic way to get rid of them fast.  Some companies don't care and will continue to try to collect and may even sue you on Time-barred debts.  As long as you make no payment to them, make no payment arrangement with them and never admit you owe the alleged debt, it will stay time-barred.  You have to be very, very careful here. In some states, just acknowledging that you ever owed the alleged debt is enough to start the Statute of Limitations clock all over again, so DON'T DO IT! Don't admit Anything - Ever! Don't make a payment to these fools - Ever! Don't agree to a payment plan - Ever!

The next thing I believe you should tell them, and I think its very important to say it in writing, is that under no circumstances do you authorize or give them consent to furnish any information to your credit reports nor to take any action that would result in an inquiry on your credit report from their company. You should tell them this whether they are on your credit report or not.  In order for a company to inquire or furnish information on your credit report, you must give your authorization for them to do so.  Read my previous post, just before this one, so you understand what it takes for them to be able to have anything to do with your credit report.

Now, if they are already furnishing information to your credit report, also demand that they provide a copy of your consent and/or authorization that allows them to furnish or inquire on your credit report. Remind them that without this proof, they must remove all traces of their slander from your credit reports.

You really don't need much more than this in your validation letters. If your want to, you can use case law or the actual laws that give you the right to demand everything you have told them to provide to you, just to give your letter even more weight. You can use something you find on the internet and request the same things those letters say, but again, put it in your own words.  Don't use a form letter and don't copy word for word from those letters. They just don't have as good of an effect or result  as your own letter will have.

Okay, now you've come to the end of your letter. Here is something super important. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER sign your name to the letter.  You may type it or print it, or stamp it, but Don't Sign in YOUR Handwriting!  Also, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER give them your social security number. And nowhere in your letter at all, NEVER, NEVER, EVER admit that you owe them diddly nor that the alleged original account belongs to you.  

You don't ever want to acknowledge anything other than you received their correspondence and/or you see that they are reporting on your credit reports. They are the ones that should be sending you proof.  You have NO obligation to send them copies of ANYTHING or to disclose anything to them. No copies of old bills, no social security number, no utility bills, no driver's license, no birth date, no whatever they claim you need to send them as proof of anything.  You are not the party needing to prove something - THEY ARE! 

If they are requesting you send them something, it means that they don't have what it takes to even come close to resembling validation. The minute they start asking for you to provide any type of information is time for you to tell them you know they obviously are fraudsters and have no proof of any alleged debt and they need to go pound sand.

So, this is how you write a Validation letter. Hopefully you will craft an excellent one that successfully gets them out of your life and off your credit reports. I'd like to tell you that you will probably be a lot more successful if you can respond to their initial letter within the 30 period. But if you've missed it or never received that "Dunning" notice, don't worry. You still retain your rights, you just need to exercise them and be consistent. Don't accept their claim of validation, don't accept anything other than they are ceasing the game with you and always respond until they give up and go away.

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.

Debt Collectors ALWAYS Commit Fraud!

I constantly proclaim that you should never, ever pay a 3rd party debt collector.  I sure hope many of you listen to me.  It doesn't mean that they will just go away. Sometimes, yes they will.  But there are times when you will have to fight.  If you don't fight, if you don't demand validation, you are not going to win.  We need to stop being afraid of these thieves and fraudsters.  Demand they provide the proof that they have the right to collect. Demand that they prove you owe any money. Demand that they prove they have a valid contract with you.  THEY DON'T!! 

I don't go into extremes on this blog about my opinions on original creditors because plenty of people would think I'm nuts or have gone off the deep end.  Well, here's the the facts for me.  You don't help people with their credit repair and help improve their credit reports for over 2 decades and become extremely successful without researching and studying and digging into areas that the financial industry would rather you not find out about, without turning up proof after proof after proof that validates the facts of their outrageous, criminal behavior.  

I have done the research.  I still do the research. I love researching, and I apply what I learn. Guess what?  When I apply it to validation and dispute letters, when I apply it to my clients' case defenses when they get sued, these lying, thieving, law violating, tax cheating, insurance law breakers and fraudsters hit the road! They have to.  They don't want to be exposed for the thugs that they are. They are in violation of many federal laws. Harassment, extortion, RICO Act, mail fraud, bank fraud, FTC violations, FDCPA violations, FCRA violations...the list goes on and on.

I don't usually post videos, because I like to write and share information from my heart and soul with you.  I do have a passion for this.  But, today, this video falls right in line with my passion for justice, truth, and consumer advocacy.  I'm not a loon, and the gentleman on the video is not a loon.  This video shows how original creditors sell your alleged "debt" and how they and the 3rd parties make money whether or not you "pay off" the alleged debt.  You will hear from an actual bank employee who is in charge of selling these "bonds" (yes, they illegally convert to securities which create the "bonds"), and he admits, flat out acknowledges the fraud, without calling it fraud, of course! If you have about 20 minutes to visit here, please relax and watch the video.  It will be an eye opener for many of you.  

Please Enjoy!