How To Know If A Debt Collector Has Sent You Validation

 When a debt collection company sends you a letter telling you that you owe them for some alleged debt or you see a collection account on your credit reports, you should immediately fire off a letter to them exercising your right to dispute their claim and demand validation, What this means is you are telling them that they have to prove you owe them money and until they do, you have no obligation to pay them anything and until they validate (prove their claim), the law requires them to stop all collection activity.

Collection activity means phone calls to you or people they may think know you, letters to you claiming you owe them, furnishing, updating or verifying information on your credit reports, and even filing a lawsuit against you. This is why it is so important to demand validation from 3rd party collectors.

In your validation letter you need to tell them to send you certain items that will prove that you owe them money. It doesn't have to be a long list. It doesn't have to include outrageous things like proof that they complied with GAAP or items required under the Patriot Act, though you can actually request those items. But the most important items to request are things that prove there is a contract and proof of what they lent you and proof that they have the right to take the place of the alleged original creditor and even proof they have the right to furnish information on your credit reports.

Once you've demanded validation all collection activity should stop. I say "should" but that's not usually the case. Some will just notate the credit reports that the information they furnished is being disputed. Sometimes they add more nonsense like "resolved, consumer disagrees" or "dispute resolved, meets FCRA requirements" or something similar to that. Utter nonsense because they put that on there before they even send you something they claim to be validation.

So if they respond, do you know what qualifies as validation? Validation means the documentary evidence or proof. If you receive a copy of a contract you need to review the contract closely. It won't be a contract between you and their company because in most cases you haven't agreed to do business with them. I say "most cases" because some people sign payment plans with collection companies so they end up having a contract with them. But usually if they send a copy of a contract, it's between you and the alleged original creditor. This is what you need to read carefully. 

When you read any contract that they send you, look for their company name on that contract. You will see your name and maybe the alleged original company name and maybe another company name of  possibly a servicer or guarantor. You won't find the collection company name 99% of the time. So, this contract is not validation. 

The collection company may send you a bunch of monthly billing statements. You won't find the collection company's name on these billing statements. So whether they send you one billing statement or thirty or more billing statements, they aren't validation, They don't prove that they collection company lent anything to you or that you agreed to pay them money.

For medical collections, they may send you the admissions paper that has your signature on it. That form may say that you agree to be responsible and that if you don't pay the medical facility it may go to a collection company, If they don't specifically name the collection company that is claiming you owe them something, it is not validation. YOU have the right to choose who you do business with, If an alleged original creditor decides to sell your information to a 3rd party collection company, in order for it to be enforceable they have to get your permission In Writing PRIOR to the alleged original creditor releasing any of your personal identifying information or account information to them.  If they do this without your consent, it voids the alleged contract. (There's actually a lot going on behind the scenes that voids the alleged contract but this is a big obvious unlawful action),

So, when you get their claim that they Validated, which usually they wrongly claim they "Verified", you need to be all over that and respond to them claiming that you reject their attempt to validate because they neither verified their claim nor did they send the documented proof that shows you contracted to do business with them nor that they lent you anything, Reject their claim, remind them that the law requires them to stop all collection activity unless or until they actually validate (which they absolutely cannot do), and that they need to Cease & Desist until they validate and verify (sworn testimony - they can't do that either because they have no 1st hand knowledge), and make sure to remind them that anything other than removing their lies and slander from your credit reports is collection activity, and is a violation of the FDCPA and the FCRA and is actionable in a court of law. 

Good luck and go get 'em.

By the way, if you can or feel led to, please help support my family with funeral expenses for 4 of our family members. They all died one after the other in less than 30 days and we are not able to pay for all the expenses out of our own pockets.  We have to pay for all the funeral and burial costs before we can hold the services. So, we are grateful for any help you can give us. Please also share the information on your social media. I really thank all of you and appreciate your help and prayers at this time. 

Here is the link to the information about my family's situation right now. 

https://givesendgo.com/lopezfamilyfunerals

3 Common Errors On Credit Reports That Consumers Often Miss

 Many people attempt to repair their credit by mainly disputing negative information on their credit reports with the credit reporting agencies. I believe everyone that is trying to repair their credit needs to dispute with the credit bureaus/credit reporting agencies (CRA's). I also believe that disputes need to be sent directly to the furnishers of that negative information, that would be the alleged creditors and 3rd party collection agencies.  

Now when disputing with the CRA's, I hear and read that a lot of you are disputing "no contract" or something similar to that.  That is an honest, true, and factual claim or reason for the dispute but if you keep disputing like that, you're going to end up getting the dreaded "frivolous" letter. CRA's can send you that and tell you that they are no longer going to entertain any challenge from you on that disputed item. I believe they can ignore your dispute for the following 6 months. That will delay your progress if you get yourself into that situation.

What you need to do is to pick apart the information that is furnished and find every error you can because that is what you use to dispute and that's how you keep from getting the "frivolous" letter. You can dispute that you have no contract with the company but when they respond that it is verified, you shouldn't dispute the same thing again immediately afterwards.  To continue the dispute and keep fighting, you have to bring up another error you found on your credit report. 

Here are some things that maybe you forget to dispute or maybe didn't even realize you could dispute:  

*    Is there a notation on your report that you have disputed that information? Well, how long has that been on your credit report? It should only be on your report for up to 30 days because the courts have determined that 30 days is a reasonable amount of time to "verify" the accuracy and get back to you. So, if it says consumer disputes and then it says "consumer disagrees", well then contact them and say, if you provide the proof that it's been verified, send me the documentation. If it's proven that they are reporting accurately, then I'll agree.  I haven't received proof of diddly squat yet. You can't just say consumer disagrees and leave the "disputed" notation on my credit report, and you claim its "resolved" without sending me the proof.  Either you prove it or remove it! They can't say it meets FCRA guidelines either. The FCRA says they have to have it accurate, complete and verifiable or else it has to be removed. If it meets the requirements in the FCRA, then they should have sent you the proof, or corrected it, or sent you the sworn verification. Remind them of the definition of "Verification" from Black's Law Dictionary including the accompanying case law.

*    Do you have a charge off that shows a balance and also shows a past due amount? I have no doubt that there are multiple errors on this furnished information but the thing that stands out quite a bit to me is that on a charge off, there is not a "Past Due" amount, It's been charged off. It's no longer late. They can claim there's a balance but believe me, that is another error that they need to prove in order to force you to pay them. That's a topic for another time but for this post, don't forget to dispute this with the CRA's. This furnisher is claiming there is a past due amount on this alleged account but the law states that a charge off cannot have a past due amount. Correct or delete this immediately pursuant to the requirements in the FCRA.

*    This last one is a whammy that they all violate probably 95% or more of the time. The FCRA Requires that every alleged account that if furnished to a credit report also includes the DFD, or you can say the DLA. What do those acronyms stand for? Date of First Delinquency and Date of Last Activity. So, the DLA is the date you last made a payment on that account. The DFD is the first month that you missed a payment on the account prior to the account being charged off,  Why are these dates important? Because they are the key to knowing when the Statute of Limitations runs out for collecting and for reporting it on your credit reports. It should be no problem for an alleged original creditor to furnish accurate dates on your credit reports. You can look at your credit reports, all 3 bureaus side by side and you will see that each CRA report usually differs on each one.  I don't know that I've ever seen an accurate DLA or DFD on an alleged account furnished by a 3rd party collector. I will reiterate that this is a very important requirement stated right in the FCRA and also, there are FTC Staff opinion letters written about this common error and requirement.

Please take this information and apply it to your CRA disputes to hopefully start seeing some better results. It will protect you from getting slapped with a "Frivolous" violation and suspension of your ability to dispute, It will also help you find multiple errors to dispute and use against the furnishers and CRA's to make your credit reports pretty again,

If you've found this information useful, please consider donating through the "DONATE" button on the right hand side of this page. Also, please see the post I'm placing right below here. It has a link to GiveSendGo which is similar to GoFundMe but they don't steal people's money.  My family is going through a very rough time right now and we need all the help we can get. I really appreciate any help you can give whether it be financial, or sharing the link on your social media or your prayers. All of it is appreciated,

One more thing. I have been very busy the last couple of years, Busy with credit repair, busy with assisting clients with lawsuits, and health problems that landed me in the hospital for quite a while. After that, I decided that I would be scaling back my credit repair services and concentrate much more on teaching others how to fix their own credit and also training credit repair companies how to have more successes for their clients.

I have been working hard on this training and will be posting some more information about it soon. I'm almost ready to launch it so if you're interested in learning even more that what you can find here on my blog, come back often and when I announce it, you can sign up at that time. Thank you and best wishes on your credit repair success,

Here is the link to the information about my family's situation right now. 

https://givesendgo.com/lopezfamilyfunerals

Please help by donating and/or sharing. We have 4 funerals that we need to pay for before we can hold the services. Thank you so much for helping us. Here is the link to donate. https://givesendgo.com/lopezfamilyfunerals

Shannon Lopez

ttiFebr4uary S24 una1oi2ti 211a:53 frelPMd  · 

Shared with Public

As some of you may know, we recently lost 4 of my husband's family members. We are comforted knowing that they loved our Lord Jesus Christ and are no longer suffering with pain or struggling to breathe. They are in Heaven worshiping and praising God now.

However, now we need some assistance covering the costs of burying our loved ones. I am asking for help both financially and/or by sharing the link to GiveSendGo as we cannot hold our funeral and burial services for them without everything being fully paid.

I'm including the link below and really appreciate any help you can give. Thank you for your prayers and support.

https://givesendgo.com/lopezfamilyfunerals

Why You Should Demand Validation From Debt Collectors

The majority of questions and requests for assistance are about debt collectors and 3rd party collections. These companies want your money but they did nothing to earn it or deserve it.  They are not owed anything and you really need to fight back to avoid paying them what they are not owed and to increase your chances of not being sued by them.

Many credit repair companies and many consumers as well dispute these items directly with the credit bureaus to get them removed. Sometimes you can have pretty good results for your credit reports by just disputing with the credit reporting agencies (CRA's) but most of the time, and especially if you are using an online tool to dispute, your results are not going to be great and sometimes not permanent.

But here is what I view as the problem with just disputing with CRA's. You're only disputing the accuracy for the most part.  Many people tell me they just dispute them as "No Contract" and most of the time I hear that the results come back as verified.  Even if the item is removed, it only means that the company just didn't respond in time or preferred to just let it be removed from the credit reports. Because you really don't demand validation through the CRA's, you haven't blocked their collection efforts.

Just because something isn't furnished to your credit reports doesn't mean they can't attempt to collect from you.  In order to block their collection efforts, the FDCPA says you must demand validation in writing. Once you have demanded validation, they must cease all collection activity until they validate. A demand for validation is the tool or weapon you need to use to get them to back off.

Now, many times these thugs make claims that they have checked their records, or that they have verified or that they have fulfilled validation requirements and they just continue on with their collection activity.  However, a well constructed validation demand letter will protect you in court if it lands there. When I say well constructed, I'm not talking about the nonsense you find online.

Eeesh!  I hate those ones where people say "This is not a refusal to pay..." and then goes on with a bunch of regurgitated stuff that makes up a validation form letter.  Do you think I would ever tell a company that isn't owed a dime and I know it that I'm not refusing to pay?  Oh, heck no!  My letter tells them I REFUSE TO PAY YOUR BS ACCUSATION unless you can prove me wrong!  Then I tell them the documents they need to produce to prove me wrong.

If you don't tell them what they need to produce, they can just skirt by and make whatever claims they want. Many times they will come back with a lame response such as "...there is no basis in law to send you the documents you're requesting...", I'm paraphrasing.  Well, I don't see that often, though I do occasionally.  But what I put in my validation demand letters is a legal citation for each item I'm requesting from them. So when I respond to that nonsense, I call them out and point them to review each case law cited, each federal act cited, each law, state or federal cited, and so on.

A competent and forceful validation letter is critical, folks.  This is power if they sue you or you decide to sue them. I've stated in other posts that validation is the Proof they need to come forward with and verification is the Sworn Testimony that MUST accompany it. They must have both. Without 1 or the other or any of what is demanded, they have hearsay but they don't have validation. Hearsay is inadmissible in a court of law and the courts have said it is incompetent.

So, you either need to learn what to demand and the laws, case law, or whatever appropriate legal ammunition that relates to each item requested to back up your demand, or hire someone who knows how to craft an effective validation letter.  If you don't demand validation, they can continue coming after you. They can continue to furnish on your credit reports. They can initiate a lawsuit against you. 

Demanding validation properly and always responding to their claims and rejecting their false claims is key. One more important thing about validation.  A demand for validation is rarely done with 1 letter. What I mean by that is, it is rare to send one letter and then they respond with a  letter telling you they're closing their file and removing the lie from your reports. These collection companies are getting very bold in their lawlessness, very stubborn, and they require a fight.

You must always respond. If they claim they've already addressed it and further similar communication will be trashed (well not exactly but that's what they sort of mean), you still need to respond.  YOU must be the last one to respond to anything other than "We're closing the file and removing our BS from your credit reports."  

You have a right to demand full validation. Know your rights. Exercise your rights. Fight back and don't back down. Basic bureau disputes don't completely protect you. You need to dispute with the CRA's but you Need to Demand Validation.  If you want someone who knows this game, knows the laws to use to back up the demands, will fight for you, contact me.  It's what I'm good at.  It's what I'm passionate about. I want to see you win this fight! 

You can reach me at futurefico@gmail.com or 951-801-2828

I'd love to fight for and with you. 

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