Protecting Credit Through The FDCPA

I just received a letter from a collection agency two weeks ago claiming I owe from an old cingular account.  This bill was supposedly from 2002. 

I have been an excellent customer of cingular since 96.  I relocated from AR to TN in 2002 when I transferred my service to a TN number and closed the AR numbers.  The best I can remember, we disputed the last bill because two of my phone numbers (I had three seperate phones between myself and my husband)were on an incorrect plan and as a result I accrued unnecessary charges.  We resolved this in 2002 and I was told I did not owe any other charges. They had my new address, I never received any bill to state that I owed an money beyond this conversation.  Six years later, April 14th I am sent a collection notice. 

I at first thought the letter was fraudulant.  Most customer care reps could not help me because they showed the balance to be zero on the account.  After finally getting to the correct accounting office, I explained what I thought had happened and that I did not believe that owed for the amount.  The lady put me on hold to reveiw the account and came back and specifically told me that I was correct and the collection was turned over by mistake.  ATT would then contact the collection agency to resolve the issue which would take a couple of days to reflect.  The lady at ATT also told me that ATT would be contacting me in two days to let me know that the collection agency had been contacted.  She assured me several times of this and I ask her if she could fax me something in writing.  She said that she had reflected this in the notes and that she would give me the case number in which to refer. 

I got no follow up from att and I called them today.  They are now saying that they credited the account but, that my questions need to be directed to the credit agency.  The lady I spoke with today is going to call me back tomorrow after she consults with her supervisor further. 

I have been a 12 year paying customer with this company always in good standing.  I have excellent credit that will be ruined in a matter of weeks if this issue is not resolved.  What do you suggest that I do?????
 
Nicole

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Hi Nicole,

The initial dunning letter from the collection agency should have contained a notice of your validation rights.  You have thirty-days to dispute the alleged debt with the collection agency to be considered timely under 1692g of the FDCPA.  If the debt has not yet been reported to the credit bureau, then don’t worry about “excellent credit that will be ruined in a matter of weeks if this issue is not resolved”; because the debt collector is barred from reporting the debt to the CRA once your validation request has been received.  At that point, the debt collector would have to obtain proper validation to report it to the CRA.  From what you have listed, that would be highly unlikely if not impossible.

“What do you suggest that I do?????” you write.

Send a CMRRR letter to the debt collector requesting validation of the debt.

Thanks for the questions and hope this helps.

Paul

This author is not an attorney and this information should not be considered legal advice.  Please consult an attorney for legal advice.