2 claims on credit report - both are the same. And their both bad.?
Last month, a collection agency got a hold of this account, and is claiming that I owe them the $6K, when I know they paid next to nothing for this account. HELP! My credit has been getting much better in the last 3 years – and altogether – I owe $3500 in student loans. Learned my lesson, live within my means, have little credit cards with little balances.
I sent a letter to the credit bureaus and told them that this is not new, but an old claim disguised as something new. Can they do this? And will my credit report keep this new information on? I really thought that this was going to fall off in 3 years – so not only have they re-aged the debt, but they must have paid $0.02 per dollar owed - which is crazy.
Has anyone ever gone through this? what happened?
Answer:
Juncogirl, I hope your reading this.
DO YOUR RESEARCH and quit giving out incorrect information! Start by reading the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
I get tired of wasting my time correcting bad answers..
For starters, it's illegal for credit reporting agencies to report the same debt twice. One of them must be deleted.
Items can only be listed for 7 years, beginning from the date of the delinquency. After that they must be deleted from your credit report. Purchasing a debt does NOT reinstate the reporting period.
Note that this does NOT excuse the debt. You are responsible until the statute of limitation runs out. Car loans are considered written contracts, so the SOL will be a little longer. Check the link I supplied below for more info on this.
So what do you do?
Start by sending the credit bureau a dispute letter. In it say that the reporting date is not correct. Also point out that they are listing the debt twice, and one must be removed.
Send letters to both the original creditor and the collection agency. Point out that they are listing incorrect information and that it must be removed immediately. Also demand that they validate this debt by showing exactly how the came up with the amout you owe. Ask about money they received after the repo and why they failed to include this amount.
If they fail to do this in 30 days, file a small claims lawsuit against both parties for $1000 each. You don't need a lawyer, and it will cost you $25-$50 depending on the state you live in.
This usually will solve things.
I think you are living an illusion. When cars are repossessed the loan does not go away. Usually the car is sold at auction and the difference between what they receive and what you owe is still your debt. You should have obtained, in writing, why the company said your balance was 0. If you don't have this you are kind of shafted. You need to find out why you owe the entire amount, what happened to the car and what you should really owe. You should never have accepted the statement that you owed 0 without paper to back this up. If your repo was not part of a bankrupcy, the debt will not disappear off your credit. This negative credit will stay on your report until 7 or 10 years or indefinately until you clear this matter up. You have your work cut out. If you have paper to back up why you owed nothing, you need to make copies of this and send this to the collection agency and the credit bureaus. If you have no paper, good luck you are in for a long haul trying to clear up the mess.
Its called a "zombie debt". For more information, here is an article that was published online by MSN money.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/sav.
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