Expert: Regan Shinski - 11/11/2010

Question
I recently received a letter from a collection agency for  a debt that I am not aware of.  It is apparently for a credit card that I had which I paid off in September 2009.  I contacted them to check if the debt was actually mine. The said it was. I never received any bills from Chase Visa after I paid the debt off a total of $855.17.  The collection agency has record of that payment, but cannot tell me what this outstanding balance of $447.93 is for. I contacted Chase and was told that they no longer owned the debt.  They gave me a number for an agency, but that agency has since given it to the current one that is contacting me.  The current agency decreased the debt to $270.00, but still cannot tell me what the original debt was for.  I really don't want to pay it unless I know how it got there. Shouldn't there be some type of paper trail? Who can I contact to find this out? To my knowledge this bill was paid in full and the card has not been used since. What should I do?

Answer
Hello James:

You should send a certified letter to the collection agency asking for debt validation under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).  You can put the specifics about the account being closed if you want.  In theory, the collection agency has to send you the details of how they arrived at the balance.  Also put in there that if they report it to the credit bureaus, you will consider this a violation and may take legal action to correct it.  It is a violation to report an account that has been paid.

You should get copies of your credit reports and see if it reporting.  If it is reporting, you know it has been paid, and you want to pursue removing it or suing them to collect money and/or removing it, contact me again with the specifics.

Good luck, I hope this helps.

Regan

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