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Questions about credit cardsQuestions about credit cards
futureRn said: "My hubby had a credit card in college that he sent back home in 1997, which was in his name. Well in feb 2004 we get a bill from the credit card company. My mother in law claims it is from my hubby's student loan. This doesn't make any sense because my hubby said he doesn't remember the credit card limit being so high ($7500). It was in collections, now an attorney has it. Well a few months ago we were able to found out the last major purchase on it was in June 2003. I hubby didn't have the card around this time. How can we go about finding out the history of the card? Everytime we call the previous collection agencies or the credit company they say they have no information on it. We are kind of scared to call the attorney who has it now. Can someone please give some advice"
rapidanian said: "Don't be afraid of the attorney. He is just a collector. As such he must validate the debt. Write a letter to him telling him you want the debt validated and that you will not accept phone calls, only letters. He has 30 days from receipt of your request to respond. At the same time write to the credit card company and tell them that the card was not in husbands possesion and you would like to know what/where/when the charges were made. Also, write to the credit reporting burears and request verification of the account. Wait and see what happens.
Do you trust your mother in law? Seems fishy to me......just sayin."
futureRn said: "We used to trust her until we realized how sneaky she is (especially when it comes to money). The card was in her possession at the time of the last major purchase. Everytime we call the credit card company they send us straight to the collection agency they first sold the debt to. Before we confront her about this debt we want to make sure we have our evidence in line. But I will definitely get in contact with the credit bureau so the can validate the debt."
rapidanian said: "The credit reporting agency needs to [U]verify[/U] the debt, BUT you need to get the CA to [U]validate[/U] the debt at the same time. The reason for this is that the CA can't legally verify without validating first and they can't validate...true validation is nigh unto impossible. Once they don't validate, but the CR says the debt was verified you will need to write to the CR to ask how they verified and with whom and when. You will need to tell them that the CA was in the validation process during the time that they evidently verified and the validation was inadequate. Write to the CA telling them you know they verified the debt while you were trying to get the validation which is a legal violation. You want them to stop reporting the debt as you are sure it is not yours. You need to pick away at them till it comes off. By the way you might want to send the validation request a couple of days prior to the verification....
Now, down the road you may need to claim fraud....that's a can of worms though and you have to be prepared for some questions and perhaps some fallout. I'd mention to the MIL that you are questioning the charges and you feel that the card was used by "someone else". Tell her you might have to start an official investigation into the fraud. See what happens.
Even if you get the CA off your report, the original creditor can keep reselling or reassigning the debt so you will have to go thru this again and again. You need to keep working with the OC to find someone who can help you figure out when and who made these charges. You may want to see if you can get to their fraud department.
If you truly do not want to pay this AND you don't want to implicate your MIL then you may just have to go thru this process every time the OC sells the debt. For such a large amount they may even try to sue you. The problem I have seen with this is that if they file for a judgement and you do not get the notification you will have the judgement on your credit report and its hard to get off sometimes. Not to mention the fact that they can then legally garnish wages. You need to figure out your SOL.
Sorry this is so long....its just not an easy total fix."