charge off question?

[tryingtogetbackontrack]

I've disputed and sent debt validation letters for all my collection accounts and have had really good success.......I now have 2 charge off accounts that I'm wanting to get rid of and would like to know the best way to deal with these........do I send debt validation letters for these? They are listed as being with the original lender and these are not collection accounts.....any advice on how to deal with these is greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much to all the wonderful advice on this board.......I felt hopeless until I found this board and now I am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel!

[Methuss]

You can try sending a DV style letter but the FDCPA doesn't apply. Simple contract law places an obligation on them to provide you with records if you ask for them. If they fail to provide the records, you can use estoppel claiming that since they don't have any records, it must not exist.

If these are incredibly old, the likelyhood that the OC still has a full accounting is pretty slim. Most OCs have a 2-3 year records retention policy since storing records is so expensive and time consuming. Some have as little as six months of records.

The OC is likely not going to agree to remove anything even if you use estoppel on them, but you can send the paper-trail of evidence that the OC has no records to the CRAs to have it removed. The CRAs will have to call the OC for verification, and if they can't verify, the CRA has to remove it.

Also, the FCRA can come into play here against the OC. The FCRA says that as soon as you dispute it with the OC they are obligated to report it as disputed to the CRAs. The penalties for not reporting the dispute are pretty stiff, so that may be a leverage point to use to get it removed.