abstruse Posted December 15, 2013 Report Share Posted December 15, 2013 Hi! I am new to this Forum and I need help please! After years of personal and financial setbacks from a bitter divorce to years of unemployment, I am finally working to get back on my feet. I pulled copies of my credit report and was horrified. I did default on a lot of accounts - i had to make a choice between a roof over my son's head or pay off bills. I started sending Debt Validation letters to some CAs on my account. From CC accounts to Hospital Bills, I sent them DVs. I decided to send DV to PRA because I was getting tired of the phone calls and not leaving any messages. Today, I received a response from Portfolio Recovery: ______Dear Abstruse:Re: Verification Information Concerning PRA Account/Reference No.: xxxxxxxSELLER: HSBC BANK NEVADA N.A.MERCHANT: BEST BUY OR S&H GREENPOINTSORIGINAL CREDITOR: HSBC BANK NEVADA N.A.The following information is being provided in response to your recent communication concerning the account referenced above. Account Number (xxxxxx) and its proceeds were sold, assigned and transferred by the Seller to Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC on 12/xx/2009. At the time of the sale, the Seller provided an electronic file of its business records concerning this account. According to the Seller's records, there was due and payable from Abstruse to the Seller in the sum of $741 with respect to the account, as of 12/xx/2009, there being no known un-credited payments, counterclaims, or offsets against this account at the date of its sale.Here is a summary of additional information listed in the electronic file for this account:Account holder's Name Provided By Seller: Abstruse (CORRECT NAME)Account holder's Last 4 Digits of SSN: WRONG NUMBERDate Account Opened Provided by Seller: 5/xx/2005Balance at date of PRA purchase: $741Interest accrued since the date of purchase or last payment to PRA: $0.00Costs and Other Fees: $0.00Total Balance: $741 Please contact us if you would like to receive a payment history of payments that have posted to this account since out company purchased this account.____ My questions are: 1. Is the above acceptable validation (if the last 4 of SSN were correct?) 2. Since the last 4 of SSN is wrong, what do I do now? Send them another letter to tell them that they did not properly validate the debt and that provided inaccurate information? Do I then tell them what is inaccurate and why? I really do not want to give them the last 4 of my SSN. 3. This item is still being reported by OC and is dropping off sometime in 11/2015. I live in California so SOL has expired.Last payment made to this account was sometime before the end of 2008. I do not know exactly how much the balance was with OC. 4. I had an HSBC/BEST BUY card in the past and this is not it. That account also showed up on my CR but reporting time limit expired in Nov/2013. 5. Can I send them a C&D letter so they stop calling? Please help. Thank you! Abs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shellieh98 Posted December 15, 2013 Report Share Posted December 15, 2013 Send them a note this is not my account as referenced by the wrong last 4 digits of the SSN. State that you do not have an account and never did with sh greenstamps, and you dispute this debt. This also a refusal to pay. Tell them you will consider reporting on your CRA continued collection attempts by them, and may consult a consumer attorney for FDCPA violations if it is not removed. Don't know if the last part will work, but for a 700 debt, they may decide it's not worth the risk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abstruse Posted December 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2013 Thanks! I will send them a letter telling them just that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vldmrcadet@yahoo.com Posted January 14, 2014 Report Share Posted January 14, 2014 Hello how are you doing? i got the same letter but my SSN is right. What should i do in my case?Send them a note this is not my account as referenced by the wrong last 4 digits of the SSN. State that you do not have an account and never did with sh greenstamps, and you dispute this debt. This also a refusal to pay. Tell them you will consider reporting on your CRA continued collection attempts by them, and may consult a consumer attorney for FDCPA violations if it is not removed. Don't know if the last part will work, but for a 700 debt, they may decide it's not worth the risk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abstruse Posted January 14, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2014 @vldmrcadet@yahoo.com is it past the SOL? Check the SOL in your state. If it is, you can send them a refusal to pay letter. If it is within the SOL try a PFD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abstruse Posted January 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 @shellieh98 So I sent PRA a refusal to pay letter telling them based on the last 4-digit of SSN that this account does not belong to me. I told them it will be a violation of FDCPA if they continue to report this TL on my credit. I then sent my disputes to CRAs. Equifax & Transunion has concluded their investigation and said this TL is verified. I am going to send the CRAs a copy of PRA's letter. Should i send PRA another letter telling them to remove their TL because it is inaccurate? Is this a violation of FDCPA? What recourse do I have? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clydesmom Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 @shellieh98 So I sent PRA a refusal to pay letter telling them based on the last 4-digit of SSN that this account does not belong to me. I told them it will be a violation of FDCPA if they continue to report this TL on my credit. I then sent my disputes to CRAs. Equifax & Transunion has concluded their investigation and said this TL is verified. I am going to send the CRAs a copy of PRA's letter. Should i send PRA another letter telling them to remove their TL because it is inaccurate? Is this a violation of FDCPA? What recourse do I have? You cannot just SAY the account doesn't belong to you, you must PROVE it is not yours. Consumers dispute trade lines by the thousands every day saying "not mine" and it requires more than that to be successful. Your SSN is not the only way they verify the debt. As long as they have at least two other methods to verify they can correct the SSN. The FCRA only requires they report ACCURATELY it does not require that they delete it if you find an inaccuracy only that they correct it. Make a complaint to the BBB in Virginia. Attach all copies of your documentation. That is how I got PRA to fold, stop collecting, and delete the TL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kraftykrab Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 Correct me if I am wrong, but doesnt the FCRA have a provision that allows the consumer to inquire as to exactly how their dispute was investigated? I would definitely consider going that route. Before I did anything else, I would go that route. If you catch PRA claiming that they verified all the data and that it is accurate, you might have an FDCPA issue with them....while it is not always an FCRA violation for them to report inaccurate info, it IS a violation of the FDCPA for them to claim that they verified info that they could not possibly have verified. Example, if they claim that they verified your name, address, DOB, and SSN against your credit report, then their goose is cooked because your credit report shows your correct SSN. Anyone with half a clue, if comparing their info to your credit report info, would notice that the SSN does not match. But if they verified it anyways, then you might have a case. Also, clydesmom is correct that they do not have to match up every piece of data...but out of everything involved--name, DOB, address, and SSN, only your SSN is unique to you. All of the rest of the info could be common to someone else--your son lives at the same address as you, so that address is not exclusive only to you, and so on. But no other living person has the same SSN as you. I would use that in such a case to argue the importance of verifying the SSN, and then show that they were negligent at best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BV80 Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 @kraftykrab Correct me if I am wrong, but doesnt the FCRA have a provision that allows the consumer to inquire as to exactly how their dispute was investigated? You're referring to 1681i(a)(6)(B)(iii) which says that a notice will be provided to the consumer that says the consumer can request "a description of the procedure used to determine the accuracy and completeness of the information". The request is made to the CRAs and concerns their procedures, not the procedures of the furnisher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BV80 Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 @abstruse Is this your account? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kraftykrab Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 BV, that could still be helpful though....if the CRA responds saying that the JDB verified all information, then you still have them painted in a corner so to speak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abstruse Posted January 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 @BV80 @abstruse Is this your account? Yes. It is mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BV80 Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 @kraftykrab Well, the CRAs have to respond after receiving verification. So you've already been told the the entry was verified. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BV80 Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 @abstruse Okay. An incorrect social security number doesn't change the fact that the account is yours. Their inaccuracy could be a typo, or they could have the wrong ss# in their files. It really doesn't show that they shouldn't be reporting the account. Since it's falling off next year, it's really not having that big of an effect on your CR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kraftykrab Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 4. I had an HSBC/BEST BUY card in the past and this is not it. That account also showed up on my CR but reporting time limit expired in Nov/2013. Hang on, I'm a bit confused....first you say this is not your account...then you say it is. Could you please clarify? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kraftykrab Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 @kraftykrab Well, the CRAs have to respond after receiving verification. So you've already been told the the entry was verified.You are not only looking to see "verified". You are looking to see what the CRA says the JDB did to verify it. Chances are they will say that they notified the JDB, and the JDB notified them back that the account information was verified as reported. They may or may not provide specific details as to what information exactly was verified, and that is what you are looking for. Think about it....how would it look for that JDB if they told the CRA that all the info has been verified, when there's such an obvious discrepancy? You are looking to counter the "bona fide error" bit here, and everything you can get your hands on that points to the JDB actually claiming to have verified the SSN will help to counter that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BV80 Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 @kraftykrab You can send the request, but the chances are that the CRA is not going to provide details about the procedures of the JDB because they don't know what the JDB does to investigate a dispute. There's nothing in the law that I know of that says a JDB must provide procedural details to the CRAs. If this is the OP's account and if everything is being reported accurately, then the JDB has done nothing wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abstruse Posted January 31, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 Hang on, I'm a bit confused....first you say this is not your account...then you say it is. Could you please clarify? @kraftykrab this is a straight up credit card and not a merchant card. The validation sent by JDB indicates that this account is a merchant card. sorry for the confusion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kraftykrab Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 @kraftykrab this is a straight up credit card and not a merchant card. The validation sent by JDB indicates that this account is a merchant card. sorry for the confusion.can you please tell me how you know that they are talking about the same account that you are talking about? They identified this account as being a merchant card....to me that means that they have REALLY misidentified something....you have been given an incorrect description of the account AND the wrong SSN in the same "validation".....something's not right here. What ties this "best buy" account to a known account that you identify as yours? I ask because the more you can pick apart their claims, the better off you will be as they consider their next actions to try to collect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abstruse Posted February 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2014 @kraftykrab The account number referenced by JDB on their validation is the credit card number on the mastercard I had with HSBC. I had a bestbuy card (also by HSBC) and that dropped off my CR in 11/2013. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.