I recently received a letter from a collection agency advising me I owed $3,100 to them. There is no information as to who the original creditor is or anything. I sent them a debt validation letter by certified and return receipt mail and received the confirmation card back so I know that they received it. I also noted in the letter that they were to cease all phone calls to me and must supply any information via the USPS. Since they received my dv letter, I have not received any verification of this debt yet they continue to make phone calls to me. What I did receive was another letter from the collection agency telling me that it has been 30 days since they sent their original letter and I have yet to respond which I obviously did and have confirmation that they received my letter. What should I do next?
You must wait the full 30 days from the date they recieved the certified letter. If they do not validate then they can not sue you and legally win in court. Keep all proof that you sent for debt validation. Also I would not have any contact with them until they either prove the debt or the 30 mandatory days have passed. If they contact you after that you can call your Atty. generals office and report them. Usually this will take care of the problem.
There is nothing to do now. You just need to wait for 30 days from the date they received the letter. If they call you up, you can say that you have already send a debt validation letter to which they have not yet responded. However, if they do not validate the debt within this 30 day period and still call you up and disturb you, just file a complaint with the FTC and the State AGs office and at the same time send a cease and desist letter to the collection agency.
I forgot to mention the FTC. Usually an atty generals office will jump on something alot quicker than the FTC. I know someone who went through a similar situation and the Atty general had the issue resoved with in days. I would avoid contact with these paople until they validate or the 30 days are up. If you have caller ID this would help. Once the 30 day time frame has passed then I would go forth with reporting them.
Mary, when does the 30 day time frame start? Is it 30 days from the date the letter was sent or 30 days from the time that the collector signed for the certified letter?