I sent a letter disputing a debt to the collection agency within 30 days. I received a letter in the mail yesterday 4/28/2013 dated 4/23/2013 with a copy of bill showing a previous balance from the Original creditor. It was for wireless phone service. I have receipt for payment on December 1, 2008 which is prior to what is covered by the bill copy. At the time of payment I also asked that my line of service be terminated as I was moving to China. I don't have a receipt/confirmation showing I asked it to be terminated. The bill copy just shows a previous balance as well as that months service charges, and then a charge for termination of service. The termination of service is as of the date of the bill not when it should have been canceled. What is my next step with the collection agency as I still dispute their validation. My dispute is now with the original creditor.
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options after receiving "validation"
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Ask the collection agency to validate the debt in writing via certified mail with a return receipt request. If they don’t give any reply, then you need not to make any payment. Visit this link to know how to write a debt validation letter: http://www.creditmagic.org/repair/sampleletter-debtvalidation.html
I did that step they sent a copy of a bill showing a previous balance. basically a statement from original creditor for one month time period. It doesn't show where the previous balance came from. As stated it was for wireless phone service that was to have terminated in Dec of 2008, the copy of a bill sent in response to my validation letter was for may of 2009. showed a large previous balance, the monthly charge for service and then a termination fee. Basically instead of canceling my service the original creditor continued to bill me for 4 months, showing it as a previous balance on the "validation" and that months bill for service and then termination charge for the service because of lack of payment.
Do I now dispute this with the original creditor or with the collection agency. the original creditor seems to have made the billing error and then submitted it to a collection agency.