5 Ways to Challenge Inaccurate Collection Accounts & FDCPA Violations

🔮 Today we're talking about 5 ways to challenge inaccurate collection accounts and different FCRA and FDCPA violations that can help your credit repair strategy. If you'd like a free credit sweep consultation head to https://my740.com and I will see if I can help you. You can access the full course at https://ask-kristin.samcart.com/products/top-collection-tactics. We use these to remove medical collections from a credit report, utility collections, car insurance collections, cell phone collections, and some apartment evictions and collections using these tactics, in addition to the factual credit sweep process. Here is the video from 2018 where I introduce 14 of these 26 violations: https://youtu.be/TGHEk4FlbDo We are going over: how this can be used to remove medical collections from credit report how to use the credit sweep method to dispute medical collections fcra and fdcpa violations You may now check out my video call options including a credit report review and "Ask Me How" services at https://superpeer.com/askkristin SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL 🔮 https://www.youtube.com/c/Ask-Kristin?sub_confirmation=1 ✨ Check out all 3 credit reports and scores with the same credit monitoring I show in my videos and use for my clients with SmartCredit https://smartcredit.com/VargasConsulting/ or IdentityIQ: ✨ https://member.identityiq.com/help-you-to-save-money.aspx?offercode=431134PT 🧙‍♀️ GET HELP WITH YOUR CREDIT JOURNEY DIY awesome free tools, tutorials and downloads - https://vault.my740.com 🦸‍♀️ DFY credit sweep service free consultation 🦸‍♀️ https://my740.com Let's jump on a call and see if I can help! ⭐️ Video Notes:

0:00 If you have collections on your credit report, then this is the video that you most definitely want to watch to the end because we're going over top debt collection tactics that I use every day to remove collections from my clients credit reports. Now, the reason that you want to stay to the end of this video is because we're going over the debt collector violations checklist using the FDCPA. And I'm also going to introduce you to the Kayo method steps to remove collections from your credit report. And when you get to the end, you're also going to find the full validation of debt package and the package includes the actual collection letters that go out to the collectors and the letters that go to the Bureau's. Alright, so first things first, yes, this video does have a lot to it. All right. Now, I don't really expect you to make it to the end if you don't have time. But you're definitely going to want to bookmark this video. Not only that, but smash the Like, subscribe if you haven't done so and drop me a comment and say, Hey, this is what I want to learn dot dot dot. Alright, so let's get right into this debt collector violation checklist. Now, I'm also going to tag another video that I made specifically on FDCPA violations back in 2018, that go over these individually, and we're not going to go over all of them. But let's go through some of them falsely representing the character, like asserting the debt is valid without verification, that's super, super important amount, asserting the balances immediately do when it's not or legal status, like they're gonna take you to court, right? That is an FDCPA violation transferring or selling an account to another debt collector without reporting the transfer or zero bounced to the credit bureaus, right? They're actually supposed to remove that initial collection from your credit report when they do that. That's it FCRA violation, reporting a new duplicate account after receiving notice a dispute on the old account FCRA. Let's go over that one one more time, reporting a new duplicate account after receiving notice a dispute on the old account. In other words, they're putting a new one on there just to screw with you. misrepresenting the date of status or last activity. Doesn't that sound a little bit familiar G factual based disputes to reach the account for any reason such as attempting to modify the credit bureau statute limitations on reporting, which is normally seven to 10 years attempting to modify your state statute limitations for a lawsuit generally between four and eight years on open accounts? Let's just make this a little bit bigger weekend, right. So there we go. That's a little bit better. Attempting to increase or damaging coerce payment by making the debt appear newer in age, these are all FCRA violations, failing to report a disputed account as disputed to the credit bureaus, failing to validate the debt in question while continuing further collection activity. And guess what? Credit Bureau reporting is collection activity Hello, keep 2:47 that one in mind. FDCPA. No, again, I'm going to jump through these but you can use the link in the description to go and check this out your self Okay, every single word on this I put on here so that you can use to remove your collections from your credit report verifying an account with the credit bureaus before you're quiet excuse me, your request for validation has been completed, that's an F C R A violation. Let's go to another one falsely representing or implying that the debt collector is vouched for bonded by or affiliated with United States or any state, including the use of symbols, badges and logos. The false representation of communication is from an attorney, I see that one all the time failure to honor a cease and desist. Now, you want to be careful with that one because sometimes you're giving them no other option other than to take you to court. Okay, of course, you know, calling before and after a specific time period, failing to disclose the caller's identity, and use of violence and blah, blah, blah. Some of these are a little bit straightforward and boring, but communicating with the consumer when the debt collector knows that the consumer is being represented by an attorney, and calling your employer using abusive language failure of the debt collector to identify himself or herself by name. And let's go and jump down to the last one reporting a late payment when a collection account is closed ended and cannot be late. You hear me say all the time, a collection is late. By default, a collection is past due by default, this is an FCRA violation. All right, my friend, you have to look into the law, understand the law and know how to use it. So let's go into valid validation. And remember, not only we're going over the violations, which we just did, but I'm going to introduce you to the Kaoma that I use all the time, the validation of debt method I use all the time and the steps to remove your collection. So stay until the end of the video. Alright, so what counts as a valid form validation? This is literally asked like 1000 times a week you think this question would be easy, but like many things in this the answer isn't as easy as you'd think. Right? To better understand the issue. Let's just take a closer look at what validation aims to accomplish. collection agencies may be collecting on behalf of a creditor like you know, a hospital or or they may have actually purchased bad debt like portfolio recovery, right? In all this happens in a virtual world. So in other words, if a debt collector purchases debt from a creditor, they basically get some electronic data regarding the debt. And that's it. It doesn't come in a box, it doesn't come in the mail. There's no physical files or paperwork sent. It's all virtual. Now, having said that, what do you think that the bureaus get? They literally get like a digital spreadsheet. That's what they get. And actually, if you go look in the FCRA, it basically says that they're supposed to have the documentation to back up what they're reporting, prior to reporting it. How can they do that when this is all virtual, right, the collection agent, then must rely on computer system for all data regarding the debt. And again, 99% of cases they have no proper files to refer to if the debt is old, it might have been bought and sold several times, much in the same way that a line of people passing a message from one end to the other will tend to mess it up. Remember playing telephone, when we were like in what elementary school this is exactly the same thing. database fields may not match exactly fees, and interest gets added information actually gets erroneously added, deleted and modified by people at each place along the way. And by the time it reaches, then it may be difficult to tell what their original account looked like. 6:13 Here's the thing, debt validation is the legal means given in the FDCPA to force a collection agency to prove that the debt is indeed valid. And they do indeed have the legal authority to collect on that debt. So we're actually going to skip a little bit. But debt validation, should it substantiate the amount owed, verified the pertinent date in regards to the session limitations, obviously, because if it's past the Sol, you need to know about it, and determine if the credit reporting is accurate. If the amounts actual deeds necessary account details cannot be reasonably be determined to be accurate than the collector really has no business collecting on the debt. Okay, so keep this in mind. In the FTC opinion letter, which is obviously not legally binding Attorney John F. Lift fear. I hope I didn't screw up his name rights. The statute requires that the debt collector obtain verification of the debt and mail it to the consumer. Let's read that part one more time. The statute requires that the debt collector obtain verification of the debt and mail it to the consumer. Because one of the principal purposes of this section is to help consumers who have been mis identified by the debt collector or who disputed amount of the debt, it is important that the verification of the identity of the consumer and the amount of the debt be obtained directly from the creditor mere itemization of what the debt collector already has does not accomplish this purpose. Okay. So yes, this is not legally binding. But I mean, come on, you can use this in a letter alright. And it's also not a court decision. It's like I said, just an opinion, but it should nonetheless carry some weight. Okay, if you want to be on the side of a divisive issue, you'll have better chances of success if you're on the side with a favorable FTC opinion. Alright, so let's go down a little bit more. The FDCPA parapets collection activity on disputed accounts and credit reporting is a collection activity. These are the things that should be verified from the original creditors records in the validation process, the amount originally owed, that amounts of interest in fees, statute limitations, accuracy of the credit reporting itself, like as the collection agency reported accurate data to the Bureau's No, all verification of the consumers identification and account information should be obtained from the creditor themselves and sent to the consumer by the debt collector. Now, I haven't heard anybody in any video or any course ever mentioned this part. Alright. Now going down to actually disputing collections, let's go down to eight or nine C of the FDCPA where it states the failure of a consumer to dispute the validity of a debt under the section may not be construed by any court as an admission of liability by the consumer. 8:59 So when they're sending you that letter that says that you only have 30 days to actually, you know, admit or not admit that it's yours. That is totally and completely 100% on true. Yes, you can still dispute paths that 30 days, right? And yes, a collection can legally be deleted. So I'm actually going to just go skip past this part, if you want to check it out, head down into the scription and use the link, but the most effective collection disputes are actually factual. So whether a dispute is to the Bureau's a creditor or collector keeping your disputes factual will yield the best result and keep your just everything the way that it's supposed to be especially if you are a business always dispute based on facts. Alright, so let's go and look at the outline of the steps for collections, all right. And this does not have to be an exact outline, this is not concrete. It is just a roadmap that you can use Alright, so the collector contract method. Alright, so do some fact finding find out who the collector is how big they are the size As of the original debt, whether or not the statute limitations has expired, contact the original creditor and find out what record if any, they have of the account and look for any factual errors isn't a medical collection. If the consumer has either paid their original creditor or can pay their original creditor, consider using the HIPAA process from the tactic tactics portion of my course. And I did do a video on this, all you have to do is type in H AI, it's actually P AE not PPA in the Keywords section. Does the account belong to the consumer if not, then dispute directly with the collection agency and simply state the facts. If it's a fraudulent account to begin with, then the collector has no right whatsoever to any money or any settlement. Keep that in mind. If that account does belong to the consumer, then you're actually going to want to continue on with the next steps validation. And again, you can access the validation by using the link in the description. If the original creditor has no record of the account. Or if the account is old and has been bought and sold by junk debt buyers, then you can ask for validation from the collector. Right. And this is actually next to like impossible, because not gonna have anything all right now the cable approach, this may be a worthwhile approach, especially if the debt is outside the statute limitations and has been bought and sold multiple times the debt. The older the debt, the better settlement and negotiation. That's pretty straightforward. Bureau disputes for multiple listings of the same account. And for factual disputes, simple direct dispute to the collector based on incorrect reporting, and BBB complaints against the debt collector. 11:32 Let's keep going. State Attorney General method, Attorney General and FTC complaints against the collector with copies sent to the collector, the collector contract method. And now let's talk about the kale method for collections. So let's say that a friend of yours, we'll just call him Bob approaches you and says this, Jim hired me to collect the $10 You owe him. So Bob is in the business of collecting money for Jim, Bob runs a private business. And by paying the $10 to Bob instead of Jim directly, you're basically now doing business with Bob instead of Jim. And Bob gets a commission on the $10. Or several things that we should note about this. Jim told Bob that you owe him money. And as far as Bob is concerned, this is good enough. By paying Bob, you would end up doing business with Bob even though you had never chosen to do so. It gets even worse, though, when Bob tells you that if you don't pay the $10 that Jim said you owe him Bob is going to report that $10 to the Bureau's and mess up your credit. Now Bob is using coercion to force you to do business with him. Is that something that Bob with his private collection business should have the authority to do? No. Okay. That's the basic premise behind the Keio tactic. And does the collection agency have the right to force the consumer to do business with them? And where do you get the authority to do so the key approach involves simply asking them just that. Okay, so if you want to check this out, use the link in the description we are down on proof of contract. Alright, so what if we signed a contract with your local ice cream shop saying that you agreed to purchase ice cream from them every week? What if the contract clearly stated that in the event of your failure to buy ice cream, the ice cream shop would tell the credit bureaus bad things about you and ruin your credit. If you're like most people, chances are you wouldn't remember signing the contract. So what you're going to do is you're going to request a copy of this contract that you signed. And you have to determine if you actually signed that and if it actually said that. But one key difference is that with the cable method and any variation thereof, that may include the proof of contract approach, you aren't asking for validation, you're just asking for proof that the collector has the right to use the methods they're using to force the consumer to do business with them in the form of making a payment on that account. Sometimes simply challenging the collectors right is a manner, excuse me in this manner is enough to get them to go away. Other times, you know the response stating why they believe they have the right may include documentation such as copy of the contract from the creditor with an assignment clause. Now, as you can see, the full VOD package validation of debt package is actually attached right inside this course page. So if you want to check out all these top collection practices to get rid of those nasty collections on your credit report or your clients, head down in the description and use the link, get the checklist for the violations and everything else that we've gone over and haven't gone over and I'll see you tomorrow, but if you want to see if I could do this for you instead because all of this is just way too much metro to VAT verification documentation FCRA FDCPA, head over to my seven forty.com And I'll see if I can help but that's it for today. Have a great day. Get rid of those collections, and I'll see you later. Transcribed by https://otter.ai