By: Daniel Gershburg, Esq.
So you live in New York and you’ve got a creditor…and they are after you. Let’s say you don’t believe the charge is accurate. You legitimately think that the charge is either not yours or that you have paid it off in full. If you listen to what the nasty credit collectors tell you, you’ll likely believe you are still liable and that there is nothing you can do. FALSE. There are a myriad of things you can do if you believe you are not responsible for the charge. The first thing you should do is to write a letter to all three credit reporting bureaus (Experian, Transunion, Equifax) and ask them to investigate the charge. If they find the charge is still valid, then you use another weapon…validation. You, or your friendly attorney, write a letter to the actual collection agency who continues to haggle you at work/home, etc. asking them to “validate” the charge. Validation doesn’t mean the collection agency can simply look at the charge and say “Yes this is valid.” Instead, the collection agency must make reasonable efforts to determine the paper trail of the charge and how it leads to you. However, collection agencies aren’t so great at paperwork, and they may very well drop the charge entirely if they cannot validate it. Just a small tip to help consumers in the fight against collection agencies.
