Two enclosures that should be mailed with your FCRA dispute letter to a credit bureau
There are two things you should include in any dispute letter a credit bureau (TransUnion, Equifax, etc.)
Driver’s license or another form of government ID.
Recent bill or statement that shows your name, address, and the company name.
Why should you include these items if they aren’t required?
Credit bureaus hate investigating claims. They don’t make any money from investigating claims.
So, we are trying… (Read more)
My frustration with disputes people make to credit reporting agencies
I have been suing credit bureaus and furnishers (companies that provide your information to credit reporting agencies) for about 20 years.
During these twenty years, I encounter a frustrating mistake which is made far too often.
I want to share this frustration with you so that you can avoid the same mistake.
Here’s the situation:
I am contacted by a credit repair place, the client of a credit repair place,… (Read more)
Is it legal for an original creditor to pull my credit reports after settling with them?
Let’s say you’re being sued by an original creditor, Capital One, for $10,000. You settle for $5,000.
Once this has been settled, Capital One should show the balance as $0. You no longer owe them anything.
If they leave it at $10k, that’s false credit reporting.
If they listed the balance as $5,000 (the difference between the original amount and the amount of the… (Read more)
Statute of limitations: Why debt collectors who sue you will lie about a payment
Why do debt collectors lie about when you last paid them, particularly when they have sued you?
This happens pretty frequently. Somewhere in the documentation, in the lawsuit, or even in the courtroom the debt collector claims to have found a mysterious payment that you don’t remember making.
I’ve had this happen in the middle of the trial, at the beginning of a case, and everywhere… (Read more)
CFPB sues Midland Funding and Midland Credit Management for violating FDCPA
On September 8th, 2020, the CFPB filed a case against Midland Funding and its related companies which make up one of the largest debt buyers in the country.
This is a big deal.
We have a Republican administration with a CFPB that has been scaled back considerably.
But what Midland is doing is so bad that even this scaled-back CFPB decided to file suit.
The Bureau of Consumer Financial… (Read more)
Debt Buyers: why they must prove they own the debt [illustration of Apple v Samsung]
When I am representing clients in court who have been sued by debt collectors or debt buyers, I’m always trying to think of illustrations to help the judge understand why, even though we may have owed a credit card debt, why we don’t owe this particular company (Midland Funding, Portfolio Recovery, LVNV, etc.)
The legal answer is that the debt buyers have to prove they… (Read more)