Finance House

Is this legal?

I pulled my Eq report today and saw that a collection account was just recently reported in Dec, 2004.

In December, Cavalry Portfolio purchased a 3-year old collection account from Sprint PCS. I never received correspondence from Cavalry prior to them reporting it to Equifax.

I called Cavalry today to inquire about this account. They said that they mailed me a letter on January 3rd informing me that they purchased the account from Sprint in December.

Aren't they legally required to notify me of this account and give me the 30-day opportunity to dispute the account BEFORE they report it?

How should I proceed?

Originally posted by australia
...Aren't they legally required to notify me of this account and give me the 30-day opportunity to dispute the account BEFORE they report it?

no
as per the FDCPA:
Validation of debts-Sec 809 (15 USC 1692g)

(a) Within five days after the initial communication with a consumer in connection with the collection of any debt, a debt collector shall, unless the following information is contained in the initial communication or the consumer has paid the debt, send the consumer a written notice containing --

(1) the amount of the debt;

(2) the name of the creditor to whom the debt is owed;

(3) a statement that unless the consumer, within thirty days after receipt of the notice, disputes the validity of the debt, or any portion thereof, the debt will be assumed to be valid by the debt collector;

nothing prevents them from putting their TL on your CR

How should I proceed?

You must force them to validate the debt. Notify them in writing within 30 days that you dispute the validity of this debt and that you want proper validation from them. You need to send them the validation letter by CMRRR.

They must by law cease further collection attempts since you notified them on a timely basis that you dispute the debt

When you receive the green card back from them you dispute the TL with the CRA's,
then wait for the CA to (hopefully) rack up violations of the FDCPA

Okay - will do. Thanks for the clarification.