Question: My mother had a credit card debt sold to a junk debt collector. We sent a certified letter requesting that they validate the debt. They never responded and have since sold the debt to another junk debt collector.
Do we just continue to ask for validation of debt? I was under the impression that when the first company could not produce the proof, the game was over. Thanks for your very informative website.
Answer: First, thank you for visiting the website. I have good news and bad news for you. I’ll start with the bad. A junk debt buyer, collection agency and/or debt collection law firm can sell a debt to another junk debt buyer repeatedly. Basically, a debt can be resold, over and over again, until that debt is paid.
Junk debt is normally resold approximately 4-5 times before it goes away or the current owner of the debt files a lawsuit for resolution of the matter. The fact the junk debt buyer probably could not validate the debt is most likely the reason the debt was resold.
More bad news, if your mother is contacted by another junk debt buyer, she will have to request debt validation again. Essentially debt validation will have to be requested for each separate junk debt buyer who may purchase the debt. Yeah, I know, it’s a pain but requesting debt validation is important.
The good news is the more a debt is resold from one junk debt buyer to another, the weaker the paper trail. The likelihood of any junk debt buyer being able to validate a debt is already low. But a debt that is repeatedly resold almost never comes with any supporting documents from the original creditor which could be used for validation.
The truth is junk debt buyers purchase portfolios of debt and rarely, if ever, purchase the supporting documents. All they have is basic information such as debt amount, original creditor and the debtor’s name, address and telephone numbers. Junk debt buyers want to get the money with the least amount of effort. Many never contact a debtor in writing, they only communicate by telephone. Even those that contact a debtor in writing never have proper documents to validate a debt.
More good news — once your mother’s debt reaches 7.5 years from the date of first delinquency of the original debt; the debt will be permanently removed from her credit reports and no junk debt buyer or the original creditor will be able to report that debt on her credit reports, EVER.
If you discover a junk debt buyer reporting past that time then that would indicate the junk debt buyer re-aged the account in order to make it appear more recent. If this is ever the case, contact the credit bureaus immediately to have the debt deleted; and, exercise your rights to file a lawsuit since the debt collector committed a serious violation of the FRCA. Good luck to you.
