BILL'S ANSWER
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act -- a federal law governing the collection of debts by third party collectors -- requires that collection agencies stop communicating with you if you notify the collector in writing to do so.
Such requests are usually referred to as "cease and desist" letters (CandDs). According to the FDCPA, a CandD forbids a collector from communicating with you, but it does not affect the agency's ability to report account information to the credit bureaus. A separate federal law, the Fair Credit Reporting Act regulates the reporting of accounts to the consumer credit reporting agencies, and outlines the procedure for disputing inaccurate listings on your credit report.
Credit reports are notoriously inaccurate, so I encourage you to review your reports with the three major credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Get a no-cost credit report at AnnualCreditReport.com. If you find any listings which you feel are inaccurate or improperly reported, you should consider filing disputes with the bureaus.
Once you file a dispute, the credit bureau will notify the creditor of the dispute, and the creditor will be required to provide proof that the information it reported is accurate. If the creditor does not provide the required documentation, the credit bureau should remove the listing from your report. If you dispute an account with the credit bureaus after sending a CandD to the collection agency, the agency will still be able to respond to the dispute, so it is doubtful that the strategy outlined in your question will succeed in removing accounts from your credit reports. If you would like to learn more about credit reporting, I encourage you to explore the Bills.com Credit Report Resources page.
I hope this information will help you better understand credit reporting, debt collection and your rights as a consumer.
Bill
www.bills.com
May 06, 2008
May 06, 2008
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