Debt Collection

Justaguy · #1 06-25-2007, 01:21 AM

What is the name of your state? NM but it relates to CA

I live in NM now for over 6 years. About 2 years ago while working in Encino, CA, I got sick and ended up in the hospital for a few hours. The company I was working with at the time (I'm self employed) had offered to pay expenses but since I did not follow up, they did not (I just found out).

Now, for several months I kept getting this voicemails that looked like marketting calls in my home phone. They'd go something like this:
"This is CFC calling with an important message for "such and such", please call 1-800-blah,blah, blah" to which I kept deleting because I thought they were marketing calls.

Finally, and due to my divorce, a day before settlement I decided to check my credit history and found that CFC had reported me to one of the Credit Bureaus with a 180 day past due.

So, once I realized this, I called them up as soon as they left another vm and they told me that since the address they had was wrong (they had my CO address) they would deduct the interest from the debt and that they would help me trying to remove the bad record from the Credit Report.

It sounded well until I started wondering if the company I was working at the time had actually paid and for some reason was not showing. So I asked nicely if it was ok to check if that company had paid or not.

Then, and since I was not submitting payment right away things turned around. They told me that if I did not paid in full at the time they would not help me have the record removed from my CR and I would have to pay with interests and blah, blah, blah. I felt it was unfair to do this since five minutes before they had been cooperative. I left a vm to the manager explaining the situation and to call me back but she never did.

Next thing it happened; I received a very aggravating letter saying that "based on my agreement to pay the debt (I never agreed to anything) they give me until July 14 to pay the debt in full, including interest.

Questions:
1) Is it legal to proceed like this?
2) Can they actually, as they did, report me to the Credit Bureau without notifying me? They had an address from my Drive License in Denver, CO which had been obsolete for 5 years.
3) If they do, Is there a way for me to dispute the record in my report?
4) I would be willing to pay the debt as long as they help me remove the record. Do I have some leverage to argue the above points and ask them to help me remove the record from the credit report?
5) I am not sure, but if I had insurance at the time...should I try to dispute it with them and at the same time fight with this credit collections agency so that they help me remove the bad record.
5) What should I do if I want to remove the record from my credit history?

Thanks,
CRM

debtcollector` · #2 06-25-2007, 07:50 AM