Damage to my credit from incorrect debt collection.

[confusedinKy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Kentucky.

I was contacted via telephone by a law office representing a collections agency, trying to collect a debt I did not incur. Repeat this is not my debt.

Here are the basics, a check cashing/payday lending company assigned my ssn to a debt under someone else’s name, they sold the debt to a debt collecting company which handed it off to a law office trying to collect this debt. I informed the law office and the debt collection agency that I was not the person they were looking for, and that this was not my debt. Representatives that I spoke with at both offices told me that no further collections actions would be taken against me. However, I can detect that no actions have been taken by them to repair the damage done to my credit by this item being reported against me. It has now been more than 30 days since I last spoke to anyone in the office of the debt collection agency about this matter, and this item is still on my credit report which I ordered within the last 24 hours. I can prove that damage has been done and is continuing to be done to my credit by this false action being taken against me.

I feel as though I have been wronged through no action of my own, and it is causing me great personal anxiety.

I have a few questions.

Is this topic in the right area of this forum?

How long should I give these companies to resolve this before I consider legal action?

If I chose to sue the debt collector over this do I even have a case?

Thank you in advance for any thoughts, guidance, suggestions or advice in this matter.

 

[confusedinKy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Kentucky.

I was contacted via telephone by a law office representing a collections agency, trying to collect a debt I did not incur. Repeat this is not my debt.

Here are the basics, a check cashing/payday lending company assigned my ssn to a debt under someone else’s name, they sold the debt to a debt collecting company which handed it off to a law office trying to collect this debt. I informed the law office and the debt collection agency that I was not the person they were looking for, and that this was not my debt. Representatives that I spoke with at both offices told me that no further collections actions would be taken against me. However, I can detect that no actions have been taken by them to repair the damage done to my credit by this item being reported against me. It has now been more than 30 days since I last spoke to anyone in the office of the debt collection agency about this matter, and this item is still on my credit report which I ordered within the last 24 hours. I can prove that damage has been done and is continuing to be done to my credit by this false action being taken against me.

I feel as though I have been wronged through no action of my own, and it is causing me great personal anxiety.

I have a few questions.

Is this topic in the right area of this forum?

How long should I give these companies to resolve this before I consider legal action?

If I chose to sue the debt collector over this do I even have a case?

Thank you in advance for any thoughts, guidance, suggestions or advice in this matter.

I have this to add: The debt collector that the check cashing/payday lender sold the debt to is refusing to realise thier mistake and are still reporting this item against my credit. I just got off the phone with the credit bureau, which confirmed this.

 

[swalsh411]

You aren't the first to have another person's debt show up on your credit report. Have you followed the procedure for disputing incorrect items? You can talk to the collector until you're blue in the face but you need to tell the credit reporting bureaus in writing that you are disputing the debt.

How to Dispute Credit Report Errors

A pain in the rear but it's what you have to do if you want this cleared up.

 

[confusedinKy]

I know that I must follow the steps outlined by the FTC, and I will, but I am wondering at what point that this turns from disputing and correcting information, to defamation.

 

[swalsh411]

Probably never. You're getting ahead of yourself. Follow the dispute resolution procedure. If for some crazy reason it doesn't work then you can look at other options but it's entirely premature at this point. You haven't even taken the first step to dispute the error.

 

[TigerD]

I know that I must follow the steps outlined by the FTC, and I will, but I am wondering at what point that this turns from disputing and correcting information, to defamation.

Never. Your question has been answered in the other thread.

DC

 

[badapple40]

Actually, case law in Kentucky clearly holds that a cause of action can be maintained by the company who reported the debt to the credit bureaus (or anyone else back the chain), if they were negligent in reporting the information.

But that does not mean that the current company was negligent. Sounds and looks to me that if anyone was negligent, it was the person who originally lent the money (perhaps without checking the identification). The problem is that none of us knows what happened with that transaction and it is pure speculation to presuppose that anyone was negligent.

That said, I suspect that the negligence (and thus the defamation) lies, if anywhere, with the original money-lender. They libeled you when they originally published false information concerning the debt to a third party.

But these sorts of things are always fact specific. You should see a local attorney and/or legal aid for assistance.

 

[quincy]

I agree, badapple, that it is possible to bring action against a debt collection agency for falsely reporting a bad debt - but seeing an attorney at this point is jumping the gun a bit. First confusedinKy must follow the correct procedure for disputing the debt (phone calls won't cut it).

IF that does not resolve the problem, THEN an attorney's assistance might be valuable.