Collection Agencies are Buying Old Debts by the Millions

admin — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:23:18 +0000

There are collection agencies all over this country that are buying old debt from large well known businesses. From credit card companies to department store credit cards.

One such example of such a purchase is AFNI Inc.

AFNI provides credit and collection services to companies nationwide. One of its biggest clients, at the time of this writing, is Verizon Wireless. Yes the cellular giant, in some areas.

AFNI Inc. reportedly purchased more than a million old accounts from Verizon recently.

Could you be one of them?

Whether you had service through Verizon Wireless or not may not matter. As such information is transferred, there may not be safeguards in place to make sure that all the debts that are being purchased by the collection agency and transferred are valid. This leaves room for plenty of error.

Consumers have reported being called by collectors about accounts that are as far back as 1990. Well beyond the statute of limitations for collecting a past due debt.

When a company sells an account, it transfers all responsibility for it to the debt collector. This becomes even more of a problem because if you call the original creditor, more than likely you will be told to deal with any issues that you may have with the collection agency.

What I want to point out here is that you must remain pro-active when it comes to your personal credit. There are tactics that collection agencies of old debt are undertaking that can easily fool the unsuspecting consumer.

For example, a collector may say that you owe $1200. If you dispute the charge, the collector may dismiss your statement and proceed immediately with offering to settle the account with you for $600. Being that the purchaser may have paid .10 cents to .25 cents on every dollar for the bad debt, your acceptance of this settlement reaps a good profit for the agency.

The settlement may sound good, if in fact you truly owe the money. However, some consumers will send in a check even if they are not familiar with the debt ‘just to get rid of the problem’.

You must educate yourself on your rights as a consumer so that you will not be taken by unscrupulous collection agencies.

It is very important that when you receive a call from a collector about an old account, request that they provide you their business mailing address and send a letter Certified Mail – Return Receipt Requested, and in your letter ask that they provide you with documentation of your debt.

Companies that purchase old debt may not get complete information and will have trouble validating the debt.

If they do not respond within a reasonable time then follow-up with a letter that all negative reports to your credit bureau related to the account in question be removed since validation of the debt cannot be provided.

Stay pro-active with your credit issues. Do not ignore these credit blunders, as they may only get worse. Even if the account may not be your own.

God Bless

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Collection Agencies are Buying Old Debts by the Millions