66 replies to this topic

[Silvio]

BUMP

[Why Chat]

Not sure if I inadvertenly messed something up her, but the other day I went on th Equifax website and wanted to check something else out on my report. I get an email today saying that they one of two collection accounts that I disputed via certified mail is now being reinvestigated. (see sample email I received below). The funny thing is that the second collection account I disputed via certified mail (both collection accounts were in the same email) doesnt show any investigation occuring. I wonder if I accidently hit dispute online for the one account. I dont think I did but it is just strange that this happened. My question is: should I not do anything else at this point until I get the results back?

Your most recent Equifax reinvestigation has been started. This process can take up to 30 days to complete. For faster delivery of your results, you can now receive the results of your investigation online.
To accept receipt of the results of your investigation online, please click on this hyperlink:

(Gives website to get the resuls sent elecronically)
Any reinvestigation that you have created within the timeframe of this request will be available for your review online upon completion.

You are doing OK, do NOT opt for the on line dispute results.

[Silvio]

Why Chat - I have an update on my medical collections and progress.

Experian - did back door on Experian this morning and they have deleted the one and only medical collection account I had. Therefore, there is now no derogatory information on the report. Nothing further to do
Equifax - had two medical collection accounts (different than the one Experian). Got the results yesterday in teh mail. One account was deleted but the other one said verified. Please note that I did opt out well before disputing and I did have all old addresses removed, including the address to which the account was linked.
Transiton - nothing was ever reporting, so the report is clean.

In terms of Equifax and , I believe my next step would involve sending one of your letters to the CA and then redisputing with Equifax, but I wanted you ask you for clear instruction before moving forward. Thanks again for your help in the progress I have made thus far.

[Why Chat]

Why Chat - I have an update on my medical collections and progress.

Experian - did back door on Experian this morning and they have deleted the one and only medical collection account I had. Therefore, there is now no derogatory information on the report. Nothing further to do
Equifax - had two medical collection accounts (different than the one Experian). Got the results yesterday in teh mail. One account was deleted but the other one said verified. Please note that I did opt out well before disputing and I did have all old addresses removed, including the address to which the account was linked.
Transiton - nothing was ever reporting, so the report is clean.

In terms of Equifax and , I believe my next step would involve sending one of your letters to the CA and then redisputing with Equifax, but I wanted you ask you for clear instruction before moving forward. Thanks again for your help in the progress I have made thus far.

Yes, send the reporting CA this:
http://www.whychat.5...cavalhipaa.html

and then send Eq this:
http://www.whychat.5...aa.html#DISPUTE

[Silvio]

Question: Once I send the first letter to the CA using CMRR, I should wait until I get CMRR back and then send the second letter to teh CRA, and include a copy of the RR in letter to the CRA? Also do I include a copy of my letter to the CA when I send the second letter to the CRA? Also, in my letter to the CRA, can that be a typed letter or do I need to write it in the teal font and use the watermark paper as I did on the initial dispute? Thanks

[Why Chat]

Question: Once I send the first letter to the CA using CMRR, I should wait until I get CMRR back and then send the second letter to teh CRA, and include a copy of the RR in letter to the CRA? Also do I include a copy of my letter to the CA when I send the second letter to the CRA? Also, in my letter to the CRA, can that be a typed letter or do I need to write it in the teal font and use the watermark paper as I did on the initial dispute? Thanks

You send it CMRR only if you have a STREET address, if it is a PO Box, send it certified only without the return receipt.

Once you can pull up the delievery data from the tracking # you can send the follow up dispute letter to the CRA.

You send a copy of the medical DV along with the follow up dispute and a copy of EITHER the green card OR the print out from the PO tracking.

ONLY the initial dispute letter to the CRA is done in "funny font" ALL OTHER CORRESPONDENCE to anyone is properly typed and "Courtroom Ready".

[Silvio]

Why Chat - I am about to send off the letter to the CA. Before I do, there is one other data point I just realized on my credit report related to this tradeline that I wanted to bring to your attention. It involves SOL. The account says that the first date of delinquency was 9/2007. It says it was assigned on 12/2008. I live in NJ and believe that the SOL is based off the frst date of delinquency, which is coming up on 5 years, and I beleive the SOL on medical accounts is 4 years. Does this at all change my strategy or the content of the letter I send to CA, or should I still proceed as you suggested? Thanks

Edited by Silvio, 25 May 2012 - 06:44 AM.

[Why Chat]

Why Chat - I am about to send off the letter to the CA. Before I do, there is one other data point I just realized on my credit report related to this tradeline that I wanted to bring to your attention. It involves SOL. The account says that the first date of delinquency was 9/2007. It says it was assigned on 12/2008. I live in NJ and believe that the SOL is based off the frst date of delinquency, which is coming up on 5 years, and I beleive the SOL on medical accounts is 4 years. Does this at all change my strategy or the content of the letter I send to CA, or should I still proceed as you suggested? Thanks

The issue of "SOL" is NOT pertinent to the HIPAA letter program in your case.

That issue is only considered when there is a LARGE fairly recent balance due and the reporting CA is the first assigned CA as the potential arises for being sued, ( that is the ONLY "SOL" there is, the time limit for being sued)

Since the account was easily deleted from your other reports, and since you received NO response from THAT CA in reference to your initial dispute letter, and since the account is over 4 years old, it is more than probable that the reporting CA has no current relationship to the OC and there is NO CHANCE that your letter could engender a lawsuit.

The issue of OBSOLESCENCE ( 7 years) for reporting is raised in the initial dispute in order to obtain a valid response from any reporting CA, ie, IF it was a fairly recent account, and IF the reporting CA were in a current business relationship with the OC, they would have responded to YOU with account data, at which point you would have established the link between the CA and the OC and you could pay the OC with the HIPAA letter insert "a". In your case, the reporting CA appears to have NO relationship with the OC.

Send the medical DV to the CA with no changes
Send the re-dispute letter to Eq

[Silvio]

Thanks. This particular account never reported on my other reports and was only appearing on my Equifax report. The deletes from the other CRAs were from two other accounts. I will go ahead and send the letters as you suugested and will report back with the results. Thanks

[Silvio]

Why Chat - I sent out the letter to the CA using CMRR. Just went on the USPS website and confirmed through the tracking number that the CA received my letter yesterday. I have printed out the confirmation of this tracking and have already put together the letter to be sent to equifax, and am going to send today. Aside from including my redispute letter to Equifax, I will also include a copy of tracking confirmation that the CA received my letter, as well as a copy of the letter I sent the CA. Two questions before I send out today.

1. Since Equifax only has a PO Box, should I still send CMRR or just certified mail? I thought i read somewhere that you only send CMRR if you have an actual address, but that might have just been when you send to the CA. Still, I thought when you send CMRR to the CRA, it gives them extra time to complete their investigation. Just wanted to confirm.

2. Since I am informing the CRA in my letter that the CA received my letter and I have not heard back from them, doesnt the CRA find it odd that I am writing them informing them that I have not heard back from CA, althought teh CA just received my letter a day ago? Maybe it doesnt matter, but this just caught my attention and I wanted to confirm.

Thanks

Edited by Silvio, 30 May 2012 - 06:59 AM.

[Why Chat]

Why Chat - I sent out the letter to the CA using CMRR. Just went on the USPS website and confirmed through the tracking number that the CA received my letter yesterday. I have printed out the confirmation of this tracking and have already put together the letter to be sent to equifax, and am going to send today. Aside from including my redispute letter to Equifax, I will also include a copy of tracking confirmation that the CA received my letter, as well as a copy of the letter I sent the CA. Two questions before I send out today.

1. Since Equifax only has a PO Box, should I still send CMRR or just certified mail? I thought i read somewhere that you only send CMRR if you have an actual address, but that might have just been when you send to the CA. Still, I thought when you send CMRR to the CRA, it gives them extra time to complete their investigation. Just wanted to confirm.

2. Since I am informing the CRA in my letter that the CA received my letter and I have not heard back from them, doesnt the CRA find it odd that I am writing them informing them that I have not heard back from CA, althought teh CA just received my letter a day ago? Maybe it doesnt matter, but this just caught my attention and I wanted to confirm.

Thanks

Since the CA didn't respond to your initial dispute to the CRAs, it is safe to assume they will not respond to the medical DV, even if they did respond, the phrase in the follow up dispute is

and have had no valid response

You send CMRR to Eq. to provide a " Courtroom Ready" chain of documentation in order to have grounds to sue them. The follow up letter includes this phrase:

I also reserve the right to include your Bureau in any legal remedies I pursue

[Silvio]

Hi Why Chat - I have an update. I sent out the letter to the CA using CMRR and after receiving notification that they received the letter, I immediately sent the letter to Equifax CMRR. This was two days ago. I just received a letter from the CA and received this response:

"This is in response to your letter dated May 25th 2012. While you are correct, you have the right to request validation of debt. Nonetheless, the request must be made in a timely basis, which yours is not. However, I will enclose a copy of your account which serves as validation of your debt under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Please be advised we will be requesting authorizations to institute suit from our client unless you agree to solve this bill."

They sent me a one page print out on their letter head that essentially shows my name, date of birth, medical provider, and the date of service (which is Sept 2007). It also shows the amount of the service, and what my medical insurance covered. They provided nothing else that I requested in the letter. Overall, I know they cannot sue because it is beyond the SOL. I am waiting for acknowledgement that Equifax received my redispute letter. I am going to wait patiently until they reinvestigate or until I hear back from Equifax with any type of response. Please confirm that this is the right course of action. I also want to make sure that the CA doesnt put this collection on my Transunion and Experian report, but I believe if they did this at this point that would be a serious violation in light of my letter to them. Thanks again for the advice.

[Why Chat]

Hi Why Chat - I have an update. I sent out the letter to the CA using CMRR and after receiving notification that they received the letter, I immediately sent the letter to Equifax CMRR. This was two days ago. I just received a letter from the CA and received this response:

"This is in response to your letter dated May 25th 2012. While you are correct, you have the right to request validation of debt. Nonetheless, the request must be made in a timely basis, which yours is not. However, I will enclose a copy of your account which serves as validation of your debt under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Please be advised we will be requesting authorizations to institute suit from our client unless you agree to solve this bill."

They sent me a one page print out on their letter head that essentially shows my name, date of birth, medical provider, and the date of service (which is Sept 2007). It also shows the amount of the service, and what my medical insurance covered. They provided nothing else that I requested in the letter. Overall, I know they cannot sue because it is beyond the SOL. I am waiting for acknowledgement that Equifax received my redispute letter. I am going to wait patiently until they reinvestigate or until I hear back from Equifax with any type of response. Please confirm that this is the right course of action. I also want to make sure that the CA doesnt put this collection on my Transunion and Experian report, but I believe if they did this at this point that would be a serious violation in light of my letter to them. Thanks again for the advice.

You are correct, they sent you the typical "bedbug letter". However!! One sentence in there IS a violation of the FDCPA

Please be advised we will be requesting authorizations to institute suit from our client unless you agree to solve this bill.

Since the account is over 4 years old and beyond the legal SOL for being sued, they are in violation for threatening to do so.

I suggest you wait and see if Eq deletes after receiving the follow up letter, if they do not delete, then come back here to this post and we can work out an appropriate response.

[Silvio]

Hi Why Chat - I have an update from Equifax since sending them my dispute letter. There response says "The disputed collection item (NAME OF COLLECTOR) is currently not reporting on the Equifax credit file." However, the problem is that the collection is still showing on my report.

There may be two issues contributing to this mix up 1) the account number they included in their correspondence is incorrect by one digit, however in my letter to them I provided the correct number and credit report 2) on my credit report that I originally used to dispute the collection, there are to names associated with the account. The first name is the name of thelaw firm, which is the one that I used to dispute the account. However, there is a secondary name that is associated with the original medical provider. Regardless, I am not sure how they did not detect the account since I used the primary name associated with the tradeline reporting on my equifax and the correct account number. Could it be that they mispunched the account number? What should by next step be? Thanks

[Why Chat]

Hi Why Chat - I have an update from Equifax since sending them my dispute letter. There response says "The disputed collection item (NAME OF COLLECTOR) is currently not reporting on the Equifax credit file." However, the problem is that the collection is still showing on my report.

There may be two issues contributing to this mix up 1) the account number they included in their correspondence is incorrect by one digit, however in my letter to them I provided the correct number and credit report 2) on my credit report that I originally used to dispute the collection, there are to names associated with the account. The first name is the name of thelaw firm, which is the one that I used to dispute the account. However, there is a secondary name that is associated with the original medical provider. Regardless, I am not sure how they did not detect the account since I used the primary name associated with the tradeline reporting on my equifax and the correct account number. Could it be that they mispunched the account number? What should by next step be? Thanks

This is one of the FEW instances where I suggest a phone call to Eq ask to speak to a supervisor, explain the problem. Be very polite and professional.

[Silvio]

Here is an update. I called Equiax and spoke to a supervisor. I was extremely polite, cordial,and professional--as was she. Explained my situation and laid out all of the facts 1) I disputed a collection account back in May, 2) received a response back from Equifax that item was verified, 3) I followed their advice to contact the CA, which i did certified mail and received no response, 4) redisputed with equifax where I provided a copy of the certified mail that I sent to CA and which was received by theCA, 5) I get back a letter from Equifax saying the account is not reporting, however when I pull my report the account is still reporting. After she looked at the documentation I sent in, she said it looks like it was an error on equifax's part where they punched in the incorrect information. Still, she said the only thing they could do was to redispute even though it was an errror on their part. I expressed my frustration in a very polite way and explained that I have followed their process, sent everything in correctly, etc. but not have to redispute--which is going to reset the entire process. Rather than dipsute it over the phone, I told her not to dispute it as I wanted to likely send in a certified mail dispute for documentation purposes, esepcially in light of the error on their part and the fact that I had no response from the CA. WHYCHAT - I wanted to get advice from you first before I had them dispute it over the phone. I did get the supervisor's name and her Team #, which was the only thing she could provide. Again, I was coridal, polite. Not sure where to go from this point, so any input would be appreciated. Thanks

[Why Chat]

Here is an update. I called Equiax and spoke to a supervisor. I was extremely polite, cordial,and professional--as was she. Explained my situation and laid out all of the facts 1) I disputed a collection account back in May, 2) received a response back from Equifax that item was verified, 3) I followed their advice to contact the CA, which i did certified mail and received no response, 4) redisputed with equifax where I provided a copy of the certified mail that I sent to CA and which was received by theCA, 5) I get back a letter from Equifax saying the account is not reporting, however when I pull my report the account is still reporting. After she looked at the documentation I sent in, she said it looks like it was an error on equifax's part where they punched in the incorrect information. Still, she said the only thing they could do was to redispute even though it was an errror on their part. I expressed my frustration in a very polite way and explained that I have followed their process, sent everything in correctly, etc. but not have to redispute--which is going to reset the entire process. Rather than dipsute it over the phone, I told her not to dispute it as I wanted to likely send in a certified mail dispute for documentation purposes, esepcially in light of the error on their part and the fact that I had no response from the CA. WHYCHAT - I wanted to get advice from you first before I had them dispute it over the phone. I did get the supervisor's name and her Team #, which was the only thing she could provide. Again, I was coridal, polite. Not sure where to go from this point, so any input would be appreciated. Thanks

Send another copy of the re-dispute letter.( TYPE IN "FOLLOW UP COPY DUE TO YOUR ERROR"
Send another dispute letter stating the information about their error, include the name of the CSR the date and gist of the tel conversation. Request immediate deletion of the account. REPEAT the account information. send it CMRR

[Silvio]

Thanks. Just to confirm/clarify, I should send both letters simultaneously but in different envelops and CMRRs, correct?

[Silvio]

BUMP

[Why Chat]

Thanks. Just to confirm/clarify, I should send both letters simultaneously but in different envelops and CMRRs, correct?

NO!! send them TOGETHER in ONE envelope

[Silvio]

Still waiting for response from Equfax, however received a summons in the mail today from my Couty court saying that I am being sued bu the creditor for the amount. I am going to seek advice from my lawyer on this, but the medical account is over 4 years old, which is beyond the SoL. Therefore, I dont think they have grounds for suing me. I will need to answer the summons. Perhaps they are hoping that I dont properly answer the summons, dont show up for court, and they get a default judgement. Perhaps they dont know that I know about the SoL as well. Just wanted to keep everyone posted on the thread. Let me know if you have any insights.

[Why Chat]

Still waiting for response from Equfax, however received a summons in the mail today from my Couty court saying that I am being sued bu the creditor for the amount. I am going to seek advice from my lawyer on this, but the medical account is over 4 years old, which is beyond the SoL. Therefore, I dont think they have grounds for suing me. I will need to answer the summons. Perhaps they are hoping that I dont properly answer the summons, dont show up for court, and they get a default judgement. Perhaps they dont know that I know about the SoL as well. Just wanted to keep everyone posted on the thread. Let me know if you have any insights.

Make sure you file an answer. Are you SURE that the letter came from the County Court?? Have you actually been SERVED??
Call the Court an see if something has actually been filed.

Unless the "creditor" is a hospital or other Government supported health care provider, the 4 year SOL will be a defense. However, if it is a creditor supported by tax $$ there is NO effective SOL defense IF that is your only defense.

Would you PM me the details -so that I can take a closer look at the situation.

Edited by Why Chat, 01 August 2012 - 12:08 PM.

[Silvio]

Why Chat - I found the HIPPA compliance officer's name and have sent my letter. I am also going to respond to the summons, which is required. Meanwhile, what happens if the hospital refuses to accept payment?

[Silvio]

Just received results from Equifax today with the redispute. The CA verified again and equiafax has said they put my file on fraud alert and have notified Transunion and Experian of the same. I really dont want hassles when I apply for credit or mortgage, so I am thinking I should call transunion and equifax. Regardless, the bigger issue at this point is the lawsuit.

[Silvio]

Here is an update.

on 8-18-12 I sent a certified check to the hospitsl for $320, and included the insert from the pre-hippa letter. I sent CMRR, which they received\ a couple of dayts after I sent it. I also made sure that I followed instuction for the check, including writing on the back of the endorsement that the check could only be deposited by the hospital. As of today, the certified check has not been cashed (I checked with by bank.

What is interesting is that I now get a letter in the mail from a new collection agenecy saying that they represent the hospital and they are now asking me for $880, which was the original amount of the bill from 2007 before it was turned over to the first collection agency (which is the one I was dealing with on this matter through CMRR correspondence) and reduced by the hospital.

Meanwhile, I filed my answer to the court complaint where the original collection agency was suing me for $320. In my answer, I provided a copy of the certified check, the correspondence to the CA requesting validation (which they didnt respond to), etc. I havent heard back from the court yet, but sent a copy of my answer CMRR to teh court as well as the CA.

As I wait for my response, I am going to respond to the second CA who is trying to collecting on this debt, but I am not sure what I should send them. Overall, my main concern is not having to pay the higher amount (original amount) to anyone since this was from 2007, as well as getting this off my equifax credit report, which is the only one it is reporting to. Not sure what the next step should be. As you can see from the start of this thread, this issue has been going on for quite some time, and I think I am running out of options. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!