AFNI spelled my name wrong on Dunning letter...

[MamaMojo220]

Hi all,

 

There is a collection on my EX and TU reports (OC is Sprint)...in early 2020 it was owned by Enhanced Recovery Assoc, but after sending a DV they removed it and apparently sold it to AFNI, who has been reporting since December 2020. Just when I was about to send a letter asking them who in the heck they thought they were to be reporting on my credit without contacting me first, I received a letter from them dated 2/26/21. Problem is, it's not addressed to the "right" person. Without giving my actual name, it's the equivalent of if my name were Jane Williams-Jones...and the letter is addressed to Jane Will-Jones.

 

I have a DV letter all typed up, but my hesitancy in sending it lies in this...if they don't currently have my full legal name (but obviously have enough info to ding EX and TU) is there a way I can get them on that *without* disclosing to them my actual legal name?

 

In addition, they have listed an "on record until" date of June 2025 on EX and Aug 2025 on TU (no DOFD listed on either CR), which means they're trying to collect on something that I guess went delinquent sometime in 2018, when I still lived in NC. I've lived in GA since August 2019, and have no clue how they got my current address, unless it was somehow furnished by ERA. I do have in my DV draft a request for the DOFD, but if I've moved, how does this affect SOL? Also, is SOL calculated from when whatever 2-year Sprint contract they're saying I signed began, OR when the account went delinquent?

 

Thanks so much for your guidance.

[legaleagle2012]

The clock starts to run on the day you failed to make a scheduled payment and never got caught up again. (DOFD) You should have stayed in NC, their SOL is 3 years and this could have been a dead issue this year if you defaulted in 2018. Georgia applies their own 6 year SOL and does NOT have a borrowing statute that would allow you to apply the NC SOL. Incorrect spelling of a name won't get you anywhere, all they have to do is correct it. They don't have to contact you in order to report. Anybody can get your address in less than a minute if they know what website to use.

[Bluesie58]

6 hours ago, legaleagle2012 said:

The clock starts to run on the day you failed to make a scheduled payment and never got caught up again. (DOFD) You should have stayed in NC, their SOL is 3 years and this could have been a dead issue this year if you defaulted in 2018. Georgia applies their own 6 year SOL and does NOT have a borrowing statute that would allow you to apply the NC SOL. Incorrect spelling of a name won't get you anywhere, all they have to do is correct it. They don't have to contact you in order to report. Anybody can get your address in less than a minute if they know what website to use.

Just a note:  While the DOFD determines the credit reporting period, it doesn’t always determine the SOL for collection in individual states.  
 

In NC, the SOL can be reset (extended) by making a payment.

 

Although the statute of limitations on contract obligations is three years, a new promise to pay or partial payment of an existing debt may extend the time to collect the debt up to three years from the time of the new promise or partial payment. Andrus v. IQMax, Inc., 190 N.C.App. 426, 428, 660 S.E.2d 107, 109 (2008).

 

NC Statute § 1-26. New promise must be in writing.

No acknowledgment or promise is evidence of a new or continuing contract, from which the statutes of limitations run, unless it is contained in some writing signed by the party to be charged thereby; but this section does not alter the effect of any payment of principal or interest. 

[MamaMojo220]

7 hours ago, legaleagle2012 said:

The clock starts to run on the day you failed to make a scheduled payment and never got caught up again. (DOFD) You should have stayed in NC, their SOL is 3 years and this could have been a dead issue this year if you defaulted in 2018. Georgia applies their own 6 year SOL and does NOT have a borrowing statute that would allow you to apply the NC SOL. Incorrect spelling of a name won't get you anywhere, all they have to do is correct it. They don't have to contact you in order to report. Anybody can get your address in less than a minute if they know what website to use.

Well, that's crap. (Not saying you told me a bunch of crap, just that it sucks that the longer SOL now applies!)

 

Considering one bureau has June '25 and the other has August '25, I'm guessing there will be SOMETHING I can stick them on...just not name or address.

 

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Bluesie58]

3 hours ago, MamaMojo220 said:

Well, that's crap. (Not saying you told me a bunch of crap, just that it sucks that the longer SOL now applies!)

 

Considering one bureau has June '25 and the other has August '25, I'm guessing there will be SOMETHING I can stick them on...just not name or address.

 

Thanks for the clarification.

 

Well, leaving NC before the 3-year SOL period had passed, tolled the SOL.  That means the SOL clock in that state stopped running when you moved.   As a result, the limitations period in NC has not passed.  

[MamaMojo220]

5 hours ago, Bluesie58 said:

Well, leaving NC before the 3-year SOL period had passed, tolled the SOL.

I left for a much higher-paying job, so I'm not exactly MAD that I left...I guess I was just confused on how the whole SOL thing works.

 

If I have to end up contacting Sprint to see about this collection and pay them directly, I will...just trying to get AFNI to kick rocks (I did a search on them prior to posting and booooyyyy, people don't like them).

[hdporter]

7 hours ago, MamaMojo220 said:

I left for a much higher-paying job, so I'm not exactly MAD that I left...I guess I was just confused on how the whole SOL thing works.

 

If I have to end up contacting Sprint to see about this collection and pay them directly, I will...just trying to get AFNI to kick rocks (I did a search on them prior to posting and booooyyyy, people don't like them).

 

I apologize in advance if I'm about to address something you already grasp, but a discussion of "SOL" has a strict scope involving the period during which a debt can be enforced by the courts via such action as a judgement and attachment of assets.

 

Frankly, I grasp from your initial post that your query was really focused on how long this can continue to report on your credit report, and whether that reporting might be invalidated by their having recorded your name inaccurately during the account transfer.  The discussion between you and others in this thread appears to have been at cross purposes because of this confusion.

 

The period during which adverse information can be reported on your credit report is defined under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).  Many inaccurately refer to this separate time frame as a "SOL"; that's where the confusion can make things murky.  For what it's worth, that time period is set as 7 years 6 months from date of first delinquency (DOFD).  That definition generally translates as 7 years from default, since most accounts are deemed in default after failure to make payment for 6 months.

 

In practice, the CRA's most often remove an account 7 years from the DOFD (rather than 7y 6m).  This ensures that adverse info isn't detailed longer than the full term permitted.  Having clarified this much, I'll address your concerns:

 

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As with the ability to bring court action, an inaccuracy in name, address, or other detail doesn't eliminate the claim, provided that they possess sufficient detail to otherwise prove that you're the indebted party.  My guess is that they can tie the account to an accurate prior residence and corresponding date of residence.  The only remedy here would be a name correction.  So I won't encourage a dispute on this count.

 

While there is a discrepancy in the "on record until" dates between EX and TU, you don't surface anything to suggest that either of these dates extends past the permitted 7y 6m reporting time frame, as permitted under the FCRA.  Consequently, there's no foul here.  The CRA's are permitted to set whatever reporting limitation they opt for, so long as it doesn't exceed the permitted reporting length.

 

This information notwithstanding, you're certainly entitled to DV AFNI, asking them to validate and disclose the details of the original debt.  I would deem that prudent, in any case.  However, I expect that you won't surface anything that will give you ammunition by which to challenge the credit reporting.  If that's the case, please know that I grasp and share your frustration.

 

 

[legaleagle2012]

Forget NC, you are a Georgia resident. Georgia applies their own SOL in debt cases, which is six years. NC is totally out of the picture unless you move back there, in which case the creditor will accuse you of forum shopping. GA is NOT consumer friendly, either. 

 

 In Georgia, written contracts have a statute of limitations period of 6 years from the time in which the debt becomes due and payable and the period runs from the date of last payment (OCGA 9-3-24). 

 

Sprint is terrified of their own arbitration clause .... I know from personal experience. They paid me to leave them alone. I suggest you use it. Your fee is capped at $200, theirs starts at 5-6K and they can't get it back even if they win. 

[centex]

A truncation of a name is NOT going to get relief.  That would be a database limitation, not indicia of contacting the wrong person. 

 

If you can conclusively show a timeline that the change in ownership of the account occurred ONLY AFTER you sent an actual DISPUTE to ERC (and not the bureaus), then you have a strong argument of continued collection activity following an unresolved dispute.  This going to require 1) actually looking at dates of letters and 2) contrasting various copies of the credit reports as they appear on hard copy received through the mail. 

[MamaMojo220]

On 3/15/2021 at 7:51 AM, centex said:

A truncation of a name is NOT going to get relief.  That would be a database limitation, not indicia of contacting the wrong person. 

 

If you can conclusively show a timeline that the change in ownership of the account occurred ONLY AFTER you sent an actual DISPUTE to ERC (and not the bureaus), then you have a strong argument of continued collection activity following an unresolved dispute.  This going to require 1) actually looking at dates of letters and 2) contrasting various copies of the credit reports as they appear on hard copy received through the mail. 

I do believe I have all the documentation you mentioned here...I got my paper copies 2-3 weeks before I disputed with them and saved digital copies of all correspondence. I'll have to double check.

 

In an interesting turn of events, AFNI has disappeared from all my reports sometime over the past week...and I didn't even send the dang DV yet. Printed it and haven't had time to get to the post office. I'm not naive enough to think they're gone for good, but at least this gives me more time to gather info (a DOFD from Sprint would be a start).

[MamaMojo220]

On 3/15/2021 at 3:54 AM, legaleagle2012 said:

Forget NC, you are a Georgia resident. Georgia applies their own SOL in debt cases, which is six years. NC is totally out of the picture unless you move back there, in which case the creditor will accuse you of forum shopping. GA is NOT consumer friendly, either. 

 

 In Georgia, written contracts have a statute of limitations period of 6 years from the time in which the debt becomes due and payable and the period runs from the date of last payment (OCGA 9-3-24). 

 

Sprint is terrified of their own arbitration clause .... I know from personal experience. They paid me to leave them alone. I suggest you use it. Your fee is capped at $200, theirs starts at 5-6K and they can't get it back even if they win. 

Off to research their arbitration clause...this is helpful info, thank you.

[legaleagle2012]

Read my arbitration thread. It has everything you need. Do it BEFORE they sue .... it will save you a lot of time and trouble. Takes about ten minutes on the AAA site, very easy. I used arb against those crooks .... guess who got a check.

[justcallmeghost]

15 U.S. Code SUBCHAPTER V—DEBT COLLECTION PRACTICES

I would look thru these laws and see if any of you "CONSUMER" rights  and I mean any of it have been violated you actually can get compensated 

[legaleagle2012]

Aside from the fact that the above doesn't identify what part of the code, the vast majority if not all debt collection laws do not apply to the original lender, which is what OP is dealing with here.