Listing a CA that is still listed on Credit Report, but no longer owns debt??

[Krys]

I spoke with a CA this morning that is listed on my credit report as owning one of my debts. He said that they no longer have it, that it went back to the original owner, and could be owned by a different CA for all he knew.

Should I list them anyway just to be safe??

Also, how safe should I play it when listing Collection Agencies? Honestly, calling all of them to verify could take a while and I'm willing to do it if I have to, but would rather not. But, if I have two CA's listed for the same debt, would it be a bad idea to just list them all to be safe, or would the trustee/court frown on that???

And on that note, what happens if I am unaware of a collection agency? If I list the original creditor, and all known CA's, but there is another one that I'm unaware of?

[AngelinaCat]

All you have to do is list the original creditor, the account number, and amount owed. You are not required to track down each and every CA. Some do list the CAs that appear on the Credit Report, but that is more of a matter of trying to make sure you haven't missed anyone.

[Charlie777]

What's the harm in listing anyone you might in any way owe a debt to? That's what I would do...

[frogger]

IMO, you list everybody.

[Krys]

Thanks for the quick responses. Any thoughts on my second question? : What happens if I dont list a CA that owns my debt currently? It seems to me that if the original creditor sells the debt, and someone else owns it and are not discharged because I forgot/didn't list them, that could cause problems for me. Right?

[frogger]

List them all and your "problem" is a moot point.

[free2breathe]

If there is one you don't know about, and you are a chapter 7 no asset case, the problem really isn't much of a problem. Unless you purposely leave someone off, most courts will consider all pre-petition debts discharged with the bankruptcy.

If you are an asset case, and something surfaces later, worst case scenario is that you would have to petition the court to reopen your case and amend your schedule to reflect the CA and provide them notice of the bk. That's not going to be the norm though.

[Krys]

If there is one you don't know about, and you are a chapter 7 no asset case, the problem really isn't much of a problem. Unless you purposely leave someone off, most courts will consider all pre-petition debts discharged with the bankruptcy.

If you are an asset case, and something surfaces later, worst case scenario is that you would have to petition the court to reopen your case and amend your schedule to reflect the CA and provide them notice of the bk. That's not going to be the norm though.

Excellent. Thanks SO much for such a helpful answer. I can stop stressing now about finding all of the CA's!!

[tcreegan]

Hi all,

I second frogger, list em all....I listed everyone and the kitchen sink. I listed the original creditor and then every suspected CA below that. Since some of the CAs had higher amounts than the original creditor, I put the amount on each line, but each CA line was marked "collection of [orig.creditor]" I planned to put the highest amount in the debt total, but screwed up and added them all up...trustee didn't say a peep and I didn't notice till someone mentioned it here...wouldn't have changed anything.

I didn't want to play "Who owns my debt this week!" ...so I didn't bother calling around. Plus these debts get bounced around like a yo-yo.

Case in point:

collector: "calling about XYZ debt"
me: "that was included in a BK"
collector: "Sorry, we didn't know"
me: "how did you end up with this debt?"
collector: "we purchased it from XYZ on Jun 10"
me: "I filed BK on May 15"
collector: "well, we'll take it off the computer, sorry to bother you"

....not to besmirch the collection business, but XYZ got the BK notice then sold the debt in a bundle to another collection agency.

Is there no honor among theives?

Tom in Colo