Debt Validation letters question

[DYLAN150]

I have sent out at least 10 of these letters so far. Not one reply. I ask for debt validation after receiving a letter from the CA saying if you notify us in writing 30 days from the date of this letter, we will obtain verification of the debt or we will consider this debt to be valid if you do not reply. So I reply and ask for debt validation.

What happens is a month of two will go by and a new CA will have the same debt. Same thing happens again and several months down the road, it starts all over again with a new CA. So, why won't they verify the debt, too much work or what?

[tobee43]

if these are third party validations, don't hold your breath. many of them get their amounts straight from the original creditor then add their fees and interests etc. it's a vicious cycle at times and most times do not get you anywhere. i'm not saying that's always the case, but many of these places simply don't care and it's business as usual, collect, collect, collect that money!

[GoingDown]

I've had the same thing happen to me, Dylan, many, many times.

From what I understand from reading posts on a debt collector-oriented forum, the main reason this happens is because that particular collection agency prefers to only deal with debtors on the phone. They don't want to waste any time or effort on a debtor which is already balking at their collection attempts. They have no intention of verifying anything. When they get that DV letter, they just immediately kick that account back to the creditor or JDB. The collection agency is acting as a third party debt collector. They don't ever have to verify the account-- they don't ever have to send you anything about it, as long as they stop calling you about it. And since that is their primary way of getting paid, your account becomes worthless to them, so they just bounce it back to the creditor or JDB.

The creditor or JDB then just send the account out to a new collection agency and the process starts back up again. But as long as you keep sending the new collection agency a new DV, they have to keep going through this process.

The same thing happens when you send them a cease and desist communications letter. They tend to just bounce the account back to the creditor or JDB, and then about a month or so later, you will hear from a new collection agency about the same old debt. But after about 3 or 4 times of doing this, in my experience, they fall silent, and seem to give up.

Sometimes, at this stage, they sue. Sometimes they sell it off to a new JDB. In my experience, they just fall silent and passively monitor my credit report for signs of life, year after year, and do nothing to me.

One way to look at it is this... on the positive side, that particular collection agency didn't see your account as worthy of expending the extra effort to verify it, so they could continue collection activity on it. They just gave up on it. That's a good thing.