ACS Financial- what to send?

[WashingtonMommy]

I have a collections account from ACS Financial on my report from 2007. I know what it is for,the problem is I paid the debt before it went to a collector, in fact I paid it in a matter of days after it was due so I'm not even sure how it made it to a collector. I do not have the reciept for my payment but it was for a tanning salon and they freeze your account if you owe so my account was froze until I paid t and I have since used my acount 100+ times, so the fact tha my account is not frozen should be proof that I paid. I contacted the corporate office for the tanning salon in October, about a month later somebody emailed me back and was supposedly going to look ino it. I never hard back and got a new credit report yesterday and of curse it is still there! I was hoping to not have to go through the verification process and deal with them trying to verify something that should not even b ble to be verified, although 2 years ago when I first saw it on there I did do an online dispute with the CRA and they some how verified it! I'm frustrated and jut want this handled quickly as it has been on ther since 2007. I feel like I'm just getting pushed around by these companies and they are just doing what they want despite violation of my rights.

[Hal Jordan]

A collection agency for a tanning salon?? How did they get your SSN in the first place? I can't believe a tanning salon turns people into a collection agency. You would think they wouldn't need to go beyond suspending your account with them until paid if full.

Call the Tanning Salon atleast 3x per week until it's resolved. Did you pay with a debit card or a check? If so you should be able to get proof from your previous bank statement as proof the amount in question was paid. If you paid in cash you might be in a tough spot because it will come down to their word vs yours and they will always go the route that you owe them money.
Waiting two years after an email probably wasn't a smart move but it is what it is and because of the waited time you're probably going to have to go through more steps to remove it now than if you had addressed it when it first came up two years ago.

I would be a royal pain in their behind though starting today if I were you.

If you really want this removed you are more than likely going to have to do more than wait for someone to get back to you and do an online dispute.

1: Look into proof of payment.
2: Be persistant with the tanning company removing it
3: DV letter (if the tanning company refuses to help you)
4: MOV letter to the CRA's that verified the debt using the online conf #
5: File a complaint with the better business bureau

[WashingtonMommy]

Yes for a tanning salon. I dont know how they got my ssn, I did not give that to them. What happened was they had me sign up for a package where you pay 1/2 up front then you can get the other part taken out of your account so I gave them a post dated check. It was going to be due on Friday. I got off work late Friday and was not going to make it to the bank before they closed, so I stopped at the salon on my way home and I asked them if I could pay in cash and cancel the check, she said "we already sent the check in so just come back and if it doesn't go through you can pay in cash after it is returned" and it did not go through so I paid it in cash the next time I went in. That was the following week. That specific location has been purchased by a new owner and is no longer the same salon. So I'm still not even sure which salon I am supposed to work with to figure it out.

[Hal Jordan]

You definitely need to write a letter to the CRA's asking for a MOV on this as this debt is with a place that's out of business. And you certainly need to DV this debt with the CA as I can't see how they can validate a debt with a company no longer in business. If they ignore you or just send you a "yeah, you owe cause hers a printout with your name and the amount you owe on it" send them an intent to sue letter. It will take a little work but you should be able to get them to buckle.

IF the CA dv's the debt with the new salon send em a 623 letter http://aaacreditguide.com/forums/beg...-creditor.html

Their whole collection is built on a house of a cards and if you want to put in the effort I have little doubt you could knock it right over.

[Lian]

Something does not make sense in this scenario.

A collection usually involves two separate reportings to the CRA. First, the OC reports a "referral for collection" status on the OC account to the CRA. That is not a collection account. It only becomes a collection in the credit reporting sense when the debt collector reports their activity to the CRA.

The important date that permits a debt collector to report to a CRA is the date they are assigned collection authority by the OC. If the OC assinged collection authority on day one, and then the OC accepted payment on day two, that would not have negated the assigned collection authority on day 1, and thus the ability of the CA to report. Kinda crummy if they did report, knowing that there was no longer a debt to collect, but probably not prohibited.

Apparently, the OC was not reporting to the CRA, so their date of collection referral would not be in your CR. So no way from your CR alone to determine the relative dates of collection referral vs. date of payment.

What puzzles me is the referral for collection after being only a few days late. That is almost unheard of. Why did the OC do that? Were there multiple prior delinquencies?

[WashingtonMommy]

No, never any. I had never had even any payment arrangments with them prior to this. It was a new program they were starting, and it just broke the total into 2 payments. It doesn't even make sence to me why it even made it into a collection. And I don't think the Tanning salon can report it to the CRA because they don't have my soc # or anything, I'm not even sure how the CA got it? I'm thinking I should go into my local salon and see if the girl can print up any records, although I'm sure she will say that she can not. It is frustrating.

[Lian]

One thing is for sure.
The debt collector would not be involved at all if the OC had not referred it to them for collection. They should certainly be able to tell you whether they referred it for collection, and if so, why.....

[WashingtonMommy]

Well I called the tanning salon to see if I could get a printed report of my previous purchases or at least of the one that I "owe" the girl said she could not help because she could not access that and had to give a message to the manager. I'm going in tomorrow to see what the manager can do, I tried to tell her that corprate was no help at all. After looking on the BBB site it seems a couple other people have had the same or similar problems with the company. At this pont I just want a copy of something showing that I paid it then I can tell the CA to take it off or I will file a suit.

[WashingtonMommy]

Update- I went to my local salon here to speak with the manager in hopes of getting some records of my account, but she could not help because of the way their system is. She did send an email to somebody at corporate while I was there, she made sure she did not send it to the same lady I had dealt with before and she said she sent it to somebody that is of higher authority than that lady. They are supposed to be back in the office tomorrow, so she gave him all of my info and said that if she hears anything before I do she will contact me too. I also have a DV letter ready to send to the CA tomorrow morning CMRRR. She did say that she was worried that even corporate might not be able to get it taken care of because they were not the ones that sent it to the CA in the first place, it was the owner of the salon and he no longer owns it so I'm not sure what will happen then. But I'm hoping that if they are getting calls from the corporate office and then my DV letter comes in maybe they will realize that the debt is not valid. I did dig out all of my bank statements from back then and found the original purchase but just as I had thought the second payment is not on their because I paid cash. I'm hoping this will put an end to it but I'm ready to fight it if I need to. Can anybody help me figure out what to do if they will not validate the debt and refuse to take it off? From reading up on here I think I could file a suit but since I do not have any direct record of the payment I don't think it would do any good.

[Hal Jordan]

No way.. You may not have a direct record of payment but if what you say is true they don't have a direct record of debt.

A new company purchased the old one with whom the CA says they have an account with as a collector. No one can even track down the records in question.. Good news for you. Neither will the CA be able to.

Write them a direct letter explaining the situation. Tell them to provide you with proof of this debt or remove it immediately. Explain that your next letter will be to let them know you have filed a suit against them for violating [15 USC 1692e] § 807(2)(a) of the FDCPA Falsely representing a debt that you owe. $1000 fine.

Tell them to remove it immediately and send you written notice of the removal within 15 days or you will file suit against them for the FDCPA violation and you will also be seeking personal damages for the personal harm this has done to your ability to get credit/better rate, the embarresment of being denied credit and or a better interest rate etc and having to explain to family and or friends why you couldnt get that car or that credit card or that store card (whatever).

Let them know that the only way to resolve this is to immediately remove any and all information they have posted to your credit report and to provide you with written notification when it's done. I'd basically word this into the DV letter.. kind of a DV ITS letter.

And If I were you. I'd follow through. I'm betting that if they ignored this letter they sure wouldn't ignore the summons. A collection based off of a supposed missing tanning salon payment made to a company no longer in business on an account without a SSN? Gimmie a break I would be shocked if they didn't fold up and go away on the first letter let alone if they get a summons.

Let us know what course of action you're going to take.

(All of this said you might not even be able to win in court for the FDCPA violation or the punitive damages but that's not really what this is about. It's about getting them to back off and remove this false debt they have on your record. No way they follow through on this thing if they are facing real litigation.)