How long does OC have to respond to 623?

[ntnsllc]

I sent a 623 letter to HSBC 60 days ago and they have not responded specifically to that letter. Instead they sent back the exact SAME letter they originally sent verifying the account. I am disputing ownership of the account and their stupid letter just says "we investigated and found that we are reporting the account was sold to (some other company)." They did not address the grounds of my dispute in either letter.

Is it time for me to get an attorney at this point?

[30daylate]

If they sold the debt to someone else, you might want to contact the collection agency the same way that you contacted the original creditor. I don't think you want to get an attorney involved yet because they are expensive

[Lian]

The implementing rules at 16 CFR 660.4(e) requrie that the invetstigation be completed within 30-days of the receipt of the Notice of Direct Dispute, and that the results be reported to the consumer within 5-days thereafter.
Those are the same periods imposed on CRAs for disputes filed with them.

30-days plus 5-days plus mailing time generally requrie receipt of the results withing a month and a half of filing of the dispute.

Sale of the debt is an insufficient response. Your dispute was directed to items of information reported by them, and not to who owns the debt.. REsponse to your dispute is not rendered unnecessary by lack of owenrship of the debt. In fact, most disputes to debt collectors are to a perty who has no owenrship of the debt.

[ntnsllc]

thanks for the reply. So should I send them a notice at this point that they are now constrained to delete the acct from my credit report since they failed to respond within 45 days? I guess the question is what now? They are refusing to respond to the direct dispute under section 623. Do I need an attorney to sue them now?

[ntnsllc]

oh, by the way, I did contact the company they claim they sold it too. That company could not verify ANYTHING on the account and never reported it to the CRA's

[Lian]

Suggested letter:

This is a response to your letter dated ( ) in which you responded to my prior Notice of Direct Dispute under FCRA 623(a)(8) dated ( ).

This is notice that I do not consider your response to be incompliance with your statutory duties under FCRA 623(a)(8)(E) and 16 CFR 660.4(e) to address the grounds for my dispute in your reporting back to me. Your ownership of the debt was not the basis for my dispute. My dispute addressed the accuracy of your credit reporting. Your statement that you have sold the debt does not, in any way, address the accuracy of your reporting of information to the credit reporting agencies, and its continued presence in my credit file

Since you have not reported the results of your investigation of the information that formed the basis for my dispute, I consider your response to be in non-compliance with the requirements of FCRA 623(a)(8)(E) and 16 CFR 660.4(e) .

Under the provisions of FCRA 623(a)(8)(E)(iii), you have failed to complete your investigation and report the results back to me within the time periods prescribed by law. I am separately in consideration of taking action on this violation of the the FCRA.
Additionally, due to your lack of verification of the disputed information, you are required to immediately report deletion of the disputed information to each credit reporting agency you reported. FCRA 623(b).

[ntnsllc]

That's awesome Lian, thanks! That's pretty similar to the letter I drafted up but I'm going to use some more of your example. I really appreciate your help.

[30daylate]

Lian is awesome. I think the more citations of the law you put in there, the better chance you are going to have that they respond.