LVNV Reporting as a "Factoring Company"

[Flypilot]

LVNV is saying they are a "factoring company". They are a JDB/CA. Factoring companies buy "good" debt to give the OC's upfront cash. They are doing this IMO, to try and say they are not subject to the FDCPA. Isn't this in violation of the FDCPA "mis-representation"?

They are also reporting the account as "open" and also reporting the "open date" of the acct inaccurately (in there favor of course) and the balance has a nice $2,600 fee/interest added to it.

The account is outside of the SOL for Arizona. Not by their records but by mine (when we had floors installed). My wife also never signed for this account. The flooring contractor signed her name. We have never signed anything or had one lick of correspondence with them for statements or otherwise. The flooring guy pulled a fast one on us so we disputed the acct from the start.

OK, veterans.... tear this one up and show me the path to deletion.

Fly

[Lian]

You seem to have two unrelated issues. That of legitimate contract with the OC, and that of debt collection by a third party. FDCPA 803(6) defines debt collectors subject to the FDCPA as:

"The term "debt collector" means any person who uses any instrumentality of interstate commerce or the mails in any business the principal purpose of which is the collection of any debts, or who regularly collects or attempts to collect, directly or indirectly, debts owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another."

They are a debt collector since the debt originated with another.

As for the OC "account," you seem to have a legal contract issue. That is the preview of the courts to resolve, and not the FDCPA or the FCRA. If they signed her name to the contract without your knowledge, and yet fulfilled their flooring installation, they either committed fraud, or else had consent. You accepted their side of the "contract," but assert they never gained legal acceptance of yours. That is for resolution by a judge.

CR deletion requires a showing of inaccuracy of reporting. It appears that the OC never reported, so there is apparently no FCRA dispute with them. The debt collector, however, did report. In order to verify their collection under FDCPA 809(b), they must identify the OC who either assigned or sold the debt to them, along with the amount of the debt. They do not have to offer proof that the OC had a legitimate contract with you, only that the OC contracted with them.

So debt validation under the FDCPA will probably just result in verification of their collection.

If you dispute with the debt collector the accuracy of the debt, you are asking them to conduct a legal proceeding on your contract issue with another party. They don't have the business records to do that, and don't have discovery rights with which to do so. They will most likely just verify their collection after getting concurrence from the OC that the debt is, in fact, legitimate. You will most likely need discovery rights granted by the court upon initiating legal action to litigate the contract issue.

As for the debt collector's reporting of an "open" account, that refers to the collection account with the CRA, and not your account with the OC. All collections have the status of "open" until closed. That is correct reporting. The "open" date of a collection is the date they were assigned collection by the OC. How are you aware that the date reported for the collection is inaccurate?

[Flypilot]

Well, without doing the whole court thing. I would prefer to find LVNV in violation and send them off a "your in violation" and you cannot verify this account so you must delete or we seek damages.

Lian, how would you proceed with this?

Thanks,
Fly

[Lian]

Verification and correction or deletion of information in your CR are dispute issues under the FCRA, and not debt validation issues under the FDCPA.

While potentially based on an FCRA or FDCPA violation, a dispute under the FCRA is not per se persuable as a violation of statute. The FCRA dispute process is not a legal proceeding. Violations of the FCRA or the FDCPA are under the administrative jurisdiction of the FTC, and/or subject to civil proceedings before the courts.

So I am unsure of which path you are considering.

As for a dispute based an assertion of violation of the FCRA or FDCPA, exactly what section of the statute is asserted to have been violated? And how did any such violation lead to the inaccurate reporting of information to the CRA?