Reader Mailbag: No Dunning Notice, Late Not Deleted, Recent Collection

Reader Complains of No Dunning Notice

I received a phone call from a local CA.  They call saying “This is Mrs. _____________ here in Town Where I Live, VT. Please return my calll…” Google shows me that the number is indeed a CA. The first message called me by my maiden name.  The second message called me by my husband’s last name. I am neither – I am legally a hyphenated last name. no dunning notice

Anyway, I’m afraid to call them back – but to be honest, I haven’t received no dunning notice or anything. i have perfectly fine credit – j ust got a 15k limit with navy federal – but im afraid something is owed that i dont know about? I’ve spent a LOT of time cleaning up my credit.

I’m also afraid to call back so they get my work number or something (I am not home when they are open) and my cell phone is blocked, but I know they have readers for that. What should I do?

It might be beneficial to return their call to invoke their dunning notice requirement.

Their calls to date have not communicated the substance of their collection to you, so most likely have not invoked their requirement to send you dunning notice. If you call, let them identify their reason as collection of a debt, and then politely ask them to send all further communications in writing.  Say no more, and hang up. Then you have a clear intital communication invoking their requirement to send dunning notice within 5 days.

If you have their address, you could choose, with or without any communication from them, to just send a DV letter, without any consideration of dunning notice. That would invoke an automatic cease collection bar against them, which would also block any reporting to a credit reporting agency until they provide debt verification.

Is it possible to win a dispute over something that is accurate but only on 1 report? For instance… Asking Experian to fall in line with Equifax and Transunion? I had a 30 day late removed from my Equifax and Transunion reports by Kay Jewelers last year but it still lingers on my Experian  report and they refuse to delete it after disputing it..and Kay Jewelers is of no help. Is there something that can be done?

In your situation, you apparently had a 30-late removed from two credit reporting agencies.  If that information was deleted by one credit reporting agency based on the determination in a dispute through them that the information was either inaccurate or could not be verified, then the furnisher of the information was required, under FCRA 623(b)(1)(D), to have also reported that finding to all credit reporting agencies to which the information was reported.  So the burden is on the creditor/debt collector, not the credit reporting agencies, to report.

However, if the information was deleted from one credit reporting agency for any other reason than as the result of a favorable outcome of a dispute, they had no obligation to report that deletion to any other credit reporting agency.

Obviously, if the information is accurate, its accuracy should not be disputed.  If deletion based on a prior dispute is at issue, then the party to address is the furnisher of the disputed information, not the credit reporting agency.

 I had a credit score of 657 and my credit score was improving as I am looking to purchase a home this summer. In October 2011 an overlooked dental bill of $107 was added as a collection account to my credit report, and my score dropped 42 points to 615 instantly.  I have since paid the account and my score did not move at all.  Now, I just paid off $14K in revolving debt between Oct and Feb, and my credit score has only improved by 10 points to date.  Does 42 points for a $107 collection account sound correct? Also, why has my credit score only jumped 10 points after paying over $14K in debt over a 4 month period.  This does not sound fair at all.