Bob
TONAWANDA,#2UPDATE Employee
Sun, November 12, 2006
I just needed to correct you tracey, you made the statement "(this does not make an inquiry mark- in case anyone reading wonders if this could hurt their credit if they are not the actual debtor an agency is looking for)." About a collection company pulling a credit report.If a collection agency pulls a credit report it does leave a mark and it does hurt your credit.The credit reporting agencies even have praticular industry codes designated for collection agencies. Also as far as the originator of the report.If we access an account on our system it leaves a "footprint" so we can identify who accesses an account.It will ist that employee's number right on thwe account,there is no way around this and the footprint is permanent.If they couldnt pull up the account when you called back in that means that the number was removed off the account
Tracy
Kenmore,#3Consumer Suggestion
Fri, November 03, 2006
I work for a collection agency, but in the capacity of a skip tracer for reposession. The FDCPA does not specifically apply to me, but I am required to know it and pass tests on it. Earlier today, a call was transferred to me by accident, it was a collection account, not a reposession account. The man on the phone stated he had received several voicemails from our company, in regard to a debt and also explained that several companies have confused him with another person in this regard. I could see right away that the name was similar, but not the same. I couild see that we had gotten this particular phone number, by pulling the actual debtor's credit report (this does not make an inquiry mark- in case anyone reading wonders if this could hurt their credit if they are not the actual debtor an agency is looking for). Phone numbers on credit reports can be several years old. We know this, but have to take a shot. We will leave messages until we get a real person on the phone who states that they are not who we are looking for. I immediately removed the number from the file and left a message for the collector working on this file not to call this number. There is a small chance the person is lying, but we are not lie detectors. Once a person says they are not that person- we remove the number. In rare cases, it can be proven through skip tracing that the person owns the property and phone number we are calling, but that is rare. It may take a few days for system automated calls to stop calling that number, but no more than that. No actual live collectors will call after the notation. If they continue to call you after 5 days, you are due up to $5,000 for each instance. Contact the FTC or your Attorney General. Keep a good log of the phone calls and times. You can also send a certified letter, but you are not required, by law, to go out of your way to do that, it can help you in litigation, though. Another route, if you don;t want to sue, is to call the company in the middle day and ask for their Compliance Officer/administrator. All debt collection companies have one or an entire department. They are the watchdogs, watchdogs against their company getting sued. Hope I helped:)