Originally posted by: Kevin Lewis
Reminds me of when I left my apartment 11 days before the expiration of my year's lease--having paid that last month's rent in full--and they said that I had "broken" the lease by vacating my apartment before the lease was up (!!!). They then retroactively charged me $300 per month, or $3600, the difference, they said, between the month to month rent and the year's lease rent. I tried to contest this with the various credit agencies--absolutely no luck.
The way those agencies work is, if Amalgamated Widget tells them that Joe Blow owes them forty grand, they take that as gospel. Then if Joe disputes that, it's his word against theirs--and guess what happens then? They side with the pseudo-creditor. Joe has to take them to court--and win--to get that "debt" removed from his credit report.
And as far as "verifying the legitimacy" goes--yeah, you can force them to call the creditor. "Does Joe Blow owe you this money?" "Uh-yup." That's IT. No actual proof needed.
It's just another example of the corporate elephant versus the ordinary guy mouse.
That and your other complaints happened a long time ago, didn't they? Things are better now. Creditors and collection agencies now have to truly verify bad debts or they can run into fines and lawsuits. (Thanks, Elizabeth Warren and Barack Obama.)
