i was not sent a bill and then got a collection notice. I paid and disputed. do i have any legal action?

Question

Basically a company that I had a store credit account with failed to get any bills to me. I did move during this time but set up a proper forward with the post office and was receiving all of my other bills. A while later I received a collection notice from the aforementioned company. As soon as I received it I went straight the the store steaming mad and explained what had just happened. The employee apologized and called the credit company. I spoke with them and they said that they would consider the account paid in full if I paid a set amount. I then received another bill, went in again angry and paid that amount. I checked my credit report and disputed the item on the basis that I did not receive bills and paid the full amount with all the interest when I did finally receive a bill. They did nothing. Do I have any legal action I can take because this is really the only scar on my credit report and it is not my fault!?

The problem is that they did know how to contact me... they sent a collection notice?? So if i received nothing until that point, i see it as 100% their fault. It had been almost a year and i did not realize i had a balance on the account, i thought it had been paid. I did try the calm a collected route but i was taken advantage of again. They told me on the phone that they would mark it as paid in full and report the details to the credit companies but they did not do either. They only applied the payment i gave to the account and reported nothing to the credit companies. I then paid the rest of the amount when i received another bill and disputed it on my credit report. I wish i had a recording of the conversation because this seems like BBB stuff to me...

Answer 1

There is really nothing you can do legally. Mainly for the reason it is assumed that you should know you owe the money, if you didn't get a statement you should have been proactive in finding out what was going on. Not that I am saying this is right, just what you should have done.

Now what you could do is talk to the store credit card and explain to them nicely the situation. See if they will remove the bad marks from your credit report. I say nicely because if you go in with a mad attitude they would probably be less willing to work with you. This may not work, but it would be worth a try.

Answer 2

You are mistaken.

This IS your fault.

You should have told your creditor UPFRONT of your change of address. The United States Postal Service provides you a free-of-charge service of forwarding your mail.

However, it is YOUR responsibility to notify your creditors of your NEW ADDRESS in a timely fashion -- even if it is NOT in your best financial interest to do so.

You shouldn't take legal action because you are contributorily negligent in the situation and the judge would find you so.

Dispute it through the credit bureau and pray on it.

But know this -- YOU could've avoided this whole fiasco by notifying the creditor of your change of address within 30 days of your move.

Answer 3

yes and no. do u want to pursue the next step in legaility:? then f then the muther f ers. tell them u were nver informedd, and nver notified of such an account status, period. they will \acccomodate if u forthright. tell \them they hav made an error. tell them they have billed u in error, and that u want to comply 100% but is impossible bcuz they have f'd up so bad.