Validation of Debt Letter
This letter can be of great value if used properly when dealing with original creditors and third party debt collectors.
More often than not creditors and debt collectors will attempt to collect on accounts without providing proper validation.
Another way of putting this is that a debt collector or creditor will not validate the account they are collecting on unless you force them.
Simply asking a creditor or collector on the phone to validate won't cut it either.
They will deny that you asked and will keep coming up with excuses and reasons that they do not need to validate.
This is where the importance of debt validation letters comes into play.
Something extremely important to realize when preparing to send out debt validation letters is whether or not you are sending the letters to your original creditor or to a third party debt collector.
The way that you will go about drafting the letters can be quite different depending on whom you are sending the letters to.
Another important consideration is to make sure you are requesting all of the information that is required by law.
I often suggest requesting even more information than is required by law because at the end of the day the worst answer you get to a request is a no.
When sending debt validation letters you need to send them at the right time during the collection process.
When sent too late, debt validation letters can offer almost no protection.
There are actually multiple types of validation letters that can be sent at varying times throughout the collection process.
Debt validation letters are given power by the FDCPA or the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
This Act, or law, requires all debt collectors to provide validation on any account that they are attempting collection on.
This Act also prohibits debt collectors from continuing to harass you after a validation is sent, unless they provide legally verifiable validation proving that you in fact do owe them money.
Debt validation is also very different from debt verification.
Some credit agencies and debt consolidation websites use the two terms interchangeably.
This is wrong and can lead you away from the protection that well put together debt validation letters can offer.
Requesting verification of debt simply means that the debt collector needs to confirm your name and address.
This is absolutely ridiculous because anyone who has access to the Internet can provide a name and an address.
It does not prove in any way that you owe the debt collector money.
This is why it is so important to send debt validation letters that are properly written, and that are requesting the right information.