ATTENTION CREDITWRENCH CUSTOMERS:
Listed in our frequently asked questions is information you need to know.
We will provide you with all the letters you need to send and advise you
on any situation that you have that comes up.
All letters we send to you must be sent Certified Return Receipt Mail.
You will need to keep track of everything you send out and receive.
You will need to advise creditwrench when
the time frame for the letters
we sent you has expired and when the next letters need to be prepared.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What we need from you when you first order creditwrench?
1. You will need to send us a copy of your credit reports from Experian,
Equifax and Trans Union. These should be photostatic copies of your
credit reports. Please do not send us originals. We want you to keep
those for your own personal reference. Your credit reports will be kept
in our files only under lock and key and will not be divulged to any
3rd party for any reason whatever. We respect your privacy and will
ensure that no information is ever divulged to anyone else but you.
Our only purpose in requesting it is to ensure that we are working with
true and correct account numbers and other information pertinent to
your situation.
2. We will need your full name and mailing address.
3. Mark out any information you do not wish us to see, especially your
social security number.
Q. How do I send this information?
A. 1. e-mail < ceo@creditwrench.com ›
A. 2. fax number is 405-616-7901. You need to call before faxing
A. 3. Mailing address
(Billie Bauer, 1604 SW 28th St, Oklahoma City, OK 73108)
Q. What will happen once I send you this information?
A. We will review your credit reports for any derogatory information
and prepare letters for you to send to your creditors for validation of
the debt. We will send the letters to you by e-mail and you will print
the letters and prepare the envelopes.
You will sign each letter and send certified return receipt mail.
Q. How long will it take you to send me my letters?
A. Usually within one to seven days.
Q. What happens when I send the first validation letters?
A. First, you will receive a green card from the U.S. Postal Service telling
you the date your creditor or collection agency received your letter.
When you have the date the letter was received, you will e-mail us with
the name of the creditor and the date it was signed and we will send
you the appropiate letters to send next. See our timetable so you will
understand how we proceed.
Q. What is meant by the term VALIDATION?
A. The term "validation" is a special term whose legal definition
under the FDCPA is very specific as to it's purpose, content and
wording. Click
here to find out all about validation.
Q. Do you ever actually send dispute letters to the credit bureaus?
A. No! We never dispute with credit bureaus. What we do is to ask
them to verify adverse reports. There are many reasons why we do
not dispute adverse reports listed on consumer files. We do state that
there is an ongoing dispute with the collector or collection agency,
but we vigorously deny disputing with the credit bureaus. This is because
once the credit bureau is notified that an ongoing dispute with the
creditor or collection agency is in effect, they must then conduct a
much more rigorous investigation of the item and stand prepared to
prove who accomplished the verification and how it was accomplished.
A2. We send the first request for verification letters to you as soon as
we receive notification from you that you have the green cards in
your possession. You again print these out, sign them and send them
via Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested. The purpose, however,
is not that we expect to get a deletion but rather that we want to catch
the creditor or collection agency verifying the debt to the credit bureau
absent demanded validation. Remember that all collection activity
must stop until the validation is complete. Verification of the debt
by them violates our cease and desist order and it also violates
federal law.
Q. How should I handle requests for proof of identity by the credit
bureaus? Should I send them phone bills, utility bills or other private
informaton if they demand it in order to prove identification?
A. No. This is nothing more than a stall tactic on their part and since
it costs additional money, it should be "headed off at the pass" in
the
following manner when dealing with credit bureaus. CLICK HERE
Once you have learned how to prepare your two forms of ID for the
credit bureaus you need to learn how to defeat their demands for
even more personal information such as utility bills, credit card
statements or other personal information that is simply none of
their damned business. Click here to see how to beat that demand
Q. What is the first illegal act that they might perform?
A. The first thing that you should watch for is the letter demanded by
FDCPA stating that they have received your dispute letter and that
they will make no further contact with you absent the demanded
validation of the dept.
If they fail to send you the notice of receipt of validation within 5 days,
they have violated federal law. They have 30 days after receipt of
your demand for validation to comply.
Q. What if I receive a notice of receipt of validation within 5 days?
A. Just say "Oh Darnand let it go at that.
Q. What if I don't receive a notice of receipt of validation within 5 days?
A. Then they have broken the law. Make a note of every creditor who
did not send you this letter so we can use this information later.
Q. Can the creditor demand payment before I receive the
validation letter?
A. NO. All collection activity must immediately stop.
They may not contact you in any manner.
They cannot reply to any inquiry made by credit bureau's.
They cannot contact you by phone or in any other manner and they
cannot file suit against you until the dept has been validated.
Any and all contacts with you absent the demanded validation are
violations of federal FDCPA Law.
Q. Can the creditor or collection agencies demand more information
or identification from me during the 30 days from which they
received the letters?
A. NO. Again, and communication with you absent demanded
validation is a violation of law.
There are, however, common sense rules that we must also
apply, therefore we feel that you should answer resonable demands
for additional information even if it does violate FDCPA in therory.
Their demand for information from you does not however stop the
30 day clock.
It merely puts them at a greater disadvantage timewise.
If you are not sure how to respond to their request, e-mail us so
we can help you.
Q. What should I do in the event they do call me on the phone?
A. In most cases, you should never talk to a bill collector on the phone
for any reason. There are a few instances where it is acceptable,
but the general rule is that you should never talk to them on the phone.
Even if you do decide that it might be in you best interest to speak
with them by phone, you should always tape record the conversation
and you should normally tell them that you refuse to discuss such
matters on the phone and if they have anything to say to you they
need to put it in writing and send it to you.
Then simply hang up the phone. In the event they call you and
become abusive, you should always let them ramble on and appear
to be intimidated by what they say. Do not object to their abusive
treatment while they are in the progress of abusing you.
You will want to use the tape recorded evidence against them later.
Q. What do I do if they don't validate the debt within the 30 days as
proscribed by law?
A. You should give them another 5 days and then ask us to provide
you with a copy of our estoppel letter and send it to your creditor
Certified Return Receipt Requested Mail.
You should then e-mail us when the green card comes back and
we will prepare letters again to go to the credit bureau's.
Q. What do I do if they validate the debt within the 30 days proscribed
by law?
A. Unless you received the validation letter from your creditor by
certified mail then you pretend you never received it.
Then we proceed as if they never validated the letter.
Q. What if they validate the letter within the 30 days and send it
certified mail?
A. If it is done by a creditor, you would simply go after the collection
agency. If it is done by a collection agency, you simply start all over
with the original creditor.
Q. What do I do after my creditor gets the estoppel letter?
A. You wait another 30 days after the their receipt of the estoppel letter
and we will prepare a letter outlining our case against them and
offering an amicable settlement rather than our having to file suit.
You must be able to provide us with a list of all their violations at
that time and prior to our sending out the 1st settlement letter.
Q. What if they send me a letter or call me after they receive the estoppel
letter?
A. It would be another violation of the FDCPA law forbidding
communication with you absent demanded validation of the dept.
You would hope that they do contact you and preferably by phone
which constitutes another violation of the law.
But any communication is a violation no matter how it occurs.
You would not answer any communication from them at all.
You would simply put it in your files for that creditor and keep it for
later evidence.
Q. What other ways can bill collectors violate the law?
A. There are a goodly number of ways that bill collectors can violate
the law, but the way the laws are written, we will have to approach
it from what the law says they can and cannot do. Same thing, just
a little bit different way of looking at it. One of the first things the
law talks about when defining what collectors may and may not do
is what they may or may not do when first attempting to make
contact with you. This is not normally of concern to us, but in those
rare instances that problems arise, we should be well prepared to
deal with the situation when our rights have been abused. So here
is our first lesson on that topic. It is to be found in 15
USC 1692 § 804
Q. What about removing hard inquiries from my credit reports?
Can you also do that?
A. We believe that we can although this is still in the testing stages.
It will probably be well into October 2001 before we have the true
answers to that question however. Although we will never be able
to remove all inquiries using this new method, we should be able
to force the credit bureaus to remove quite a few from one's credit
reports.
Q. I've got a derogatory listing on my credit report for some company
I never even heard of before and there is no contact info listed on the
credit report. How can I track them down so I can do something about
the adverse listing?
A. You might try this
website as it has a large listing of creditor's names,
addresses and phone numbers.
