Sometimes long after you have settled a debt, a different debt collector will try to collect on it. That is another reason why you need to keep good records! Use this letter to explain to a new debt collector that you have already settled this debt
Why does this happen?
The most common reason for this problem is as explain before, bad book-keeping. The original creditor are often large banks or financial institutions that sell their debt in bulk packages. They may sell millions of dollars worth of contracts for cents on the dollar. This allows the original creditor to write off these contracts as bad debt and allowing it to be lucrative for an agency to purchase. This is were the problem is entangled. The original creditor now has no incentive to cooperate with validating such debt, and the agency doesn’t want to take a loss. The agency insist that all of these debts are legitimate, when in many cases they have already been paid.
Also these debts are sold again to another party after the collection agency has collected the money. Some times a settlement is reached, but the remaining balance is not written off and lingers in the system. These remaining balances are sold and are treated as a legitimate debt. Dont be bullied because many agencies still have contact with the original creditor and may have guidelines they have to follow, the debt being already paid can be easily resolved. The bill collector is driven on commission and would rather convince you to pay rather than do the paper work, while at the same time loosing one of their potential accounts. These collectors are given so many accounts to make their budgets on, these budgets predicate their bonuses and rather or not they are worth keeping as an employee. These types of pressures are unhealthy for any job and many times the consumer gets the bad end of the deal, by paying again or being verbally abused.
Let the bill collector know in writing, it has been settled already. Download letter template now!