Sample Debt Validation Letter

When a debt collection agency contacts you about a past-due balance, the debt may not actually be yours. Federal law gives you 30 days to request that the collection agency validate your debt. This is legal speak for proving you really owe the money. You can use this sample letter to make the debt collector prove the debt is actually yours:

What is a debt validation letter?

Credit reporting errors could ruin your credit score. Inaccuracies could make it impossible for you to get a mortgage or a new credit card with competitive interest rates, and an agency's collection efforts will disrupt your life with unwanted phone calls and mail. Because creditors, credit bureaus and collection agencies can make mistakes, the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) gives you the right to check for credit reporting errors. A debt validation letter is one way to check for mistakes and demand the collection agency remove them from your credit history.

Debt validation letters go both ways

A debt collector should send you a validation notice about your debt within five days of acquiring your account from your original creditor or from another collection agency. In fact, the agency may send you this debt validation notice as its first correspondence with you. But this validation letter may not include documentation from the original creditor proving you owe the debt. By sending your debt validation letter within 30 days, you're asking for this additional documentation, and the agency must stop collection activity while it works to validate your debt.

The 30-day time frame is essential

If you don't respond with your own letter within 30 days requesting further validation or disputing the debt, you're effectively admitting that you owe the alleged debt. When this happens, the collection agency will probably continue with collection efforts until you resolve the account by either paying the amount due, negotiating a smaller settlement amount or taking no action and accepting the consequences of bad credit. A debt collector can also take legal action against you in civil court unless the statute of limitations has expired on the debt. State laws include different statutes of limitations to set time limits on debt collection activities.

Where to send a debt validation letter

Most debt collectors have online portals, web forms and email addresses to help you communicate and send payments online. It is not a good idea to use these convenient tools. Instead, you must write actual physical letters and mail them to the address of the debt collection agency.

You should send your letter via certified mail so you'll get a return receipt — proof that the agency received your letter. You could send a copy of your validation letter to the original creditor, but this isn't necessary if it has already transferred the debt to the collection agency.

What account number should you include?

When you're working with a collection account, you should include two account numbers in your written validation request:

• The original account number, such as your credit card number or personal loan ID
• The new account number assigned by the collection agency. You should be able to find this number in letters you've already received from the debt collector.

What happens after you send your debt verification letter?

Within 30 days of sending your debt validation letter, you should get a validation notice from the collection agency, which should include the following information:

• The debt amount
• The name of the creditor
• The age of the debt
• The date of your last payment

What happens if the debt collector can't verify the debt?

If the agency can’t produce documentation showing that you owe the debt, you can ask the agency to stop collection efforts and restore your credit history. Unfortunately, this is seldom a quick fix for your credit problems. You'll need to follow up each month with Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — assuming all three major credit bureaus reflect the inaccurate data.

What happens if the debt collector verifies the debt?

Successful verification of the debt means you legally owe the money. To remove the negative item from your credit report, you can do one of two things:

• Pay the amount due
• Negotiate a settlement

You can usually negotiate to pay an amount less than the original amount due because collection agencies often buy debt for a fraction of the original amount. Even if you pay only half the amount due, the collection agency could still make a profit. Also, if a big chunk of your credit card debt came from late fees or interest rate hikes, you could ask the debt collector to waive this part of the debt as part of your negotiations.

If you take this route, conduct all your negotiations in writing and don't pay anything until you have a written agreement saying your payment will satisfy 100% of the debt and end collection activity. Writing actual letters — instead of communicating online — will help you make your case to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau if the debt collector violates your rights under the FDCPA.

Can I wait for the statute of limitations to expire?

This is a common misconception. State laws set statutes of limitations on debt, so some consumers think they can simply "wait out" debt until it can no longer affect them. A statute of limitations on debt limits a debt collector's ability to sue you in civil court to collect the debt. If the statute of limitations has expired on your debt, you're safe from legal action, and if the agency sued you, you could have the lawsuit dismissed immediately.

But an expiring statute won't improve your credit. You'll still owe the money, and collection efforts can continue even though they can't land you in court. The negative impact on your credit score will last for about seven years, despite the expired statute of limitations.

Keep in mind that you can restart the clock on your statute of limitations by contacting a debt collector or the original creditor. Making contact includes seeking validation of the debt.

Debt validation letters won't deliver a quick fix

A lot of personal finance advice implies that you can resolve almost any collection account by sending a debt validation letter within the 30-day period. The idea is that by forcing the debt collector to validate your debt, you have a chance of getting off on a technicality. If you find an inaccurate account number or a discrepancy in the date of payment, couldn't you invalidate the debt and nullify the collection notice?

In reality, this approach doesn't yield such simple results — unless the debt really is not yours. If that's the case, you should be able to resolve the debt without paying a dime. Such cases are the reason why the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforces the FDCPA. If you do owe the money, you'll probably need to negotiate a settlement to resolve the matter and remove the collection account from your credit report.

Common errors a debt validation letter can resolve

Debt collection tends to get messy. Transferring debt from the original creditor to a third-party debt collector can cause mistakes and miscommunications. The data debt collection agencies report to the credit bureaus isn't always 100% accurate. For example, mistakes can result from:

• Similar or same names: It's possible someone with the same name as or a similar name to you could have their debt reported as yours. When you think about married names and middle names, you’ll understand how this could happen.
• Similar account numbers: A digit or two can make a huge difference. If an account appears on your credit record, but you know your account is up to date, it's possible someone entered an account number incorrectly, sending your account into collections.
• Missing payment data: Maybe you sent payment in full to the original creditor the day the account went into collections, and the creditor may have missed your payment in the transfer.

The FTC enforces the FDCPA to help you resolve these sorts of misunderstandings. Your debt validation letter will be key to fixing these mistakes. You could even send a cease-and-desist letter and really get the agency's attention.

Credit repair companies can help

Debt validation letters, cease-and-desist letters, constant credit monitoring — if all this seems like too much for you, you should consider hiring professional help. Credit repair companies exist to help you fix credit reporting errors. You'll have to pay a monthly fee for at least three or four months. There's also a one-time setup fee, but you can get a free consultation.

For some consumers, spending $300-$400 on credit repair is money well spent because it saves so much time and gets the job done efficiently. If you're the type of person who would rather have a professional handle it and forget about the whole thing, you should check out Credit Saint. They'll take care of you.

Disclaimer: This story was originally published on August 19, 2017, on BetterCreditBlog.org. For more information on debt validation please visit: https://money.com/how-to-negotiate-with-debt-collectors/.