Debt validation is an extremely important tool in protecting you against collection agencies and wrong reporting on your credit reports. With the help of your right to debt validation, which had been established by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), you now have the right to dispute a debt which you think you don’t have or have paid off. Until the collection agency is able to provide documents supporting your debt, they have to stop all collection activities such as contacting you and asking you to pay back the debts. There are times when the collection agency will stop collecting and return the debt back to the original creditor rather than validate a debt. You should remember that if you think you are being asked to pay a debt which you don’t have, or have paid off, then you should take immediate action for debt validation.
What are the steps for debt validation?
You can validate your debt in four simple process explained below.
- You should send a debt validation letter within 30 days of getting to know about the debt, whether through a collection agency or through your credit report. You should send the letter via certified mail. This is because if you send the demands via Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested, you will get a proof in the form of a receipt that you demand was received along with the date on which it was received. You should also keep a copy of the letter with yourself. The collection agency will have to stop all collection activity until they are able to supply proper documents.
- If you don’t hear anything from the collection agency then you should send them a copy of the receipt, the letter which has the validation request and another letter which states that you are not bound to pay the debt under the FDCPA until the debt is validated.
- The debt is validated if the collection agency sends you proof that the debt is yours and the amount is accurate. In such cases they have the right to collect the debt.
- If the notice of the debt has been sent to a consumer reporting agency, despite the collection agency not being able to validate the debt, then the notice must be removed. Even a credit agency has to remove the debt from your credit report if it is not validated.
Thus you now know how you can validate your debt.