When I was in my early 20s I had a department store credit card. I paid it down to zero at some point maybe 7 years ago and stopped getting any statements in the mail. I don’t remember if I called them and closed the account or not.
About 4 years ago I got a random phone call from someone about a debt to this store and I told them I didn’t have an account. He said okay and bye.
Today I got a call from a collection agency about this account. I told them the story and they said that the loan was from 97 and that it was turned over to them in 2000. She said that they tried to call me once but that nobody would take a message. I asked her how I could find out where the charge came from and what it was from and asked her whether I had to call the store. She said maybe call customer service. Then I asked her what I would do when they told me I didn’t have any account with them since I know that’s what they’re going to say. She said she thought someone at the collection agency could talk to them and that she’d get back to me next week.
So I looked up my credit report and there is this stupid debt. It says the last activity was in 2000. I don’t understand how it could count activity that I did not participate in as “activity.” I certainly didn’t borrow or repay any money on this account in that year. As a matter of a fact, as far as I know this debt doesn’t even exist.
I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. All I have is random people calling me and telling me I owe money that I know I didn’t borrow. Can I call them and demand that they tell me what the charge was for and who made it? I know that I did not even have a card with this store by the year 2000.
What should I do? Do I owe money? I am not a person who throws her bills in the garbage and I know that after I paid off the card I stopped using it, cut it up, etc. Is it because I didn’t call them and tell them to close the account? Even if I didn’t, how can zero turn into seven hundred dollars no matter what the rate of interest might be? And wouldn’t the store have continued to send me statements in the mail for at least a few months? Because they didn’t! So how can I prove I don’t owe money and what can I do now?
Well, if you know that you didn’t use the card, and you know that you had paid off all balances, then it sounds like you’ve been the victim of credit-card fraud, at least IMHO.
Contact the store’s customer service line (is it the Bay? Sears?) tell them the scoop and have them provide you with a statement of account indicating the charges that were made leading to the $700 balance. They have to provide this to you.
Assuming there are fraudulent charges proceed accordingly - typically credit cards have maximum liability ($50, for instance) in cases of fraud - if they cannot provide signature cards, signed by you, then you are not responsible for the charges.
As to the collection agency, if they call, tell them the charges are being investigated for fraud and to piss off. (You can request that they only contact you in writing, I think.)
Here’s what I’d do, and please note that I don’t know how or if the Fair Credit Reporting Act or the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act interface with Canadian law. I am in the U.S., of course.
First, since things are relatively cordial and there appears to be a genuine mistake, I would request a complete accounting of all activity on the account, especially anything that might have occurred since you stopped using it.
If there is evidence of some activity, maybe it was some kind of identity theft and you can dispute it, file a police report, whatever it takes to convince the original creditor that those charges aren’t valid. Then go from there, requesting letters and so forth, and demanding that the original creditor update your credit history and then demanding that the collection agency delete its account entirely from your credit history.
If neither the Original Creditor nor the Collection Agency can provide this, you can get to work disputing the account through the Credit Reporting Agencies. Just tell them “Account is not mine. Please delete.”
The reason I would start with the OC and the CA first is because CRAs are notoriously lazy in their attempts to verify a dispute. If you can force the OC and CA to update the information, it gets changed on your credit report, no questions asked.