Dispute Letter to a Collection Agency

A debt letter which comes out of nowhere is referred to as a "zombie debt" and it is something that you or may not have paid in the past. However, under the Fair Debt Collection agency Act, you have the every right to dispute about the debt. A formal way to dispute on it is by sending a dispute letter to a collection agency. This is done if you want to verify the debt or prove that you have already made payments to pay off the debt.

There are millions of delinquent accounts in the country and it is not uncommon for credit account records to get lost, deleted destroyed, misplaced or deleted. This is something that becomes difficult for collectors to validate a debt. And it is here when they are unable to validate a debt properly. They often sell this to other collectors without your prior notice. However, this is not a violation because the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCA) as the debt collectors do not require to dispute unless those are supposed to validate the debt or give any specified actions allowed by law.

If you find such letter but with a different collector, you can use the debt collection dispute with the validation letter sample given below to draft your own letter and inform the collector that you have disputed about the debt before. Meaning unclear........either delete or rephrase.

If a collection agency is coming after you for some zombie debts, the best way to handle this is by writing to them. A sample letter is given so as to show how you can write this letter.

Your Name
XYZ street address
City, ST 01256

[The company's name and full address]

Date
Re: Acct # xxxx-xxxxxxxx

To whom ever it may concern,

I am continuously called by your firm over an alleged debt of $ 5000. According to the information stated by your firm, the date of the last activity by the creditor is on May of 2000. The alleged debt is in the state (mention the place from where you got the letter). You are reporting on my credit report when the debt is out of the limitations statute. I just want to inform you that you are conducting collection activities on zombie dept.

In accordance to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, under the section of 809 (b): validating debts only if the consumer notifies the debt collector within thirty days and which is described in subsection, the dept collector shall cease the collection debt until an official verification or a copy of the judgment is obtained.

I respectfully request that you provide me with the following details by replying to this mail (or letter) as soon as possible.

The amount of debt owed
The mane of the creditor to whom the debt was owed
Provide with a verification copy or any judgment copy if applicable
Prove that you are an indeed licensed debt collector (after this you can insert the name of your state)

Please, keep all the records of my correspondence from your agency. I am fully aware of the rights under the Act of Fair Debt collection practices.

Since, I have made an official dispute of the debt, if there are any sort of reports to the credit bureau or the credit agency, you must immediately inform them of the dispute regarding this.

Give your signature
- Followed by your printed name

Some instructions and tips to write the dispute letter to a collection agency:

A business format should used and in the top corner write your address and the date. On the next line, write the agency's address and line this up on the left side of the letter. Here after addressing the recipient, use a colon instead of a comma.
On the validating debts, refer the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act section 809(b). Here, the section allows you to request that the agency to validate that it owns a debt and show the necessary proof the agency owns the debt. The collections will stop until the company gives answers to these two questions.
In some cases the collection agency may add several fees to the original debt which is not legal. Hence in the letter you can state that you understand your rights. And mention that you do not have to pay such interests or any sort of fees in the letter. You can also let them know that they cannot attempt to collect on the debts without any verification.
The next thing you can do is that you can provide a proof if it is true that you have paid the debt. Enclose a copy of the proof which can be a bank statement or a copy of the canceled check in the letter.
Finally sign the letter and print your name underneath your signature. These are the norms and rules as to how you can go about writing a dispute letter to a collection agency. Follow these and clear out the issues regarding your debts with them.