Consumer complaint received 2023-09-19
Company: CAVALRY INVESTMENTS, LLC
State: CA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Attempted to collect wrong amount

Complaint:
Back in XXXX, I was trying to purchase a home, but my credit wasn't where it needed to be for the mortgage lender to approve me. The reason being that I had a few accounts under dispute. Cavalry Portfolio being one of the accounts under dispute. It was in dispute status because they are trying to collect from XXXX, and XXXX is a very old account. It is so old, that I let the account go shortly after I became XXXX, and my income dropped massively. I became XXXX in XXXX the payments to my creditors stopped shortly afterwards. If I was generous, and I said I paid for my credit card bills for three years after I became XXXX, then that would still mean I stopped paying for my credit cards in XXXX. Please believe me when I say I did not pay my creditors for three years as there would be no way I could afford it and still live. My income dropped by more than 50 %. 

To get back to the point at hand, the lender told me I couldn't have accounts in dispute. Due to this, I was referred to XXXX XXXX XXXX to help me remove dispute codes from my credit report. They did so by helping me call the credit bureaus. We called and spoke with XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX was the representative 's name. To make it brief, she said the Cavalry Portfolio dispute codes removed and confirmation was to be mailed to me. We also Spoke with XXXX. XXXX was who helped us there. Cavalry Portfolio dispute codes were also removed, and confirmation was to be mailed to me as well. I had already handled XXXX on my own before I dealt with XXXX XXXX XXXX. To this day I have not received any notices saying my disputes had been removed, and the disputes are still on my credit report. Since I could not get a loan with the mortgage lender due to these dispute removals taking too long, I was forced to stop the loan process and focus on simply trying to restore my credit. 

The first step I took in trying to restore my credit is sending debt validation notices to Cavalry Portfolio. This happened on XX/XX/XXXX. I also decided to be a little more proactive in my approach and called Cavalry as well. I spoke with a XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. My first approach was to ask for the removal of the dispute codes since that is what I was trying to do in the first place, but then I decided it was better to ask for debt validation verbally instead since I didn't agree with the collection and what was being reported and I had also requested in writing anyways. That, and XXXX said she would inform a supervisor to remove the dispute codes which would be completed in 1-2 days, but I couldn't simply take her word for it since I didn't speak to the supervisor myself. To reiterate from before, to my recollection this account stopped being paid nearly a decade ago. XXXX informed me that based on her records the account was opened on XXXX. That seemed correct. What I found very odd is that she stated the charge-off date was XXXX. That couldn't possibly be true, but I continued listening anyways. She then said the last payment date was XXXX. That was even stranger than the charge-off date. The reason it was very strange is because according to her statement, the account was charged off in XX/XX/XXXX which would mean there was a lack of monthly payments for 6 months, but then somehow, I made a single payment AFTER it was charged-off and then never pay again beyond that? You don't have to be a private eye to point out that doesn't smell right. 

Today is the XXXX of XXXX and I have not received any validation of debt from Cavalry Portfolio. They may have told me some information over the phone, but I need something in writing to prove what their records are saying is true. Cavalry Portfolio is a debt purchaser, so I know they buy debt. I need the original creditor 's validation of debt as well as some form of account ledger because there is no way I stopped paying for this account in XXXX when I became XXXX in XXXX and my income dropped next to nothing immediately afterwards. There is also no way I let the account charge-off and then make a single payment immediately afterwards. That doesn't make any sense. To me, this sounds like companies trying to fabricate some information so they could extend the statute of limitations for credit reporting. I need it to stop, and I need to have this account removed from my credit report since nobody seems to be doing what I am asking or is legally required. 

Cavalry is not validating this debt, and the credit bureaus have not removed the dispute codes from this account after me requesting they remove it and them saying they would. They can't have it both ways. Either remove the disputes when I ask for them to be removed or validate this debt. Otherwise remove it from my credit report if you can't. You can't simply not validate it and not remove disputes when I clearly have asked for it to be done.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation