Consumer complaint received 2020-03-03
Company: Continental Finance Company, LLC
State: NE
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: Written notification about debt
Sub-issue: Didn't receive enough information to verify debt

Complaint:
In XXXX, an account was opened with CONTFIN and it was closed in XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted the debt holder to determine what the status of the balance was with their company after being notified that it was listed as a write-off on my credit report. CONTFIN directed me to XXXX - XXXX XXXX XXXX and told me to call ( XXXX ) XXXX to resolve the debt, and they would send a release notification to CONTFIN to update the credit report. As well, when asked, they were specific that they could not take any money from me, or offer me a solution for resolving the debt unless it came from the UDH because there was no longer an account associated with my name in their system. 

Upon contacting XXXX, I was notified that the business had closed on XX/XX/XXXX and advised to leave a message on a voice mail. As of XX/XX/XXXX, I have not been contacted by any individual or business associated with XXXX or in context of the message that I left, per the instruction of CONTFIN. 

To better understand and attempt to resolve the issues, I searched the XXXX XXXX XXXX and found additional complaints and issues associated with XXXX. I filed a complaint with the XXXX and they were unable to contact XXXX because of closure and that there was not resolution offered. A screen shot of their response has been included here. 

To this point, there was no other avenue for me to pursue resolution. On XX/XX/XXXX my bank advised that I contact CFPB to support my efforts in resolving this discrepancy on my credit report. The response provided to CFPB is confusing and doesn't provide any additional assistance in supporting the resolution of this issue. The dates that the company provided were dates I provided in my initial complaint to CFPB. They stated that I disputed the debt in XX/XX/XXXX, however, they did not report that to any of the credit bureaus because it is not reflecting as disputed on any of the three credit bureaus.

To further complicate any reasonable attempt to resolve this, the debt has been sold 4 times, and communication was initiated once in XXXX. This is 4 years after the original debt, and that contact is now 2 years in the past. Even though the company responded with a phone number and a company name, this is the 4th company that the DISPUTED debt has been sold to and not cleared from my report. 

According to the Nebraska statute of limitations, there is a 5 year limit for credit card collection from the date of the last payment. According to my credit reports, the last payment was made in XX/XX/XXXX, which is more than 5 years ago. I do not believe that it is my responsibility to clear this off of my credit report as of this time because their ability to sue me has expired, and it is against the law for them to coerce me into payment of this debt. By contacting XXXX XXXX, I would be putting myself at unnecessary risk of re-opening the time limits and that is unreasonable given a ) the amount of time that has lapsed and b ) the fact that the debt has changed hands repeatedly. 


My expectation is that XXXX XXXX XXXX provides confirmation that a release letter will be sent to CONTFIN for this debt and that it be removed from all three credit bureaus.

Company public response: Company believes complaint caused principally by actions of third party outside the control or direction of the company
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation