Consumer complaint received 2015-08-29
Product: Debt collection — Credit card
Issue: Taking/threatening an illegal action — Sued w/o proper notification of suit
Company: ENCORE CAPITAL GROUP INC. (NY)

My complaint is due to violations of the FDCPA, the FCRA and the FTC. 

On XXXX XXXX, XXXX I pulled a copy of my tri-merge credit report as my husband and I are preparing to purchase a home. I found a collection from this company on my credit report. They were not reporting the original creditor or the date of last activity, so I sent a dispute letter to XXXX, XXXX and XXXX XXXX. All XXXX credit bureaus reported the account as having been verified by XXXX. XXXX XXXX I sent a dispute letter to XXXX directly asking that they validate this debt. They did not respond. On XXXX XXXX I sent another dispute to the company and did not receive a response. On XXXX XXXX I sent yet another dispute to the company advising them that they were in violation of the FDCPA by failure to respond. I did receive a response to this letter ... ... .with a judgment notice attached. 

When I looked at the filed judgment, which is not yet reporting on my credit report, I saw that Midland states that they sent judgment paperwork to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, an address I have not lived in for three years. I have moved twice since living at that address and each time I updated my address with the DMV, my creditors and filed a mail forwarding with the post office. In addition, I have had the same phone number for ten years and did not receive one phone call from Midland regarding this debt. 

I now know who they are attempting to collect for, an account that was charged off in XX/XX/XXXX yet Midland is reporting the date of last activity as XX/XX/XXXX. 

Please understand I am not trying to get out of my obligations to pay my debts. In XX/XX/XXXX I had moved to XXXX when offered position with a company. Within one week of moving to XXXX I discovered that I was pregnant. I started my new job and, after about a month of sitting in an office doing absolutely nothing and consistently asking the owners what their marketing strategy was, how I could help to bring in clients, etc. I was told that the company was a debt settlement company interested only in settling the debts of their clients then forwarding those clients to me for counseling. However, the clients were not interested in the extra fee for this service and the department was closed, leaving me without a job. My husband 's income covered our rent, food and utilities. We had no extra money. I was able to obtain another job but as soon as I did, my husband lost his job. 

At six month of XXXX we were told our baby had a XXXX and an XXXX. We were sent for further testing, I was put on medication that did regulate the baby 's XXXX, however, the XXXX did not correct itself. We decided, at nine months XXXX, to come home to XXXX where our family and friends were. We had gone through our savings making these XXXX large moves in under a year, we had no money. We stayed with a friend. When the baby was born he was born healthy, but we relied on a friend to provide the baby with clothing and diapers. We were on XXXX and food stamps. We could not afford to pay the bills. 

We did start to get back on our feet and my husband was able to find work. This covered rent for our own apartment and a room for the baby. Unfortunately the baby was not reaching his milestones and at XXXX months old was diagnosed with XXXX. Since then we have been in XXXX, fighting for services and trying to help our son develop and reach his goals. At almost XXXX years old he is still XXXX. But we are getting there ... .slowly but surely. 

We had to move from XXXX XXXX to XXXX when my husband was offered a better job. We are currently renting a home, the baby has excellent teachers working with him and he has made terrific progress. 

As we are now back on our feet, we would like to rectify th