Consumer complaint received 2022-08-15
Product: Debt collection — Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt is not yours
Company: Credence Resource Management, LLC (NY)

On XX/XX/XXXX, a debt collection account had been posted under my social security number for an account dated XX/XX/XXXX for a total of {$380.00}. The original creditor was XXXX XXXX, and the debt collection agency was XXXX XXXX XXXX  ( account # available upon request ). I never had an XXXX account, nor did I ever receive any notice, written or otherwise, of this balance prior to it being sent to collections. I also never received an official debt collection letter and only found out when I ran my credit report. 

I first tried to resolve this by calling XXXX, but they were not able to give me information since my name, address, telephone number were not associated with the account. I then proceeded to file a dispute through the credit agency ( XXXX ) on XX/XX/XXXX and again on XX/XX/XXXX. Both times my dispute was verified as accurate and met the Fair Credit reporting requirements. The collection was removed from my report and as of XX/XX/XXXX, my credit report showed no open collections. 

Then on XX/XX/XXXX, I received an alert through XXXX that the collection had been reopened on my account but transferred to a different collection agency ( account # available upon request ). This time I called the collection agency to dispute and asked them for a debt verification letter ( gave them my real address for the first time they did not have my address before this and so I had never received written notice from a collection agency at this point ). They confirmed via phone that the collection was associated with a different name and residential address ( they had this persons name and address ). The collection was removed from my account soon after and as of XX/XX/XXXX I had zero open collections on file. 

I then received a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX from XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  ( account # available upon request ) stating that the information was furnished to the credit reporting agencies, and a request had been made to remove the information from my report. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an alert through XXXX that the collection had been opened yet again with a different credit agency ( Credence ). To my knowledge, I have never received a written letter or phone call from this agency in an attempt to collect the debt owed. I have yet to contact the Credence collection agency to dispute since the past 2 years have shown me that the collection will get removed only to be transferred to another debt collection agency and appear on my report a few months later. 

This is greatly affecting my financial health as I am being denied requests for opening new lines of credit, even though I had excellent credit otherwise. I have medical debt that I need to pay - and am relying on being able to use credit in order to pay- but am unable to be approved with the current derogatory mark on my report. I also have federal student loans for a ridiculously overpriced XXXX XXXX ( more than $ XXXX for a 2-year XXXX XXXX program I drank the kool-aid ). Thankfully ( thank you XXXX! ), I am enrolled in public service student loan forgiveness. However, I fear that when student loan repayments start up again this Fall ( in the midst of a recession?! ), I will fall behind. 

Any assistance or information you can provide me to resolve this matter would be greatly appreciated. I am most concerned with ensuring that this derogatory mark can be removed from the credit file. Thank you in advance to all the fine people at the CFPB and Federal Reserve continuing this very important work.