Consumer complaint received 11-12-2015 about Debt collection (Credit card) with ENCORE CAPITAL GROUP INC. (CA).
Issue: Cont'd attempts collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt was paid

Complaint: I have been trying for over a year to have an account removed from my credit report. The account was first reported negatively XXXX XXXX. I have tried disputing it through the XXXX major credit reporting agencies, to no avail. The collection company keeps changing the reporting date year after year. I have sent them actual copies of my credit report showing it being reported in XXXX XXXX. Nothing I have tried has worked. I have to accounts with this company, both are in violation of my rights. This was a credit card debt and it has been reported negatively now for almost eight years. Midland Credit Management , Inc., most recent action is they have " sold '' my account to a credit collector with a different name but I have reason to believe they are the same company. Every year they change the first reporting date. I believe it is currently being reported as the first negative reporting starting in XXXX. So I am now looking at this negative reporting being on my credit reports for 20 years! My only choice if you can not resolve this is to take them to small claims court or spend more money and put an attorney on retainer. I have spent money getting legal advice on this matter. I have suffered financially already and I can not continue to spend and lose money trying to have Midland Credit Management , Inc., follow the law. I am hoping you can help me resolve this and finally get it removed from all credit reporting agencies. I have last been in contact with them on XXXX XXXX, XXXX as well as the new company XXXX XXXX , XXXX, on XXXX XXXX, XXXX. I have copies of all correspondence, replies, as well as the copy of my credit report showing the first reporting date as being XXXX XXXX. Among other things they made a separate entry as well as the original creditor entry to continue on my credit report. So I have the same account reported negatively XXXX. ( XXXX XXXX & XXXX ) and again ( pages XXXX & XXXX ). You can also see how they change their own reporting dates, during different report dates, and with different reporting agencies. A great example of how bad they report the facts are on page # XXXX. They show the account opened on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX but show my first delinquency on XXXX and then my first major delinquency on XXXX. They opened a collection account that I was able to be delinquent on a year before it was opened? Then they show the last payment made on XXXX, yet if you look through all of their entries on all pages there is no credit for any payment being made. You can see on page # XXXX the account was opened on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX. On page # XXXX you can see a late payment reported on XXXX. But on XXXX # XXXX ( the exact same credit report ) they put the account as being opened on XXXX XXXX, first reported XXXX, and my first delinquency as XXXX. Then on XXXX # XXXX they show it as first being reported on XXXX. With every credit report I get, year after year they keep renewing the account, and changing the dates. Its already past the statute of limitations and I have recent letter from MCM ( on another account I have with them ) that I am trying to resolve at the same time as this XXXX, and they admit that. If the Statute of Limitations is up on a debt how can they continue reporting the debt? Because it 's up on this debt too, I brought that to their attention in my last letter. This was their response ... " the law limits how long you can be sued on a debt. Because of the age of your debt, we will not sue you for it. If you do not pay the debt, we may continue to report it to the credit reporting agencies as unpaid ''. For how long? 10, 15 or 20 years? Now they have sold it to someone else it all starts over again. PLEASE HELP!

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief