Although this may seem like a strange question, it is quite common for consumers to not know how much money they owe, or even who they owe money to. Usually, when a credit card company places an account into collection, they stop issuing a monthly statement to the consumer, yet interest and other fees and penalties continue to accrue on the balance owed. As a result, the consumer often does not know the current balance.
Also, credit card companies frequently assign an overdue account to a collection agency. The collection agency will attempt to collect on behalf of the credit card company, who continues to “own” the debt. Other times, the credit card company will decide to sell the debt to a different company, often for pennies on the dollar. In this scenario, the purchaser of the debt is now the “owner” of that debt, and will try to collect from the consumer. It is not uncommon for the same debt to be resold two or three times.
Because of this, the consumer will often receive collection letters from companies they do not know, and the debtor often has no idea who it is they owe money to. It can be quite confusing, especially since it is usually unclear whether an entity trying to collect a debt is acting on their own behalf or on behalf of someone else. The name of the company which originally issued the credit card may not appear on these collection letters at all.
However, if a consumer files for Bankruptcy, it is extremely important to list all debts, including the names and addresses of the creditors and the account number. Debts which are not properly listed will not be eliminated (“discharged”) in the Bankruptcy, therefore defeating the purpose of filing for Bankruptcy.
Our office can help you with this by obtaining a credit report for you. However, you will have to sign an authorization form, and allow us to photocopy a picture identification card. There is a $30.00 fee for this service, which is what we are charged by the credit reporting agency which we work with. We provide this service as an accommodation to our clients, as we do not make a profit on this.
If you prefer, you can contact one of the three major credit reporting agencies yourself to get a copy of your credit report. There companies are:
Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc P.O. Box 740241 Atlanta, GA 30374 www.equifax.com
TransUnion P.O. Box 2000 Chester, PA 19022 www.tuc.com
Experian 475 Anton Blvd. Costa Mesa, CA 92626 955 American Lane, Schaumburg, IL 60173 www.experian.com
