How to Handle a Third Party Debt Collector

With a third party debt collector you should be raising some of the following issues if not all of them:

• Were you named on the original contract with the original creditor?
• If you were not named, do you have a contract between you and the third party debt collector, signed by both parties?
• If there is no signed contract, did the third party debt collector produce a document authorizing the release of your information from the original creditor to the third party debt collector?
• And is it signed by you?
• This document is called a Power of Attorney or POA for short.
• It is against the law for the creditor to share your information to any party other than the account holder without your authorization.
• Giving your information to a third party debt collector without your knowledge or consent is perpetrating identity theft.
• Does the third party debt collector have first hand knowledge about everything that has transpired with the alleged account?
• This includes when the account allegedly belonged to the original creditor and any other party prior to when the third party debt collector allegedly bought your debt.
• Does the third party debt collector have written consent from you to collect information about you and to share this information with the credit reporting agencies?
• And is this consent signed by you?