Verbal Disputes and Credit Reports
By Nicholas Ortiz, Boston Bankruptcy Attorney on Oct 17, 2007 in General Bankruptcy Information
Here in Massachusetts (and other states in the First Federal Judicial Circuit) once a consumer makes a verbal dispute to a debt collector, that debt collector can not report the debt to a credit reporting agency without communicating that a debt is disputed. This is because the First Circuit recognize that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act did not impose a writing requirement for disputes for purposes of credit reporting. See Brady v. The Credit Recovery Co., Inc., 160 F.3d 64, 66-67 (1st Cir.1998). The import of this is that if you dispute a debt verbally to a debt collector and the debt is reported to a credit reporting agency by the debt collector, there should be a notation on your credit report that the debt is disputed. However, it is always best to make all disputes in writing to prevent a debt collector from denying that you made the dispute.
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