I am located in Illinois. I received a collection letter from a collection attorney.

I am not sure if the debt specified is mine or not. It says it was from one Creditor, and then bought by another. I pulled a copy of my credit report, and do not see either creditor listed or the amount specified in the letter on my credit report. I do have two other creditors I am behind with, one I am making partial payments to, and the other I haven't heard from since January.

I am married, and unemployed. Only my name was on the credit cards I am in arears on. My husband is the bread maker in the family.

How should I respond to this letter? I want to send something in writing, and mention that I pulled my credit report and do not see this creditor on the report. Does the fact that its not on my credit report have any bearing at all to their claim? I've read about asking for validation of the debt. How would I go about wording that?

Thanks for any input

The last thing you do is agree or even suggust you owe them money.

You write them informing them you have no knowledge of this debt, you respond within the time frame required and demand that they provide proof of this debt.

No, not being on your credit report means nothing, companies are not required to report things to the credit bureus and some report to one, nad not the others, while the others will get it latter, it does take a while, and you will find, as I run all three of my, there will be things on one, that never show up o aonther. Or one gets ti wrong for some reason.

If you don't know who this is, just respond that you don't know anything about this debt and for them to provide proof of that debt. There is a more formal wording on the stickies on the top part of this section, but then just asking for proof in your own words is all that is needed.