Corporate Law Credit card debt blamed on me as a primary.

[brittaarnink]

Out of the blue, a few days ago, I received a phone call from a collection agency saying I owed a debt from my old partner and that I was still the primary on our business card. I was told I owed $6245.

In 2002, I started a concrete business with a partner. We opened a business credit card each having our own names and numbers. They did our credit checks and gave us different limits.

I sold the business to my partner in June 2005. The credit cards were paid and a signed contract was put together stating my partner was the sole owner. I called the credit company and closed my card and said to take me off all accounts.

Now over four years later their saying he had stopped making payments in Dec. 2008 and that they couldn't get ahold of him so they tracked me down in another state and said I was responsible.

the collection agency has sent my name to the credit borough and this has dropped my score.

What should I do? Please help......Thanks

 

[Michael Wechsler]

You need to do several things:

(1) obtain information from the collection agency as to what basis they have for pursuing you for this debt. Explain to them the situation. If they do not have any basis for pursuing you, then you need to tell them they must correct the situation or you will sue them.

(2) If there is absolutely no valid explanation as to how you could be responsible, you must write a letter to the credit collection agency stating that it is not a valid debt.

(3) You must report to the credit reporting agency a complaint regarding the negative credit item. You can go to the big three (we also have a faq in our legal guides section at www.thelaw.com/guide/ that should help) and fill out a similar report, as per their guidelines.

Good luck.