My husband and I applied for a loan last week and found out that I have a Collections account on my credit report. We pulled it up ourselves and found this company called AFNI, both of us were at a loss. So, I made the mistake of calling them, don't I wish I would have found this website first. NEVER call them, deal strictly through the US Mail, other posters on this website say that they're scared of committing mail fraud. They were not helpful at all and I found them to be extremely rude and aggressive.
They said that I actually owed for 2 accounts, one had been reported to the credit agencies and one was getting ready to be reported. Both accounts total $275.00 and one is from 2001 and one is from 2003. The phone numbers and addresses they referenced are correct (where do they get this information???) but the time frames are off from when I actually lived in those houses and I never closed the account in it was just transferred to the new address.
They also claimed that they have sent me several notices. I have NOT received a single notice from AFNI (or Verizon for that matter) about either of these items. My husband and I THINK their scam is that they don't send the notices, claim they do and then wait until someone like us applies for a loan and finds it on their credit reports. We all know you'll do almost anything to clear up your credit report in that instance and we think that's what they're banking on.
My recommendation is to keep reading on this website, there is a lot of good information on here and it helped me compose a letter to AFNI to dispute these charges. We were also able to find that even if this debt was valid, the Virginia Statute of Limitations is 3 years from the final bill, so check the Statute of Limitations for your state and don't let them bully you. I also recommend that you dispute it with the credit bureaus, even it it isn't on there yet.
I even called Verizon, they were very nice but couldn't help me. All she could verify was that I did have accounts with those numbers at one time (duh, already knew that) and they they did sell a bunch of accounts to AFNI. She couldn't even tell me if I was one of them.
Count me in on any lawsuits. I fear I'll be fighting AFNI for a VERY long time, but it's become a matter of principal now.
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