Good question... I dunno what is the answer to that question. I'll do some Googling and get back to you if I got an decent answer. You should email the people at Lending Tree as they probably know..

No. Validation is a process defined under FDCPA, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The specific aim of the act is to ensure that unscrupulous debt collectors using unethical and abusive practices do not enjoy a competitive advantage over those who do not use unethical and abusive or unfair debt collection practices. The original intention of Congress in creating FDCPA was not for the benefit of the consumer nearly as much as it was to control the actions of collectors using abusive debt collection practices which might give them a competetive advantage over those who did not use such tactics. So in net creating the act Congress basically had two choices..

They could create a whole new "police force" to police the industry or they could turn the consumer into an effective "police force" and since the consumer would be far more likely to be the most effective police force over any number of new employees the government might be able to hire and train they empowered the consumer. In order to do that they gave consumers the power of acting as police and in the process cautioned their new police force that FDCPA is not supposed to be used as a sword but rather as a shield..

With that in mind, we need to look at the original question and we see immediately that since the bill was paid there can be no collection attempt that can be launched therefore FDCPA where validation was invented could logically be used in the context the poster mentioned. Once we understand the law and why it was created and how it is enforced then we can undertand the correct answer to many common questions..

Basically very little..

Well, you could sue them and get it that way but I seriously doubt you would want to do that...

Http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1996/9609/uca.htm.

Among the Commission's concerns in these types of cases," said Jodie Bernstein, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection,.

"is that some consumers may not actually owe the debts, but may pay them in order to stop the abuse."..

Thanks to both Bill and Butch..

That's pretty much my story......3 years ago, didn't know my rights, didn't know much, other than I didn't want to go to courtso I paid (I know now that they used 'fake' legal/court documents, among other violations). I know it is my fault for not keeping documentation of my settlementno excuses for that! :-( I don't give a hoot about the CA's violations anymore, all I want is a copy of that information regarding the settlement that they give me over the phone (I do have that recorded twice but I can't see how that would ever do me any good). I just need to prove that I actually did pay the full amount.....ugggh.... Leave it to me to always learn things the hard way! :-(..

Hmmm. So a CA can report a paid collection and their libility is under FCRA and not FDCPA? What if they report a status of "checked"? I had a CA do this. I think I will makes sure it is paid and then sue for violations they made when attempting to collect...

Remember, you only have one year from the date the violation occurs..

To the original poster- You might check out the nutcase series for paid collections. People have gotten ALOT of mileage from them. There is a link in the FAQ's...

An excellent point indeed, Butch, and it pretty well points out the fact that one can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink..

Both government and industry spend untold amounts of money dreaming up new and better ways to alleviate problems and make society a better place to live. They do all that they can to bring their products and ideas to the people who seem to ignore them and keep on making the same mistakes over and over..

Even pointing out the error of their ways seems to hold little promise of behavior modification..

Folks often tend to shrug their shoulders and remark that all they wanted was get it done and over with..

Let us hope that your post will save someone else from making such errors in the future...