Are creditors required to provide written notification of a debt?
Creditors must provide consumers with a written notice of the debt, known as a validation. If the initial communication with the consumer was not in writing and did not satisfy the requirements of the Act, the validation must be sent within five days of contacting the consumer. If initial contact was made in writing it may fulfill the validation requirement if it contains adequate information about the debt. A validation of debt must provide the creditor’s name and the amount of the debt. More importantly, it must state that the consumer has 30 days to dispute the debt. Collectors can assume the debt is valid if a consumer does not respond within the 30-day window. On the other hand, consumers who dispute the debt in writing effectively cause collections to be ceased until their creditor provides proof of the debt. For this reason it is critically important for consumers to respond to debt validations in a timely fashion. What does the Act say about owing multiple debts to one creditor
