My husband received a letter from Clarkson law firm on behalf of Midland Funding saying he owes $2197.52. They state that he has 30 days to dispute the validity of the debt to prevent them from filing a lawsuit. This was a credit card that he had from Citibank that he opened and ran up a balance on without my knowledge. He stopped making payments. When I discovered this account, I attempted to make payments on it, however, he was not putting enough money in our account for me to pay all of the bills, so at some point I stopped paying on this with the reasoning that I wasn't responsible for it and he wasn't even trying to pay it. (Yes I am still angry about it!) I'm not sure exactly how long it has been since a payment was made, but it has changed hands with collection agencies several times. He has ignored all calls and letters from these agencies. Today it showed up on his credit report as a collection. I would like to clear up this debt, but I would like some advice on the best way to proceed. I have read that Midland has a poor reputation for shady and aggressive tactics. What I would like to know is what is the best way to make them validate how this amount was determined as to what he owes so they cannot receive a judgment for this much. As best I can remember, the balance was around $1000 when I stopped making payments. The collection notices that he received over time from other agencies had varying amounts on them, with one showing he owed more than $4000! That is crazy. I don't feel he should have to pay more than what he owed on the card. Any advice you can give on the best way to proceed would be appreciated. Thank you.
