Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Pennsylvania

First, I would need to see your credit report. I don't understandd why the debt was removed from your credit report unless the debt was stale (waws older than 7 years since the date of charge-off or first sent for collection). If you paid, your report would ordinarily be amended to state that the debt was paid in full or settled.

When you paid the debt, did you get a settlement letter indicating that payment of the settlement amount would end any further collection efforts? Did you keep a copy of the settlement letter and check or money order?

If not, then you may have to pay again since you have no proof of payment. Just telling a collector that you paid is not good enough. Most collectors that I deal with want to see proof of payment.

What do you mean by the collector "froze" it on your credit report? Debt collectors do not freeze credit reports. Freezing refers to something else - it is something that you do.

Assuming that you settled the debt back in February, nothing precludes the balance of the debt from being re-sold to another collector.

There is no time limit for validating a debt. The Fair Credit Reporting Act says that if a debt is not validated, then it is supposed to be removed from your credit report completely. But that is something that you dispute with the credit bureaus. The validation under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is different. Under the latter, you dispute your liability for the debt with the debt collector. Upon receipt of your letter, the debt collector then asks the creditor or current owner of the debt for validation and proof that you owe the debt. While the debt is being validated, it should not be on your credit report at all.

It is unclear what your nexty step should be. As I stated, your credit report should list the debt but that its been paid (in most instances). If you protected yourself properly by getting the settlement letter and making a copy of your proof of payment, the first step upon receipt of the letter from the second collection agency would have been to dispute the debt on the grounds that you already paid. That would have ended the matter in most cases.

Since that was not done, you indicate that the collector requested validation of the debt. How do you know? Are you relying on a phone conversation? Or did you do a dispute letter?

I would send a written request to the 3 major credit bureaus (after you confirm how they are reporting the debt) and ask them either to remove the debt (if its stale) or to correct the report to reflect that the debt has been paid.

Only unpaid debts have negative consequences, not paid/settled debts. Assuming that the debt is validated by the 3 credit bureaus in 30 days, then you need to send a certified letter to the debt collector or creditor who placed this information on your credit report and ask them to remove the item. If the second request is refused, then you can bring suit against the entity that placed information that is erroneous on your report. You can recover up to $1000 or your actual damages. If you get that far, contact local counsel who specializes in FDCPA/FCRA violations. You might try Attorney Greg Artim as he is in your neck of the the woods- he has been active in the past at Law Guru. Or you are free to consult with any other local attorney.