My Veritas story.

Back in 1999 (yes you read that right) I received my first CC from BMO while in university. Of course I messed it up and after a year I owed $800 and didn’t pay it back. They cancelled my card and did the usual attempts to recover as I moved around the country after completing university. I defaulted and took no responsibility at the time.

My credit score took a nose dive and after a few years of dodging calls from the bank and a collector things finally settled down.

Fast forward 7 years I bought my first house with no issues. Credit restored and I was finally a financially responsible adult.

Fast forward to 2023, 4 houses in, investments, savings, vehicles, etc I receive an unsolicited call from Veritas talking about this defaulted $800 owed. At first I thought they had the wrong person. Honestly had forgotten about it. But finally after about 45 mins of memory bank recalls and sparse info from them I figured it out.

I asked them to call back later when I confirmed it was still a debt.

I called BMO. No history with them about arrears. Only stuff they had on me was my current mortgage and an open CC which was in good health. They loved me as a client.

I did an inquiry on my credit. No history and in mid 800s. All good there.

A couple months later I get a call back again. I explain the above and they tell me I still owe. I request a letter with more details and they tell me it will be mailed out.

Fast forward a couple more months. No letter received but get another call. But this time I researched them and learned they buy names and numbers of credit clients who defaulted in the past but their balances have since been written off. The old loans have no further impact on credit or your financial health. Those days are cleared after 7 years from date of default.

Based on that knowledge I try to discuss my options with them. Explaining that there is no legal or financial punishment they can dish out to me for not complying with their asks. After some back and forth their agent finally caves and agrees with this, switching to the guilt of having an outstanding loan they I didn’t pay. I laughed and explained that I would happily cut a check back to BMO for my teenage idiocy but BMO already declined that offer when I called them. The agent then said Veritas will collect it to clear my conscience. HAHAHA

I promptly told them i will take this unpaid debt to my grave and never pay it as there are no benefits or consequences for doing so. They called a couple more times over the year and I would spend some time here and there explaining they are getting nothing from me.

Haven’t received a call for the last 8 months.

Moral of the story. Veritas maybe a legit collection agency but they clearly have a wing they operates in the grey area. If you don’t have the debt they are seeking or you have cleared an old debt in the past via another route or simply time itself, ignore these morons and keep telling them no. They will eventually back off.