Chain of title: the documents a debt buyer has to produce

Chain of title is the documented path an account travels from the bank that opened it to the company that sued you. If any link is missing, the plaintiff has a standing problem.

The links

For a typical resold credit card account, a complete chain looks like this:

1. The original creditor's account records establishing that the account existed and the balance
2. A bill of sale from the original creditor to Buyer A
3. An account-level schedule attached to that bill of sale, listing your account
4. A bill of sale and schedule from Buyer A to Buyer B, if it was resold
5. Any assignment documents executed along the way
6. Proof that the entity named in the caption is the same entity that received the account

Nothing in that list is exotic. It is the ordinary evidence of a purchase.

What plaintiffs usually file instead

Most complaints attach a generic bill of sale referring to "the accounts described in Exhibit A," with Exhibit A absent, heavily redacted, or replaced by a one-page printout the plaintiff generated from its own database. The printout typically shows your name, an account number, and a balance, formatted to look official.

Ask the question that matters: who created this document, and when? A record the plaintiff typed up after buying the portfolio is not evidence that your account was included in the sale. It is evidence of what the plaintiff believes.