Help Collection All of A Suden

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

Thanks in advance. Ok today I paid an old Cox bill from 4 months ago for 90.00... all of a suden I get an alert from Experian that a collection was placed on my account.. It seems that as soon as I made payment this collection agency CENTRAL CREDIT SERVICE shows up as collecting for Cox in the amount of $117. Now I paid Cox online so the payment says still pending, but they accepted it knowing that they had turned the account over to collections I don't understand? Should I contact Cox or the collection Agency at this point?

[gibeon]

You may be able to get Cox to recall the collection, if your payment went through.

Confirm it went through, then you have to figure out who to talk to about recalling the collection as the debt has been satisfied.

The important part here is that they aceepeted your payment, and that they RECALL the collection - not update it to a paid collection.

Search the rebuilding forum for more info, as I've never done this, but have read about it in that section - particularly with phone/internet companies.

[Anonymous]

Will do, Thanks for your reply!

[RobertEG]

There are two separate CRA policies regarding the deletion of collections based on termination of collection authority.

First involves termination of collection authority wherein the debt remains unpaid.  That thereafter permits a new assignment (or sale) to another debt collector, which then permits the new debt collector to report their collection.  If the first reported collection were to remain, the consumer credit file would have two simultaneous collections on the same debt.  To avoid plural collections in a consumer report on the same debt, the CRAs have a published policy that a fist collection be deleted if the collection authority has been terminated and the debt remains unpaid.

Second involves termination of collection authority by payment of the debt.  That removes any new assignment or sale to another debt collector, which precludes a second or subsequent collection therafter reporting.  If the consumer has paid the OC, then the debt is discharged, and there is no longer any debt to "recall."

In such circumstances, the CRA published policy is the debt collector should NOT delete their reported collection.

What is thus necessary in order to have an assigned collection deleted is that the creditor terminate the assigned collection authority prior to payment of the debt.

Once a collection is paid, regardless of whether paid to the creditor or debt collector, the debt becomes $0, which terminates collection authority on its own.

Their is thus no collection authority to terminate.

Deletion would then be voluntary on the part of the debt collector, with no "recall" of the debt requring deletion.

In fact, CRA policy would instruct the debt collector that deletion is not permitted.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply. I just spoke with Cox they have confirmed that they did indeed receive payment on yesterday and that an alert should have been sent this morning to the collection agency letting them know that. The cox rep told me that I would need to contact the agency to if they would remove the collections from my report. I did not contact the collection agency, because i do not owe them anything instead I disputed it with Equifax stating what Cox told me and asked them to remove it from all 3 reports. Should I dispute it with the other 2, or should I  wait to see what the collection agency does?

[Anonymous]

Disputing it is the wrong move in my opinion. The debt was past due and they had every right to assign it to a collection agency. I would contact the collection agency and try to get them to remove it. The story of paying it, then it pops up as collection on the exact same date sounds suspicious. I would not try to use that excuse when contacting the collection agency. They will probably find it suspicious as well and think you paid it after you saw the collection notice. I would be less likely to work with you if I thought you were lying and they will probably feel the same way. I'm not saying that you are lying, but even if you're not, that story sounds really suspect.