Paid debt, then received a collections letter the next day

[rjfallon]

My situation is a little unique, so I figured I would ask directly after spending some time searching the forum:

I had cancelled Time Warner internet when moving out of state, and never returned the modem, so ended up receiving the bill for the equipment.  I had wrongly assumed that it would be paid on auto-pay since that's how my account was set up for service.  About a month later I realized I never saw it hit my account, and called up to pay.  They accepted my payment, and gave me my confirmation number and that was it.

The next day, I received a letter from a collections company asking to pay, with the date of the letter being a couple days before I actually paid Time Warner.  How should I communicate this to the collections company?  Also - I checked and the collection is not listed on my credit report yet.  I am hoping to avoid having a $75 dollar collection on my report as we are planning to start looking to buy a house shortly.  Is there anyways to avoid this, since I have already paid Time Warner? By researching, I have read that FICO 8 would ignore this since it's under $100...but have also read that not many mortgage companies haven't started using FICO 8.  

[guiness56]

Welcome to the forums.

AFAIK, no mortgage lender uses FICO 8.  They all use TU04, EQ Beacon 5 and EX V2.

Write them and include a copy of the receipt from the OC.  They may still report though.

[RobertEG]

I assume the letter from the debt collector was a dunning notice.

If it has been less than 30 days from the date of dunning notice, I would send an immediate DV, which will then be timely, and thus accomplish two purposes.

One, it will invoke an automatic cease collection bar, preventing reporting of their collection to any CRA until they respond with verification.

Two, it require them to conduct an investigation of the debt, which should show that the debt is paid, and thus zero.

Whether or not they then respond to the DV is immaterial, as they wont be able to (legitimately) verify any debt, and wont be able to report without first having done so.

With their collection now terminated due to payment of the debt, I would guess they wont repond, but it serves its purpose of preventing credit reporting of their collection.

[rjfallon]

The letter did state I had 30 days to dispute the validity of the debt, so I will send them a request in writing since I am still within that window.  I just wasn't sure if since I paid it after the date on the letter, if the debt was still "valid."  I guess this is my best option though.  Thanks for the responses!

[RobertEG]

If you paid, regardless of the date of the dunning letter, there simply is no longer any debt.  Thus, no ability to verify a current debt upon whch they can continue any collection efforts.