To dispute or not that is the question

[Anonymous]

Hi.  First time poster here, but read frequently.  So here's my situation.  I have been building up my credit for quite awhile, paid off and had deleted a lot of CA in the past year.  Been OCD about my payments, being sure to make all payments on time, for over a year now.  I have raised my score by almost over 150 points.  So just the other day, I had alerts from myfico and experian that I had a new CA hit.  I wasn't horribly surpirsed, as I don't doubt that there are things that can come out of the woodwork.  It was a $300 from  dish network from 2009.  I called and tried to get a delete to pay, but they said no.  SO...3 weeks later, I get an alert again saying that it had been paid.  Funny thing is, I never paid it. Pretty sure I don't have a mysterious secret admirer paying off my crap credit.   I don't understand what is going on. 

I feel like I should dispute it because it is false information, but that might backfire.  My score only went down 4 points from it being reported anyway, so is it even worth it??  So do I just leave it or try to dispute it?  I am looking to buy a house after the first of the year. 

[edcampbell613]

I would not mess with it if you only lost 4 points, 

Sometimes refreshing your credit report for an old collection can hurt your scores. I have seen it go both ways.

[ezdriver]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi.  First time poster here, but read frequently.  So here's my situation.  I have been building up my credit for quite awhile, paid off and had deleted a lot of CA in the past year.  Been OCD about my payments, being sure to make all payments on time, for over a year now.  I have raised my score by almost over 150 points.  So just the other day, I had alerts from myfico and experian that I had a new CA hit.  I wasn't horribly surpirsed, as I don't doubt that there are things that can come out of the woodwork.  It was a $300 from  dish network from 2009.  I called and tried to get a delete to pay, but they said no.  SO...3 weeks later, I get an alert again saying that it had been paid.  Funny thing is, I never paid it. Pretty sure I don't have a mysterious secret admirer paying off my crap credit.   I don't understand what is going on. 

I feel like I should dispute it because it is false information, but that might backfire.  My score only went down 4 points from it being reported anyway, so is it even worth it??  So do I just leave it or try to dispute it?  I am looking to buy a house after the first of the year. 

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So have you pulled your actual credit report and reviewed them for accurate reporting? Let us know when you have done that. Alerts [you did not state the source] are not meaningful to me.

[Anonymous]

Yes I have.  My credit report shows it as paid, but I never paid it.  It just started reporting 2 weeks ago.  I even called them and it said I owed and now it saying I do not on my credit report.  The ultimate goal is to have it off of my credit report period. 

[Anonymous]

So I called and they said it was a mistake and there was a credit issued.  I asked it to be removed for obvious reasons, as I don't even know if this debt is legit and they are investigating it. 

[ezdriver]

OK...let us know how the investigation goes. You can get inaccurate information corrected but disputing is not always the best approach. If it is being reported correctly, there is no way to remove it from your credit report unless the creditor chose to delete it base on a goodwill request from you or for any reason of their choosing.

[DallasLoanGuy]

since you are asking this in the mortgage forum, i suspect that you are looking to buy soon?!?!!?

i would leave it be unless the 4 points improves your deal. it doesnt for most

[Anonymous]

So, I did my own investigation and called the OC and they said that it was never sent to collections.  I figured I would still give the CA some time to remove it, since clearly this was not legit.  Woke up this morning, checked experian and it is GONE.  Score went up 11 points.  So happy that I investigated and pushed the issue with the CA!  And yes we are trying to buy a house after the first of the year.  I still have some work to do first!