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If you pay before they report, it is unlikely that they will report once the collection is paid/closed/$0 balance.
However, there is no specific prohibition against their reporting.
If you wish to be sure, you can first make them a pay for not reporting offer, and if they agree and you then pay, you have a binding contract.
If the goal is to prevent reporting of a collection, then make the pay for not reporting offer to the debt collector.
If you simply pay the OC without their first having terminated the assigned collection authority, the debt collector could still report.
I had the same thing happen. Call AT&T directly and pay them directly. Do not involve the collection agent. Do not do a pay for delete -- they won't agree to that anyway. We have been down this road many times with ATT here on myFICO.
Yes, pay AT&T in full directly. They are not interested in punishing you with bad credit. They just want their money.
@Anonymous wrote:
It wouldn't actually be a pfd. I received a collection letter but nothing has been reported to any of the bureaus. I just want to pay it before anything is reported. Would you still recommend paying att directly?
That is what I did with DirecTV... It works for ATT as well.