Collection Agency STILL Showing Up After Garnishment Satisfied??

[Anonymous]

OK I have a weird one....although it seems like nothing is too weird for these collection agencies! I had a bad debt that ended in a judgement against me in 2008. Asset Acceptance won and my wages were garnished for 2 years til the $3000 was paid off. Now my wife and I are shopping for a mortgage and surprise!! The judgement is not showing as Satisfied with any of the CRA's and there is still a Collection Account showing with them for $167. After 2 years of wage garnishments that ended several months ago, how am I still in collections for $167?

I filed a dispute today with both Transunion and Equifax for the unsatisfied judgement, but what should I do with the collection account? I really don't want to pay it if I don't have to.....do I need to contact the court that the judgement was issued from? We live across the country now and it would be a big PIA but I need this off my report sooner than later. Do I just pay it? Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

[RobertEG]

The issue, as I see it, is that the debt was satisfied and the debt collector has simply failed to update the balance still under collection to $0, and close the collection account.

Payment of the debt does not require them to delete the collection. 

I assume that the debt collector owned the debt at time of judgment, and was thus the prevailing plaintiff.

Did they send you notice that your payment satisfied the debt?  That alone would be evidence of satisfaction of the debt, thus requiring them to update the balance to $0.

ARe they even alleging to you that there is still unsatisfied debt?  If you never received notice of satisfaction from them, did they file any such notice with the court, which would also evidence satisfaction of the debt?

It appears to simply be an administrative failure of the debt collector to update their reporting.  I would first call them and inquiry as to why the collection balance was not updated to $0, and their collection closed.

If that informal approach does not work, I would file a direct dispute with them under section 623(a)(8), alleging the inaccuracy to be the incorrect continued reporting of a debt balance under collection, and an open collection account.

[rckstrscott]

---

@RobertEG wrote:

The issue, as I see it, is that the debt was satisfied and the debt collector has simply failed to update the balance still under collection to $0, and close the collection account.

Payment of the debt does not require them to delete the collection. 

I assume that the debt collector owned the debt at time of judgment, and was thus the prevailing plaintiff.

Did they send you notice that your payment satisfied the debt?  That alone would be evidence of satisfaction of the debt, thus requiring them to update the balance to $0.

ARe they even alleging to you that there is still unsatisfied debt?  If you never received notice of satisfaction from them, did they file any such notice with the court, which would also evidence satisfaction of the debt?

It appears to simply be an administrative failure of the debt collector to update their reporting.  I would first call them and inquiry as to why the collection balance was not updated to $0, and their collection closed.

If that informal approach does not work, I would file a direct dispute with them under section 623(a)(8), alleging the inaccuracy to be the incorrect continued reporting of a debt balance under collection, and an open collection account.

---

To add to what Robert said, if the collection company has not updated the judgment filing, then filing a dispute with the CRAs will not yield any result, so do not be suprised to see in 30 days your disputes have come back with the same results as currently showing.

-scott